The Harris family and Radford Manor (Plymstock)

 

Radford, a feudal manor, derived its name from the colour of the soil and a ford over a brook. A family that settled there in the 13th century adopted the name as their family name. The manor of Plymstock belonged to Tavistock Abbey from a period before the conquest.

 

 

John Harris, by marriage inherited the Radford Property from Alice Le Abbe, who had previously been married to Henry Beauchamp, and was living there in 1428.

 

 

 

An Entry in the Fee of Fines for  1450 however throws some doubt on the continued ownership of Radford by the Harris family.  The Fee of Fines originated in the late 12th century as a procedure for ending a legal action by agreement between the parties. The agreement was known as a final concord (or fine). Originally this was a means of resolving genuine disputes, but by the middle of the 13th century the fine had become a popular way of conveying freehold property, and the legal action was usually a fictitious one, initiated with the cooperation of both parties.

 

The entry relating to Radford reads:

 

CP 25/1/46/88, number 245.

County:  Devon.

Place:  Westminster.

Date:  One week from the Purification of the Blessed Mary, 28 Henry VI [9 February 1450]. And afterwards one week from Holy Trinity in the same year [7 June 1450].

Parties:  William Hyndeston' and John Fitz, querents, and John Harry, esquire, deforciant.

Property:  The manor of Radford' and 1 messuage and 40 acres of land in Plympstoke and Plymphome.

Action:  Plea of covenant.

Agreement:  John Harry has acknowledged the manor and tenements to be the right of William, as those which William and John Fitz have of his gift, and has remised and quitclaimed them from himself and his heirs to William and John Fitz and the heirs of William for ever. 

Warranty:  Warranty.

For this:  William and John Fitz have given him 100 pounds sterling.

Standardised forms of names

Persons:  William Hindstone, John Fitz, John Harry

Places:  Radford (in Plymstock), Plymstock, Plympton

 

This action for one reason or another appears to have not been put into effect as an inquisition was held after the death of John Harris in 1485, at which time his son Francis was a minor aged 10 years, and the enquiry into his lands revealed that in addition to a messuage and one hundred acres of land at Radford he also possessed fourty acres of land and ten cottages at Esthoo, held of the King as of the honour of Plympton Earl by knight service.

 

During the minority of Francis, King Henry the 7th gave custody of the property to Roger Holand until Francis claimed his inheritance in 1496. Francis subsequently married Phillipa, Daughter of Sir Thomas Grenville of Stowe, he had a son William, and a grandson Christopher.

 

The Fitz family members named in the 1450 Fee of Fines, and some of the associated families have an interesting history and some details of their notoriety are detailed  hereunder.

 

 

 

 

John Fitz husband of Mary Sydenham

John was a brutish drunkard who maltreated both his wife and daughter.  When his daughter was only three he had murdered a neighbour and fled abroad. His wife and mother obtained a pardon enabling him to return to England, but no sooner had he returned when he killed again. In a fit of remorse, age 30, in a fit of insanity he stabbed himself to death.

 

According to Princes “Worthies of Devon” he was interested in astrology and devised a scheme to determine the timing of the e birth of  his child by Mary and instructed the midwife accordingly. That however was not done and he believed that the son born would have an unhappy end – which proved to be the case.

 

 John became very rich, very young at the age of 21. Like many before and after him the money soon turned him into a moral-less shadow of his former self, sliding into a degeneracy that caused him to vent his wrath on the folk of Tavistock and led to the murder of two men, including his own best friend, killed on the doorstep of Fitzford House.

 

John Fitz, son of John Fitz and Mary Sydenham, married to Gertrude Courtenay

 

According to some ancient histories of Devon, one of which had the significant title of the Bloudie Book, John Fitz was noted as a turbulent, dangerous man, ever ready with his sword on all occasions

 

Meeting with many of his neighbours at a noontide dinner at Tavistock, he was vaunting his free tenure and boasting that he did not hold a foot of land from any but the "Queene of England," when his neighbour, "Maister Slanning," reminded him of a small piece of land he had of his for which he was liable for rent, but for which no payment had been asked by reason of "courtesie and friendshippe."

