Nicholas Eveleigh (died 1618)

[8] According to Pole, John Eveleigh acquired the manor of Holcombe having foreclosed on a loan by mortgage made by him to the previous owner, a member of the Moore family, which became forfeited to him.

Southcott was steward of Thomas Cromwell by which relationship he obtained several monastic holdings in Devonshire[12] on favourable terms.

Nicholas's eldest brother George Eveleigh of Holcombe was a Roman Catholic, as is witnessed by a warrant issued at the Quarter Sessions of Easter 1605, to search the houses of "George Eveleigh and Thomas Babington, of Ottery St. Mary, upon credible information of great resort made to them in the night season and other unlawful times of Recusants, Papists, and other persons ill-affected to his Majesty".

These persons "that repaired thither were suspected of being Semynaries, Jesuites, or massing Priests, and to bringe with them Popishe bookes, vestments, and other unlawful reliques".

[22] He was admitted to the Middle Temple on 11 November 1590,[23] of which Inn of Court was Edwin Sandys, Hooker's former pupil and junior colleague at Oxford.

Other theories have been suggested including earthquake and the curse of a dissatisfied defendant who "invoked the fates by asserting if his claims (which apparently were fantastical) weren't just that the court house might fall about his ears".

Effigy of Nicholas Eveleigh, Bovey Tracey Church. Above are the arms of Eveleigh and Eveleigh impaling Bray ( Argent, a chevron between three eagle's legs erased sable )
Detail of effusive strapwork decoration on monument to Nicholas Eveleigh, Bovey Tracey Church, with inexplicable inscription above "1620 ID"
Arms of Eveleigh: Per pale or and sable, two chevronels between three griffins passant counterchanged [ 1 ]
Arms of Bray: Argent, a chevron between three eagle's legs erased sable , as shown on monuments to Nicholas Eveleigh and Elize Hele in Bovey Tracey Church