Sir John Stowford (c.1290 – c.1372) of Stowford,

West Down West Down is a small village and civil parish located in North Devon, England. It is to be found on the route between Braunton and Ilfracombe, north-west of Barnstaple. The village sits in a bowl in the hills at above sea level. In 2011 i ...

in Devon, was

Chief Baron of the Exchequer The Chief Baron of the Exchequer was the first "baron" (meaning judge) of the English Exchequer of Pleas. "In the absence of both the Treasurer of the Exchequer or First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was he who pre ...

in 1346. He is one of John Prince's ''

Worthies of Devon This is a list of persons considered by John Prince (1643–1723) sufficiently notable to warrant the inclusion of their biography in his work ''The Worthies of Devon''. ''The Worthies of Devon'' While at Berry Pomeroy, John Prince worked on h ...

''.

Origins

He was born at the family estate of Stowford in the parish of

in North

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

Career

It is not known at which Inn of Court he trained as a lawyer, but he was called to the bar and became 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 wr ...

. In 1341 he was appointed

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 wr ...

to King Edward III. In 1346 he was knighted and was appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer. In 1349 he was appointed one of the Justices Itinerant for the county of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Builds Pilton Causeway

Stowford built Pilton Causeway which links the towns of Barnstaple and Pilton, which were then separated by the treacherous marshy ground in which flowed the tidal

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ba ...

s of the small River Yeo. It is recounted by Prince that Stowford decided on building the causeway when on his way from his home at Stowford to Barnstaple, he met whilst fording the Yeo, the drowned bodies of a woman with her child. He is also believed to have contributed to the financing of the long-bridge in Barnstaple.

Marriage

He married Joan Tracy, a co-heiress of the Tracy family of Woolacombe Tracy, Devon.

Death and burial

He died at Stowford and was buried in the Stowford Chapel in the north transept of West Down Church, where survives his much-worn life-size effigy carved in oak, dressed in his robes of office, set on the floor under a low recessed arch set into the north wall. The colouring of the effigy was renewed in 1873,Hoskins, p.390 but no trace survives today.

Sources

* Prince, John, (1643–1723) The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, pp. 727–729, biography of Sir John Stowford

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stowford, John 1290 births 1372 deaths People from North Devon (district) English barristers Lawyers from Devon Chief Barons of the Exchequer