 

Upon hearing these words Fitz flew in a furious rage and told Slanning with a great oath that he lied, and withal gave fuel to his rage and reines of spight in theunjustness of his anger--offering to stab him. But Maister Slanning,who was known to be a man of no less courage, and more courtesy,with a great knife that he had, warded the hazard of such threatenings.

 

The quarrel was stopped by the intervention of friends, and Slanning, thinking the matter was at an end, shortly afterwards rode home in company with only one servant. Long had they not ridden but commanding the man to walk down his horses in the way, himself the while taking the greene fields for his more contented walking; he might behold Sir John Fitz, with four more, galloping after him, which sight could not but be a great amazement to Maister Slanning.

 

The quarrel was renewed, and Slanning, who was, by the way, a brave man, perceived that Fitz was determined to kill him; but he had no chance against live swords, and when he got to Fitzford gateway he received a blow from behind which staggered him, and Fitz, seizing the opportunity, ran his sword through his body, and poor Slanning fell to

the floor a murdered man.

 

Fitz fled to France, and his friends obtained some kind of a pardon for him; but when he returned they all gave him the cold shoulder; he was avoided by everybody, and to add to his discomfort the children of Slanning sued him in London for compensation.

 

Meanwhile the guilt in blood weighed heavily upon him, increasing in intensity as years went on, and the shade of Slanning never left him day or night, until finally he could not sleep, for the most horrid dreams awoke him and his screams in the night were awful to hear. Sometimes he dreamt he was being pursued by the police, then by black demons and other hideous monsters, while in the background was always the ghost of the man he had so cruelly murdered.

 

Late one night a man on horseback, haggard and weary, rode up to the door of the "Anchor Inn" at Kingston-on-Thames and demanded lodgings for the night. The landlord and his family were just retiring to rest, and the landlady, not liking the wild and haggard appearance of their midnight visitor, at first declined to receive him, but at length agreed

to find him a room. The family were awakened in the night by the lodger crying in his sleep, and the landlady was greatly alarmed as the noise was continued at intervals all through the night. They had to rise early in the morning, as the landlord had some work to do in his fields, but his wife would not be left in the house with the stranger who had

groaned so horribly during the night. Their footsteps seem to have awakened the man, for suddenly they were terrified to see him rush downstairs with a drawn sword in his hand, throw himself upon a man standing in the yard, and kill him instantly. It was thought afterwards that he must have mistaken his victim for a constable; but when he came

to his senses and found he had killed the groom to whom he had given orders to meet him early in the morning, he turned his sword against himself and fell--dead! And such was the tragic end of John Fitz in a similar way to that of his father.

 

MARY FITZ daughter of John Fitz and Getrude Courtenay

Mary found herself hated almost by proxy as stories about her father's behaviour became twisted around to land on her own shoulders.

 

Mary, just nine at the time at the time of her fathers death, was sold by King James I to the Earl of Northumberland who forcibly married her at 12 to his brother Sir Alan Percy, simply to gain her fortune as the last of her line. When Mary was sold at nine, she cost £465 - a bargain considering her fortune.

 

This was the first of four husbands, all men of good family but with small fortunes, whom she outlived. Percy died after catching a cold on a hunting expedition and that left her free to choose the man she desired, Thomas Darcy. Her one marriage for love however ended in tragedy as Darcy died just months after the two eloped and wed.

 

First husband was Sir Charles Howard. In 1631 she let large parts of Whitchurch (Walreddon) to a George Cuttleford who died in 1644. His son also George took over the lease but he also died by 1645, and the lease went to his brother John, and then to his children John and Ann, who married a Robinson.

