The Manor of Clovelly is a historic manor in North Devon, England. Within the manor are situated the manor house known as Clovelly Court, the parish church of All Saints, and the famous picturesque fishing village of Clovelly. The parish church is unusually well-filled with well-preserved monuments to the lords of the manor, of the families of Cary, Hamlyn, Fane, Manners and Asquith. In 2015 the Rous family, direct descendants via several female lines of Zachary Hamlyn the only purchaser of Clovelly since the 14th century, still own the estate or former manor, amounting to about 2,000 acres,Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, pp. 131–6, Rous of Clovelly, p.136 including Clovelly Court and the advowson of the parish church, and the village of Clovelly, run as a major tourist attraction with annual paying visitor numbers of about 200,000.Lauder, p.135
History
Normans
The manor of CLOVELIE was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as held at some time in chief from William the Conqueror by the great Saxon nobleman Brictric, but later held by the king's wife Matilda of Flanders.Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, part 1, 1:59 (Bideford). In the Domesday Book a heading above the entry for Northlew, two entries above the entry for Clovelly, states: Infra scriptas terras tenuit Brictric post regina Mathildis ("Brictric held the undermentioned lands and later Queen Matilda") According to the account by the Continuator of Wace and others,Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, part 2 (notes), 24,21, quoting "Freeman, E.A., The History of the Norman Conquest of England, 6 vols., Oxford, 1867–1879, vol. 4, Appendix, note 0" in his youth Brictric declined the romantic advances of Matilda and his great fiefdom was thereupon seized by her. Whatever the truth of the matter, years later when she was acting as Regent in England for William the Conqueror, she used her authority to confiscate Brictric's lands and threw him into prison, where he died.Edward Augustus Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England, Vol. IV (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871), pp. 761–64 Most of Matilda's landholdings, including Clovelly, descended to the Honour of Gloucester.Thorn & Thorn, Part 2 (notes), chapter 25
Brictric's lands were granted after the death of Matilda in 1083 by her eldest son King William Rufus to Robert FitzHamon,Round, J. Horace, Family Origins and Other Studies, London, 1930, The Granvilles and the Monks, pp. 130–169, p.139 the conqueror of Glamorgan, whose daughter and sole heiress Maud (or Mabel) FitzHamon brought them to her husband Robert de Caen, 1st Earl of Gloucester. Thus Brictric's fiefdom became the feudal barony of Gloucester.Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086–1327, Oxford, 1960, p.6, Barony of Gloucester The Giffard family later held Clovelly as feudal tenant of the Honour of Gloucester, and the Book of Fees records Roger Giffard holding Clovelly "from the part of Earl Richard",Thorn & Thorn, Part 2 (notes), 1:59 that is Richard de Clare, 5th Earl of Hertford, 6th Earl of Gloucester, feudal baron of Gloucester. The feudal barony of Gloucester was soon absorbed into the Crown, when the Giffards became tenants in chief.
Roger Giffard in 1242Per Pole, regnal year 27 King Henry III held Clovelly as one knight's fee from Sir Walter Giffard of Weare Giffard. His son Matthew Giffard left two daughters and co-heiresses, one married to Stanton, the other to Mandevile. Matthew Giffard presumably died before 1314 as in that yearPer Pole, regnal year 8 King Edward II Clovelly was held jointly by John de Stanton and John Maundeville. In 1345Per Pole, regnal year 19 King Edward III Clovelly was held by Sir John de Stanton and Robert Mandevill. It appears that on an eventual split of the Giffard estates Mandeville inherited Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire whilst Stanton received Clovelly. John de Stanton left a daughter and sole heiress Matilde de Stanton, wife of John Crewkern of Childhey in Dorset. During the reign of King Richard II Clovelly was sold to Sir John Cary,Pole, p.371; Risdon, p.241 as is generally accepted, although the Devon historian Thomas Westcote in his View of Devonshire suggested that the latter inherited it from his mother Margaret Bozum, daughter of Richard BozumAs quoted in Prince, p.187; Vivian, p.150 apparently of the family seated at Bozum's Hele, in the parish if Dittisham, Devon.Risdon, pp. 167–8; Pole, p.291
Cary
In the 14th century, Clovely is found held by the Cary family.Vivian, 1895 Sir John Cary purchased the manor but probably never lived there and certainly died in exile in Ireland.Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.150, pedigree of Cary; See also biography of his son Sir Robert Cary in History of Parliament At some time after 1350Risdon, p.148, regnal year 24 king Edward III the Cary family acquired the manor of Cockington, in Devon, which they made their principal seat. Certainly according to Pole, Robert Cary held Cockington during the reign of King Henry IV.Pole, p.278 It then passed to Sir Philip Cary, of Cockington, eldest son and heir, by his father's first wife.Roskell History of Parliament; Vivian, apparently incorrectly, gives him as the son of his father's 2nd wife Jane Hankford
