Monday, September 11, 2017

Dunheved family in thirteenth century Devonshire

Dunheved family in thirteenth century Devonshire

Niall C.E.J. O’Brien

   
During the thirteen century a family by the name of Dunheved lived in Devonshire. Their relationship with other people called Dunheved is as yet unknown. These other families include the Dunheved family of Dunheved near Mells in Somerset and that of John de Dunheved in Warwickshire and a barber in the Diocese of Winchester.[1] This article will attempt to add something to the story of a family that was of the landed class but below the tenants in chief of the king class and thus one or two steps away from the bulk of surviving medieval documents.

Geoffrey de Dunheved

The first of these Devon people was Geoffrey de Dunheved. In the 19th year of Henry III (1234-1235) Geoffrey de Dunheved and his wife Margery gave the king five marks for having a writ to have an action heard in the Somerset assizes before the itinerant justices. The action was against Henry Beaumont, Tollanus of Coryton and certain others concerning a tenement in Ashwater.[2] Ashwater is a village and civil parish situated in eastern Devonshire about ten miles from the Cornish border.
   
But the writ that he got was written incorrectly and he had to get it replace. Yet beauracy was slow and Geoffrey missed the assizes in Somerset and so got the action changed to the Devon assizes.[3] The result of the action is unknown but Geoffrey’s day in court didn’t put him off the judicial system.
   
In 1238 he was back in court – well – he was supposed to be back in court. It was the first day of the crown pleas of the Devon eyre which was held at Black Torrington in 1238. Geoffrey de Dunheved was due to appear in a case but didn’t turn up. For this offence he was declared at mercy of fine or prosecution for not attending. At the next sitting his legal team informed the court that Geoffrey’s absence was due to his having gone on pilgrimage to Santiago di Compostella.[4]
   
By July 1239 Geoffrey had returned from his pilgrimage and was back in court. This time he paid five marks for a writ so that twelve jurors could hear an action concerning a tenement in Vaglefield (in Cookbury, Devon).[5] After all these courts cases the whole judicial system went to Geoffrey’s head such that in the 24th year of Henry III (1239-1240) Geoffrey was charged 40s for bringing a false claim.[6]

With all these court cases it would be nice to find some members of the Dunheved family in the medieval documents known as Feet of Fines, which usually record land transactions but no members can be found and the only Dunheved is the place of that name near Launceston.[7]

A few years later, in 1242, we learn that Geoffrey de Dunheved, with William Avenell, held two fees in Ashwater of the honour of Barnstaple.[8] In the Domesday Book Ashwater was held by Alwin in 1066 and by the Bishop of Coutances 1086 where there was land for 20 ploughs and it paid tax for one hide. In 1066 and 1086 the manor was worth £7 10s.[9] The Tracy family later acquired the manor and held it in the thirteenth century from whom it was rented by Geoffrey de Dunheved. William Avenell held a half knight’s fee at Suideleg of Henry de Tracy at the time of William’s death in 37 Henry III (1252-3) and was succeeded by his heir, Matthew de Forneaus.[10]

Ashwater church by Colin Madge

Walter de Dunheved

After 1242 the records stay silent about Geoffrey. It would appear that Geoffrey left family by his wife Margery as many decades later Sir Walter de Dunheved held an interest in the same Ashwater.
   
Sir Walter de Dunheved was patron of the parish of Ashwater in the diocese of Exeter. In 1270/1 and in 1280 Sir Walter de Dunheved presented rectors to the parish, William de Esse and Nicholas de Gatecumbe, respectively.[11] The church of St. Peter at Ashwater is of thirteenth century date but has within a Norman font of Cornish design.

It is said that it was Walter de Dunheved who began the change of name of Ashwater from the old name of Esse which was a common name elsewhere to Essewater from which it evolved over the centuries to become by 1758 the name of Ashwater.[12]

The final years

It appears that sometime after 1280 and before 1303 the Dunheved family died out. In 1303 Reginald de Bevill and Peter de Donysland held Ashwater according to the tax poll of that year.[13] In 1326 Eleanor, wife of Philip de Columbraiis, was given one fee in Ashwater, held by Robert de Carindon (worth £10) as the sister and co-heir of William, son of William Martin.[14] In 1345 Roger Carminow held Ashwater manor and his descendants held the manor until 1443 when Thomas Carninow left it to his daughter and her husband, Sir Thomas Carew.[15]

The Devonshire lay subsidy of 1332 makes no mention of anybody in Devon by the name of Dunheved by that time.[16] As the Dunheved family didn’t hold their estates directly from the king the avoided mention in the various volumes of the Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem which possibly was of no big deal to the Dunheved family but which means that modern historians can’t trace their birth, deaths and estates like what can be done for other medieval families. Thus a family that was important enough in the thirteenth century to hold a manor and the advowson of a parish church faded into the dark side of history and the sometimes described ‘static’ medieval period changed form and shape.

