Devonshire :: 18. History of Devonshire.

18. History of Devonshire.

The history of our country begins with the Roman occupation. For although we have ample and striking traces, in the shape of earthworks and stone circles, tools and weapons, pottery and ornaments, of the successive races of men who lived here before Julius Caesar set foot in Britain, those ancient and primitive people left no written records, not so much as an inscription on a single coin, and our knowledge of them is in the highest degree vague and uncertain.

Of many parts of our island the Romans took complete possession, constructing fortresses, making roads, establishing towns, building baths and temples and luxuriously appointed villas, and scattering, wherever they went, the coins whose lettering and devices have revealed to us so much concerning the some time masters of the world. In Somerset, for example, to which the conquerors were attracted partly by the hot and health-restoring springs of Bath, and partly by the silver-bearing lead mines of the Mendip Hills, the relics of their occupation have been found from one end of the county to the other.

In Devonshire, on the other hand, such relics are so few, and are confined to so limited an area that we are driven to the conclusion that, except as regards the city of Exeter, there was no definite Roman occupation at all. There is probably not one camp of Roman workmanship in the whole county. It is doubtful if any Roman road went farther than the river Teign. The sites of only two Roman villas are known with certainty. And although Roman coins have been found in many places, sometimes in hoards of hundreds, and in one case even of thousands, they are not absolute proof of actual occupation. The names Chester Moor, Scrobchester, and Wickchester, all near the Cornish border, may, perhaps, be of Roman origin.

There is, however, no doubt that Exeter, believed to be the Isca Dumniorum of Antonine's Itinerary—that wonderful register, planned by Julius Caesar and carried out by Augustus, of distances and stations along all the roads in the Empire—was an important Roman town; and there is reason to think, from the coins that have been found at many points within the walls, that the city was held by the Romans from the latter half of the first century of the Christian era until the time when the legions were recalled from Britain. The site of Moridunum, the second Roman station mentioned in the Itinerary, has not been identified, but there is some ground for the theory that it was at Hembury, four miles from Honiton.

A few vague and brief allusions in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, believed to refer to this county, describing how "Ina fought against Geraint," how "Cynewulf fought very many battles against the Welsh," and how "Egbert laid waste West Wales from eastward to westward," contain practically all that we know of the Saxon conquest of Devonshire. There is, indeed, so little record of actual fighting that it seems probable that the invaders settled here rather as colonists than conquerors, although Athelstan appears to have found it necessary to expel from Exeter the Britons who had so far shared the town with the Saxons.

The chief events in Devonshire between the departure of the Romans and the Norman Conquest were the repeated descents, spread over a long period of years, of the pirates whom we speak of as Danes or Northmen or Vikings; who pillaged the coast towns, sacked Exeter, sailed up the Tamar, and burnt and plundered Tavistock and Lydford. Victory was not always on the side of the marauders. Their first raid, in 851, was repulsed with great slaughter; and when, five and twenty years later, Guthrum seized Exeter, King Alfred promptly drove him out of it.

During the Saxon period there were mints at Exeter, Barnstaple, Totnes, and Lydford, and thousands of Devonshire-struck silver pennies are in existence. By far the greater number of them are in the royal museum at Stockholm, the most numerous being those of Ethelred II and Canute. Of the former there are in Stockholm 2254 specimens, compared with 144 in the British Museum. These Swedish specimens probably represent partly the plunder carried off by the Northmen, partly the bribes vainly paid to the invaders by Ethelred (whose surname of Unradig, "he who will not take counsel," or "the headstrong," has been misrendered "the Unready"), and partly the results of commerce while Canute was king.

Penny of Ethelred II, struck at Exeter

The year succeeding the Battle of Hastings found William the Conqueror before the gates of Exeter, a place already regarded, as it continued to be for many centuries, as the key of the West of England. He took the city after a brief siege and proceeded to secure his hold upon it by building the castle of Rougemont, which was hardly finished when it was unsuccessfully attacked by the Saxons. A year later the sons of Harold also tried in vain to take it. The last man of mark in Devonshire to hold out against Norman rule was Sithric, the Saxon abbot of Tavistock, who, when all was lost, fled to Hereward's camp of refuge in the Fens. A few Englishmen were left by the Conqueror in possession of their estates; but the county, as a whole, was divided among a number of Norman nobles, some of whose descendants, Courtenay, Carew, and Champernowne, for example, still survive in Devonshire. An interesting link with Norman times and customs is the ringing of the curfew bell, which is still kept up at Exeter, Okehampton, and other places. At eight o'clock every evening thirty strokes are sounded for "Curfew," and then eight more for the hour.

