Category: English Villages And Towns - Meandering Through Time

Henry de Tracy and the Devon Manor of Lapford

9/2/2025

Nicholas Vincent, a Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia wrote in 2004 that the descent of the de Tracy’s is a ‘veritable mare’s nest, from which few genealogists have emerged unscathed’ and how right he was! If an expert can say that, what chance does an enthusiastic amateur like me have?

Arms of de Tracy: Or, a lion passant sable between two bends gemelles gules

Firstly, my interest in this family is regarding one Henry de Tracy who was the overlord of the manor of Lapford, a parcel of the barony of Torrington, held by my ancestor Richard Umfreville, and secondly the feudal baronies of Bradninch, Barnstaple and Torrington. A Henry de Tracy is known to have held these baronies, or parts of them during the reigns of King Stephen, Henry II and King John. There is a Henry de Tracy who died in 1165 and there is a Henry, his great-grandson, who died in 1274, however ‘my’ Henry appears not to be either of them. He had been quite elusive until I looked into the life of William de Tracy, one of the four murderers of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. I discovered, to my delight, that he had a son named Henry, this Henry is the one I have been looking for.

Miniature of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket c 1430 – 1440, Harley MS 2900, f. 56v

In 1180, some ten years after his father died in the Holy Land, Henry, later named Henry the Hunchback* appears holding the aforementioned Devon manor of Lapford where he is said to have ‘enlarged the Norman church.’ It would seem that the families of the four murderers inherited their guilt and made amends with charitable donations and repaired or enlarging churches in their manors as a form of penance. In Henry de Tracy’s case, the church of All Saints in Lapford received a brand-new tower, and later when the cult of Becket took off, it would be rededicated and its name changed to St Thomas of Canterbury.

St Thomas of Canterbury, Lapford, Devon. Photo Credit Philip Halling

Henry de Tracy held the manor of Lapford until it passed to the crown and in 1189 when it was returned to the aforementioned Richard Umfreville

* In 1236, an inquisition into the Devon manor of Morton (Morton Hampstead) we can find Henry referred to as a hunchback:

‘... the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury, for which deed he went into exile and the barony became the escheat of King Henry the king's ancestor. The same William had a son Henry de Tracy, le Bozu (a derogatory French term for a person with kyphosis or an abnormal convex curvature of the spine) was born in Normandy…’ - Inquisition Post Mortem, Saturday after St. Edmund the King, 4 Edw. I.

Charles Tennyson d'Eyncourt

9/2/2023

Charles Tennyson d’Eyncourt, and his older brother George Clayton Tennyson, had been brought up with the story of their connection to the ennobled family of d’Eyncourt. This tale greatly impressed Charles, who would spend the rest of his life trying to obtain the right to the d’Eyncourt name and the peerage that went with it.

By 1831 Charles was employed as Clerk of the Ordnance, an inferior position that he considered did not fit his social status. As part of a government reshuffle, he was persuaded to leave this post with an offer of a position as a member of the privy council, gleefully he wrote to his father.

‘... this rank is the nearest to a peerage, and given the title of Right Honourable is a distinction for life.’

With a change of his position in government and a step closer to his heart's desire Charles Tennyson pestered his father to change the family name to d’Eyncourt, but he would not. He did succeed however in getting his father to add a codicil to his will so that he could be called Charles Tennyson d’Eyncourt and on the death of his father, he added d’Eyncourt to his name. Four years later he petitioned government for permission to officially use the name, but he was refused. At the same time, he had begun work on a ‘grandiose building programme’ on his house in Tealby, turning it into an ‘extravagant Gothic castle.’

d'Eyncourt/Tennyson Coat of Arms

Charles’ delusions of grandeur I think are rooted in his childhood and his father’s dislike, and disinheritance of his brother George.

One reason for the name change could be that he saw himself superior in person, and in rank, to George who was living as a rector of the parish of Somersby, but pride they say comes before a fall, and Charles’ fall was the jealously he felt regarding the achievements of his nephew.

Alfred Tennyson’s success as a poet irritated him, but it was the rewards that came with it that angered him the most, especially when he was granted the prestigious post of Poet Laureate, but what really made him seethe was the offer of the one thing he desired above anything else - a peerage.

