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John Speke (1442-1518)
Sir John Speke (1442–1518) of Whitelackington, Somerset and of Heywood in the parish of Wembworthy and of Bramford Speke both in Devon, was Sheriff of Devon in 1517 and a Member of Parliament (1477). He was knighted in 1501. His monument is the ''Speke Chantry'' in Exeter Cathedral in which survives his recumbent effigy. Origins He was born in about 1442, the son and heir of Sir John Speke (died 1444) (buried at Bramford Speke) of Wembworthy and Bramford Speke, Devon, by his wife Alice Beauchamp (died 1445/46) (who survived him and remarried to Henry Hull) daughter and heiress of John Beauchamp (son of Sir Thomas Beauchamp of Whitelackington, Ashill, etc.). (See Baron Beauchamp of Hatch, Somerset, descended from the Beauchamp feudal barons of Hatch Beauchamp, Somerset). Family origins The Speke family was of Norman origin and was originally called ''de Espec, de Spec, L'Espec, etc.'' Walter Espec (died 1153), Sheriff of Yorkshire, who died without children and whose relat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wark On Tweed
Wark or Wark on Tweed is a village in the English county of Northumberland. It lies about south west of Berwick-upon-Tweed. It is on the south bank of the River Tweed, which marks the border between England and Scotland. Landmarks The ruins of Wark on Tweed Castle, originally an early 12th-century motte-and-bailey, lie at the west end of the village. The Ba Green The border between Scotland and England runs down the middle of the River Tweed, but between the villages of Wark and Cornhill, the Scottish border comes south of the river to enclose a small riverside meadow around to . This piece of land is known as the Ba Green. It is said locally that every year the men of Coldstream (to the north of the river) would play mob football with the men of Wark at ba, and the winning side would claim the Ba Green for their country. As Coldstream grew to have a larger population than Wark, the Coldstream men always defeated the Wark men at the game, so the land became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tristram Risdon
Tristram Risdon (c. 1580 – 1640) was an English antiquarian and topographer, and the author of ''Survey of the County of Devon''. He was able to devote most of his life to writing this work. After he completed it in about 1632 it circulated around interested people in several manuscript copies for almost 80 years before it was first published by Edmund Curll in a very inferior form. A full version was not published until 1811. Risdon also collected information about genealogy and heraldry in a note-book; this was edited and published in 1897. Biography Risdon was born at Winscott, in the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington in Devon, England. He was the eldest son of William Risdon (d.1622) and his wife Joan (née Pollard).Mary Wolffe''Risdon, Tristram (c. 1580–1640)'' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 7 February 2011. (Subscription required) William was the younger son of Giles Risdon (1494–1583) of Bableig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Westcote
Thomas Westcote (c. 1567 – c. 1637) (''alias'' Westcott) of Raddon in the parish of Shobrooke in Devon, was an English historian and topographer of Devon. Biography He was baptised at Shobrooke in Devon on 17 June 1567. He was the third son of Philip Westcote (died 1601) of West Raddon in the parish of Shobrooke, by his wife Katharine Waltham, a daughter of George Waltham of Brenton in the parish of Exminster, Devon. In his youth he was a soldier, traveller, and courtier, but in middle age he retired to a country life, probably living at West Raddon with his eldest brother, Robert. In 1624 he held a lease of Thorn Park in the parish of Holcombe Burnell. Westcote interested himself in local antiquities, encouraged by his friendships with fellow Devonshire historians Sir William Pole (1561–1635) and Tristram Risdon (1580–1640). He aimed at a description of Devon, following the model of the ''Survey of Cornwall'' by Richard Carew (1555–1620) published in 1602. He was encour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overlord
An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or serjeanty, depending on which form of tenure (i.e. feudal tenancy contract) the estate was ''held'' under. The highest overlord of all, or paramount lord, was the monarch, who due to his ancestor William the Conqueror's personal conquest of the Kingdom of England, ''owned'' by inheritance from him all the land in England under allodial title and had no superior overlord, "holding from God and his sword", although certain monarchs, notably King John (1199–1216) purported to grant the Kingdom of England to Pope Innocent III, who would thus have become overlord to English monarchs. A paramount lord may then be seen to occupy the apex of the feudal pyramid, or the root of the feudal tree, and such allodial title is also termed "radical title" ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feudal Land Tenure In England
Under the English feudal system several different forms of land tenure existed, each effectively a contract with differing rights and duties attached thereto. Such tenures could be either free-hold, signifying that they were hereditable or perpetual, or non-free where the tenancy terminated on the tenant's death or at an earlier specified period. High medieval period In England's ancient past large parts of the realm were unoccupied and owned as allodial titles: the landowners simply cooperated with the king out of a mutual interest instead of legal obligation. It was not until the Norman conquest, when William the Conqueror declared himself to be the sole allodial owner of the entire realm, that land tenures changed drastically. In William's kingdom the common exchange and sale of land became restricted and all landholders were made to provide a service to their lord ("'' no land without a lord''"). Norman reforms William stripped the land from those who opposed him and redist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daccombe
