Alexander was son of Sir Richard Champernowne of Modbury, by his first wife Alice daughter of Thomas Lord Astley, and whose second wife was Katharine daughter of Sir Giles Daubeney.
The family of De Ferraris or Ferrers, whose "name and blood" Blanche Champernowne represented, deserves a short genealogical notice here.
They had from very early date been settled in the parish of Beer, one part of which, says Pole, "takes his name of ye family of Ferrers, th"
ancient inhabitants, from whence all the Ferrers in Devon and Cornwall issued." Ralph de Ferrers was its lord in the reign of King Henry II., to him succeeded Henry, Reginald, and Sir William who married Isolda daughter of Andrew Cardinham, leaving issue Sir Roger, Sir Reginald, and Sir Hugh the ancestor of the Churston descent. Sir Reginald, of Beer, married Margaret sister and coheiress of Sir Robert le Dennis of Pancrasweek, and had issue Sir William who married Matilda daughter of Roger Carminow. They were followed by their son Sir John, who was succeeded by his son Sir Martyn, who, says Pole, was "the last of that name of Ferrers, Lord of Beere-Ferrers; a person of great honour and integrity, one of the princ.i.p.al persons entrusted with the guard of this shire," corroborated by Risdon, who adds, "he was put in special trust, with others, for the defence of the sea-coast against the invasion of the French in King Edward the third"s time."
Sir Martyn left three daughters, Elizabeth married to Hugh Poynings, Lord St. John of Basing, Leva to Christopher Fleming, Baron of Slane in Ireland, and Jone "to whom the mannor of Beer-Ferrers fell in porcion" to Alexander Champernowne. Further notices of this family will occur on our visit to the little sanctuary in the village, which they appear to have originally built, and wherein several interesting memorials to them remain. Their allusive arms were, _Or, on a bend sable, three horse-shoes argent._
Concerning this prettily named heiress Blanche Champernowne and her family, the prosaic and literal old itinerant Leland, gives us further notice, and, if his description of her be correct, takes much of the romance out of it,--
"There was another house of the Campernulphes more auncient, caullid Campernulphe of Bere. The last of this house left a doughter and heire caullid Blanche, maried first onto Copestan of Devonshire, and after devorcid and maried onto the Lord Brooke, Steward onto Henry the VII, and he had by her a 700 markes of lande by yere.
"John Willoughby that cam out of Lincolnshire and maried the an heire general of the Lord (of) Broke, and after was Lord Brooke hymself, lyeth buried at Hedington, and was a benefactor to that house. As I remembre, the sunne of this Lord Broke was Steward of king Henry the VII House, and his son was the third Lord Brooke of that--. N.B.--and he had a sunne by his firste wife, and that sunne had ij doughters maried to Daltery and Graville.
He had by another wife sunnes and doughters. The sunnes toward yong men died of the sweting syknes."
The genealogy is here somewhat confused, but Leland appears to have been trusting to memory only.
We have made pilgrimage to, and described what remains of the old ancestral home of the knight in Wiltshire, and our steps next lead us to the locality of the new one he possessed by right of his wife at Beer-Ferrers in Devon. Like all places situate on the estuaries of large rivers such as the Tamar, that are tidal, and fringed by creeks that run considerable distances inland, Beer-Ferrers on the land side is only to be reached by a circuitous route from Plymouth, and therefore we elect the easier and more direct approach to it, by aid of the iron horse to Saltash, and thence by boat.
The tide is well up, and a pleasant breeze soon speeds us on our way.
We pa.s.s the Budshead creek, that extends inland to Tamerton-Foliot, and are soon opposite a second and somewhat larger opening that runs up to Maristow, where, at its far end, the sparkling Tavy, fresh from the granite boulders of Dartmoor, delivereth her waters into the salt bosom of the lower Tamar. At about mid-distance up the creek on its northern sh.o.r.e, a small compact village, with a square battlemented church tower rising in the midst, has its place on the bank that slopes gently down to the water"s edge. Thither we steer our way, and making fast our little craft to the pier, or "quay" as these landing places are locally termed, find ourselves at Beer-Ferrers.
And where shall we discover this new home, you say, that Lord Willoughby de Broke acquired by right of Blanche Champernowne, and when in the flesh possessed and resided in, with surrounding park, and for which mansion or manor-house, his wife"s ancestor Sir William de Ferrers had a license to castellate from king Edward III. in 1337, a concession subsequently renewed to his widow the Lady Matilda, and continued to his son Sir John?
Even in Leland"s time, immediately after the decease of the last Lord Willoughby de Broke, it seems to have disappeared, for he notes:--"on the east side of this creek is Buckland. And on the west side is Bere, _where the Lord Broke"s house and park was_." We believe nothing now remains to mark its former site but a few undulations in the turf. A graphic picture of the lawlessness of the era of Lord Willoughby de Broke"s earlier residence at Beer-Ferrers, and the amenities of social life exhibited between the "bettermost folk" of that district, and comparatively neighbours also, is shewn in an account preserved among the muniments of the Earl of Mount Edgc.u.mbe, describing attacks made on the person, servants and residence of his ancestor Richard Edgc.u.mbe of Cotehele (M.P. for Tavistock in 1468) by Robert Willoughby of Beer-Ferrers, and thus described by the Earl to the members of the Royal Archaeological Society in 1876:--
"The doc.u.ment is rather amusing, dated 1470, and is apparently the rough copy of a complaint or information by this Richard against Robert Willoughby, who lived across the water at Beer Ferrers, of injuries done to him at sundry times. This paper which is remarkable for its wonderful spelling and for the careful way in which every hostile act is estimated at its money value, contains no less than thirteen items or charges, each specifying some distinct outrage on the part of the said Willoughby and his followers, numbering on one occasion "_three score persons, in form of war arraied, with jackes, salettes, bowys, ar"ws, and byelys, who at various times and places contrewayted the said Richard to have mordered him and with force of armes made a great affray and a.s.sawte upon him and his servants sometimes to the gret jeperdy and dispayre of his liff_," always to his hurt and damage of so many pounds. And on another occasion attacked Cotehele House itself and carried off a very miscellaneous collection of articles to the hurt and damage of the said Richard of a great many pounds; and at other times took divers of his servants and kept them for a week at a time in prison at "_Bere Ferrers_," and "_bete_" and grievously wounded others, especially one William Frost, to the hurt and damage to the said Richard of 20 and more. It is a curious fact that fifteen years later this Willoughby (as Lord de Broke) and Richard Edgc.u.mbe held high places together in the court of Henry VII."