 

Mary may have had a child by her steward, who remained active in her service at the time of her marriage to Richard Grenville. The relatives of her late husband, the Howard clan headed by her brother-in-law Theophilus Howard, second earl of Suffolk, were grasping and powerful. And her husband found himself embroiled in litigation over his wife's inheritance. For her part Mary claimed that Richard had treated her with great barbarity

 

The final two of her marriages were both about money, and both failed because Mary was a much more assertive lady than the scared nine year old thrust around when orphaned. Mary refused to let her husbands milk her dry and soon tied up her fortunes to keep them safe. This led to massive arguments and the break up of both marriages and the death of both husbands.

 

After her third husband, she became an influential figure at the Court of Charles1's wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, renowned for her wit as well as her looks.

 

Mary then retired back to a ruined Fitz house that had been left deserted with her one remaining family member, a beloved son from her last marriage called George. She hoped to live out her days in relative peace but life had one more shock for her, the premature death of George. This was the last break her heart could take and she died exactly one month after her son.

 

Fitzford House was ransacked and wrecked during the civil war after her ex-husband was put in charge of the troops there and ran away under attack, leaving it undefended.

 

After her death, her life began to become a local legend and as such became skewed from the truth. Her own life became merged with that of her father and the deaths of her husbands became less and less innocent until it reached the height of maliciousness; the tale she had murdered all four husbands.

 

Legends abound about Mary Howard. Having been wrongly identified as a murderer, she was condemned to travel nightly from Fitzford House to Okehampton Castle and return with a single blade of grass. Only once all the grass has been cleared will her penance be at an end. She is supposed to travel as a large black hound, running alongside the silent coach made from the bones of her victims. The horses and coachmen are all headless.

 

The legend  that was born was that Lady Howard, in the coach made of her husbands bones, riding on her futile journey each night, never allowed the rest in death from the adversity that was her life. A poem written a the time about this was:

 

"My ladye hath a sable coach,

And horses two and four;

My ladye hath a black blood-hound

That runneth on before.

My ladye's coach hath nodding plumes,

The driver hath no head;

My ladye is an ashen white,

As one that long is dead."

 

As the gates of Fitzford House creak open a fearsome sight appears, a massive black dog with glowing red eyes bounds out leading a morbid sight. A large horse-drawn carriage made of bones follows, driven by a headless coachman and a ghostly white lady sits inside as it makes its way the 16 miles to Okehampton Castle.

 

When it reaches the castle the dog, with ceremony, goes to the castle mound and plucks one blade of grass. The spectral procession then turns and rides back to Fitzford House where the blade of grass is laid on a stone and the spectres vanish back to where they came from. This is the nightly torment of Lady Mary Howard, and when the castle mound is finally free of any grass she'll be allowed to finally rest easy.

 

RICHARD GRENVILLE husband of Mary Fitz, daughter of John Fitz & Mary Sydeham

Sir Richard, baronet (bap. 1600, d. 1659), royalist army officer, was the second son of Sir Bernard Grenville (d. 1636) and his wife, Elizabeth Bevill of Bryn, a Cornish heiress.

 

He married in November 1628 Mary (1596-1671), daughter and heir of Sir John Fitz of Fitzford, Devon, and the widow of Sir Charles Howard. This lady was four years older than Sir Richard, had previously been married three times to aristocratic suitors-a Percy and a Darcy before Howard-and so was well connected to some of the leading political families in England.

 

with his marriage Grenville entered on a sea of troubles. Mary came with considerable baggage. She may have had a child by her steward, who remained active in her service. The relatives of her late husband, the Howard clan headed by her brother-in-law  Theophilus Howard, second earl of Suffolk, were grasping and powerful. Grenville was politically naïve. He found himself embroiled in litigation over his wife's inheritance. For her part Mary claimed that Richard had treated her with great barbarity, and Suffolk that he had called him 'a base lord'.

 

Star Chamber, chancery, and the court of high commission found against Grenville, and the fines imposed and damages awarded were enough to ruin him. '[I was] necessitated to sell away mine own estate. He was committed to the Fleet for non-payment, but after sixteen months' incarceration succeeded in escaping and fled to the continent but returned to be posted to Ireland.

