Mohuns Ottery

Toponymy

The word Ottery derives from the River Otter, Old English "oter" ("otter") + "īe" (dative singular of "ēa"). The first appearance of the place-name is in the Domesday Book (1086) where it is recorded as Otri – one of the twelve places in Devon that had that or a very similar name. It appeared in the Book of Fees in 1242 as Otery. In 1247 it was recorded as Otery Flandrensis and as Ottery Flemeng'  in 1279, after the family of William le Flemmeng who held part of the manor between 1219 and 1244.

The name later reflected the residency of the Mohun family, appearing in the Feudal Aids in 1285 as Otermoun, and as Oteri Mohoun in an Inquisition post mortem of 1297. In 1453 it was recorded in the Patent Rolls as Mounesotery, and as Moonsotery in the Recovery Rolls in 1630. Tristram Risdon, writing in the early 17th century, referred to it as Mohun's Ottery, while his close contemporary Thomas Westcote, called it Mohuns-Ottery.

Alsi

The Domesday Book of 1086 records that before the Norman Conquest the manor of Otri was held by an Anglo-Saxon thegn known as Alsi. He held several other properties near to Otri, as well as another in Devon, at Dunsford, and probably two more near Dunsford at Lowley and Doddiscombsleigh. He had a large manor at Castle Cary in Somerset and other holdings around this, and single holdings in Dorset and Wiltshire.

de Douai

In 1086 as recorded in the Domesday Book, the manor of OTRI was the 18th of the 27 Devonshire holdings of Walter of Douai, one of the Devonshire tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. His tenant was a certain Ludo, who held a further five manors from him, namely Little Rackenford, Hetfelle, Luppitt, Greenway (now represented by the synonymous large and ancient farmhouse in the parish of Luppitt) and Stoch (later Stoke Fleming). The last four manors held by Ludo, but not Little Rackenford, descended to the de Mandeville feudal barony of Marshwood and later to the de Mohun family, at least one via the Flemings.

de Mandeville

It passed at some time, by means unknown, from Walter of Douai to the de Mandeville family, feudal barons of Marshwood in Dorset. A tenant of Geoffrey de Mandeville's manor of Ottery was Reginald de Mohun, as recorded in the Feudal Aid records.

Fleming

The Fleming family at some time held Ottery, which became known as Ottery Fleming. They were also lord of the manor of adjoining Luppitt, which manors thenceforth descended under common ownership for several centuries. It is not known what relationship if any this family bore to the Fleming family, named after its likely origins in Flanders, of Bratton Fleming and other manors in North Devon. The descent was as follows:

Mohun

The de Mohun family succeeded the Flemings as tenants of Ottery, but seemingly still as mesne tenants. The mural monument in Exeter Cathedral of Sir Peter Carew (d.1575) of Mohuns Ottery shows the maunch arms of Mohun quartering Fleming (Vair, a chief chequy or and gules, which if in accordance with the rules of heraldry indicates that the Mohuns married a Fleming heiress. Reginald de Mohun held Ottery under Geoffrey de Mandeville as overlord, as recorded in the Feudal Aid records. The family later superseded the overlord and held this manor as a tenant-in-chief of the king, when the manor became known as Ottery Mohun, with the standard word order for manors with proprietorial suffixes, and later as Mohun's Ottery.

The de Mohun family seated at Ottery was a junior branch descended from the Norman magnate William I de Mohun, feudal baron of Dunster in Somerset, who is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as seated at Dunster Castle. The historian the Duchess of Cleveland wrote as follows in her 1889 work Battle Abbey Roll concerning the origins of the de Mohun (alias Mohon, Moion, etc.) family:

The descent of the de Mohun family of Dunster was as follows:

The arms of Mohun (ancient) survive at Mohuns Ottery: "There, on a shield in the spandrel, is carved, amid elegant scroll work and foliage, the old coat-armour of the family — an arm vested in an ermine maunch, the hand grasping a golden fleur-de-lys; a bearing, which, for some reason unknown, John de Mohun, Baron of Dunster, who died in 1330, abandoned for the afterward well-known coat, adopted also by the Abbeys of Newenham and Bruton — a cross engrailed sable, on a field or".

Carew

The Carew family succeeded to the Mohun family as holders of Ottery, but never changed the proprietorial suffix. The descent of Mohuns Ottery from Sir William Mohun (younger son from his second marriage of Reginald II de Mohun of Dunster) was as follows:

John I Carew (d.1324)

John I Carew (d.1324), who married firstly Elinor Mohun, heiress of Mohuns Ottery. He was the eldest son and heir of Nicholas I Carew (died 1311), feudal lord of Carew Castle in Pembrokeshire and lord of the manor of Moulsford in Berkshire. He survived his first wife and remarried to Joan Talbot, daughter of Sir Gilbert Talbot, by whom he had issue. It is believed that the now empty arched recess in Luppit Church may originally have housed his effigy.

