Yeo Vale

[8] Both sources agree however that the heiress Jone or Emma married Geoffrey Giffard, who was living in 1439,[8] to the descendants of which marriage passed the estate of Yeo.

She bore severe sickness with the most unrepining resignation and on the 30th of Octr 1791 in the 56th year of her age she departed hence dying with well grounded hopes of exchanging a life of suffering for that happy state where pain and sorrow are no more.

In the same vault lies also the body of Charlotte Morrison her eldest daughter who in the bloom of life was torn from her disconsolate parents Sep. 18 1788 aged 18.

By his affectionate and beloved wife and daughter are placed the remains of the Revd Hooper Morrison A.M., rector of Alwington in this county and Vicar of Launcells, Cornwall.

Revered, respected and beloved by all for his unaffected piety, his zealous friendship and his warm benevolence, it pleased that Being in whose hands are the (is)sues of life and death to take him from his afflicted family and friends on the 7th November 1798 in the 61st year of his ageRev.

Thomas Hooper Morrison (1768–1824) (son), a Fellow of New College, Oxford (MA 1794), a JP for Devon, Rector of Alwington and in 1799 appointed Vicar of Launcells, Cornwall, by his uncle Paul Orchard.

It was published shortly afterwards at Exeter under the title The Duty of Arming for the Defence of Our Country in Time of Danger and copies were sold throughout Devon.

[44] He warned of the "Political system of this mad infatuated people who are alternately threatening mankind with the contagion of their principles or appalling them with the horror of their crimes" and preached: ... were but some few hundreds of the enemy now to land in any part of the Kingdom where there might be no regularly disciplined forces to guard it (and our own part, situated as we are on the very coast, is as much exposed to an invasion as any) how would it provoke a man of the least feeling and spirit to see ruin and devastation spread on every side by only a handful of them ... to behold, perhaps, the country all around you in flames, your fields laid waste, your houses destroyed, everything valuable plundered from you; to behold your wives and daughters exposed to the brutal lusts of your haughty and insolent conquerors; to see your aged decrepid parents and your innocent helpless children inhumanly treated - perhaps murdered - by a plundering enemy, or exposed to want, to indigence and famine; and to stand yourselves all the while helpless and inactive, tame spectators of the misery...

It is given to you now my brethren, to do what ye will then wish for in vain: arm then, arm ye brave; a noble cause, the cause of Heaven, the cause of religion, the cause of your country, the cause of everything that is dear and valuable to you as men, as Englishmen, as Christians, of everything that can contribute to your happiness here and hereafter now demands your zeal and assistance; for the attempts of our neighbours on the Continent are not only to loosen every tie of obedience and to involve us in the wildest anarchy and confusion, but to deny the existence of a God...He died in 1824 without male children.

Under the directions of the resident owner of the AbbeyIn 1836 his widow and three surviving sisters built Alwington Schoolhouse, next to the parish church, as is recorded on an inscribed date stone.

John Townsend Kirkwood (1814–1902), of Glencarha, County Mayo, Ireland, 34 Imperial Square, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,[47] and Boldrewood, Burghfield Common, Berkshire, later JP for Devon, who married the heiress of Yeo Vale and of Gore Court, Eleanora Elizabeth Morrison Hammett (1821–1861).

He owned the Customs House at Bideford (apparently inherited via the Orchards[38]) and land in the Devon parishes of Alwington, Littleham, Parkham, Beaford, Swimbridge, Hartland, Cheriton Fitzpaine and Cadeleigh.

[52] John Coffin was a descendant of the ancient Coffin family of Portledge, lords of the manor of Alwington[53] (in which parish was situated Yeo Vale), and married Ann Matthews (died 1839, buried at Bath,[54] daughter of William Matthews of St John's Island, South Carolina.

In about 1928, shortly after his father's death, he sold Yeo Vale to Stephen Berrold[63] and in 1937 lived at 7 Eaton Place, Belgravia, London.

[64] His only son Francis Lyle Kirkwood (1933–2008) died aged 75[65] on 20 August 2008 in Botswana, killed on safari in a mini-bus accident.

He had an argument (concerning the felling of trees) with John Westaway, the farmer who occupied the barton adjoining the mansion house, and in 1938 he moved to Stodden Park, near Petersfield in Hampshire, having deserted Yeo Vale never to return.

He packed all her clothes into her Buick car and ordered his chauffeur to drive it off a cliff at Stodden Park, which he refused to do, upon which Berrold buried it in a pit and set it alight.

It stood for many years deserted and empty, gazing forlornly out across the fields, like a dog patiently waiting for its master to return.

[71] The house soon became dilapidated, but nevertheless was given a grade II listing in 1955, and Mr Westcott obtained a licence from the local council to demolish it in 1973.

Yeo Vale House, south front, drawing from photograph of derelict house circa 1960. The rubble-stone built crenellated entrance tower is mediaeval, the stucco facade behind is Georgian (18th century)
Yeo Vale House, view from south-west
Approximate footprint (marked in red) of Yeo Vale House, demolished in 1973. [ a ]
Ruins of mediaeval chapel formerly attached to Yeo Vale House, licensed by the Bishop of Exeter in 1375 [ 2 ] and again in 1408, dismantled early 19th century and removed to present location [ 3 ] on a hill 1/4 mile south of house to create a folly . [ 4 ] Looking eastwards into chancel. On the right-hand pier is the tomb-stone dated 1400 to a member of the Giffard family referred to in the Survey of Devon by Risdon . [ 5 ]
Monumental brass of Wilmota Giffard (d.1581), heiress of Giffard of Yeo, first wife of Sir George Cary of Cockington. St Saviour's Church, Tor Mohun
Arms of Cary: Argent, on a bend sable three roses of the field
Arms of Morrison: Or, on a chief gules three chaplets of the first
Mural monument to Charlotte Orchard, wife of Rev. Hooper Morrison. Yeo Vale Chapel, Alwington Church
Escutcheon showing hatched arms of Morrison impaling Orchard. Detail from Charlotte Orchard's mural monument. [ b ]
Arms of Rev. Thomas Hooper Morrison, detail from 1861 Eleanora Hammett memorial window, Yeo Vale Chapel, Alwington Church. [ c ]
Mural monument to Rev. Thomas Hooper Morrison, in Yeo Vale Chapel of Alwington Church
Arms of Rev. Thomas Hooper Morrison (quartering Orchard) impaling arms of Wollocombe, his wife's family. Detail from his mural monument.
Benefactions board, St Nectan's Church, Hartland, recording the bequest of Rev. Thomas Hooper Morrison
Arms of Hammett: Or, a falcon sable belled gules between three roses gules leaved vert [ 46 ]
Arms of John Townsend Kirkwood (1814–1902) with inescutcheon of pretence of Hammett, for his wife Eleanora Elizabeth Morrison Hammett (1821–1861), heiress of Yeo Vale. Detail from 1861 Eleanora Hammett memorial window, Yeo Vale Chapel, Alwington Church. [ d ]