Sir William Prouz (died 1316) was a noble landowner 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 ...

, and likely builder of

Gidleigh Castle Gidleigh Castle was the manor house of the manor of Gidleigh on the north-eastern edge of Dartmoor, about north-west of the town of Chagford, Devon, England. History The Prouz family had held the manor of Gidleigh from at least the later hal ...

Family

William was descended from

Peter de Preaux Peter de Preaux, known in his time in the Old French language as Pierre de Préaux, (died 1212) was a Norman knight in the service of the Angevin kings of England. Osbert, Peter's father, was a minor Norman baron in the Roumois (the neighborhood of ...

(of which ''Prouz'' is the angilicised form), who married ''Mary de Redvers de Vernon'', daughter of

William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon William de Redvers, 5th Earl of Devon (died 10 September 1217) (or de Reviers), of Tiverton Castle and Plympton Castle, both in Devon, was feudal baron of Plympton in Devon. Origins He was the son of Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon by his ...

. His parents were William Prouz, Sheriff of Devon, and Lady Alice de Ferrers. William's daughter, Alice, married Roger de Moelys, whose family owned Throwleigh,

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 ...

and other nearby areas, thereby bringing Gidleigh, Throwleigh, and Chagford into the control of a single family. William was a distant antecedent of

United States president The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United State ...

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

Buildings

It is thought that William was the likely builder of the fortified house,

on his family estate. William is also likely to have been the builder of the new manor house at

Lustleigh Lustleigh is a small village and civil parish nestled in the Wrey Valley, inside the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England. It is between the towns of Bovey Tracey and Moretonhampstead. The village is focused around the parish church of St ...

, replacing the old manorial buildings at Barnecourt. This may have been the cause of the abandonment of the old village of Sutreworde near Barnecourt, and the coalescence of the village around the older burial ground near the manor house. The manor house still stands, although now divided into three properties, and is dated to the 14th century. William is believed to have added the south chapel to the Church of St John the Baptist, near to the manor house in Lustleigh. There is an effigy of him within the church. At his death, William's will stated that he should be buried with his ancestors at the church in Lustleigh, but his

executor An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, may sometimes be used. Overview An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker of a ...

s interred his body at Holbeton instead. His daughter, Alice Prouz, had to petition the bishop to exhume William's body and have it reinterred at Lustleigh, for which a mandate was issued.

Notes

References

{{Reflist Normans in England Anglo-Normans 1316 deaths