Feudal barony of Barnstaple

From AD 1066, the feudal barony of Barnstaple was a large feudal barony with its caput at the town of Barnstaple in north Devon, England. In 1235/6 it comprised 56 knight's fees or individual member manors. The feudal service owed for half the barony in 1274 was the provision to the royal army of two knights or four sergeants for forty days per annum, later commuted to scutage.

de Mowbray
The barony was first granted by William the Conqueror (1066–1087) to Geoffrey de Mowbray (died 1093), Bishop of Coutances, who is recorded as its holder in the Domesday Book (1086). His heir was his nephew Robert de Mowbray (died 1125), Earl of Northumberland, son of Geoffrey's brother Robert de Mowbray. In 1095 Robert II rebelled against King William II (1087–1100) and his barony escheated to the crown.

de Totnes
At some time before his death in 1100 King William II re-granted the barony of Barnstaple to Juhel de Totnes (died 1123/30), formerly feudal baron of Totnes, from which barony the king had expelled him after the death of his father William the Conqueror in 1087. In about 1107, Juhel, who had already founded Totnes Priory, founded Barnstaple Priory, of the Cluniac order, dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. Juhel's son and heir was Alfred de Totnes, who died sine prole some time before 1139, leaving two sisters as his co-heiresses each to a moiety of the barony: Aenor and a sister whose name is unknown.

de Braose & de Tracy moieties
The inheritance of the barony of Barnstaple by two co-heiresses split its possession during the period c. 1139 to 1213 into two moieties, which became re-united under the de Tracy family. The descent of the two co-heiresses was as follows:


 * Aenor de Totnes married the Welsh Marcher Lord Philip de Braose (died 1134/55), 2nd feudal baron of Bramber, Surrey, son of William I de Braose (died 1093/6). The moiety descended to her eldest son and heir William II de Braose (died c. 1192/3), and thence to his son William III de Braose (died 1211). In 1208 King John (1199–1216) confiscated the lands of William III and in 1213 granted his moiety of the barony of Barnstaple to Henry de Tracy (died 1274).


 * The other de Totnes sister, whose name is unknown, married Henry de Tracy (died pre-1165), leaving a son and heir Oliver de Tracy (died c. 1184), who in 1165 was charged scutage on 25 knights' fees for his moiety. In 1166 he declared 23 1/3 and in 1168 30 1/2 knights' fees. Oliver left a son and heir Oliver II (died 1210), who left as his heir Henry de Tracy (died 1274), who also inherited in 1213 the other moiety as described above. In 1235/6 he answered for 56 knights' fees, representing the whole barony. In 1246 he answered for 28 knights' fees formerly relating to the Braose moiety and for his 28 paternal knights' fees "of the honour of Oliver de Tracy".

Henry de Tracy's heir to the entire barony was his granddaughter Maud de Brian (or Briene) (died pre-1279), daughter of Guy de Brian of Laugharne Castle, Carmarthenshire by his wife Eve de Tracy, daughter of Henry de Tracy. Maud's first husband was Nicholas FitzMartin (died 1260), who had pre-deceased his father Nicholas FitzMartin (died 1282), feudal baron of Blagdon, Somerset. Maud married secondly Geoffrey de Camville (died 1308), of Clifton Campville, Staffordshire, who had summons to attend the king at Portsmouth, with horse and arms, to embark in the expedition then proceeding to Gascony. He was subsequently summoned to parliament as Baron Camville, of Clifton, in the county of Stafford, from 23 Jun 1295 to 22 Feb 1307. Camville survived her by about 29 years during which time he retained possession of the barony under the curtesy of England.

The barony was recovered on Geoffrey's death by Maud's son William I FitzMartin (died 1324) whose son and heir William II FitzMartin died sine prole in 1326. His heirs were his surviving sister Eleanor FitzMartin (died 1342), who died without progeny, albeit having married twice, and James Audley, 2nd Baron Audley (died 1386), the son of his other sister Joan FitzMartin (died 1322), by her second husband Nicholas Audley, 1st Baron Audley (died 1316) of Heleigh Castle, Staffordshire. James Audley thus in 1342 inherited his childless aunt Eleanor's moiety of the barony of Barnstaple, giving him possession of the whole.

Later history
On the death of James Audley in 1386 the barony of Barnstaple passed to his son, Nicholas Audley, 3rd Baron Audley and then to King Richard II, as the Audley family had fallen out of favour. The king granted Barnstaple to Robert de Vere, but he was attainted in 1388, and in July of that year the king granted the feudal baronies of Barnstaple, Dartington and Torrington to John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter. On Holland's execution in 1400, after a failed rebellion, the barony passed to his eldest son, Richard (born c. 1390), who died later the same year.

From 1425 the barony was held by John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter. On his death in 1447 it passed to his son Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter, who was attainted in 1461 and his possessions granted to his wife, Anne of York. She divorced Henry and married Thomas St Leger, who held the lands after her death in 1476 by courtesy until his beheading in 1483. In 1483 King Richard III (1483-1485) granted "the Castle and Borough of Barnstaple" to Thomas Everingham, who held it until King Henry VII deposed Richard III in 1485 and two years later granted it to his mother, Margaret Beaufort.

Queen Mary (1553-1558) granted the barony to Thomas Marrow, MP, though apparently shorn of all its constituent fees and manors, held thenceforth by their tenants directly from the crown as tenants-in-chief. Thus the feudal barony was now one in name only, with no substantial constituent lands or tenants, and conferred no right on its holder of taking a seat in parliament.

This so-called "castle-manor" was soon after acquired from "Samuel Marowe" by Sir John Chichester (died 1569) of Raleigh, in the parish of Pilton just over the River Yeo from Barnstaple, and several leases were granted by him to townspersons of orchards gardens and houses within the walls of the castle. In 1566 Sir John Chichester assigned to the Mayor, Corporation and Burgesses of Barnstaple all his rights and interests in the Manor of Barnstaple. The ancient "Manor of Hogsfee/Hoggfee" etc. appears to have been connected with the castle manor. In 1732 the Mayor and Aldermen acquired 1/3 of it from John Carew and in 1734 the remaining 2/3 from Thomas Saltren and John Weddon.

Fees in 1326
The 1326 Inquisition post mortem of William FitzMartin (died 1326) lists his fees pertaining to the Barony of Barnstaple as follows: