24. HACCOMBE-PENPOL

Sampson  Tree

JORDAN HACCOMBE and CECILIA DE PENPOL (24)

 

JORDAN HACCOMBE. A.W. Searley, who did extensive research into the Haccombe family credits this Jordan with substantially increasing the Haccombes wealth by his service as the king’s escheator.

Jordan was the eldest son of Stephen de Haccombe and his wife Joan Boson. He was born around 1230, in the reign of Henry III.[1]

He had a younger brother William, who became rector of Stoke Fleming.

Their father died in 1243, when Jordan was only 14. During his minority, Gilbert FitzStephen, presumably a relative, administered the young heir’s estates. In 1244 the key Haccombe family manors of Haccombe, Ringmore and Clifford were possessed by Gilbert FitzStephen, son of Richard FitzStephen.

There is a suggestion that Gilbert married Stephen’s widow, Joan.

Gilbert made frequent appearances in the law courts.

At Exeter: between William de Cantilupa and Eva his wife, claimants, and Gilbert, son of Stephen, deforciant. William and Eva exacted customary dues and services for a free tenement he held of them at Rydmore. The decision was that Gilbert should render them in respect of 9 ½ knights’ fees scutage and suit at their court of Totenesse every three weeks and find for them one servant for each fee in time of war for ward of their castle at Totenesse and likewise repair for 2 fees 3 battlements of said castle when necessary. Gilbert acknowledged for himself and his heir that they should render all customary dues for ever.

The same claimants and Gilbert and his men for Dartmouth, concerning a complaint about a right to a market in Dertemouth. This was a very involved case, and the document is damaged.

At Exeter on 19 June 1244: between Nicholas de Wydimore and Gilbert son of Stephen. Gilbert should take the homage of Nicholas in respect of a free tenement which he holds in Wydimore (either Ringmore or Whitemore in Holbeton). Nicholas complained that whereas he held 1 ½ ferlings of land of the said Gilbert by service of 1 pair of white gloves, Gilbert was not minded to take his homage and service for the tenement. Gilbert lost, and took homage of Nicholas in court.

On 5 Aug 1302, Gilbert FitzStephen and his heirs were granted a weekly market on Thursdays at his manor of Clifton upon Dertemouth and a yearly fair there on the Feast of St Margaret. Given the late date, this may not be the same Gilbert.

Jordan achieved his majority in 1251, during the reign of Henry III.

 

CECILIA DE PENPOL. We know from Devon Feet of Fines that Jordan’s wife was Cecilia, daughter of the lord of Quethiock in Cornwall before 1263. She is thought to have been born around 1240, the daughter of Warin de Penpol. [2]

Quethiock (pronounced Gwithick) is a village 5 miles east of Liskeard, and south of the River Lynher. Penpol is a manor house within the parish.

 Quethiock Church

We know of only one son of this marriage. They called him by the traditional family name of Stephen.

                                                                                                           

Sir William Pole lists Jordan  Haccombe among the important personages and landowners of his time.

Lysons says “Jordan de Haccombe held 14 virgates in Cornwall.”

A Feudal Aid of 1234 tells us  that Jordan held Haccombe for 1/3 of a knight’s fee from Hugh de Curtenay, and Hugh held it from the King.

Another Feudal Aid of 1285 says that Jordan de Haccombe held Haccombe, Clifford and Ringmore.

Jordan became an Escheator under the king in the Hundred of Tingebrugg [ Teignbridge] in 1274 and in the Hundred of Buddlig [Budleigh]. This was a highly lucrative post. Under the feudal system, if a landowner died without an heir, the land reverted to the king for a year and a day, and then to the lord who originally granted it. At the death of a landed person, the Escheator held an Inquisition Post Mortem, to decide the extent of the deceased’s lands and who should inherit them. A.W. Searley thinks that much of the prosperity of Haccombe dates from the time when Jordan was ‘the King’s Receiver.’

It is recorded that “Isabel de Fortibiz… sold unto Kinge Edward I for 600 marks by the hands of Sr Gilbert Knovill Kt, William Stanes and Jeffrey Hecham the Kinge’s receivers the manor of Christchurch, etc.” Searley wonders whether Jeffrey Hecham the King’s Receiver was the same as Jordan Haccomb the Escheator. But Geoffrey de Hecham was the priest in attendance at Isabel de Fortibus’s deathbed, so he may have occupied two posts.

There was a Sir Andrew Haccombe living at this time, but we do not know his relationship to Jordan.

On 3 Nov 1263, Cornwall Feet of Fines records a lawsuit between “Richard de Hammet, plaintiff, Jordan and Cecilia de Haccombe, opponents; concerning 2 acres of land in Legh and Crendulf (Quethiock). It concerned a lease to Richard and his heirs, with reversion to Cecilia and her heirs.

Risdon says: “Hereby [Coffinswell]is Daccombe[(Haccombe)] the inheritance of a family so named. In the time of King Henry the third [1216-1272] was land in this hamlet given by Jordan de Haccombe to Torr Abbey.’ Torr Abbey Cartulary records: “ego Jordanus de Daccumbe et Cecilia uxoris”. The witnesses include Martino de Fishacre and Stephano de Hacumbe.

 

Jordan died around 1289, and was succeeded by his son Stephen. Stephen granted his mother an income during her lifetime from the Cornish lands she had brought as her dower

Oct. 20, 1289. Stephen de Haccombe granted to Cecilia, who was the wife of Jordan de Haccombe, the manors of Penpol (Quethiock) and Anton and the advowson of the church of Quethiock, with reversion, in case of her death, to Stephen.

 

Searley records a suggestion that Jordan and Cecilia lost the affection and esteem of their children. This is based on the absence of monuments to them in the church at Haccombe. But he thinks they may have been commemorated, and their tombs lost, like Leland’s “diverse fair tumbes of the Archidekenes at Hacham.” Their son Stephen named his only son Jordan and his only daughter Cecilia. Cecilia had brought Quethiock into the Haccombe family. After her death, Stephen gave the tithes of Quethiock to his Archpresbytery in her memory.

All the same, after the death of Jordan in 1289, there was a lawsuit between Stephen and his mother over the manors of Haccombe, Ringmore and West Clifford, and the advowson of Haccombe Church.

 

 

[1] Information on Jordan Haccombe is from A. W. Searley, “Haccombe, Part I, (1086-1330)”,  Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 1918.
[2] Rootsweb