Ambrose Bellot

Biography

• Firstly in 1596, as her 4th husband, to Eleanor Smith, daughter and sole heiress of the wealthy Bernard Smith of Totnes in Devon, Member of Parliament for Totnes in 1558, mayor of Totnes in 1549–50 and c. 1565–6, and escheator of Devon and Cornwall in 1567–8. Eleanor had married three times previously as follows:
• *Firstly to John Charles of Tavistock, whose great-great-grandfather John Charles of Morton Hampstead in Devon had married Margery Foorde, daughter and heiress of Richard Foorde long seated at the estate of Foorde in the parish of Moretonhampstead, which estate had been given to his ancestor Ely Foorde by William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex. Without issue.
• *Secondly on 30 January 1569/70 at Totnes Eleanor married, as his 2nd wife, Sir John Fulford of Great Fulford, Dunsford, Devon, Sheriff of Devon in 1557 and 1576. Without issue.
• *Thirdly Eleanor married John Wrey of North Russell in Devon and Trebeigh, St Ive, in Cornwall, eldest son of John Wrey, Sheriff of Cornwall in 1587, and brother of Sir William Wrey, 1st Baronet. The large chest tomb monument to John Wrey showing kneeling effigies of him and his wife Blanche Killigrew, heiress of Trebeigh, survives in the north transept of St Peter's Church in Tawstock, Devon, a later seat of the Wrey family, having been removed in 1924 from St Ive Church in Cornwall. The arms of Smith of Totnes Barry undé of sixteen argent and azure, on a chief gules three barnacles or are shown on the front of the chest tomb impaled by Wrey. Without issue.
• Secondly he married Lucy Stockett, widow of a certain Wood of Modbury, by whom he had one daughter and sole heiress:
• *Elizabeth Bellot, still a minor on her father's death.