Nicholas II Carew (d.1323)

Nicholas II Carew (d.1323), son (by his father's first wife Elinor Mohun) and heir apparent, who married Elinor Talbot, daughter of Richard Lord Talbot, but died without progeny. He bequeathed his estates including Mohuns Ottery to his younger half-brother John Carew (d.1363), the son of John Carew (d.1324) by his second wife Joan Talbot, daughter of Sir Gilbert Talbot.

John II Carew (d.1363)

John II Carew (d.1363),younger half-brother, the son of John Carew (d.1324) by his second wife Joan Talbot, daughter of Sir Gilbert Talbot. He was a great soldier and fought at the Battle of Crécy in 1346. He married twice:

Sir Leonard Carew (1343-1369)

Sir Leonard Carew (1343-1369), son and heir by his father's first wife Margaret de Mohun. He married Alice FitzAlan, daughter of Sir Edmund FitzAlan de Arundel (c.1327-1376/82) by his wife Sybil de Montacute, a younger daughter of William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury. Sir Edmund FitzAlan was the bastardised eldest son of Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel (c.1306/13-1376) by his first wife Isabel le Despenser (1312-c.1376-7). As the Earl obtained an annulment of his first marriage on the basis of both parties having been under-age, Sir Edmund FitzAlan was bastardised and thus prevented from inheriting the earldom.

Thomas Carew (1361-1430)

Thomas Carew (1361-1430), son and heir, "a valiant knight" who served under King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. He married Elizabeth Bonville, daughter of Sir William Bonville (d.1408) of Shute, Devon, by his wife Margaret Damerell.

Nicholas III Carew

Nicholas III Carew, eldest son and heir, who married Joane Courtenay (born 1411), a daughter of Sir Hugh Courtenay (1358–1425) of Haccombe in Devon and of Boconnoc in Cornwall, MP and Sheriff of Devon, a grandson of Hugh Courtenay, 2nd/10th Earl of Devon (1303–1377) and grandfather of Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (d.1509). Joane Courtenay's mother was her father's second wife, namely Phillipa Archdekne, daughter and heiress of Sir Warren Archdekne of Haccombe in Devon. Joane Courtenay was the eventual sole-heiress of her mother, and was the heiress of 16 manors, which she divided amongst her younger Carew sons. She gave Haccombe to her second son Nicholas Carew, founder of the Carew family of Haccombe (see Carew baronets (1661) of Haccombe).

Later Carew lords of the manor included:

Southcote

Yonge

The manor was purchased (probably from the co-heiresses of Sir Popham Southcote) by Sir Walter Yonge, 2nd Baronet (c.1625-1670), of Great House, Colyton, Devon, who according to the Devon historian Polwhele (d.1838), "had begun to build a seat at the ancient mansion of Mohuns Ottery in the parish of Luppitt, near Ottery, but Sir Walter Yonge, taking a liking to the situation of Escot, purchased it and immediately began to build the present seat". This was his son and heir Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet (1653-1731) , who in about 1680 built Escot House in the parish of Talaton, Devon.

Hawker

In about 1793 the estates of Sir George Yonge, 5th Baronet (d.1810), K.B., were sold, including the manors of Luppit and Mohuns Ottery, to William II Hawker (d.1806) of Poundisford Lodge, Pitminster, near Taunton, Somerset. Sir George Yonge, 5th Baronet was MP for Honiton and Secretary at War, but died without progeny, when the baronetcy became extinct. William II Hawker (d.1806) of Poundisford Lodge was the only son of William I Hawker (d.1739) of Luppitt by his wife Mary Sampson. He married Elizabeth Welman, only child of Thomas Welman of Poundisford Park (alias Lower Poundisford). He was described as: "A steady Dissenter and a firm Whig who used to speak with a virtuous glow of his descent on the maternal side from the Reverend and Learned Thomas Sampson, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, the bold opposer of superstition and tyranny in the reign of Queen Elizabeth"

Bernard

20th century

In 1986 "Mohuns Ottery Farm" was occupied by Arthur Francis William Blackmore (born 1911), chairman of the Luppitt Commons Committee, who had lived in the parish of Luppitt all his life. At that date a "Miss Barnard" still lived in the parish, at Wren Cottage.