Widworthy

Widworthy is a village, parish and former manor in Devon, England. The village is 3 1/2 miles east of Honiton and the parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Stockland (a short boundary only), Dalwood, Shute, Colyton, Northleigh, and Offwell. The parish church is dedicated to St Cuthbert. Near the church is Widworthy Barton, the former manor house, which is largely unaltered from its early 17th century form. Widworthy Court is a mansion within the parish built in 1830 by Sir Edward Marwood-Elton to the design of G.S. Repton.

History

The Domesday Book of 1086 lists Widworthy among the 27 Devonshire holdings of Theobald FitzBerner, one of the tenants-in-chief in Devon of King William the Conqueror. His tenant was a certain Oliver. His lands later formed part of the feudal barony of Great Torrington. At some time in the 13th century, John de Humfraville held the feudal barony, and had his own tenant at Widworthy. The earliest lord of the manor recorded by the Devon historian Sir William Pole (died 1635) was Sir William de Widworthy. Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, pp.144–5

The manor was later inherited by the Wotton family. The last in the male line was John Wotton who left a daughter and heiress Alice Wotton, who married Sir John Chichester (1385-1437), Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.172 lord of the manor of Raleigh. The manor was still in the Chichester family in the early 17th century, being then held by Hugh, according to Pole.

References

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Villages in Devon