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Today, Winscott is a large farmhouse in the parish of St Giles in the Wood, Devon, England. It was built on the site of the mansion house belonging to Tristram Risdon (died 1640), an early historian of Devon, who calls it both a "mansion" and a manor. It should not be confused with Winscott House in the nearby parish of Peters Marland, a Victorian mansion that was demolished after 1931.
The name Winscott is common for farms and hamlets in north Devon, the Anglo-Saxon word for the cottage of a cottar named "Wine". By the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, some cotts had grown to attain the status of manors, for example Winscott in Peters Marland.
In the 16th century Winscott was the property of the Barry family, according to Risdon a branch of the ancient de Barry family which played a prominent role in the Norman conquest of Ireland under King Henry II (1154-1189) and was granted the titles Baron Barry in about 1261 and Viscount Buttevant (premier viscount in Ireland) in 1541. The family had large landholdings around Cork in Ireland. One of the Barons Barry gave all his English lands to his second son, and this branch of the family resided at Winscott according to Risdon. Michael Barry (d. 1570) of Winscott married Johanna Pollard (1547-1610), the daughter of George Pollard of Langley, Yarnscombe and had an only child, a daughter Thomazin Barry who became the wife of John Tripconey of Gulval in Cornwall. The marriage was without progeny. Thomazin's mother Johanna Pollard had remarried to William Risdon, after the death of her first husband, and had remained in residence at Winscott.
William Risdon was the third son of Giles Risdon Esq., of Bableigh, in the nearby parish of Parkham. Their son Tristram Risdon was thus born at Winscott, and later it became his property when it was bequeathed to him by his childless half-sister Thomazin. Tristram Risdon married Pascoe (or Pascha) Chaffe, daughter of Thomas Chaffe of Exeter and Dodscott in the same parish. Their eldest son Giles Risdon (1609-1644) died without progeny when his heir became his brother William Risdon (d.1701), who married Mary Isack (1624-1690), daughter of Francis Isack (1589-1658) of Barnstaple and Aylescott, West Down, Devon, (whose mural monument with effigy survives in St Calixtus Church, West Down) by his wife Grace Roberts. He left as his sole heiress a daughter Mary Risdon. Mary married four times, but produced only a daughter Mary Prust, from her first marriage to Joseph Prust, who died aged 4 and is commemorated in a mural monument in the parish church, jointly with her grandmother Mary Isack who died aged 66 in the same unknown year, apparently 1690. She married secondly Amos Rolle, a son of Sir John Rolle (1626-1706), KB, of Stevenstone, St Giles in the Wood, thirdly to John Holland of Sheepwash and fourthly to John Stafford of Stafford.
After Mary's death Winscott descended into the family of Northcote, ancestors of Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh (1818-1887).
Tristram Risdon's daughter Johan had married James Hearle of Tawstock, whose daughter had married Edward Lovett of Corffe, Tawstock, whose daughter Penelope Lovett had married Sir Henry Northcote, 4th Baronet (1655-1730), of Corffe, Tawstock, whose mural monument survives in Tawstock Church.