In the stormy reign of King Stephen Exeter was the last place to hold out for Queen Maud. The king was admitted into the town by the citizens, but the castle of Rougemont cost him a three months' siege.

The importance of Devonshire sea-ports brought the county into great prominence in mediaeval times. Part of Richard Coeur-de-Lion's crusading fleet, we are told, assembled at Dartmouth—a town which Chaucer, probably regarding it as a typical sea-port, chose for the native place of the Shipman in the Canterbury Tales. No other part of England furnished so many ships and men for Edward III's expedition against Calais. Again and again, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the French, in reprisal for what they had suffered by the attacks of England, harried the coast of Devon, plundering and burning Teignmouth, Plymouth, and other places on the coast.

The Black Death, the most terrible and destructive epidemic of which we have any record, which devastated the whole of England in 1348 and 1349, was very severe in this county, paralyzing agriculture and trade, and stopping for a time the building of Exeter cathedral.

Fighting in Devonshire during the Wars of the Roses was confined to an unsuccessful and half-hearted siege of Exeter by the Yorkists, and to attacks on the fortified manor-houses of Shute and Upcott. But many men in the county took sides in the struggle, and some of the great families suffered severely. Sir William Bonville was beheaded after the second Battle of St Albans. Of the ancient house of Courtenay, Thomas, Earl of Devon, was executed at York, Sir Hugh was beheaded at Sarum, and Sir John was killed at Wakefield Green. The county as a whole was Lancastrian. Queen Margaret herself was there after her defeat at Barnet; and French gold coins found in Blackpool sands are believed to be relics of the landing there, in 1470, of Warwick and Clarence. But when in the same year Edward IV visited Exeter, he was so well satisfied with his reception that he presented the corporation with a sword of state, which is still carried in processions before the mayor.

The peace of Devonshire in the fifteenth century was further disturbed by a rising, in 1483, against Richard III; by the march through the county, in 1497, of an army of Cornishmen who had risen in revolt against a heavy war-tax, and who were ultimately beaten at Blackheath; and by the insurrection, also in 1497, of Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be the Richard Duke of York usually said to have been murdered in the Tower, and who made a desperate although vain attack upon Exeter, when some of his men fought their way into the town, but were driven out again by the citizens.

About fifty years later, in 1549, there was a widespread and determined and altogether much more serious rebellion called the "Commotion," caused partly by the suppression of the Monasteries, which was greatly objected to by the poor, and partly by the introduction of the Prayer Book. The insurgents, who had collected from all parts of the West Country, and who were led by such men of mark as Pomeroy, Arundel, and Coffin, laid siege to Exeter and Plymouth, and for a time held the king's troops helplessly at bay. In the end, however, Lord Russell, one of the newly-created Lords Lieutenant, aided by German cavalry and Italian arquebusiers, defeated the rebels with great slaughter in a series of hotly-contested battles. The vicar of St Thomas in Exeter, who had encouraged the rising and who was described as very skilled both with the long-bow and the hand-gun, was hanged "in his Popish apparel" on the tower of his own church, and his body was left there for four years.

The reign of Queen Elizabeth has been called the Golden Age of English History. And among the heroic figures of that stirring time there are few more striking than the little group of Devonshire men who played so gallant a part in making England great:—Drake and Hawkyns, the scourges of Spain; Ralegh, courtier and soldier, sailor and author; Gilbert, the discoverer of Newfoundland; and Grenville, who at Flores, in the Revenge of immortal memory, kept at bay a Spanish fleet of fifty-three sail.

