Mohuns Ottery

Mohuns Ottery, photograph circa 1896-1920 of surviving ancient doorway with sculpted spandrels, from before 1868 fire and reconstruction
Mohuns Ottery, ancient gatehouse, lacking roof, photograph circa 1896-1920. In the right spandrel of the arch are sculpted the maunch arms of Mohun with supporters (see 1888 drawing below), in the left spandrel the arms of Carew[1]

Mohuns Ottery or Mohun's Ottery, pronounced /muːnzˈɒtəri/,[2] is a house and historic manor in the parish of Luppitt, 1 mile south-east of the village of Luppitt and 4 miles north-east of Honiton in east Devon, England. From the 14th to the 16th centuries it was a seat of the Carew family. Several manorial court rolls survive at the Somerset Heritage Centre, Taunton, Somerset.[3]

The old manor house burnt down in 1868 and was completely rebuilt as a farmhouse that has been a grade II listed building since 1955.[4] The ruins of a mid-16th century gatehouse lie to the south of the house; these and the adjoining garden walls, probably built in the mid-19th century at the same time as the farmhouse, are grade II* listed.[5][1] The house now has six reception rooms and six bedrooms. Around the courtyard are a cottage, stables and farm buildings. The River Otter forms part of the eastern boundary of the estate. In January 2014 the house with 228 acres was offered for sale for £3.5 million.[6]

Toponymy

The word Ottery derives from the River Otter, Old English "oter" ("otter") + "īe" (dative singular of "ēa").[7] The first appearance of the place-name is in the Domesday Book (1086) where it is recorded as Otri – one of the twelve places in Devon that had that or a very similar name.[8] It appeared in the Book of Fees in 1242 as Otery.[2] In 1247 it was recorded as Otery Flandrensis and as Ottery Flemeng’  in 1279, after the family of William le Flemmeng who held part of the manor between 1219 and 1244.[9]

The name later reflected the residency of the Mohun family, appearing in the Feudal Aids in 1285 as Otermoun, and as Oteri Mohoun in an Inquisition post mortem of 1297. In 1453 it was recorded in the Patent Rolls as Mounesotery, and as Moonsotery in the Recovery Rolls in 1630.[2] Tristram Risdon, writing in the early 17th century, referred to it as Mohun's Ottery,[10] while his close contemporary Thomas Westcote, called it Mohuns-Ottery.[11]

Descent

Alsi

The Domesday Book of 1086 records that before the Norman Conquest the manor of Otri was held by an Anglo-Saxon thegn known as Alsi.[lower-alpha 1] He held several other properties near to Otri, as well as another in Devon, at Dunsford, and probably two more near Dunsford at Lowley and Doddiscombsleigh. He had a large manor at Castle Cary in Somerset and other holdings around this, and single holdings in Dorset and Wiltshire.[13]

de Douai

In 1086 as recorded in the Domesday Book, the manor of OTRI was the 18th of the 27 Devonshire holdings of Walter of Douai, one of the Devonshire tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror.[14] His tenant was a certain Ludo, who held a further five manors from him, namely Little Rackenford, Hetfelle, Luppitt, Greenway (now represented by the synonymous large and ancient farmhouse in the parish of Luppitt[15]) and Stoch (later Stoke Fleming).[16] The last four manors held by Ludo, but not Little Rackenford, descended to the de Mandeville feudal barony of Marshwood and later to the de Mohun family,[17] at least one via the Flemings.

de Mandeville

It passed at some time, by means unknown, from Walter of Douai to the de Mandeville family, feudal barons of Marshwood[18] in Dorset.[19] A tenant of Geoffrey de Mandeville's manor of Ottery was Reginald de Mohun, as recorded in the Feudal Aid records.[18]

Fleming

Arms of Fleming of Bratton Fleming, North Devon (and possibly of Stoke Fleming and Mohuns Ottery): Vair, a chief chequy or and gules[lower-alpha 2] These arms appear quartered by Mohun on the mural monument in Exeter Cathedral to Sir Peter Carew (d.1575) of Mohuns Ottery

