THE
HISTORY OF CHUDLEIGH.
CHAPTER I.
THE lovely vale, which we are about to describe, was probably much frequented by the Britons in their wanderings from place to place. They invariably preferred the woods to the plains. Here in summer they could enjoy the cool shade of its beautiful trees, and in winter the warm shelter of its rocky dells. The chase, in which they were so active, could not but have been successful, and well supplied them with game. The thickly clothed woods must have also yielded an abundance of nuts, acorns, and wild fruit.
Here amid the dark recesses of the sacred groves of oak, that overhung the unbroken and extensive limestone rocks, the Druids could awe the rude aborigines into subjection by their mysterious rites. Drewsteignton was the nearest centre of Druidism; and, as it included a circuit of twenty miles, our vale was, of course, within its limits. It is true that we search here in vain for any traces of British military works, barrows, &c., as are found in other parts of the kingdom, or even neighbouring parishes. The fierce wars in which the Britons often assailed one another, or resisted the common foe, appear to have been carried on altogether beyond its precincts. Imagination pictures these restless tribes as having here a safe retreat - a kind of happy valley to which they could occasionally resort.
The Romans, who subdued Britain under the Cæsars, passed over their own highway that lay considerably east of the town. Although they had a beacon on Haldon and another at Hazelwood, near Hennock, yet they have left us no remains that prove their ever having had a station within this vale. Compelled by wars near home, the Romans gradually withdrew their forces from the island, and finally quitted it about the middle of the 5th century, but not without leaving behind them a flourishing Christian Church. It may be worthy a passing notice, as shewing the high estimation in which the Romans held the Britons, that they took with them to the seat of empire many British youths whom they studiously trained to war.
Julius Cæsar, on his first landing, readily distinguished the native Britons as a race altogether superior in stature and beauty to the Gauls or Belgæ, whom he then found in possession of our southern coast.
“Rude as the wilds, around his sylvan home,
In savage grandeur, see the Briton roam :
Bare were his limbs, and strung with toil and cold,
By untam'd nature cast in giant mould :
O'er his broad brawny shoulders loosely flung,
Shaggy and long, his yellow ringlets hung.” |
The Britons, as soon as freed from the dominion of the Romans, were assailed by the Picts and Scots. Wanting aid in these defensive wars, they most unwittingly craved the assistance of some barbarous tribes that dwelt on the shores of the German Ocean, whom we now include under the general name of Saxons. These tribes after aiding the Britons, like many other public and private benefactors, took good care to serve themselves by retaining possession of the island. They cruelly oppressed the noble Britons, and massacred all whom they found openly professing Christianity.
Gregory, justly surnamed the Great, mourned for the sufferings of the infant Church, then gradually advancing in public estimation, from the holy lives of its ministers and professors. He sent Augustine and other pious missionaries to Britain in 597, to convert, if possible, these barbarous and iniquitous usurpers to the faith of Christianity. They landed in Kent, and were permitted to settle in Canterbury. Their interesting mission proved so successful that Augustine was consecrated Archbishop of England, and more missionaries were sent to his assistance, with presents of books, and other articles of which they might stand in need.
The Saxons, as is well known, divided the kingdom into several independant states, and then quarrelled among themselves under Cædwalla, King of Wessex. He was one of the most powerful of these Saxon princes, and began to reign in 684. We may conclude that our town began to be formed; and from him, according to Polwhele* some have supposed it derived - its Saxon name of Chidley. Although the historian further says, that others thought Chudleigh may have been derived from cid, contention, and ley, a lock; another from cudd, a hiding, and leigh, place - thus signifying a hiding place, perhaps in allusion to the cavern in the Rock.
The Saxons had, in their turn, to bear the horrors of an invasion. The Danes, who possessed the empire of the sea, were continually ravaging the coasts of Britain, and landed repeatedly at Teignmouth. The attention of the reader has to be directed to the Danish Encampment, on the heights of Ugbrooke Park. This was probably occupied by the Danes about the year 876, as at that time they overran the southern part of the county. During the occupation of this camp, the inhabitants of our vale - whether many or few - were no doubt compelled to hide themselves, or to escape for their lives towards the moorlands. It was at this period, according to Lysons,‡ that Exeter fell into the hands of these marauders. Alfred obliged them to retire from that place by destroying their fleet. The rude Saxons under him, one of the best monarchs that ever swayed a sceptre, began from this period rapidly to emerge from comparative barbarism into civilization. The Christian religion was cordially embraced; parishes, and even mother Churches, were known so early as the year 970, in the reign of King Edgar. Chudleigh, with the other towns of Devonshire, now began to advance into importance; the bounds of the parish were, without doubt, established; a Christian community instituted; and a place of worship erected. Dr. Oliver supposes the parish church to have preceded the palace. It must not, of course, be understood that the early structure was, in extent or importance, to be compared to the church afterwards dedicated to St. Martin in the year 1259, by Bishop Bronscombe. The site might have been the same; but the building doubtless differed essentially, and had then either to be enlarged, or re-erected and again consecrated.
* Hist. Devon, vol. 2. p. 118. ‡ Hist. Devon, vol. 2, p, 178.
Chudleigh is not mentioned in Domesday. Chiderleia described as the land of the Earl of Mortain - terra Comitis Moritoniensis - is the Manor of Chederleigh or Chuderleigh, in Bickleigh parish, near Tiverton.
Order was quickly restored after the Norman Conquest; the lands, under new leases, in many instances remained in the possession of its original occupiers. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Roman Catholic Church rapidly extended its influance throughout the length and breadth of the land. Bishop Leofric, in 1050, removed the see from Crediton to Exeter; and with the latter, Chudleigh soon became intimately associated. One of the early bishops, about the year 1080, attracted by the salubrity of the air and the beauty of the vale, selected it and Paignton as sites for his rural palaces. Others were afterwards erected at Bishopsteignton, Tawton, &c. The Bishops of Exeter may therefore be considered to have been, from the Conquest to the Reformation, the undisputed lords, temporal as well as spiritual, of this district, having everything that concerned its welfare under their entire control. Chudleigh Palace was, without doubt, a favourite residence of the early bishops. In a chapel attached to it and dedicated to St. Michael, there were frequent ordinations. Many documents, now in the archives of Exeter Cathedral, were signed when these prelates sojourned in this rural retreat.
Dr. Oliver - Eccles. Ant. - mentions the appropriation of the park, manor, and valuable lands to the see of Exeter, as shewn by a deed between the years 1161 and 1184; wherein Bishop Bartholomew grants the profits of his woods in Chudleigh to the Lazar-house of St. Mary Magdalen, in Exeter. He tells us also that, in 1282, the manor of Chudleigh was annexed to the precentorship of Exeter Cathedral, by Bishop Quivil.
In the register of Bishop Stapledon, we find the rental of the manor, in the year 1308, to be £17 : 4 : 51/2. About this time the woollen trade was carried on extensively, and the Fulling Mill paid 20s. per annum to the see of Exeter. For the collection of rents and other business connected with the manor, the precentor was provided with a house and certain lands at Ugbrooke, by the liberality of the bishops. In the will of Hugh de Hyckeling then precentor, dated Angust 8, 1415 and proved 1416, there is a bequest of money and of his live stock at Ugbrooke.
It was optional for the Bishop of Exeter to receive from the manor of Chudleigh at Christmas, either twenty-four woodcocks or 12d. Bishop Stapledon with a view of increasing the prosperity of Chudleigh - then rapidly advancing - procured for it, in 1309, a charter for a market and fair from his sovereign, Edward II. Among the lands which this bishop purchased for the maintenance of his obit - or masses for his soul - as stated in his ordinance, dated March 2, 1321, there were enumerated some as being situated at " Waddene," in this parish. Edward Pyry, who was keeper of the park, and bailiff to Bishop Lacy in 1447, was appointed with a salary of 12d. a week.*
* The best quality of wheat was sold in Exeter Market at sixpence per bushel, about this period.
“ This venerable prelate,” as Dr. Oliver styles Bishop Lacy, after governing the church thirty-five years, died at Chudleigh Palace in the year 1455, and was interred in Exeter Cathedral. His arms were set up in the east wall of the north aisle of Chudleigh Church. This bishop was highly esteemed for his sanctity, " there was a great resort of pilgrims to his tomb, at which many miracles were pretended to have been performed." It may be worth notice that this bishop entertained Henry VI., in the year 1451, for eight days at his palace in Exeter - the charges being borne equally by the Church and City.
From Bishop Lacy to the instalment of Voysey there is a period of sixty-eight years; and a list of the successive Roman Catholic bishops is the only link presenting itself, by which the chain of events can be continued. These bishops, it will be seen, were sadly departing from their original simplicity and sanctity. They were frequently translated from one see to another, and became close attendants on royalty, as well as deeply involved in political and secular affairs.
Bishop Lacy was succeeded, in 1455, by George Neville, who was installed at the age of nineteen, and made Lord Chancellor of England at twenty-five, in the reign of Henry VI. He was translated to York, where he was buried.
John Booth succeeded Neville, and was consecrated in 1466, but weary of the turmoil in which the bishops were ever involved at this disturbed period of our history, he returned to his own mansion in Hampshire, where he died.*
* Bishop Booth built the Bishop's stately chair in the choir of his church, which being finished, he could not quietly sit down therein ; so troublesome were the times by reason of the civil wars between the two Houses of York and Lancaster. Izacke.
Peter Courtenay was consecrated bishop in 1479. He was the son of Sir Philip Courtenay, of Powderham, and in great favour with Henry VII., who translated him to Winchester.
Richard Fox was next installed Bishop of Exeter in 1488. He was the faithful counsellor of Henry VII. This bishop, who was one of the most shrewd and wise men of his day, had the honour of being godfather to the king's second son, afterwards Henry VIII.
Oliver King was made bishop in 1494. Richard Redman was translated from Wales to Exeter (1499), and from thence to Ely. John Arundell, who descended from a Cornish family, was installed in the see of Exeter, 1504.
Hugh Oldham was preferred to Exeter in 1507. This bishop was involved for years in a dispute with the abbot of Tavistock. He died while the lawsuit was pending; and, being then under sentence of excommunication at Rome, he could not be interred until absolution was procured. In 1519, he founded the Free Grammar School of Manchester, and died in the year 1523.
It does not appear from any existing records that these bishops, who had most of them become the restless votaries of ambition, shewed any partiality for the palace at Chudleigh, or interest in the welfare of the town. John Voysey, who was the successor of Hugh Oldham, had so little regard for that which belonged to the see, that he not only abandoned, but absolutely alienated the manor and demesne. This prelate was promoted to the bishopric of Exeter in 1523. He was in great favour with Henry VIII., became Lord President of Wales, and godfather to the king's eldest daughter, the Princess Mary - he was afterwards her guardian.
Troubleous times now approached the English Roman Catholic Church ; its greatest foes were within its own pale. Important results followed the downfall of this long established hierarchy, and the termination of its ecclesiastical as well as political domination throughout England. In these events our little town - as may be implied from its past history - was deeply interested. An entirely new order of circumstances followed, which will form the subject of the following chapter.
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