The church of Colomby, to use the language of M. de Gerville, is one of the last of the religious edifices built by those powerful barons, whose sway extended equally over Normandy and England. No records, indeed, are left either as to the actual time of its erection, or the name of its founder. With respect, however, to the former, the style of the architecture is sufficiently decisive; and there is as little cause for hesitation in referring its origin to a nobleman allied to the family of the Conqueror.

Baldwin de Brionis, or de Molis, who accompanied that monarch in his expedition against England, and was afterwards married to his niece, was rewarded by him for his services, with the barony of Okehampton, where he resided, as well as with the custody of the county of Devon, and the government of Exeter castle, in fee. The earldom of the same county, together with a grant of the Isle of Wight, was conferred by Henry I. upon the son of Baldwin, Richard de Redvers; and, either in the same or the following generation, this powerful family obtained a still farther accession to its riches and honors, in the possession of NÉhou, a considerable portion of the barony of St. Sauveur le Vicomte, which NÉel, Viscount of the Cotentin, had forfeited in 1047. The domain of NÉhou included a collegiate church; and one of the prebends of this was attached to the second portion of the church of Colomby.

It appears from three inquiries instituted at different times by the bishops of Coutances, with a view to ascertain the value of the livings in their diocese, that, in the years 1255, 1666, and 1737, Colomby was under two separate ministers; one of them nominated by the lord, the other by the abbey of Montbourg.[84]

Almost all the noblemen of the family of Redvers, who, after the conquest of England, commonly assumed the additional name of Vernon, were distinguished by the baptismal appellation of Baldwin, William, or Richard. The first of the Richards laid the foundation of the monastery of Montbourg. He died there in 1107, after having enriched his rising convent with numerous donations, and, among others, with the second portion of Colomby. Baldwin, his son and successor, confirmed the donations: he took arms against King Stephen, and was forced by that monarch to flee from England in 1136; shortly after which time he completed the abbey begun by his father, and caused it to be dedicated in 1152: three years subsequently, he died. A second Richard, who succeeded him in his honors, as Earl of Devonshire and Lord of NÉhou, died in 1162; and a third of the same name, in 1184. This last, not content with merely confirming the donations made by his ancestors to Montbourg, materially increased them: he also added to the collegiate church of NÉhou, a fifth prebend, which he conferred upon one of the ministers of Colomby; and it was by him, according to the opinion of M. de Gerville, that the church, the subject of the present article, was built.

A few years only elapsed after the decease of this chieftain, before Normandy became re-united to the crown of France; and one of the first acts of Philip-Augustus, who then sat upon the throne, was to register the fiefs of his new province, their several possessors, and the service owed by each. This took place in the year 1207; and NÉhou, which was bound to furnish the monarch with five horse-soldiers, was at that time in the possession of Richard of Vernon, a nobleman of whom no notice is to be found in the genealogy of the lords of the Isle of Wight. The register records the fact in the following terms:—“Ric. de Vernon tenet baroniam de Neahou per servicium quimque militum. Guillelmus de Vernon tenet inde duo feoda et dimidium.”—The church of Colomby is in perfect preservation, unspoiled and undefaced by modern alterations or additions, saving only that of a porch at the western extremity. For simplicity and uniformity it cannot be surpassed; nor can any building be better qualified to afford a specimen of the religious architecture of the times. Though destitute both of transept and aisles, the tower is central: the east end terminates in a flat wall. The columns within are clustered and light; formed of stone, which unites, in an eminent degree, the advantage of great strength with that of yielding easily to the chisel, and which is dug from the quarries of Yvetot, near Valognes. The same quarries also furnished the principal part of the stone employed in the construction of the cathedral of Coutances. The plate exhibits at C. the elevation of the south side of the church; to which have been added, for the more complete understanding of the subject,

A. The west front.
B. East end.
D. South door-way to the chancel.
E. A single window.