The Fleming family at some time held Ottery, which became known as Ottery Fleming. They were also lord of the manor of adjoining Luppitt, which manors thenceforth descended under common ownership for several centuries.[20] It is not known what relationship if any this family bore to the Fleming family, named after its likely origins in Flanders, of Bratton Fleming and other manors in North Devon. The descent was as follows:[20]

Mohun

Canting arms of Mohun of Ottery (ancient): Gules, a maunch ermine the hand argent (here shown proper) holding a fleur-de-lis or[21]
Arms of Mohun (ancient) with supporters, sculpted on right spandrel of archway of old gatehouse, Mohuns Ottery, as visible in 1888: Gules, a maunch ermine the hand argent holding a fleur-de-lis or
Arms of Mohun (modern): Or, a cross engrailed sable

The de Mohun family succeeded the Flemings as tenants of Ottery,[20] but seemingly still as mesne tenants. The mural monument in Exeter Cathedral of Sir Peter Carew (d.1575) of Mohuns Ottery shows the maunch arms of Mohun quartering Fleming (Vair, a chief chequy or and gules,[lower-alpha 3] which if in accordance with the rules of heraldry indicates that the Mohuns married a Fleming heiress. Reginald de Mohun held Ottery under Geoffrey de Mandeville as overlord, as recorded in the Feudal Aid records.[18] The family later superseded the overlord and held this manor as a tenant-in-chief of the king, when the manor became known as Ottery Mohun, with the standard word order for manors with proprietorial suffixes, and later as Mohun's Ottery.

The de Mohun family seated at Ottery was a junior branch descended from the Norman magnate William I de Mohun, feudal baron of Dunster in Somerset, who is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as seated at Dunster Castle.[22] The historian the Duchess of Cleveland wrote as follows in her 1889 work Battle Abbey Roll concerning the origins of the de Mohun (alias Mohon, Moion, etc.) family:[23]

"From Moion, near St. Lo, Normandy, where the site of their castle is still to be seen. Wace tells us that "old William de Moion had with him many companions" at the Battle of Hastings, and one of Leland's rolls of the Norman conquerors is nothing but a long list of those who came in the train of "Monseir William de Moion le Veil, le plus noble de tout l'oste." It gives him a following worthy of an Emperor, comprising all the noblest names of Normandy, and numbering at least ninety-four knights, but it is evidently, as Mr. Planché points out, a mistake of the copyists. Sir Francis Palgrave, though he calls him "one of the greatest Barons of the Cotentin," says he was only accompanied by "five knights who held of him." Dugdale, however, gives him "forty-seven stout Knights of name and note," and he was rewarded for his services by the grant of no less than fifty-five manors in Somerset, besides two in Wiltshire and Dorset. He chose Dunster — a place of some note in Saxon times — and built his castle where a former fortress of the West Saxon kings had stood, in a situation unsurpassed in beauty by any in England".

The descent of the de Mohun family of Dunster was as follows:[22]

"Jaune o crois noire engreelie
La portrait Johans de Mooun."

The arms of Mohun (ancient) survive at Mohuns Ottery: "There, on a shield in the spandrel, is carved, amid elegant scroll work and foliage, the old coat-armour of the family — an arm vested in an ermine maunch, the hand grasping a golden fleur-de-lys; a bearing, which, for some reason unknown, John de Mohun, Baron of Dunster, who died in 1330, abandoned for the afterward well-known coat, adopted also by the Abbeys of Newenham and Bruton — a cross engrailed sable, on a field or".[27]

Carew

Arms of Carew: Or, three lions passant in pale sable[28]

The Carew family succeeded to the Mohun family as holders of Ottery, but never changed the proprietorial suffix. The descent of Mohuns Ottery from Sir William Mohun (younger son from his second marriage of Reginald II de Mohun of Dunster) was as follows:

John I Carew (d.1324)

Empty arched recess in Luppitt Church which may originally have housed an effigy of John Carew (d.1324)[29]

