Sir John Whiddon (died 27 January 1576) of Whiddon in the parish of

Chagford Chagford is a market town and civil parish on the north-east edge of Dartmoor, in Devon, England, close to the River Teign and the A382, 4 miles (6 km) west of Moretonhampstead. The name is derived from ''chag'', meaning gorse or broom, and ...

in Devon, was a Justice of the Queen's Bench from 4 October 1553 to his death on 27 January 1576, during the reigns of Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I.

Personal life

He was the son of John Whiddon of Chagford by his wife who was a member of the Rugg family of Chagford. His ancestors were resident in the parish of Chagford for at least six generations prior to the judge. Whiddon married twice. His first wife was Ann Hollis, daughter of Sir William Hollis, by whom he had a daughter, Joane, who married John Ashley of London. His second marriage was to Elizabeth Shilston, a daughter and co-heiress of William Shilston. Among their eleven children were William, his eldest son and

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

, who predeceased his father without children, having married Eleanor Basset, a daughter of John Basset (1518–1541), and Francis (died 1606), fourth son, whose granddaughter was the legendary Mary Whiddon. Their other sons included Edward (1537–1598), second and eldest surviving son and heir, who was admitted to the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

in 1559; Oliver, third son, who became

Archdeacon of Totnes The Archdeacon of Totnes or Totton is the senior ecclesiastical officer in charge of one of the oldest archdeaconries in England. It is an administrative division of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter and under the oversight of the Bishop suf ...

; and Nicholas (died 1598), who became Rector of

North Bovey North Bovey is a village and civil parish situated on the south-eastern side of Dartmoor National Park, Devon, England, about 11 miles WSW of the city of Exeter and 1.5 miles SSW of Moretonhampstead. The village lies above the eastern ...

. Whiddon died on 27 January 1576. His monument survives in St Michael the Archangel's Church, Chagford. Wall of Whiddon Deer Park - geograph

Career

Whiddon entered the

to study law and became Reader and later Double Reader and Treasurer of that

Inn of Court The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. All barristers must belong to one of them. They ha ...

. He was created a

Serjeant-at-Law A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writ ...

in 1547, and

King's Serjeant A Serjeant-at-Law (SL), commonly known simply as a Serjeant, was a member of an order of barristers at the English and Irish Bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law (''servientes ad legem''), or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writ ...

in 1551. In 1553, Queen Mary I appointed him a Justice of the Queen's Bench.Thoms, William J. (ed.) (L'Estrange, Nicholas & Aubrey, John & Collet, John),
Anecdotes and Traditions, Illustrative of Early English History and Literature
', London, 1839, p. 120, No CXCVI "A Judge on Horseback", quoting "Collet, p. 64" He is said by Dugdale in his ''Origines Juridiciales'' (1666) to have been the first judge who rode to

Westminster Hall The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

on a horse or

gelding A gelding is a castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. Castration, as well as the elimination of hormonally driven behavior associated with a stallion, allows a male equine to be calmer and better-behaved, makin ...

, before which time the judges rode on

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

s. The manner of judges riding to Westminster Hall is recorded in the case of his father's contemporary

Thomas Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figur ...

(1473–1530) as "trapped all in crimson velvet, with a saddle of the same and gilt stirrups".

Landholdings

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), he purchased the manor of

in Devon. Daniel Lysons and Samuel Lysons,
Magna Britannia – Volume 6, Devonshire
', 1822. p. 96. He built there on his ancestral estate within that manor a new mansion house at Whiddon, part of which survives today. He enclosed a deer park with the surviving wall built of massive

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

blocks at the entrance to the Teign Gorge.

Pevsner, Nikolaus Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

& Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p. 251

References

{{reflist, 30em

Personal life

Career

Landholdings

References

Further reading