Ernsborough

[2] The boundary of the Saxon estate is still recognisable today in the form of a curvi-linear hedgebank, and contains or abuts three historic settlements: on the eastern side "Tower Farm", so named after 1845[6] and probably the original location of the mansion house of Ernsborough; "East Irishborough", to the immediate south-west of Tower Farm, shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1888 but since demolished,[7] and to the west in the centre of the enclosure, the farm of "West Irishborough".

[11] Much quarrying work and lime burning was carried out on the estate in the 19th century and prior, which has left major traces on the landscape.

The first certain ancestor of the 1st Baron Moels was his grandfather Nicholas de Moels (c. 1195 – 1264/72) of North Cadbury in Somerset, of unknown parentage,[16] a household knight and royal administrator of King Henry III,[17] who apart from having received a few royal grants of land in his own right, in 1230 married Hawise de Newmarch the wealthy co-heiress of the feudal barony of North Cadbury, which transformed him into a major landholder and feudal baron.

[18] His second but eldest surviving son by Hawise was Roger de Moels (c.1233/7 – 1294) (father of the 1st Baron), who in 1268 received a grant of a weekly market and annual fair at his manor of King's Carswell[19] In 1293 he was appointed Keeper of the Forest of Braydon in Wiltshire.

[20] It is believed[23] that the second son of Roger de Moels (c.1233/7-1294), feudal baron of North Cadbury (and thus a brother of the 1st Baron) was a certain Sir[24] Roger de Moels (d.1323[23]) of Lustleigh in Devon, called a "King's Yeoman" in 1301, who married Alice le Prouz (1286–1335[23]), daughter and heiress of Sir William le Prouz (or Prouse) of Gidleigh Castle,[25] Chagford and of Lustleigh, by his wife Alice de Reyny[23] (said by Vivian (1895) to have been Alice Widworthy, daughter and heiress of Sir Hugh Widworthy, who remarried to Sir John Damerell.

At Ernesborough was born the jurist John Cowell (1554–1611), Master of Trinity Hall Cambridge, and author of "The Interpreter", the well-known dictionary of legal terms.

[40] The site is today covered by the central settlement of "West Irishborough", which in the 18th century had the status of barton[41] or principal farm, and to the east on the edge of the historic curvi-linear estate, "Tower Farm",[8] believed to have been the site of the mansion house[42] of the Mules family.

On the 1845 Tithe Apportionment "Tower Farm" is listed as being partly owned by Earl Fortescue, of nearby Castle Hill, Filleigh, and partly by John Nott of Bydown House, Swimbridge, whose family had been yeomen farmers in Swimbridge for many centuries but had recently acquired much wealth having married a wealthy heiress.