John I Carew (d.1324), who married firstly Elinor Mohun, heiress of Mohuns Ottery. He was the eldest son and heir of Nicholas I Carew (died 1311), feudal lord of Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire and and lord of the manor of Moulsford in Berkshire. He survived his first wife and remarried to Joan Talbot, daughter of Sir Gilbert Talbot, by whom he had issue.[25][26] It is believed that the now empty arched recess in Luppit Church may originally have housed his effigy.[29]

Nicholas II Carew (d.1323)

Nicholas II Carew (d.1323), son (by his father's first wife Elinor Mohun) and heir apparent, who married Elinor Talbot, daughter of Richard Lord Talbot, but died without progeny.[25] He bequeathed his estates including Mohuns Ottery to his younger half-brother John Carew (d.1363), the son of John Carew (d.1324) by his second wife Joan Talbot, daughter of Sir Gilbert Talbot.[25][26]

John II Carew (d.1363)

John II Carew (d.1363),younger half-brother, the son of John Carew (d.1324) by his second wife Joan Talbot, daughter of Sir Gilbert Talbot.[25][26] He was a great soldier and fought at the Battle of Crécy in 1346.[29] He married twice:

Sir Leonard Carew (1343-1369)

Sir Leonard Carew (1343-1369),[26] son and heir by his father's first wife Margaret de Mohun. He married Alice FitzAlan, daughter of Sir Edmund FitzAlan de Arundel (c.1327-1376/82)[33] by his wife Sybil de Montacute, a younger daughter of William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury. Sir Edmund FitzAlan was the bastardised eldest son of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel (c.1306/13-1376) by his first wife Isabel le Despenser (1312-c.1376-7).[34] As the Earl obtained an annulment of his first marriage on the basis of both parties having been under-age, Sir Edmund FitzAlan was bastardised and thus prevented from inheriting the earldom.

Thomas Carew (1361-1430)

Thomas Carew (1361-1430), son and heir, "a valiant knight"[29] who served under King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. He married Elizabeth Bonville, daughter of Sir William Bonville (d.1408) of Shute, Devon, by his wife Margaret Damerell.[35]

Nicholas III Carew

Nicholas III Carew, eldest son and heir, who married Joane Courtenay (born 1411), a daughter of Sir Hugh Courtenay (1358–1425) of Haccombe in Devon and of Boconnoc in Cornwall, MP and Sheriff of Devon, a grandson of Hugh Courtenay, 2nd/10th Earl of Devon (1303–1377) and grandfather of Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (d.1509). Joane Courtenay's mother was her father's second wife, namely Phillipa Archdekne, daughter and heiress of Sir Warren Archdekne of Haccombe in Devon.[36] Joane Courtenay was the eventual sole-heiress of her mother, and was the heiress of 16 manors, which she divided amongst her younger Carew sons.[37] She gave Haccombe to her second son Nicholas Carew, founder of the Carew family of Haccombe (see Carew baronets (1661) of Haccombe).[38]

Later Carew lords of the manor included:

Mural monument in Exeter Cathedral to Sir Peter Carew (d.1575) "the last and most conspicuous member of this family, and who, owing to the decease of his two brothers, George and Philip, before him, was the last male owner also of this antient seat of his name and blood — Mohuns-Ottery, the which, from his initials, P. C, sculptured in the spandrels of the main door-way, he probably re-built or greatly re-edified"[39]

Southcote

Canting arms of Southcote of Indio in the parish of Bovey Tracey and of Mohuns Ottery: Argent, a chevron gules between three coots sable[42]

Yonge

The manor was purchased (probably from the co-heiresses of Sir Popham Southcote[47]) by Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet[lower-alpha 4] (1653-1731), of Escott and Colyton, Devon, MP for Honiton and Ashburton. He was the son of Sir Walter Yonge, 2nd Baronet (d.1670), MP, of Colyton.[51]

Hawker

In about 1793 the estates of Sir George Yonge, 5th Baronet (d.1810), K.B., were sold, including the manors of Luppit and Mohuns Ottery, to William II Hawker (d.1806) of Poundisford Lodge, Pitminster, near Taunton, Somerset.[47][52] Sir George Yonge, 5th Baronet was MP for Honiton and Secretary at War, but died without progeny, when the baronetcy became extinct.[53] William II Hawker (d.1806) of Poundisford Lodge was the only son of William I Hawker (d.1739) of Luppitt by his wife Mary Sampson. He married Elizabeth Welman, only child of Thomas Welman of Poundisford Park[54] (alias Lower Poundisford). He was described as:[lower-alpha 5] "A steady Dissenter and a firm Whig who used to speak with a virtuous glow of his descent on the maternal side from the Reverend and Learned Thomas Sampson, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, the bold opposer of superstition and tyranny in the reign of Queen Elizabeth"

Bernard

20th century

In 1986 "Mohuns Ottery Farm" was occupied by Arthur Francis William Blackmore (born 1911), chairman of the Luppitt Commons Committee, who had lived in the parish of Luppitt all his life. At that date a "Miss Barnard" still lived in the parish, at Wren Cottage.[64]

Notes

  1. ↑ Thorn, Caroline & Frank state that the Domesday form "Alsi" could represent the Old English name Ælfsige, or Æthelsige or possibly Ealdsige or Ealhsige.[12]
  2. ↑ Fleming of Bratton Fleming, North Devon. As shown on the Powell Roll of Arms (c.1350), Bodleian Library, Oxford. Also per Lysons, Magna Britannia, 1822, vol.6, Devon, Families removed since 1620
  3. ↑ These are in fact the arms of Fleming, of Bratton Fleming in North Devon, per Pole, p.484, who gives a blank entry for the arms of Fleming of Stoke Fleming in South Devon, which families were possibly identical or related
  4. ↑ Lysons, 1822: "Sir Walter Yonge, Bart.", thus possibly 2nd or 3rd Baronets. From the court rolls of Mohuns Ottery, apparently the 3rd Bt.[3]
  5. ↑ Source describes his father, possibly in error for William II.[55]
  6. ↑ A monument Gertrude Pyncombe (d.1730) in Poughill Church near Crediton was erected in 1809, inscribed: "... erected by the Trustees of her Bequests, JAMES BERNARD Esq. of Crowcombe Court Somersetshire. Rev. JAMES CAMPLIN A.M. Rector of Stoodley in this County and of Florey in the County of Somerset in the Year of our Lord 1809"[60]

References

  1. 1 2 Image by david_brock on flickr.com
  2. 1 2 3 Gover, J.E.B., Mawer, A. & Stenton, F.M. (1931). The Place-Names of Devon. English Place-Name Society. Vol viii. Part II. Cambridge University Press. p.642
  3. 1 2 Somerset Heritage Centre, Taunton, ref DD\HLM/7 Box 7: Deeds for Luppitt, etc. Copies of court roll, 1654-1683 and Leases for 99 years and lives, 1628-1763 for properties holden of the manor of Mohun's Ottery, etc.
  4. ↑ "Listing Text: Mohuns Ottery Farmhouse". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  5. ↑ "Listing Text: Mohuns Ottery Gatehouse and Front Garden Walls...". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "Escape to the West Country: Mohuns Ottery, £3.5m, Jackson-Stops & Staff". Country Life. 30 January 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  7. ↑ Watts (2004), p.455
  8. ↑ Thorn, Caroline & Frank, part 2, Notes 2: "Places Named from Rivers" – "River Otter". Also available online: "Devon introduction" (download page for RTF document). Digital Repository. The University of Hull. p.38. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  9. ↑ Watts (2004), p.637, under "Upottery", and footnote.
  10. 1 2 Risdon, p.38
  11. ↑ Thomas Westcote (1845). A View of Devonshire in MDCXXX with a Pedigree of most of its Gentry, edited by George Oliver and Pitman Jones. p.225
  12. ↑ Thorn, Caroline & Frank. "Devon notes", p.180 (at 15,54)
  13. ↑ Thorn, Caroline & Frank. "Devon notes", p.313 (at 23,12)
  14. ↑ Thorn, Caroline & Frank, Domesday Book, parts 1 & 2, 23:18
  15. ↑ Pevsner, p.544
  16. ↑ Thorn, Caroline & Frank, Domesday Book, part 1, 23:13, 17, 19, 20, 22
  17. ↑ Thorn, Caroline & Frank, Domesday Book, part 2 (notes), 23:13
  18. 1 2 3 Thorn, Caroline & Frank, Domesday Book, part 2 (notes), 23:18
  19. ↑ Sanders, p.64, Barony of Marshwood, Dorset
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 Pole, p.128
  21. ↑ Pole, p.493
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 Sanders, p.114
  23. 1 2 3 4 Cleveland, Duchess of (Catherine Powlett), The Battle Abbey Roll with some Account of the Norman Lineages, 3 vols., London, 1889
  24. ↑ Risdon, pp.146, 378; Pole, p.272
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pole, p.333
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Vivian, p.134
  27. ↑ Hamilton Rogers (1888), p.286
  28. ↑ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, Carew Baronets, p.155; Baron Carew p.216
  29. 1 2 3 4 Hamilton Rogers (1888), p.287
  30. ↑ Vivian, p.134, "John Mohun, Lord of Dunster" (sic). Clarified on p.565, pedigree of Mohun
  31. ↑ Maxwell-Lyte, Sir H.C. (1909). A History of Dunster Vol 1. p.39
  32. ↑ Vivian, p.565, pedigree of Mohun
  33. ↑ Vivian, p.134, younger brother of "Richard FitzAlan, 13th Earl of Arundell" (sic)
  34. ↑ thepeerage.com quoting: GEC Complete Peerage, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959), volume I, page 243
  35. ↑ Vivian, 1895, p.101
  36. ↑ Vivian, pp.134,245; Pole, p.249
  37. ↑ Risdon, p.140
  38. ↑ Vivian, pp.134, 144; Risdon, p.140
  39. ↑ Hamilton Rogers (1888), p.308
  40. 1 2 Vivian, p.135
  41. ↑ Vivian, p.246
  42. ↑ Pole, p.501
  43. ↑ Vivian, p.698; Pevsner, p.193; Risdon, p.134
  44. ↑ Vivian, p.516, pedigree of Kirkham
  45. ↑ Risdon, p.150; Pevsner, p.844
  46. ↑ Vivian, pp.135, 698; Pole, p.130
  47. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lysons, 1822
  48. ↑ Vivian, p.699; p.702, pedigree of Seymour of Berry Pomeroy
  49. 1 2 Pole, p.131
  50. 1 2 Vivian, p.699
  51. ↑ Vivian, p.841, pedigree of Yonge of Colyton
  52. ↑ Somerset Heritage centre, Taunton, DD\HLM/10, Box 10: Settlement and Testamentary documents concerning the family of Hawker
  53. ↑ Vivian, p.841
  54. ↑ http://shs.boxuk.net/calm/component/28553/
  55. ↑ The Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature, Volume 9, Jan-Dec 1814, London, 1814, pp.771-2 (originally mentioned in the Monthly Magazine for April 1806, pp.285-6)
  56. ↑ Venn, John (ed.) Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students ..., Volume 2, 2011
  57. 1 2 3 4 Vivian, p.138
  58. ↑ Image by Rex Harris on flickr.com
  59. ↑ Victoria County History, Vol.5, Somerset: Crowcombe
  60. ↑ "The Pyncombe Estate", High Bickington village website. Retrieved 6 May 2016
  61. ↑ Toulmin, Joshua, History of the Town of Taunton, Taunton, 1822, preface, p.vii
  62. ↑ White's Devonshire Directory, 1850, Luppitt
  63. ↑ Morris and Co.'s Commercial Directory and Gazetteer, 1870, Luppitt
  64. ↑ Decision 27 January 1986 of Commons Commissioner re dispute re Luppitt Common under the Commons Registration Act 1965

Sources

Further reading

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