Feudal barony of Barnstaple

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.

[1] 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).

[9] 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.

[30] Audley had also been feudal baron of Dartington, inherited from the Martin family, and this too passed to the crown and was similarly granted to the Duke of Exeter.

[34] Queen Mary (1553–1558) granted the barony to Thomas Marrow, MP,[35] 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"[36] 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.

[38] He remained however as lord of the manor of "Castle Court" and as part of the agreement under which he relinquished some of his rights, the corporation was obliged to provide for him two annual "fish dinners".

The remains of the Norman motte of Barnstaple Castle
Per party fesse gules and azure, three garbs or . These arms were attributed to William de Braose (died 1211) by Matthew Paris in Historia Anglorum, Chronica Majora , Part III (1250-59) British Library MS Royal 14 C VII f. 29v [ 3 ] (shown there inverted to denote his death). He apparently adopted them at the start of the Age of Heraldry c. 1200–1215, but Matthew Paris's attribution may be dubious as his descendants in the Braose family bore different arms
Arms of de Tracy: Or, a lion passant sable between two bends gemelles gules
Arms of FitzMartin : Argent two bars gules
Arms of Audley: Gules a fret or .
Detail from oak wood effigy of Margaret Audley [ 13 ] (died 1373), wife of Fulk FitzWarin, 4th Baron FitzWarin (1341–1374) and heiress of a moiety of the feudal barony of Barnstaple, including the later capital manor of Tawstock. Effigy formerly in Tawstock Church under a recessed arch in wall of north chancel, now in Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon