John Whiddon

His ancestors were resident in the parish of Chagford for at least six generations prior to the judge.

[1] Among their eleven children were William, his eldest son and heir apparent, who predeceased his father without children, having married Eleanor Basset, a daughter of John Basset (1518–1541), and Francis (died 1606), fourth son,[1] whose granddaughter was the legendary Mary Whiddon.

[8][7] The manner of judges riding to Westminster Hall is recorded in the case of his father's contemporary Thomas Wolsey (1473–1530) as "trapped all in crimson velvet, with a saddle of the same and gilt stirrups".

[9] He built there on his ancestral estate within that manor a new mansion house at Whiddon, part of which survives today.

He enclosed a deer park with the surviving wall built of massive granite blocks at the entrance to the Teign Gorge.