19. BAMFYLDE-PEDERTON

Sampson  Tree

JOHN BAMPFYLDE and AGNES PEDERTON (19)

 

JOHN BAMPFYLDE. We have pursued the Bampfyldes as lords of the manor of Politimore through two centuries with some difficulty. There are a number of conflicting pedigrees. In the majority John is the elder son of an older John and his wife Joane, who may be an heiress of the Cobham family.

He was probably born in the late 14^th century.

Poltimore is a village 4 miles north of Exeter. John’s ancestor, another John, had been given the manor by his tutor at Exeter Cathedral School in 1298, The Bampfyldes who had previously lived at Weston Bampfylde in Somerset, thereafter made their home there.

John, as the elder son, inherited Poltimore manor, as well as other estates. His younger brother Richard became lord of the manor of Columbjohn in the neighbouring parish of Broadclyst.

 

AGNES PEDERTON was the daughter and heir, of John Pederton, lord of the manor of Hardington, and his wife, the heiress Cecilia Turney.

Hardington is a tiny parish in Somerset, 7 miles south of Bath. It should not be confused with Hardington Mandeville, which lies further south. The present Hardington Farm was once the site of a substantial manor house, and probably Agnes’s home.

Hardington was always a small village, but it was so devasted by the Black Death of 1348-50 that the that the houses were entirely abandoned. All that remained were the manor house and the little church. Agnes was born in the late 14^th century, and would have grown up with this “ghost village” as a reminder of the plague less than half a century earlier.

She is often said to be her parents’ sole heir. This gives the impression that she was an only child, or that her siblings predeceased their parents. But, as we shall see, there is evidence that she had a brother William who was still alive in 1458.

John and Agnes are thought to have married in the early 15^th century.

Agnes brought the manor of Hardington to the Bampfyldes through her marriage to John. There are a number of Bampfylde memorials in the Hardington parish church.

We know of four children of this marriage. William was the heir to Poltimore. The second son, Peter, inherited his mother’s estate of Hardington. There were two daughters, Thomasine and Elizabeth,

There is a document of 1428-30 showing that John Bamfeld was then the Escheator for Devon and Cornwall. [3] The task of an escheator was to investigate the estates of dead landholders to see which of them should revert to the Crown.

We hear about Agnes’s brother William Pederton  in several documents relating to a plot of land in Bath,[i]

Grant by John Baunfeld, esquire, and Agnes, his wife, daughter and heir of John Pederton, esquire, and Agnes, his wife, daughter and heir of John Pederton, esquire, to William Pederton, son of the aforesaid John, of a vacant plot of ground, with a garden, in which plot, while it was built, John Osterler formerly dwelt; and the said garden lies near the walls of the city by the South gate. To have and hold the said plot and garden to the said William and his issue; and if William dies without issue the same shall remain to Peter, their son, and if Peter should die without issue then to revert to John and Agnes and their heirs.
Witnesses: John Austell; William Gascoygne: Richard Balon.
Dated: 24 May, 32 Henry VI. 1454.

William was apparently still alive in 1458.

Release by Agnes Baunfeld, in her widowhood, and Peter Baunfeld, her son, to William Pederton, of all their right in a vacant piece of land wherein, when it was built, John Osteler formerly dwelt; and also in a garden lying on the city walls near the South gate.
Seal  of  John  Pole,  Mayor  of  Shaftesbury,  in  Dorsetshire.
Dated  at  Shaftesbury,  Christmas  Day,  37  Henry  VI.  (1458).

Grant by William Pederton, to William, Lord Botriaux, knight, John Champeneys and Thomas Lawry, their heirs and assigns, of a vacant plot of land in Bath, and a garden lying on the city walls near the South gate.
Witnesses: Richard Choke, Serjeant-at-law; John Bluet;- Kemmys, of Syston.
 Dated: 30 December, 37 Henry VI. 1458

These would almost certainly be after the death of John and Cecilia. It raises the question of why, if John Pederton had a son Willliam, it is Agnes who is his heir, and not William. The most likely answer would seem to be that William Pederton was baseborn.

Agnes and John lived in a time of prosperity. The English cloth industry flourished in the early 15^th century, particularly in the south-west. It led to the growth of a class of cloth merchants, as well as benefiting the landed gentry on whose lands sheep were farmed.

Since Agnes was a widow in 1458, John Bampfylde must have died between 1454 and 1458.

In view of the uncertainties in the Bampfylde trees, it is good to have physical evidence of John and Agnes. There is a memorial slab in the chancel of the church of St Mary the Virgin at Poltimore.

MCCCXC
Hic jacent Johnes
Bampfeld & Agnes Uxor
eius Pater & Mater Willi
Bampfeld qui his ecclesiam &
campanam fieri
facerunt

 

1390 Here lie John Bampfeld and Agnes his wife, father and mother of William Bampfeld, who [plural] had this church and bell tower built.

 William is generally credited with building the present church in Poltimore in the 15^th century. The memorial slab shows that the work had been begun earlier by his parents.

This is probably true, but the date of 1390 is problematic. It is not thought to be the date of John’s death but of the founding of the church. This conflicts with other evidence that John’s grandfather Thomas Bampfield was still alive in 1400, and possibly quite young. The stone was recut in 1840 and British Listed Buildings believes the date to be an error, and have suggested that it should be 1490.

The church has been dated to the late 15^th century, with later additions. But there is evidence from the base of the tower that this may originally have been earlier. This older tower would be the work of John and Agnes.

We do not have death dates for John and Agnes. We have estimated John’s death as 1454-8.  Agnes died sometime after 1458.

The male line of the Bampfyldes continued a colourful history, but our own Bampfylde ancestry ends with this generation, and the line is continued through the marriages of Thomasine and Elizabeth.

William became Sheriff of Devon. He married Margaret, daughter of Walter Pauncefoot. The second son, Peter married Maria, Pauncefoot’s youngest daughte, thus cementing an extraordinary close connection between these two families. Their sister Thomasine married Walter Pauncefoot junior. Another daughter, Elizabeth, married Henry Fraunceis of Combe-Flory in Somerset. [4] The Bampfylde and Pauncefoot families owned the adjacent manors of Weston Bampfylde and Compton Pauncefoot in Somerset.

 

[3] National Archives. E 153/2140
[4] Powell; Phelps, William, The History and antiquities of Somerset, vol.1.[i]National Archives: BC 151/3/60, BC 151/3/61,   BC 151/3/62