St James Priory, Exeter was a priory in

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. Devon is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

The Feudal Manor of St James Priory was located in the current district of

Heavitree Heavitree is a historic village and parish situated formerly outside the walls of the City of Exeter in Devon, England, and is today an eastern district of that city. It was formerly the first significant village outside the city on the road to ...

, a suburb of the city of

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

, Devon. The parcel had a value of 20 shillings (£1) and consisted of one villager, 2 slaves, and 2

carucate The carucate or carrucate ( lat-med, carrūcāta or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms ...

s of land. Carucate was a unit of assessment for tax. A carucate was the amount of land cultivated by a team of eight oxen in one farming season, which was a nominal 120 acres. In many instances, there was not a direct relationship between a carucate and the actual size of the land taxed. Therefore, the land extension of the Manor was likely much smaller than 240 acres.

Reference in the Domesday Book

The name appears in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, where it is recorded that the Viking of Whipton and the nobleman Roger Blunt were Lords of Heavitree in 1066 and 1086 respectively. In addition, it also stated that Ralph of Pomeroy was the

Tenant-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as op ...

of the Lordship at the time of Roger Blunt.

History

The priory was founded in 1146 by

Baldwin de Redvers Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon (died 4 June 1155), feudal baron of Plympton in Devon, was the son of Richard de Redvers and his wife Adeline Peverel. He was one of the first to rebel against King Stephen, and was the only first rank magnat ...

, the 1st Earl of Devon, a kinsman of the

Dukes of Normandy In the Middle Ages, the duke of Normandy was the ruler of the Duchy of Normandy in north-western France. The duchy arose out of a grant of land to the Viking leader Rollo by the French king Charles III in 911. In 924 and again in 933, Normandy ...

. It was a cell to the

Cluniac The Cluniac Reforms (also called the Benedictine Reform) were a series of changes within medieval monasticism of the Western Church focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The movement began wit ...

monastery of St Martin-des-Champs near Paris. The title was inherited by Baldwin's son and heir,

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...

, who married Dionysia, daughter of

Reginald de Dunstanville Reginald de Dunstanville (c. 1110 – 1 July 1175) (''alias'' Reginald FitzRoy, Reginald FitzHenry, Rainald, etc., ''French:'' Renaud de Donstanville or de Dénestanville) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and an illegitimate son of King Henry I (1100� ...

(illegitimate son of Henry I). They left two sons who later inherited the title of Earl. Between 1284 and 1431, the Prior of St James held the Lordship in alms from the Barony of Plympton, which Barony was held by the Earls of Devon (the sons of

Richard I Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...

, King of England and Duke of Normandy). Afterwards, the Lordship passed with the Earldom until the reign of Henry VI. In 1444, Henry VI granted the Lordship to King's College, Cambridge, which he founded in 1441. The Lordship of St James Priory was in King's College possession until 1992.

References

Monasteries in Devon Buildings and structures in Exeter History of Exeter Former manors in Devon {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub

Reference in the Domesday Book

History

See also

References