Thorne in the parish of Ottery St Mary in Devon is an historic estate situated on the west side of the River Otter opposite the town of Ottery St Mary. The site is today occupied by Thorne Farm situated to the immediate north of the town's school and hospital and to the immediate south of the surviving early 17th century grand mansion house ofCadhay. The area of Thorne Farm is low lying and suffered serious flooding in 2008 which caused the Environment Agency to propose improvements including diverting the Thorne Farm Stream via a channel to the River Otter flood plain.
Descent
at-Thorne
Thorne was the seat of the "at-Thorne" family, which as was usual had taken their surname from their seat. Some confusion exists concerning two Devonshire families, one named by Pole and Risdon as "at-Thorne" seated at "Thorne" in the parish of Ottery St Mary, and another named by both as "de Thorn / Thorn" of "Thorn", in the parish of Holsworthy, both of which families apparently bore the same arms and both of whose names are also sometimes referred to as "Thorne". The last in the male line was Roger at-Thorne, whose heiress was his sister Jone at-Thorne, the wife of Henry Cooke, to whose posterity descended the estate of Thorne.
Cooke
Henry Cooke married Jone Thorne, heiress of Thorne, and his descendants remained seated at Thorne until the time of Pole. The arms of Thorne appear as the second of the nine quarters on an escutcheonon top of the mural monument to John Cooke of Thorne in St Mary's Church, Ottery St Mary. The Cooke family subsequently married various further heiresses, one of whom was Mary Keloway, one of the daughters and co-heiresses of John Keloway of Cullompton, Devon, a widespread and prominent Devonshire family the senior line of which was seated at Stafford, Dolton. The arms of Kelloway appear as the fourth of nine the quarters on an escutcheon on the mural monument to John Cooke of Thorne in St Mary's Church, Ottery St Mary. Mary Kelloway's mother was Jane Tregarthyn, a daughter and heiress of Tredruffe Tregarthyn of Bremwell in Cornwall. The arms of Mary Kelloway's parents appear on the monument in Branscombe Church, Devon, to Joan Tregarthin widow successively of John Kelloway of Cullompton, and of John Wadham of Merifield, Ilton, Somerset and of Edge, Branscombe. The great-grandson of William Cooke and Mary Kelloway was John Cooke of Thorne, whose mural monument with effigy survives in St Mary's Church, Ottery St Mary. He married Margaret Sherman, a daughter of Richard Sherman of Ottery St Mary, whose arms appear on the monument. He is said by Stabb to have been murdered by a younger brother, and "the story goes that at midnight the statue steps down from its niche and walks about the church". The monument was restored by his grandson in 1726. The second son and eventual heir of John Cooke was William Cooke, who in October 1639 brought a lawsuit before the judge Henry Howard, Lord Maltravers, against John Bagg of Ottery St Mary, a miller, for having insulted him in a manner likely to provoke a duel. The case is recorded as follows: Cooke stated that he was a captain of a trained band and that his family had been gentry for 300 years, whereas Bagg was merely a yeoman. No further proceedings survive.
