General history: Division of property in Domesday survey

Division of Property at the Time of the Domesday Survey.

The following is a table of the general division of property, at the time of the Domesday survey:

The following table shows more particularly who were the lords paramount, and the immediate holders of the several manors in the reign of Edward the Confessor; and at the time of the survey. The modern names of the several manors are annexed, as far as they could be ascertained:—

[Editorial note: in those cases where the fourth column is blank, the possessor was that given in the third.]

The manors in the following table are recorded in the Exchequer Domesday, but are not to be found in the Exeter copy.

There does not, I believe, exist any document to prove, that there is a single estate in the county remaining in the possession of a descendant of any person who held it at the time of the Domesday survey; although it is not improbable that some of the ancient families, who, according to the custom of that period, took their names from the places of their residence (fn. n80), in the reign of King John, or that of Henry III., may have inherited their estates, in direct descent from the Ralphs, Rogers, Walters, and Williams, who were sub-tenants in the reign of William the Conqueror, under Baldwin the Sheriff, and other great Lords paramount.

The chief landed property of the county, was divided soon after the conquest into several great baronies, as Oakhampton, Plympton, Totnes, Barnstaple, Dartington, Braneys, or Bradninch, Bampton, Harberton, Berry, the Bishop of Exeter's, and the Abbot of Tavistock's barony.

The barony of Oakhampton belonged to Baldwin de Brioniis; Plympton, to Redvers, or Rivers, Earl of Devon; both centered in the Courtenays, and the lands were dispersed among the co-heirs of the last Earl of Devon. That of Totnes was dispersed after the forfeiture of Lord Zouch; but most of the estates passed by grant from Henry VII. to the Edgecumbes. Dartington, which had been originally in the Martins, and Barnstaple, which came to them by inheritance, passed to Lord Audley; and having been entailed on the crown, were dispersed under various grants; as were most of the lands of the bishopric, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Berry and Harberton, which belonged to the Pomeroys, were alienated about the time of Sir Thomas Pomeroy's attainder; a great part was purchased by the Seymour family. Torrington was dispersed among the co-heirs of Torrington at an early period. Bradninch was settled on the dukedom of Cornwall. Bampton descended to the Earls of Bath, but is not now in the possession of their representatives. The whole of the great barony of the Abbot of Tavistock, was granted to the ancestor of the Duke of Bedford, and by far the greater part is now his property, together with the lands belonging formerly to Dunkeswell Abbey, with others granted also to his ancestor. His Grace is one of the principal landholders in the county. Lord Rolle has the most extensive landed property, his estates consisting of the accumulation of various purchases made in, and since, the reign of Henry VIII., besides what has accrued by the marriage of heiresses. Sir John Rolle died seised of above forty manors in Devon, in 1706. The other great landholders, are Earl Fortescue, the Earl of Morley, Lord Clinton, whose estates, formerly belonging to another branch of the Rolles, and inherited with the barony of Clinton, have lately been confirmed to him by a decision of the House of Lords; the Honourable Newton Fellowes, Sir T. D. Acland, Bart., Sir Charles Bampfylde, Bart., Sir Henry Carew, Bart., and Sir M. M. Lopes, Bart. The estates of the latter have been acquired by recent purchases.