Yeo Vale
Yeo Vale is an historic estate in the parish of Alwington in North Devon, England. The grade II listed mansion house known as Yeo Vale House, situated 1 mile east of Alwington Church and 3 miles south-west of Bideford, incorporating a 15th-century gatehouse, was demolished in 1973, having been abandoned as a residence in 1938 and having fallen into a dilapidated state. it was situated in the valley of the River Yeo, a small river flowing into the River Torridge immediately above Bideford. The barton or farmhouse survives, to which was attached the mansion house, together with various out-buildings and stone walls. A private mediaeval chapel was formerly attached to the mansion house and in the early 18th century was demolished and rebuilt as a folly on a hill about 1/4 mile south of the mansion house. It survives today as a ruin overgrown with trees and ivy.
Descent
The estate is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.at Yeo
The earliest known holder was the at Yeo family, which took their surname from the estate. The last male member of the family was Thomas at Yeo, who left a daughter and sole heiress Jone at Yeo or Sir Walter at Yeo, who left a daughter and sole heiress Emma at Yeo. Both sources agree however that the heiress Jone or Emma married Geoffrey Giffard, who was living in 1439, to the descendants of which marriage passed the estate of Yeo. Robert atte Yo is recorded in the Devon Lay Subsidy of 1332. It is not known if the at Yeo family was related to the prominent Yeo family, who bore arms Argent, a chevron between three mallards azure, which prospered in North Devon in various branches, most notably at Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe until the 16th century, at nearby Huish until the late 18th century and at Fremington House until 1880.Giffard
The Giffard family of Yeo was a parallel branch of the more prominent and longer-lived Giffard family of Halsbury in the parish of Parkham, North Devon, about 1 mile south-west of Yeo. The Giffard family of North Devon was descended from the Anglo-Norman magnate Walter Giffard, 1st Earl of Buckingham, Lord of Longueville in Normandy. His descendants, via a female branch which adopted the surname Giffard, in the 13th century held lands in Devon including the manors of Whitchurch, Wear Giffard, Clovelly Lamerton and Awlescombe. Branches of the family later were seated at Halsbury, Yeo, Brightley in the parish of Chittlehampton, at Tapeley and at Milton Damerell.- Geoffrey Giffard, who married Emma or Jone at Yeo, the heiress of Yeo. He was the son of Simon Giffard, by his first wife Emma de Bowey, a daughter and co-heiress of John de Bowey, and was 5th in descent from Walter Giffard of Clifford, whose nephew was Bartholomew Giffard of Halsbury, the first of the family seated at Halsbury, which estate he obtained by marriage to the heiress of Peter de Halsbury.
- John Giffard, who married a certain Isabella.
- Robert Giffard, who married Radigand Dennis, daughter and sole heiress of Gilbert Dennis of Gidicott in the parish of Bradford, Devon, and lord of the manor of Bradford. Gilbert Dennis was the eldest son of Thomas Dennis of Holcombe Burnell in South Devon, himself the son of Walter Dennis of Gidicott. The Dennis family is first recorded in Devon in the 12th century, one branch at Orleigh, about 1 mile south of Yeo, and the other at Gidicott. Both branches had armorials containing three Danish battle-axes, supposedly referring to their Danish origins. The arms of Dennis of Orleigh Azure, three Danish battle-axes or survive in a fragment of ancient stained glass in the Yeo Vale Chapel forming the north transept of Alwington Church. The arms of the Dennis family of Gidicott and later of Holcombe Burnell were: Ermine, three Danish battle axes gules.
- John Giffard , who married Joan Cooke, daughter of Christopher Cooke of Thorne and died without children.
- Leonard Giffard , who married Lucy Tremayle, daughter of Thomas Tremayle, Justice of the Common Pleas.
- Thomas Gifford , who married twice, firstly to Katherine Chudleigh, daughter of James Chudleigh and secondly to Elizabeth Dennis, a daughter of William Dennis of Orleigh, Sheriff of Devon in 1466. In 1528 his younger brother William Giffard was appointed Rector of Bradford, which manor and advowson the family had earlier inherited from the Dennis family of Gidicott.
