28. FERRERS-PYN

Sampson Tree

RALPH DE FERRERS and SIBILLA PYN (28)

 

RALPH DE FERRERS was the first of this name to settle in Devon. There were other Ferrers elsewhere.

He is thought to be the son, or more likely the grandson of Roger de Ferrers, of Ferrières at the foot of Cherbourg Peninsula. He is first recorded in 1168 and is thought to have been born around 1135 in Normandy.

In the Domesday Book of 1086 Bere Ferrers (Birland) and Newton Ferrers (Niwetona) were both held by Reginald de Valletorte of Robert count of Mortain. At a later date both were held by Ferrers of Valletorte as of the barony of Trematon.

Robert, count of Mortain, was the half-brother of William the Conqueror. He held considerable lands in the Tamar Valley, and elsewhere in Cornwall.

Mortain is a town 8 miles north of Ferrières. Valletorte is Torteval in Normandy.

In 1091, Roger de Ferrers’ overlord was Geoffrey count of Mortagne (Mortain). Geoffrey had fought at the Norman Conquest of England and been rewarded with lands there. It is likely that Ralph was able to obtain land through a later Count of Mortagne.

Bere Ferrers stands on the bank of the River Tavy, a tributary of the Tamar.

It may have been Ralph’s father who built the first Norman church to replace an earlier Saxon one, soon after the Norman Conquest. The only thing that remains of it is the remarkable 12th-century font, made of Hurdwick stone from Tavistock. It is lead lined, in an ornately carved ‘girdle tub’ style, and big enough to allow full immersions.

You can still make out adze marks on the bowl, which is supported on remarkable shell-like projections, curving outwards. These shells, if that is what they are, rest on carved leaves. The effect is rather like an up-ended tree trunk.

The Ferrers’ children were probably baptised here.

The Ferrers lived at the manor house of Bere Barton. This stands on the edge of the River Tavy, shortly before its confluence with the River Tamar, north of Plymouth. In those days, there was no port city where Plymouth now stands.

Also in the hands of the Ferrers family was Newton Ferrers. This stands on a bend of the Yealm estuary, a little way east of Plymouth Sound. The Domesday Book lists Newton as part of the holdings of the Valletorts of Trematon, across the Tamar. They gave it to the Ferrers family who had come over with Willliam the Conqueror.

By 1160 Ralph Ferrers was established at Newton Ferrers.

 

SIBILLA PYN. At one time opinion was equally divided as to whether Ralph de Ferrers’ wife was Sybil de Mandeville, daughter of Roger de Mandeville of Cornwall, or Sibilla Pyn, daughter of William de Pyn of Lyme Regis in Dorset. Recent research has swung the balance decidedly in favour of the latter and new evidence has emerged to support this.

Particularly convincing is a charter that probably dates to around 1225. In this, Gilbert de Ferrers, son of “Sibille de Pinu” (Sibilla Pyn), grants land at Blaxton to Plympton Priory. We know that Gilbert was one of Ralph de Ferrers’ sons.

Unfortunately, we know much less about the Pyn family than we do about the Mandevilles.

We know that Sibilla was the daughter of William de Pyn of Lyme Regis. She is believed to have been born around 1140 at Pinhay Bay, 1.5 miles SW of Lyme Regis. The hamlet of Pinhay is just inland. The de Pyn surname suggests that the family took its name from the place, rather than the other way round.

Pinhay is a hamlet in the parish of Combpyne. Although close to Lyme Regis, it is in Devon, while Lyme Regis is in Dorset.

We know nothing of Sibilla’s mother, nor of any siblings. This suggests that she was her father’s sole heir.

The grant of Blaxton by her son gives his mother’s name but not that of his father’s. It would seem that Blaxton came to the Ferrers family through Sibilla. It is a hamlet on the west bank of the Tavy, opposite the Ferrers’ home of Bere Ferrers. Gilbert was confirming his mother’s grant of the chapel of St Martin in Blaxton to Plympton Priory.

 

Sibilla was born, and Ralph was a young child, in the turbulent times of the civil war, known as the “Anarchy”. Many of the barons reneged on their oath to recognise Henry I’s daughter Matilda as the next monarch, and instead backed her cousin Stephen. The bitter strife lasted from 1139 to 1153, when Stephen, who had succeeded in being crowned early on, pledged to recognise Matilda’s son Henry as heir to the throne.

It was under Henry II that Ralph and Sibilla grew to adulthood, married and started their family.

We know of four children: Henry, the oldest son and heir, born in 1164,  Robert, (probably) Roger, and Gilbert. Henry continued the line at Bere Ferrers, while Gilbert founded a new branch of the family at Throwleigh, just NE of Dartmoor in mid-Devon. There may have been daughters too, but we have no record of them.

The arms of the Ferrers of Bere Ferrers are: Argent, on a bend sable, three horseshoes of the field. (On a silver background, a diagonal band of black with three silver horseshoes.)

 

We do not know when either Ralph or Sibilla died.

Henry succeeded to the Bere Ferrers and Newton Ferrers estates

 

 [1] https://www.britainexpress.com/images/attractions/editor3/Bere-Ferrers-1752.jpg