St Mary's Church, Mortehoe, is a

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

church in

Mortehoe Mortehoe () is a village and former manor on the north coast of Devon, England. It lies 10 miles north-west of Barnstaple, near Woolacombe and Lee Bay, and is sited in a valley within the hilly sand-dune-like land behind Morte Point, almost ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, England, whose origins date back to the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

. It retains many original medieval features, including a notable tomb containing the remains of Sir William de Tracy.

History

The oldest parts of the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church of

St Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. ...

date back to

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

times, but it has been added to in subsequent years. The bell tower, carved pews and the de Tracy tomb (see below) are

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

. The chancel-arch

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

and the '

archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the Catholic hierarchy of angels, based on and put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the 5th or 6th century in his book ''De Coelesti Hierarchia'' (''On the Celestial Hierarchy'') ...

' window were designed by

Selwyn Image Selwyn Image (17 February 1849, Bodiam, Sussex – 21 August 1930, London) was a British artist, designer, writer and poet associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement. He designed stained glass windows, furniture and embroidery, and illustra ...

. The later parts of the building are of the 14th and 16th centuries. The carved bench-ends are 13th century, the wagon roof of the nave 15th century and the

chest tomb Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and comm ...

of William de Tracey, Rector of Mortehoe has been dated to 1322.

Tomb of Sir William de Tracy

The tomb in the south

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

has a ledger-line inscription to a certain "Sir William de Tracy". The upper slab of black or dark grey granite or marble is incised with the life-size figure of a priest in full vestments, holding a

chalice A chalice (from Latin 'cup', taken from the Ancient Greek () 'cup') is a drinking cup raised on a stem with a foot or base. Although it is a technical archaeological term, in modern parlance the word is now used almost exclusively for the ...

to his breast. The inscription is much defaced, but was recorded by

Tristram Risdon Tristram Risdon (c. 1580 – 1640) was an English antiquarian and topographer, and the author of ''Survey of the County of Devon''. He was able to devote most of his life to writing this work. After he completed it in about 1632 it circulated a ...

(d.1630):

"On whose mangled monument I found this fragment of a French inscription, in this ancient character: 'Syree Williame de Trace...Il enat eeys-Meercy'".

Possibly a variant of such phrase as ''que Dieu ait mercy de son âme'' ("may God have mercy on his soul"). On the north side of the base of the tomb are sculpted in relief three escutcheons, now devoid of any colourings, listed from east to west : *The first, showing ''three lions passant in pale'', is possibly for Camville. Geoffrey de Camville (d.1308) was the second husband of Maud de Tracy (d.pre-1279), granddaughter and sole heiress of Henry de Tracy (d.1274), feudal baron of

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...

.Sanders, I.J., English Baronies, Oxford, 1960, p.104, Barnstaple *The second, ''two bars'', possibly for

FitzMartin FitzMartin or Fitz Martin was the surname of a Normans, Norman family based in England and Wales between 1085 and 1342. Earliest Generations The earliest well-documented progenitor of this family was Robert fitz Martin, Robert Lords of Cemais, ...

. Maud de Tracy's first husband was Nicholas FitzMartin (d.1260), feudal baron of

Blagdon Blagdon is a village and civil parish in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Somerset, within the unitary authority of North Somerset, in England. It is located in the Mendip Hills, a recognised Area of Outstanding Natural ...

, Somerset. Their son William I FitzMartin (d.1324) inherited Barnstaple. The Victorian stained glass shield in the window of the south transept shows this shield as ''Azure, two bars argent'', whilst the arms generally attributed to the Martin family are ''Argent, two bars gules'' *The third, a

saltire A saltire, also called Saint Andrew's Cross or the crux decussata, is a Heraldry, heraldic symbol in the form of a diagonal cross. The word comes from the Middle French , Medieval Latin ("stirrup"). From its use as field sign, the saltire cam ...

, charged with five roundels. The Victorian stained glass shield in the window of the south transept shows this shield as ''Argent, a saltire gules charged with five

bezants In the Middle Ages, the term bezant (, from Latin ) was used in Western Europe to describe several gold coins of the east, all derived ultimately from the Roman . The word itself comes from the Greek Byzantion, the ancient name of Constantinopl ...

'' A further shield is shown in the Victorian window: ''Or, two bends gules, in a canton an escallop sable'', a representation of the arms of Tracy: "''Or, an escallop sable in chief between two bends gules''". On the same north side of the base at the west end, beneath plain canopies, are effigies representing possibly St. Catherine with her wheel, and St.

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

, with long flowing hair. The south side of the tomb-base is divided into seven compartments, filled with Early Decorated gothic tracery; the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

forms the subject of the relief sculpture at the west end of the tomb-base, showing Christ on the cross with two standing figures either side. Lord Sudeley insists this is the tomb of William de Tracy who is known to have been the incumbent of this church, endowed a chantry at Mortehoe in 1307/8, and died in 1322. The priest is described as 'Sir' because this was an oft-used prefix for priests in medieval times.Sudeley, Lord (1987) p.91 It is unclear what family relationship, if any, this man had to

William de Tracy Sir William de Tracy (died ) was a knight and the feudal baron of Bradninch, Devon, with ''caput'' at the manor of Bradninch near Exeter, and was lord of the manors (amongst very many others) of Toddington, Gloucestershire and of Moretonhampste ...

(d.post 1172), the notorious co-assassin of Archbishop

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then as Archbishop of Canterbury fr ...

(d.1170).

Gallery

Mortehoe Church Devon.jpg, St Mary's Church Morthoe, Exterior view CrucifixionDeTracyTombMortehoeDevon.jpg, Crucifixion scene, sculpted in low relief on west end of base of chest tomb of Sir William de Tracy (d.1322), cleric, incumbent of Mortehoe; South transept. WilliamDeTracyEnhancedTombMortehoeChurch.JPG, Enhanced outline of figure incised on slab, showing chalice held to the chest and clerical vestments.

References

External links

Official site
Retrieved 12 April 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Morthoe, Saint Mary's Church Church of England church buildings in Devon Grade I listed churches in Devon