Charles Tennyson d’Eyncourt would never receive a peerage, his lowly brother’s son however would become Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

‘... this rank is the nearest to a peerage and given the title of Right Honourable is a distinction for life.’

Memorial to Charles Tennyson d’Eyncourt at All Saints Church Tealby in Lincolnshire.

Death of Eleanor of Castile

28/11/2022

On the 28th November in 1290 in the Nottinghamshire village of Harby, Eleanor of Castile, the beloved wife of Edward I died.

It is thought that Eleanor had not properly recovered from catching malaria a few years earlier, and it was on her journey to pray at the Shrine of St Hugh in Lincoln Cathedral that she became ill. On the 13th November, once parliament had concluded at King’s Clipstone, the royal party began their journey into Lincolnshire, but Eleanor's health deteriorated so they stopped at Harby, the home of Richard de Weston, in the hope that she regain her strength. According to Edward’s itinerary, they arrived at Harby on the 20th November, it was here eight days later that Eleanor died. The king was with her at her request, Oliver Sutton, the Bishop of Lincoln, and Harby’s parish priest, William de Kelm were also in attendance.

Eleanor’s body was conferred to St Catherine’s Priory in Lincoln where it was embalmed. The queen's viscera were buried in Lincoln Cathedral, where Edward would place a copy of her Westminster Abbey tomb.

King Edward’s grief at the loss of his wife is well known as is the fact that at each place his queen's body rested on her journey to London he erected crosses, all different and all beautifully ornate. The first one placed was at St Catherine’s, sadly nothing but a stump remains, and this can be found in the grounds of Lincoln Castle.

At Harby, a chantry chapel was established in 1294 where prayers were said for the queen's soul and this was done until the dissolution, however the building itself survived until 1877.

We were at Harby last year, it was a cold and wet day, much like the day in 1290. The manor house in which Queen Eleanor died is long gone, but you can walk to the site on which it stood, also to be seen are the remains of the moat that once surrounded it.

The aforementioned Chantry Chapel once stood behind the iron railings, on the spot where the above was taken.

Henry Handley

11/7/2022

Henry Handley, entrepreneur and member of Parliament was described by one James Grant as

"a tall, stout, good-looking man. He has a jolly, countrified countenance, with a complexion redolent of health. His face is full, and his features are regular and pleasing. His hair is of a light brown, and he sports a pair of whiskers of which any Spanish Don might be proud."

Handley inherited his estates in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire on the death of his father Benjamin Handley who had helped to establish the canalisation of the River Slea, known as the Sleaford Navigation, and who also founded the first bank in the town.

Following his move to Culverthorpe Hall, his new home just outside the town, Handley became interested in agricultural affairs and the plight of the land working people in regard to the Malt Tax stating

" it was impossible for the present system to continue long; the voice of the people must prevail...."

Proud of their son, the town erected a monument to commemorate the life of Henry Handley who had been born in the town in 1797.

Handley died in the June on 1846.

Siege of Berwick 1296

28/3/2021

Scotland, according to Edward I, was his domain. When Scotland refused to support England’s military campaign against France Scotland made an alliance with the French and attacked the English town of Carlisle. Edward retaliated and launched an attack on Berwick on Tweed. This was first altercation in the Scottish War of Independence, the second was the Battle of Dunbar in April. Edward I mustered his forces and arrived in Northumberland on the 28th March 1296, crossing the River Tweed at Coldstream, a small village south-west of the town, and set up camp at the priory there.

Berwick was Scotland's most important port and it was by sea that the English forces made their initial attempt to take the town, however this failed. On the 30th the town surrendered leaving between 4,000 to 17,000 people dead.

'When the town had been taken in this way and its citizens had submitted, Edward spared no one, whatever the age or sex, and for two days streams of blood flowed from the bodies of the slain, for in his tyrannous rage he ordered 7,500 souls of both sexes to be massacred. So that mills could be turned by the flow of their blood.'

Account of the Massacre of Berwick, from Bower’s Scotichronicon

Image: Medieval Britain https://medievalbritain.com/

After the town was taken the king issued orders for new fortification to be built. According to the chronicle of Walter of Guisborough, the finished ditch was 40 feet deep and 80 feet wide, which was topped by a timber palisade. The control of this Northumbrian town ping-ponged between the English and the Scots for years, however, the Scottish army would retake the town following the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, but it would be back in English hands by 1298.