Signatures of Drake and Hawkyns

The great event of the reign was the defeat of the Armada. And although Howard of Effingham, the Lord High Admiral, showed himself a skilful and intrepid sailor, it is Drake whom we always think of first in connection with the victory. It was Drake whose buccaneering exploits on the coasts of Spain and her colonies did so much to heighten Philip II's ambition to humiliate England. It was Drake who, in 1587, dashed into Cadiz, where the Armada was preparing, and by destroying 100 ships and vast quantities of stores, delayed for a whole year the sailing of the expedition. And when at last the Armada had been sighted, it was Drake who, according to the commonly received tradition, thinking it wiser to wait until the enemy's fleet had passed Plymouth Sound, and so take them in the rear, persuaded his fellow-captains to stay and finish that never-to-be-forgotten game of bowls, before the English ships, lying ready in the Catwater, should slip their moorings and stand out to sea. It was Drake who was foremost in the attack. It was Drake who took the Capitana, the flagship of Pedro de Valdez, and brought her, the first prize of the great victory, into Torbay. And when the English fireships had scattered the hostile fleet in headlong flight, it was Drake who was foremost in the chase.

Flagon taken by Drake from the “Capitana” of the Armada

Flagon taken by Drake from the “Capitana” of the Armada
In Windsor Castle

Drake's Drum

Among the relics of Devonshire's greatest hero, carefully treasured by his descendants at his old home at Buckland Abbey, are his sword and the famous drum that he carried with him round the world; while at Nutwell Court are flags that he flew while in command of the Pelican, the miniature of herself given to him by Queen Elizabeth, and other objects of the greatest historical interest. And among the Royal plate in Windsor Castle is preserved the noble wine-flagon of bold silver-gilt repoussÉ work, standing nearly a yard high, which Drake took from the Capitana of the Armada and presented to Queen Elizabeth. An illustration of it, from a photograph taken for this book by command of the Queen, is here shown for the first time.

The “Mayflower” Stone on Plymouth Quay

During the retreat to Spain a second Armada vessel, the hospital-ship St Peter the Great, was driven ashore in Hope Cove; and the pulpit of St James's church, Exeter, and the timber roof of Tiverton School were, it is believed, made of wood either from this ship or from the Capitana.

It was not until this period that Plymouth came into prominence as a naval station. A special tax was levied on the pilchard fishery to provide money for the fortifications, and a leat or water-course was constructed with the primary object, it is said, of supplying fresh water for the royal ships.

A memorable event in James I's reign was the sailing of the Mayflower. Preceded by another ship called the Speedwell she set sail from Leyden in the autumn of 1620, having on board a number of Puritan refugees bent on finding in North America the religious freedom denied to them in England. The two vessels having met at Southampton and put into Dartmouth, were finally driven back by stress of weather into Plymouth, whence—her consort having proved unseaworthy—the Mayflower alone continued the voyage, ultimately landing her 101 exiles at Plymouth, Massachusetts, which, however, had received its name five years before.

In the Civil War between Charles I and the Parliament, few counties saw more fighting than Devonshire. The fighting consisted, however, not of pitched battles, but of sieges and attacks on fortified positions; which, indeed, was characteristic of the whole war, in whatever part of the country it was waged. Every Devonshire town of importance, a great number of villages, many castles, manor-houses, and even churches played a part in the struggle.

As a whole, the towns, with the exception of Exeter, sympathised with the Parliament, while the rural districts, encouraged by the great landowners, were mainly for the king. The royal forces were, however, numerous in Devonshire; Goring's army, in 1642, was 6000 strong; and although fortune wavered, and although towns were taken and retaken, there came a time, before the arrival of Fairfax and the New Model Army, when the royal standard flew from nearly every important town in Devon, Somerset, and Cornwall. There was one conspicuous exception. The party of the people never lost its hold on Plymouth, which, at a cost of 8000 lives, or more than the entire population of the town, withstood a blockade lasting from 1642 to 1646, together with many desperate attacks by Hopton, Prince Maurice, and the King himself, enduring altogether a longer siege than any other town in England.

Exeter was early seized for the Parliament, but the majority of the citizens were Royalists, and the city, which was regarded as one of the strongest Cavalier holds in the west, was soon retaken by Prince Maurice. Queen Henrietta was there in 1644, and there King Charles's youngest daughter, afterwards Duchess of Orleans, was born. When Fairfax retook the town in 1646 he allowed the garrison to march out with all the honours of war.