- John Giffard , who married Margaret Milliton, daughter of John Milliton of Meavy. She survived her husband and remarried to Robert Cary, lord of the manor of Clovelly, 7 miles west of Yeo, a magistrate who died of gaol fever at the Black Assize of Exeter 1586 and whose monument survives in Clovelly Church. He left an infant daughter as his sole heiress, Wilmot Giffard, successively the wife of John Bury lord of the manor of Colleton, Chulmleigh and of Sir George Cary of Cockington. John Bury was aged 3 at the death of his father and became a ward to a person unknown. He was said by Pole to have been "simple". He married twice, firstly when both parties were aged only 13, contrary to ecclesiastical law, to Wilmot Giffard, without children. He was divorced from her by Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker in 1560 and she remarried to Sir George Cary of Cockington, South Devon, Lord Deputy of Ireland, and half-nephew of her step-father Robert Cary of Clovelly.
Cary
- Sir George Cary of Cockington, who married as his first wife Wilmot Giffard, heiress of Yeo, by whom he had children two daughters, who died without issue, and two sons who also died without issue, namely Thomas Cary and Sir George Cary, who was killed in the Irish Wars and predeceased his father. he married secondly to Lettice Rich, daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick, without issue. His heir to his seat of Cockington was his nephew George Cary, 5th son of his younger brother John Cary of Dudley, Staffordshire, and husband of Elizabeth Seymour, a daughter of Sir Edward Seymour, 1st Baronet, grandson of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector. His heir to Yeo Vale, however, was Sir Edward Cary of Dungarvon, Ireland, the second son of his younger brother John Cary of Dudley
- Sir Edward Cary of Dungarvon, Ireland, and of Bradford, Devon. He was knighted in Ireland in 1625 by his cousin Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland. He died in 1654 and was buried in Marldon Church, South Devon. "In the east window of the south aisle are some remains of old glass, bearing the arms of the Cary family. In the chancel are several old tombstones, one, with an inscription in memory of Edward Cary, bears the date 1654". He married Margaret Blackhurst of Lancashire, whose monument survives in Marldon Church.
- Sir George Cary, of Torr Abbey, South Devon, which he purchased in 1662.
Bruton
Morrison
The Morrison family of Yeo Vale bore the same armorials as Sir Charles Morrison, 1st Baronet of Cashiobury House in Watford, Hertfordshire.Rev. Hooper Morrison (1737–1798)
Rev. Hooper Morrison, purchased Yeo Vale from William Bruton. He was the only son of Rev. Thomas Morrison by his wife Elizabeth Hooper, daughter of Sir Nicholas Hooper of Fullabrook, Braunton and Raleigh, Pilton in Devon, Tory Member of Parliament for Barnstaple 1695-1715. In 1795 he acquired from Richard Bennett-Coffin, lord of the manor of Alwington, a lease for one life of Ley Mills and of the waste ground near Alwington Church for the erection of a stable. Long after his death, his daughters in 1836 erected on this land Alwington Schoolhouse, which survives today. The stables are today a house. He married Charlotte Orchard, daughter of Paul Orchard of Kilkhampton, Cornwall and Hartland Abbey, Devon. Her mural monument survives in the Yeo Vale Chapel in Alwington Church. She was the sister of Paul Orchard of Hartland Abbey, who bequeathed the Abbey to her son and his nephew Rev. Thomas Hooper Morrison.Monument to wife
A mural monument to Charlotte Orchard survives in the Yeo Vale Chapel of Alwington Church, in the shape of an obelisk, inscribed as follows:Underneath is deposited the body of Charlotte Morrison daughter of Paul Orchard Esq. of Hertland Abbey and wife of the Rev. Hooper Morrison of Yeo Vale in this parish for many years. She bore severe sickness with the most unrepining resignation and on the 30th of Octr 1791 in the 56th year of her age she departed hence dying with well grounded hopes of exchanging a life of suffering for that happy state where pain and sorrow are no more.
In the same vault lies also the body of Charlotte Morrison her eldest daughter who in the bloom of life was torn from her disconsolate parents Sep. 18 1788 aged 18.