Coffinswell is a small village in South Devon, England, just off the A380 road, A380, the busy Newton Abbot to Torquay road. It lies within Teignbridge District Council. Coffinswell has a church dedicated to Saint Bartholomew with a Norman architecture, Norman Baptismal font, font. Near the church is Court Barton, a manor house of partly 16th century date; the southern part of which was used as a court house by Torre Abbey. The village lies in a rural valley surrounded by farmland, and has many traditional Devon Cob (material), cob and thatch cottages. Lanes and tracks lead to the neighbouring hamlet of Daccombe and over the ridge towards Haccombe and the River Teign approximately 3 miles north over undulating land. Surrounding places Coffinswell is surrounded by several small villages and hamlets. Clockwise from the north-west these are: * Milber. This suburb of Newton Abbot is mainly residential. On the hill above it is the Iron Age hill fort of Milber Down. * Netherton. A sm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Latinized Names
The Latinisation of names in the vernacular was a procedure deemed necessary for the sake of conformity by scribes and authors when incorporating references to such persons in Latin texts. The procedure was used in the era of the Roman Republic and Empire. It was used continuously by the Papacy from the earliest times, in religious tracts and in diplomatic and legal documents. It was used by the early European monasteries. Following the Norman Conquest of England, it was used by the Anglo-Norman clerics and scribes when drawing up charters. Its use was revived in the Renaissance when the new learning was written down in Latin and drew much on the work of Greek, Arabic and other non-Latin ancient authors. Contemporary Italian and European scholars also needed to be Latinised to be quoted in such treatises. The different eras produced their own styles and peculiarities. Sophistication was the trademark of the Renaissance Latinisers. The Anglo-Norman scribes on the other hand were not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torre Abbey
Torre Abbey is a historic building and art gallery in Torquay, Devon, which lies in the South West of England. It was founded in 1196 as a monastery for Premonstratensian canons, and is now the best-preserved medieval monastery in Devon and Cornwall. In addition to its medieval and Georgian rooms, Torre Abbey is known for the formal gardens on Abbey Park and Meadows, for the third largest art collection in the county of Devon and for regular exhibitions by contemporary artists. History In 1196 six Premonstratensian canons from the Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire founded Torre Abbey when William Brewer, lord of the manor of Torre, gave them land. By 1536 the Abbey's annual income made it the wealthiest of all the Premonstratensian houses in England. The canons surrendered to King Henry's VIII's commissioner in 1539 at the Dissolution of the Monasteries and immediately thereafter in 1539 a 21-year lease of the site and demesne of Torre Abbey was acquired by Sir Hugh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eggesford
Eggesford () is a parish in mid-Devon, without its own substantial village. It is served by Eggesford railway station on the Exeter to Barnstaple railway line, also known as the Tarka Line. Descent of the Manor de Reigny The manor of Eggesford is not recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. In 1233 it was held by Sir John de Reigny, whose family, nearly all the male heirs of which were called John or Richard, remained in possession for many generations. In the 15th century Ibota, the widow of John Reigny, built an almshouse within the parish, which was valued in 1547 at £4 10s 6d per annum. No trace of the building remains and its location is unknown. Copleston In the 16th century the male line of Reigny died out, and Anne Reigny (daughter and sole-heiress of Richard Reigny) brought the manor to the family of her husband, Charles Copleston of Bicton. Their son was John I Copleston (died 1586), who is recorded as patron of the church in 1571. As a mural tablet in Eggesford Chu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manor House
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals with manorial tenants and great banquets. The term is today loosely applied to various country houses, frequently dating from the Late Middle Ages, which formerly housed the landed gentry. Manor houses were sometimes fortified, albeit not as fortified as castles, and were intended more for show than for defencibility. They existed in most European countries where feudalism was present. Function The lord of the manor may have held several properties within a county or, for example in the case of a feudal baron, spread across a kingdom, which he occupied only on occasional visits. Even so, the business of the manor was directed and controlled by regular manorial courts, which appointed manorial officials such as the bailiff, granted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror. William's claim to the English throne derived from his familial relationship with the childless Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor, who may have encouraged William's hopes for the throne. Edward died in January 1066 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson. The Norwegian king Harald Hardrada invaded northern England in September 1066 and was victorious at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September, but Godwinson's army defeated and killed Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September. Three days later on 28 September, William's invasion force of thousands of men and hundreds of ships landed at Pevensey in Sussex in southern England. Harold marched south to oppose him, leaving a significant portion of his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