That year saw the final ruin of the Royal cause in the west, and the dispersal of the only army which, although little better than a mob, still kept the field for the King.

One of the most important, and at the same time most fiercely-contested Parliamentary victories, was the storming of the town of Torrington by Fairfax, at midnight, in the winter of 1646. After the battle, the church, which had been used by the king's troops (as also was Exeter cathedral) as a powder-magazine, was blown up, and 200 Royalist prisoners who had been confined in it and many of their guards were killed. The loss of Torrington was the death-blow of the Royal cause in Devon. All that a brave man could do, Hopton did. But the county was sick of the Royalists and their methods. The people had learnt that the well-disciplined troops of Fairfax were not mere robbers, like the ruffians of Grenville and Goring; and after Torrington the Royal army melted away.

The last place in the county to hold out for the King except Lundy, where there was no fighting, but which did not surrender until 1647, was Clifton Castle, or Fort Charles, near Salcombe. After enduring a blockade and siege of four months, with the trifling loss of one man killed and one wounded, the besieged were granted the same terms as the garrisons of Exeter and Barnstaple, and marched out with matches lighted, drums beating, and colours flying.

After the Battle of Worcester, in 1651, Charles II took refuge for a time in Devonshire. Four years later there was an attempt at an insurrection in his favour, known as Penruddock's Rising, and Charles was proclaimed King at South Molton. The movement was promptly suppressed, and its leader, Colonel Penruddock, was executed. It is interesting to remember that, at the Restoration in 1660, Exeter was the first town in England to acknowledge Charles II, and that he was there proclaimed King ten days before he landed at Dover. Seven years later, in 1667, the great Dutch Admiral De Ruyter captured all the shipping in Torbay.

During the Commonwealth and later, when there was no copper coinage in this country, many tradesmen all over England struck money of their own, chiefly in the form of farthings. Nearly 400 varieties of Devonshire "tokens," as they were called, issued by sixty different towns, are known. Ninety-one were struck at Exeter alone, which is more than were issued from any other provincial town except Norwich. At a much later period shillings and sixpenny tokens of leather were in circulation at Hartland.

After the Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme in Dorsetshire, in 1685, Axminster was the first town that he occupied, and a number of Colyton men are said to have joined his army. Otherwise the rebellion hardly touched Devonshire. Yet Judge Jeffreys put to death, at various places in the county, thirty-seven of the Duke's misguided followers. After the Battle of Sedgemoor, Wade and other fugitives attempted to escape by sea from Ilfracombe, but they were obliged to put back, and were caught in the woods near Lynton.

When, under very different auspices, William of Orange landed at Brixham on the 5th of November, 1688, he marched to Exeter, as the chief city of the west. The citizens at first held aloof, but in the end they gave to the Deliverer their hearty and most valuable support.

Two years later the French admiral Tourville, fresh from his victory over our fleet off Beachy Head, landed a strong force at Teignmouth, and sacked and burnt that part of the town which ever since has been known as French Street.

Both in 1715 and in 1745 the county was suspected of showing sympathy with the exiled Stuarts. But when in the former year the Duke of Ormond, with a small party of French soldiers, appeared in a war-ship off Brixham, expecting to be welcomed by the Devonshire Jacobites, he met with no encouragement.

Several episodes in the history of Devonshire are associated with the French war of the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. In 1797 a French squadron, afterwards captured by Admiral Bridport, sank the fishing-boats in Ilfracombe harbour. A few years later, in 1809, Princetown was built for the reception of the rougher class of French prisoners of war, and during the five years that followed 12,679 Frenchmen and Americans were confined there, while many others were billeted at Okehampton, Ashburton, Tavistock, and Moreton Hampstead. The Princetown buildings were afterwards disused—except for a short occupation by a naphtha company—until 1850, when they were converted into a prison for convicts.

It was at this period that Torquay came into note, having become a place of residence for the families of naval officers serving on men-of-war anchored in Torbay. In Torbay, too, was enacted what may be called the last scene of the war. For it was here, on the 24th of July, 1815, that Napoleon was brought a prisoner. And here he remained, except for a few days spent in Plymouth Sound, until the 11th of August, when he was taken to St Helena.

Clyx.com