By his affectionate and beloved wife and daughter are placed the remains of the Revd Hooper Morrison A.M., rector of Alwington in this county and Vicar of Launcells, Cornwall. He was the only son of the Revd Thomas Morrison A.M., by Elizabeth daughter of Sr Nicholas Hooper Knt. As a man, a clergyman and a Christian he discharged his several duties with the most anxious fidelity. Revered, respected and beloved by all for his unaffected piety, his zealous friendship and his warm benevolence, it pleased that Being in whose hands are the sues of life and death to take him from his afflicted family and friends on the 7th November 1798 in the 61st year of his age
Rev. Thomas Hooper Morrison (1768–1824)
Rev. Thomas Hooper Morrison , a Fellow of New College, Oxford, a JP for Devon, Rector of Alwington and in 1799 appointed Vicar of Launcells, Cornwall, by his uncle Paul Orchard. He was bequeathed Hartland Abbey, Devon, by the will of his uncle Paul Orchard of Hartland Abbey, but never lived there as it was occupied by Orchard's widow Bettina Lawley until her death in 1833. He also owned the estates of Gallsham in Hartland and Alderscombe, Kilkhampton, Cornwall, the ancient seat of the Orchards. He married Anna Rolle Wollocombe, daughter of Thomas Stafford Wollocombe, Colonel of the Devonshire Militia and Lt-Col. of the 2nd Foot Regiment, of Bridestowe, Devon. He is remembered for the rousing sermon he gave in Hartland Church on Sunday 21 December 1794, during a time of great fear of a possible invasion by French Revolutionaries, to the newly formed North Devon Volunteers, at the request of that regiment's Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant, his uncle Paul Orchard of Hartland Abbey. It was published shortly afterwards at Exeter under the title The Duty of Arming for the Defence of Our Country in Time of Danger and copies were sold throughout Devon. He warned of the "Political system of this mad infatuated people who are alternately threatening mankind with the contagion of their principles or appalling them with the horror of their crimes" and preached:... were but some few hundreds of the enemy now to land in any part of the Kingdom where there might be no regularly disciplined forces to guard it how would it provoke a man of the least feeling and spirit to see ruin and devastation spread on every side by only a handful of them... to behold, perhaps, the country all around you in flames, your fields laid waste, your houses destroyed, everything valuable plundered from you; to behold your wives and daughters exposed to the brutal lusts of your haughty and insolent conquerors; to see your aged decrepid parents and your innocent helpless children inhumanly treated - perhaps murdered - by a plundering enemy, or exposed to want, to indigence and famine; and to stand yourselves all the while helpless and inactive, tame spectators of the misery... It is given to you now my brethren, to do what ye will then wish for in vain: arm then, arm ye brave; a noble cause, the cause of Heaven, the cause of religion, the cause of your country, the cause of everything that is dear and valuable to you as men, as Englishmen, as Christians, of everything that can contribute to your happiness here and hereafter now demands your zeal and assistance; for the attempts of our neighbours on the Continent are not only to loosen every tie of obedience and to involve us in the wildest anarchy and confusion, but to deny the existence of a God...
He died in 1824 without male children. Among his charitable bequests was £3 per annum for coals for the poor of Hartland, which is recorded on a large benefactions board in the tower of St Nectan's Church, Hartland, inscribed as follows:
Benefactions. The Revd Thomas Hooper Morrison left by will in 1824 the sum of £100 £3 per cent. Consolidated Bank Annuities in trust, the yearly interest thereof to be paid to the Minister and Church-Wardens for the time being to be applied in the purchase of fuel to be distributed between Michaelmas and Lady Day in every year for the benefit of the poor inhabitants of this parish as a perpetual charity. Under the directions of the resident owner of the Abbey
In 1836 his widow and three surviving sisters built Alwington Schoolhouse, next to the parish church, as is recorded on an inscribed date stone. Hartland Abbey passed by entail to his cousin Lewis William Buck, of Moreton House, near Bideford, MP for Exeter 1826-32 and for North Devon 1839-57, the grandson of his mother's sister Anne Orchard, wife of George Buck of Daddon. Yeo Vale, however, passed to his sister Elizabeth Rebecca Orchard Morrison, wife of Capt. James Hammett, Royal Horse Artillery, of 18 Lansdowne Crescent, Bath, the son of Rev. Richard Hammett, Rector of Clovelly and brother of Sir James Hamlyn, 1st Baronet, born James Hammett, lord of the manor of Clovelly. James Hammett was heir to the estate of Gore Court, Otham, Kent, property of his mother Priscilla Hendley, daughter and heiress of William Hendley of Gore Court.
