I have recently been looking at information about a property that my ancestors owned in Cornwood parish, Devon, England. My curiosity was heightened when a friend introduced me to new owners who have spent a few years now in renovating and updating the house.
The property was called Notts, later renamed as Woodburn. Tracing its acquisition and use has become an obsession as it may impact greatly on our family’s history in the region, at least on assumptions I have made. (Genealogists should never make assumptions because they can delay or sideline needed research into family history.)
How do I know this property was so important to my family
history and when did it come into the family in the first place? The answers,
at least as near as I can determine, start to appear after a review of many
different types of documents.
Things started to come together when I assembled a
spreadsheet listing the documents I have found on indexes or obtained
concerning the lands. (I do not know why I did not do this before as I use
spreadsheets for everything!) The summary was organized by date. That allowed
me to see what individuals were involved in the ownership and the timing of when
my ancestors arrived on the scene.
The information that I have learned about the property,
briefly summarized here, will be part of an article I am writing about Master
Craftsmanship, which will detail the history of the original construction,
modifications and renovations of the home over the centuries and the possible
roles my ancestors played.
Wills
The oldest reference I have for Notts is a transcription of
an abstract of an Inquisition Post Mortem (IPM), dated 25 September 1629 for
William Shepheard, who I believe was my 9th great-grandfather. In
addition to recording that he lived in Plympton St. Mary parish, is information
that leases for Notts and another property in Yealmpton parish, were passed
down to Nicholas Shepheard, his “son & heir, then aged 26.” Thi is the only document that
indicates Nicholas, my 8th great-grandfather, was likely born in
1601. The IPM refers to Notts as having been “held of Ellis Hele, esq. of his
manor of Fardell.”
The IPM
affirms that the property was in possession of a family member by 28 January 1628
the date the document states William died. (That date may be wrong by a few
days. According to the Plympton St. Mary church register, he was buried there
on 27 January 1628.)
Nicholas’s will, proved in 1657, recorded that he gave all his land to his eldest son, John Shepheard (1633-bef 1685), my 7th great-grandfather, but does not name the properties. I had assumed they included a property name Rooke in Cornwood parish, but other documents I found demonstrate the lands were not acquired until probably the late 1750s. Following Nicholas’s death, his wife, Margerit (Lee) Shepheard (c1603-1685) was to share possession of the lands until her death.
Land-related Documents
These types of contracts record ownership and tenant
relationships, along with any information regarding financing and security. They
name the parties involved at the time they were executed along with, in many
cases, others who predated them as owners and are thus ripe sources for family
history reconstruction.
A very
important lease document dated 5 July 1759 recited all those in possesion of
rights to Notts from Margerit Shepheard and her son, John Shepheard, down two
more generations, through Nicholas Shepheard (1675-1756), my 6th
great-grandfather, to Nicholas Shepheard (1716-1786), my 5th
great-grandfather, and to his wife, Mary (Barrett) Shepheard (1736-1803).
Past
that date, other lease and sale documents show the property was eventually in
possession of William’s 3rd great-grandson, and Mary’s son, Nicholas
Shepheard (1761-1820), my 4th great-granduncle, who sold it in 1806.
Tax Lists
I was aware from land tax lists that Notts (aka Knotts) was
owned by my 5th great-grandfather, Nicholas Shepheard from 1781
until his death in 1786 when it went to their oldest son, my 4th
great-granduncle, Nicholas Shepheard, the last Shepheard owner.
Other lists over the years include: the 1642 Protestation
Return which names Nicholas Shepheard (1601-1657); the 1674 Hearth Tax which
names Margerit Shepheard (c1603-1685); and the Oath Rolls, which name Nicholas
Shepheard (1675-1756). These documents do not identify the lands on which the
individuals resided but do indicate they lived in Cornwood parish.
Parish Registers
We mostly follow families through baptism, marriage and
burial entries in the parish registers. They are the basic references to
people, at least as far back as the early 16th century.
One major problem that exists for Cornwood parish is that
all the registers and many other lists were destroyed in a fire in 1685, so we
have to depend on other material to find the family members.
From all documents we can surmise that William Shepheard
(c1575-1628) lived in Plympton St Mary but never, apparently, in Cornwood. I connected the baptisms of nine
other children of William Shepheard in Plympton St. Mary, between 1603 and about
1620. The register only goes back to 1603 so the record of the birth of
Nicholas has not been preserved.
William’s
son, Nicholas Shepheard (1601-1657) married Margerit Lee (c1603-1685) on 5
April 1630 in Plympton St. Mary parish. but all their children were baptized,
and presumably born in Cornwood parish, beginning with John in 1633 and ending
with Orindge about 1640. The growth of the family begs the question as to
whether the original Notts longhouse might have undergone expansion during this
period.
This
information suggests they were the first Shepheard family to come to Cornwood.
In addition, the 1759 document states Margerit was “formerly in the tenure or
possession” of Notts, which we might read as living and raising her family
there. She was buried in Cornwood on 14 July 1685.
Subsequent
generations were almost all born, married and buried in Cornwood.
Summary
