John Stowford

He was born at the family estate of Stowford in the parish of West Down in North Devon.

[4] It is not known at which Inn of Court he trained as a lawyer, but he was called to the bar and became a serjeant at law.

Stowford built Pilton Causeway which links the towns of Barnstaple and Pilton, which were then separated by the treacherous marshy ground in which flowed the tidal meanders of the small River Yeo.

It is recounted by Prince that Stowford decided on building the causeway when on his way from his home at Stowford to Barnstaple, he met whilst fording the Yeo, the drowned bodies of a woman with her child.

[9] He died at Stowford and was buried in the Stowford Chapel in the north transept of West Down Church, where survives his much-worn[10] life-size effigy carved in oak, dressed in his robes of office,[11] set on the floor under a low recessed arch set into the north wall.