Manor of Otterton

The church at Otterton, dedicated to St Michael, belonged to the monastery of Mont Saint-Michel at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086.

After passing through ownership by Syon Abbey in the 15th century, the manor with the advowson was bought by Richard Duke (c. 1515–1572) at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

[1] Duke converted some of the monastic buildings into a mansion, part of which still exists to the north of the present-day church, which was rebuilt in 1869–71 at the sole expense of Lady Rolle to the design of Benjamin Ferrey.

The descent of the manor of Otterton was as follows: Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries the manor with the advowson, formerly the property of Otterton Priory, was purchased on 5 February 1540 from the crown (whose agent for such ex-monastic land sales was the Court of Augmentations) by Richard Duke (c. 1515–1572), Clerk of the Court of Augmentations, MP for Weymouth in 1545 and for Dartmouth in 1547 and Sheriff of Devon in 1563–64.

He made Otterton Priory his home and it continued as the principal residence of the Duke family, which held the estate until 1786 when it was sold to Denys Rolle (1725–1797) of Bicton,[7] thus making him eventually the largest landowner in Devon.

[11] A monument thought to date from the late 16th century survives in Woodbury Church showing on a tomb chest two recumbent figures said to be of a Prideaux and his wife.

An elaborate stone monument sculpted with strapwork decoration, showing the prominent date "1589" exists against the east wall in the south transept of Otterton Church.

[13] The Latin inscription is as follows: Memoriae sacrum Ric(ard)i Duke Ar(migeri) qui obiit 19 Apr(ilis) An(n)o D(omi)ni 1641. reliquit filios 5, filias 2.

In the right margin, under a winged hourglass, is a human skull holding in its teeth a cloth inscribed: Omnis caro foenum ("All flesh is grass" (Isiah 40:6)).

Richard Duke (died 1716), son and heir, who married Frances Southcott, daughter of George Southcote of Buckland-Tout-Saints.

In an apparent effort to facilitate the re-election of his son as its MP, in 1681 he purchased a moiety of the manor and borough of Ashburton "at the commanding persuasion" of Sir William Courtenay, 1st Baronet, of Powderham, from Hon.

Mark George Kerr Trefusis (1836–1907), the younger brother of Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 20th Baron Clinton (1834–1904), who adopted the name Hon.