Modbury Priory was a

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

priory in the parish of

Modbury Modbury is a large village, ecclesiastical parish, civil parish and former manor in the South Hams district of the county of Devon in England. Today due to its large size it is generally referred to as a "town" although the parish council has ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, established before 1129 which was one of the longest surviving alien priories in England, most of which were suppressed in 1414. It was located close to the present parish church of St George in the town of Modbury, but its exact location is unclear.

History

Foundation

It was founded at some time before 1129 by Ralph de Vautort and his brother Reginald I de Vautort (died about 1123), 1st feudal baron of Trematon in Cornwall ( Latinised to ''de Valletorta''), an Anglo-Norman follower of

Robert, Count of Mortain Robert, Count of Mortain, first Earl of Cornwall of 2nd creation (–) was a Norman nobleman and the half-brother (on their mother's side) of King William the Conqueror. He was one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror at t ...

, half-brother of King

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

. Reginald I de Vautort held 55 manors in Devon and Cornwall from Robert, one of which was Modbury. The Vautort family is believed to have originated at the manor of Torteval in

Calvados Calvados (, , ) is a brandy from Normandy in France, made from apples and/or pears. History In France Apple orchards and brewers are mentioned as far back as the 8th century by Charlemagne. The first known record of Norman distillation was ma ...

, Normandy. The priory was a dependency of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives in Calvados. The right to appoint a new prior continued to be held by the

lord of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

of Modbury, for many generations in the 15th and 16th centuries the Champernowne family ( Latinised to ''de Campo Arnulphi''), with the approval of the

Bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. The current bishop is Mike Harrison (bishop), Mike Harrison, since 2024. From the first bishop until the sixteent ...

. Thus this right was exercised in 1361/2 by Thomas Champernowne and in 1429/30 by Hugh Champernowne.

Donated to Eton College

It survived King Henry V's Suppression of Alien Priories of 1414, but in 1441, under the priorship of William Benselyn, it was finally dissolved by King Henry VI, who gave its possessions to his new foundation of

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

Donated to Tavistock Abbey

King Edward IV, having deposed Henry VI in 1461, reassigned Modbury's lands in 1466 to

Tavistock Abbey Tavistock Abbey, also known as the Abbey of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Saint Mary and Saint Rumon, is a ruined Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine abbey in Tavistock, Devon. The Abbey was surrendered in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monaste ...

in Devon, much favoured by him, but these were soon after restored to Eton, which continued to hold many of them until the 19th centuryOliver, p.298 and beyond.

Sources

Religious buildings and life in early Modbury
The History of Modbury, Devon
Modbury Priory
Pastscape, English Heritage

References