Stepping into the 17th Century

20/5/2020

The parish church of St Columba sits at the heart of the ancient town of St Columb Major in Cornwall. In this churchyard lie many of my ancestors who lived in and around the town from the early 15th century and where my family still live today.

In the image above you can see a passageway under the churches clock tower. This path was a right of way to a college founded by my ancestor Sir John Arundell in 1427. The Arundell's, for many years, were influential within the town, a number of them prayed in their private chapel and are buried inside the church, you can see one of them in the image below, their ancestral home was in a neighbouring village.

However, it is another St Columb Major family I am researching at present, that is the family of Scoboryo, a family whose ancient origins lie further south and most of whose mortal remains lie peacefully in the churchyard.

The Scoboryo family story, in regard to the survival of a family and in particular it's surname, is a sad one - the fine detail I have yet to discover. It begins however with a marriage in 1641.

You can imagine a small wedding party walking to St Columba's church on a cold morning in February. The wedding and the feast that followed would likely have been a grander affair than what other members of the town could expect, the Scoboryo's being either gentry or yeoman farmer's. Three years later two children were born and baptised, only the son Thomas making it into adulthood. Eventually, Thomas would be the father of fifteen children, a good basis, you would think, to start a small but successful Cornish dynasty. However, this was not to be, Thomas's children were born in the years between 1669 and 1694, but by 1695 only three, two daughters and a son had survived - the other twelve had joined their grandparents in the parish churchyard.

If all of these children had survived then eight of them, being boys, would have seen to it that this unusual surname would have been around for a few more generations, but sadly this did not happen, for it was left to my ancestor, the one surviving son, to carry the name of Scoboryo into the future - and this he did successfully, but two generation later, the surname, in St Columb Major at least, was extinct.

My research continues.

Simeon and the Cradle Rocking Ceremony

3/2/2019

On the nearest Sunday to Candlemas (2nd February) there is held in the Nottinghamshire village of Blidworth a Cradle Rocking Ceremony. This tradition has taken place in Blidworth since the 13th century and continues to this day - however it was banned during the Reformation but revived in 1923.

Before the ceremony begins an old wooden cradle, that has been decorated with ribbons and flowers is placed in front of the altar awaiting the arrival of the parishes most recently baptised baby boy.

The baby is placed within the cradle and all through the service, he is rocked gently by the vicar. At the end ceremony the baby is returned to its parents and the congregation sing 'Nunc Dimittis'

The story of this tradition has its roots in the Gospel of Luke - an event in the life of Simeon. Nunc Dimittis is a hymn that is also known as The Song of Simeon.

Simeon is said to have been a devout man unto who an angel appeared promising him that he would not die until he had seen the new Messiah. Sometime later, Mary and Joseph arrived at the Temple in Jerusalem bringing with them their baby for the ceremony of consecration of the firstborn son, which you will know is Candlemas. It was into Simeons arms the baby Jesus was placed.

The time frame in which these events occurred is not specified and therefore I don't know how old Simeon was when the Holy Spirit arrived, or how long after holding the baby Jesus Simeon died.

However, as previously stated this story appears in the Gospel according to Luke, and Simeon is stated to be one of the translators of the of the Greek Old Testament (c 2nd/3rd century BC) if this is the case it would mean that Simeon would have been over two hundred years old at the time of the meeting the Messiah.

Punkie Night

31/10/2018

The Halloween tradition of placing a candle into a hollowed-out pumpkin and using them as lanterns seems to be a relatively modern tradition in England that I associate with the United States, yet it seems that here in England we do have a similar tradition.

On the last Thursday in October in the Somerset village of Hinton St George, the local children carry lanterns that they call Punkies, these lanterns are carved from mangel-wurzles. These root vegetables are decorated by cutting the skin to make patterns for the light to shine through, it seems that a crucial part of this task is that the cutting does not make an actual hole.

As with most traditions, Punkie Night in Somerset can be traced back a few hundred years when lanterns were made by the women of the village who were left at home whilst their husbands spent the whole day drinking at the annual fair in the neighbouring village of Chiselborough. As dusk arrived, the women with the candlelit mangle-wuzles, made their way to the fair. Seeing the pale faced ghostly spectres hovering in the air so frightened the menfolk they couldn't wait to get home.