Bibliography

Bennett, J.A. (ed.), Report on the Manuscripts of Wells Cathedral (London, 1885)
Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward 1, 1281-1292
Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward II, 1317-1321
Calendar of Close Rolls, Edward II, 1323-1327
Dryburgh, P. & Hartland, B. (eds.), Calendar of the fine rolls of the reign of Henry III (National Archives & Boydell Press, London, 2009)
Hingeston-Randolph, Rev. F.C. (ed.), The Registers of Walter Bronescombe and Peter Quivil, bishops of Exeter (London, George Bell & Sons, 1889)
Reichel, Rev. O.J. (ed.), Devon Feet of Fines, Volume 1, Richard 1-Henry III, 1196-1272 (Devon & Cornwall Record Society, 1912)
Reichel, Rev. O.J., Prideaux, F.B. & Tapley-Soper, H. (eds.), Devon Feet of Fines, Volume II, 1 Edward 1-43 Edward III, 1272-1369 (Devon & Cornwall Record Society, 1939)
Sharp, J.E.E.S. (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. 1, Henry III (Liechtenstein, 1973)
Sharp, J.E.E.S. (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. II, Edward 1 (Liechtenstein, 1973)
Summerson, H. (ed.), Crown Pleas of the Devon Eyre of 1238 (Devon & Cornwall Record Society, New Series, Vol. 28, 1985)
Thorn, C. & F. (eds.), Domesday Book, 9, Devon, part one (Chichester, 1985)

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[1] Bennett, J.A. (ed.), Report on the Manuscripts of Wells Cathedral (London, 1885), pp. 207, 293, 294, 295; Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward 1, 1281-1292, p. 104; Calendar of Patent Rolls, Edward II, 1317-1321, p. 74; Sharp, J.E.E.S. (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. II, Edward 1 (Liechtenstein, 1973), nos. 306 (p. 177), 593 (p. 352), 640 (p. 395)
[2] Dryburgh, P. & Hartland, B. (eds.), Calendar of the fine rolls of the reign of Henry III (National Archives & Boydell Press, London, 2009), no. 19/404
[3] Dryburgh & Hartland (eds.), Calendar of the fine rolls of the reign of Henry III, no. 19/484
[4] Summerson, H. (ed.), Crown Pleas of the Devon Eyre of 1238 (Devon & Cornwall Record Society, New Series, Vol. 28, 1985), no. 269, seen on 24th May 2013
[5] Dryburgh & Hartland (eds.), Calendar of the fine rolls of the reign of Henry III, no. 23/285
[6] Dryburgh & Hartland (eds.), Calendar of the fine rolls of the reign of Henry III, no. 24/67
[7] Reichel, Rev. O.J. (ed.), Devon Feet of Fines, Volume 1, Richard 1-Henry III, 1196-1272 (Devon & Cornwall Record Society, 1912); Reichel, Rev. O.J., Prideaux, F.B. & Tapley-Soper, H. (eds.), Devon Feet of Fines, Volume II, 1 Edward 1-43 Edward III, 1272-1369 (Devon & Cornwall Record Society, 1939)
[8] Summerson (ed.), Crown pleas of the Devonshire Eyre of 1238, no. 269 from the Testa de Nevil Tax Roll
[9] Thorn, C. & F. (eds.), Domesday Book, 9, Devon, part one (Chichester, 1985), no. 3.4
[10] Sharp, J.E.E.S. (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. 1, Henry III (Liechtenstein, 1973), no. 278
[11] Hingeston-Randolph, Rev. F.C. (ed.), The Registers of Walter Bronescombe and Peter Quivil, bishops of Exeter (London, George Bell & Sons, 1889), pp. 71, 109 and fols. 47, 97
[14] Calendar of Close Rolls, Edward II, 1323-1327, p. 597
[16] Erskine, A. (ed.), The Devonshire Lay Subsidy of 1332 (Devon & Cornwall Record Society, New Series, Vol. 14, 1969)

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