Hammett
The Hammett family originated in the parish of Woolfardisworthy neat Clovelly. Rev. Richard Hammett was the younger son of Richard Hammett of Kennerland, in the parish of Clovelly, Devon, by his wife Elizabeth Risdon, daughter and sole heiress of Philip Risdon, Gentleman. The mural monument to his parents survives in Holy Trinity Church, Woolfardisworthy.- Capt. James Hammett, Royal Horse Artillery, who married the heiress of Yeo Vale, Elizabeth Rebecca Orchard Morrison. He had by her two daughters, Dora Charlotte Hammett, who died unmarried, and Eleanora Elizabeth Morrison Hammett, who in 1838 at Bath Abbey married John Townsend Kirkwood.
Kirkwood
John Townsend Kirkwood (1814–1902)
John Townsend Kirkwood, of Glencarha, County Mayo, Ireland, 34 Imperial Square, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and Boldrewood, Burghfield Common, Berkshire, later JP for Devon, who married the heiress of Yeo Vale and of Gore Court, Eleanora Elizabeth Morrison Hammett. He owned the Customs House at Bideford and land in the Devon parishes of Alwington, Littleham, Parkham, Beaford, Swimbridge, Hartland, Cheriton Fitzpaine and Cadeleigh. He was the only surviving son of Col. Tobias Kirkwood, of the 40th and 64th Regiments, of Castleton, County Mayo, Ireland, by his wife Catherine Coffin, daughter of General John Coffin, Governor of St John's, New Brunswick, 3rd son of Nathaniel Coffin, Cashier of the Customs at Boston, Massachusetts, and brother to Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, 1st Baronet. John Coffin was a descendant of the ancient Coffin family of Portledge, lords of the manor of Alwington, and married Ann Matthews purchased Castletown Manor in Sligo from John Knox, and was succeeded by his son Samuel Kirkwood, himself succeeded by his brother Tobias Kirkwood in 1837. John Townsend Kirkwood inherited in 1839 and sold to Thomas Jones on 8 June 1839 The arms of Kirkwood were: Argent, on a chevron gules between three bugles or stringed of the second three mullets of the first. In 1876 John Townsend Kirkwood "of Cheltenham", owned 8,345 acres in county Mayo and 444 acres in county Sligo. His brass memorial tablet survives in the Yeo Vale Chapel of Alwington Church inscribed as follows:- Major James Morrison Kirkwood, of Yeo Vale, eldest son and heir, Royal North Devon Yeomanry.
- Townsend Molloy Kirkwood, second son, of the Bengal Civil Service, who inherited Gore Court from his mother. He married Ellen Pleydell-Bouverie, a relative of the Earl of Radnor, but died without issue, when Gore Court was inherited by his next younger brother.
- Hendley Paul Kirkwood, third son, of Newbridge House, Bath and of Gore Court, who married Charlotte Fell and died without issue.
- William Montagu Hammett Kirkwood, fourth son, a barrister who married twice but died without issue. He inherited Gore Court on the death of his elder brother Hendley.
- John Andrew Hammett Kirkwood, fifth son, died young.
- Sir Walter Guy Coffin Kirkwood, sixth son, of Gore Court, Secretary to the Post Office for Scotland. His descendants inherited Gore Court.
- Col. Carleton Hooper Morrison Kirkwood, seventh son, of the Wiltshire Regiment.
- Lt-Col. Richard Hammett Kirkwood, eighth son, of the Devonshire Regiment
James Morrison Kirkwood (1839–1907)