Surely, that would only work once, wouldn't it?

Battle of Maserfield and the Death of Oswald of Northumbria

5/8/2018

A number of years ago I finished researching a maternal family line that came to an end in Cornwall in the last years of the 13th century. Despite being Cornish I was surprised to find that this families bloodline can be traced all the way up country to Oswestry in Shropshire. Whilst adding a few updates to this family's story, I found out this amazing fact - the town of Oswestry was founded, so legend tells us, as the result of the death on this day in 641/2 of King Oswald of Northumbria.

Oswald was a 7th-century king, the son of Aethelfrith King of Bernicia - a territory that made up half of what is now Northumbria. Oswald was killed at the aforementioned Battle of Maserfield following a power struggle with the Mercians under the leadership of Penda, the King of Mercia. This battle was thought to have taken place at Maes-y-llan which is just to the north of Oswestry.

Following the battle Oswald's body was dismembered, his head and limbs were placed on stakes. However, one of his arms, so the legends has it, was taken by his pet raven but eventually dropped. The arm landed in a tree, or a tree grew where it landed and in time this site would become known as Oswald's Tree or Oswestry. Oswald's remains would continue to be moved from one place to another, the last time being some two hundred and fifty years later. Oswald would later become St Oswald.

The story of Oswald's relics began the year after his death when Oswiu, Oswald's brother, who had returned to Northumbria from Scotland in 633, retrieved his body parts and placed them at three different locations namely Bamburgh, who received an arm, Lindisfarne who received his head and at Bardney in Lincolnshire who received his torso. However, another account has it that it was Osthryth, Oswald's niece, who moved Oswald's bones (that of his torso) to Bardney Abbey sometime before 697 where they would rest until 909 when they made their final journey to St Peter's Abbey, later St Oswald's Priory in Gloucester.

Oswald's head was eventually interred in Durham Cathedral - his other three heads made their way to different places in Europe! Poor Oswald's other arm is said to have eventually made its way to Peterborough Cathedral.

So the cult of St Oswald was established.

Bardney Abbey was one of the first abbeys built along the River Witham on land granted by Oswald, it was endowed by Osthryth and her husband Aethelred. After her murder, Osthryth would later be buried there herself.

This tall tale reminds me of the scene in The Wizard of Oz when the witches flying monkeys pull the Scarecrow apart to which the Tinman says "Well, that's him all over!"

Maud of Lancaster

4/4/2018

Maud of Lancaster was one of two sisters who were co-heiress of Henry of Grosmont the Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Leicester. Maud was born on the 4th April in 1339, to Grosmont's wife Isabel de Beaumont at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire.

Bolingbroke Castle is now in ruins, but it was once a fine castle situated in what is known as the Lincolnshire Wolds. It was built by Ranulf Blondeville, Earl of Chester in 1220 however by the sixteenth century it had fallen into disrepair. On Blondeville's death the castle passed to his sister Hawise, eventually, via the de Lacy family it ended up as part of the estate of Thomas of Lancaster. Lancaster was executed for treason in 1322 and his estate for forfeited. A year later, Henry of Grosmont successfully petitioned to take possession of his brother's estates which included Bolingbroke.

Maud's sister Blanche was also born at Bolingbroke.

Maud was Grosmont's eldest daughter, her paternal grandparents were Henry of Lancaster and Maud de Charworth and her maternal grandparents were Henry Beaumont and Alice de Comyn. Both sets of grandparent held land in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. Her Beaumont grandparent's Lincolnshire estates were granted as a result of their association with the royal family. Edward II granted them a number of manor including Folkingham, Goady and Barton upon Humber.

On Grosmont's death in 1361, Maud and Blanche became wealthy heiresses, however the Earldom of Leicester passed to Maud's first husband and then on his death in 1389 to her sister Blanche's husband John of Gaunt, who was granted the Dukedom of Lancaster as a second creation.

On Maud's death on the 10th April 1362 Gaunt received her money and her lands to add to that of his wife share of the family estate. The Grosmont inheritance formed the foundations on which the Lancastrian's built their dynasty.

There is no image of Maud, however she may have resembled her sister. You can see an illustration of Blanche - pictured here with John of Gaunt.