 

With the political divisions in England, and the parliamentarian blockade of Ireland, the government troops found it increasingly difficult to subsist, and Grenville and other commanders grew disillusioned. In 1643 he returned to England.. His support for parliament was equivocal; he found himself arrested by the roundhead governor of Liverpool, and sent under armed guard to London but he was able to persuade the Commons of his loyalty, to the extent that he was granted large sums to raise forces,  and  in 1644 made lieutenant-general to Sir William Waller.

 

But it was all a deception, probably designed to hasten the payment of his arrears: Grenville was still in desperate need of money. Very publicly he defected The royalist high command immediately dispatched him to the west country.

 

Parliament was outraged. The Commons voted Grenville 'traitor, rogue, villain, and skellum', and set up two gibbets in London to which their denunciation (in three languages, according to his earliest biographer) was fixed, to do duty until the man himself would be placed there. He became, in roundhead propaganda, a notorious hate figure: the term 'skellum' (Dutch for rascal) associated him with the cruelties practiced by foreign mercenaries in the continental and Irish wars.) .

 

Grenville was commissioned by the king to assist in the siege of Plymouth. He made his estranged wife's house at Fitzford his headquarters, and, using his new authority (he was also sheriff of Devon), began to rebuild his fortune in Cornwall and west Devon.

 

He took pleasure in settling old scores. He hanged his wife's former solicitor on a trumped up charge, and imprisoned her steward/lover. In the drive to get his troops promptly paid it was said that he executed a dozen constables, and massacred prisoners of war at the taking of Saltash. He was accused of starving other captives in the gaol at Lydford. Some of his actions were perhaps reprisals. A young Captain Grenville, captured and executed as a spy in Plymouth, may have been his bastard son.

 

An embittered and even pitiable figure, Grenville spent the remainder of his life in the Netherlands but he still had enough energy to renew his quarrel with the Howard family, with the predictable result that he and his daughter Elizabeth, who had joined him, found themselves entangled in costly lawsuits. In 1657, ill and impoverished, he suffered imprisonment in Brussels, no doubt for debt.

 

Grenville died in Ghent on 21 October 1659. His daughter was granted administration of his estate after the Restoration, which was, however, not large enough to prevent her being dependent on charity for the rest of her life.

 

Thomas Howard, father of Charles Howard husband of Mary Fitz

Son of Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, by his second wife, Margaret, dau. and heiress of Sir Thomas Audley. He was attainted at the time of his father's execution, but his rights were restored in 1584.  His ability and courage caught the attention of Queen Elizabeth I, and he became a great favorite at court.  Upon the accession of James I (1603), he was created earl of Suffolk and he discovered the Gunpowder plot against King James I. He was named Lord High Treasurer of England, on 11 Jul 1614.

 

His daughter, Frances Howard, and her husband, Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, were tried and convicted (1616) in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. In the autumn of 1618 grave irregularities were discovered in the treasurer. Sir Thomas was suspended from his office, being accused of embezzlement, defrauding the King, and extorting money from the King's subjects. Once again a Howard was in danger of execution.

 

Catherine, Lady Suffolk, was in the employ of the King of Spain; she received £1,000 per year for acting on his behalf. Catherine, was indicted for extorting money from persons having business at the treasury . She was of strong character and undoubtedly used his high office to enrich herself.  Sir Thomas and Catherine were found guilty and fined and ordered to restore all money wrongfully extorted and were sentenced to be imprisoned in the Tower from which they were released after ten days. Popular opinion of the day placed most of the blame squarely on the shoulders of Catherine. Her beauty was remarkable but in 1619 an attack of small pox destroyed any vestige of loveliness.

 

Getting back to the Harris family, Sir Christopher Harris, Knt, the grandson of Francis died in 1624 without heirs and his sister and heir  through marriage brought Radford to John Harris, Esq., of Lanrest in Cornwall who was then known as being of Radford and Lanrest.

 

 

 

 

The Radford manor and its lands continued to be held by the Harris family male descendants until 1890 when the Bulteel family gained possession through marriage and financial problems that the Harris family experienced through the crash of the Naval Bank that they had founded.

 

References:

 

 


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