Sir William Cary was beheaded after the defeat of the Lancastrians at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471.Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.150, pedigree of Cary He is believed to be represented by a monumental brass of a knight, without surviving identifying inscription, set into a slate ledger stone on the floor of the chancel of All Saints Church, Clovelly, next to a smaller brass, in similar style, of his son and heir Robert Cary.Griggs, William, A Guide to All Saints Church, Clovelly, first published 1980, Revised Version, 2010, p.5 Robert's monumental brass, showing a bare-headed knight dressed in full armour and standing in prayer, survives with its inscription, set into a ledger stone on the floor of the chancel of All Saints Church at Clovelly. The inscription reads:
Praye for the soule of Master Robert Cary Esquier sonne & heyer of Sur Will'm Cary, Knyght, whiche Robert decessyd the XVth day of June i(n) the yere of o(u)r Lord God MVCXL o(n) whos sowle J(es)hu have m(er)cy
Robert Cary was given Clovelly by his father.Pole, p.371 He was the first Cary to be seated exclusively at Clovelly, the manors of Cary and Cockington having been inherited by his half-brothers. He served as Recorder of Barnstaple after 1560.Hawkyard, A.D.K., biography of Carey, Robert (c.1515–87), of Clovelly and Exeter, Devon, published in History of Parliament: House of Commons 1509–1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982 He was a magistrate and along with several other members of the Devonshire gentry then serving as magistrates he died of gaol fever at the Black Assize of Exeter 1586. His large monument, with strapwork decoration, survives against the south wall of the chancel of All Saints Church, Clovelly. Along the full length of the cornice is inscribed in gilt capitals: Robertus Carius, Armiger, obiit An(no) Do(mini) 1586Griggs, p.4 ("Robert Cary, Esquire, died in the year of Our Lord 1586"). On the base of the north side are shown two relief sculpted heraldic escutcheons, showing Cary impaling Chequy argent and sable, a fess vairy argent and gulesPole, p.483 Fulkeray (Fulkeram, for his father) and Cary impaling Sable, three swords pilewise points in base proper pomels and hilts or (Poulett, for his grandfather). On the base of the west side is a similar escutcheon showing his own arms of Cary (of four quarters, 1st: Cary; 2nd: Or, three piles in point azure (Bryan);Pole, p.473 3rd: Gules, a fess between three crescents argent (Holleway);Pole, p.488 4th: A chevron (unknown, possibly Hankford: Sable, a chevron barry nebuly argent and gulesPole, p.486; Griggs, p.4, states the chevron is for Fulford, yet his grandfather's 2nd wife Anna/Alice Fulford, daughter of Sir Baldwin Fulford, was not an heiress (she had a brother) and thus the Fulford arms would not be quartered by the Cary family, according to the laws of heraldry) impaling Gules, a chevron or between three millets hauriant argent (MillitonPole, p.493; A "millet" is a type of fish, possibly a mullet)
George Cary (1543–1601) constructed at Clovelly a harbour wall, surviving today, described by Risdon as "a pile to resist the inrushing of the sea's violent breach, that ships and boats may with the more safety harbour there".Risdon, p.241 Clovelly's main export product was herring fish, which formerly appeared at certain times of the year in huge shoals, close off-shore in the shallow waters of the Bristol Channel, and such a harbour wall was a great benefit to the village fishermen, tenants of the Cary lords of the manor. His monumental brass survives in Clovelly Church in the form of a ledger stone on the floor of the chancel, inset into which is an inscribed brass tablet and below which in the 1860sGriggs, 2010, p.5 was added into an empty matrix a reproduction large monumental brass in the form of a bishop's crozier. It is unclear what relevance such an object might have to him and when the original brass which once filled the matrix was removed or robbed.
William Cary (1576–1652) is sometimes said to be the model for Will Cary featured in Westward Ho!,Griggs, p.7 the 1855 novel by Charles Kingsley, who appears in the narrative concerning the Spanish Armada in 1588, although he would have been a boy aged just 12 at the time. However the "daring foreign exploits attributed to him are entirely fictional".History of Parliament biography of Cary, William (c. 1578 – 1652), of Clovelly Court and Exeter, Devon Kingsley spent much of his childhood at Clovelly as his father was Rev. Charles Kingsley, Curate of Clovelly 1826–1832 and Rector 1832–1836. Indeed, the author's small brass monumental tablet is affixed to the wall of the church under the mural monument of Sir Robert Cary, eldest son of William.Griggs, p.7 His mural monument survives on the south chancel wall of Clovelly Church, erected by his second son and eventual heir George (who erected a similar one also opposite on the north chancel wall to his elder brother Sir Robert),Prince, p.189 inscribed as follows: "In memory of William Cary Esqr who served his king and country in ye office of a Justice of Peace under three princes, Q. Elizabeth, King James and King Charles the I and having served his generation dyed in the 76 yeare of his age Ano Dom 1652: Omnis Caro Foenum".
Sir Robert Cary (1610–1675) died unmarried and without children. His mural monument survives in Clovelly Church, erected by his younger brother and heir George Cary (1611–1680) and inscribed as follows: "In memory of Sr Robert Cary Kt (sonne and heyre of William) Gentleman of the Privy Chamber unto King Charles the 2d who having served faithfully that glorious prince, Charles the Ist, in the long Civil Warr against his rebellious subjects, and both him and his sonne as a Justice of Peace, he dyed a batchelour in the 65 yeare of his age An. Dom. 1675. Peritura Perituris Reliqui".