Richard Edgc.u.mbe had a narrower escape however from the vengeance of Richard III., after the suppression of Buckingham"s revolt, in which he was a partizan, being strongly attached to the fortunes of the Red Rose. A party of armed men in Richard"s interest, headed according to tradition by Sir Henry Bodrugan, otherwise Trenoweth, of St. Gorran in Cornwall, an adherent of the White Rose, made search for him in his own beautiful home of Cotehele. Carew describing the event says,
"he was driven to hide himself in those his thick woods, which overlook the river, what time being suspected of favouring the Earle of Richmond"s party, against King Richard the III., he was hotely pursued, and narrowly searched for. Which extremity taught him a sudden policy, to put a stone in his cap, and tumble the same into the water, while these rangers were fast at his heeles, who looking downe after the noyse, and seeing his cap swimming thereon supposed that he had desperately drowned himselfe, gave over their farther hunting and left him at liberty to shift away, and ship over into Brittaine: for a grateful remembrance of which delivery, hee afterwards builded in the place of his lurking, a Chapell."
After the victory of Bosworth, and Henry was seated on the throne, it came to Edgc.u.mbe"s chance to turn the tables on his adversary, and this he did most effectually. Tradition further relates, according to Lysons quoting from Tonkin, that,
"Sir Henry Bodrugan was in arms in Cornwall against the Earl of Richmond, (Henry VII.) that he was defeated on a moor, not far from his own castle by Sir Richard Edgc.u.mbe and Trevanion, and that he made his escape by a desperate leap from the cliff into the sea, where a boat was ready to receive him, and fled to Ireland, when all his large estates, including Bodrugan Castle, described by Borlase "that there was nothing in Cornwall equal to it for magnificence" were forfeited to the Crown. Most of Bodrugan"s estates, including the manor of St. Gorran (whereon was the castle) were granted to Sir Richard Edgc.u.mbe, and now belong to his descendants."
Two very remarkable and almost identically coincident escapes. The place where he jumped over the cliff at Dodman"s Head, is still known as "Bodrugan"s Leap."
Edgc.u.mbe was Comptroller of the Household, and of the Privy Council to Henry VII., and died returning from an emba.s.sy to France, at Morlaix on his way home, in 1489. Willoughby, Lord de Broke was his superior officer as Lord Steward of the Household to the same monarch; thus at Court they were closely a.s.sociated with each other. Subsequently 22 Henry VII. (1497), Lord de Broke obtained of the king a grant in fee of the manor of Trethewye in St. Cleer, and all the lands there, part of the forfeited possessions of Sir Henry Bodrugan, and which were situate near his other property at Callington. So these worthies divided the spoil of their unfortunate neighbour.
As it hath happened to us aforetime, in many of our wanderings, in search of the former earthly habitations of those we were essaying to bring back to the stage of our thoughts, so also here,--successively of Ferrers, Champernowne and Willoughby,--all traces of their olden home have disappeared, and only a site with a name and a tradition remains to identify where stood their antient dwelling-place.
Therefore our steps lead us back to that hallowed spot, where they, in common with us all, found their last and final home of eternal rest, there to seek for such memorials of them as may yet remain.
The church of Beer-Ferrers is an antient structure, the chancel and transepts of interesting early-decorated character, and but little disturbed from their original condition. But although used for parochial worship in the ordinary sense of the word, the little sanctuary was of old something more than that, being dignified ecclesiastically as a foundation of collegiate character, and termed an Arch-Presbytery. Of these somewhat uncommon religious establishments there were two in Devon, the other being at Haccombe, founded (about the same time) 1341, by Sir Stephen de Haccombe. This, at Beer-Ferrers, was founded by Sir William de Ferrers, who having rebuilt the church was desirous of making it Collegiate. For this purpose he a.s.signed a sufficient endowment for an arch-priest and four other priests, who were to live in common under the same roof; and provision was also made for an a.s.sistant deacon, or sub-deacon, or at least a clerk. The Community were to perform the daily and nightly office in the church, and to offer up perpetual prayers for the prosperity of the Founder and his Lady Matilda during their lives, and for their souls after death. Also for the souls of Reginald de Ferrers and his wife Margery (parents of the Founder) and the souls of Sir Roger and Lady Joan de Carminow (parents of his wife) and the bishops of Exeter living or dead. Bishop Grandison confirmed this foundation 17 June, 1333. The Founder did not long survive his charitable work, for it is found in that prelate"s register (vol. ii., fol. 219) that his relict and executrix Matilda obtained from the bishop 15 Dec., 1338, an acknowledgment of having well and faithfully administered to her husband"s property, and that only the sum of twenty pounds remained in arrear, "_ad completionem cantarie de Biry_." (Oliver.)
A glance into the chancel, although five centuries have flown, brings us face to face with the Founder and his wife. There--marvellously preserved--humbly postured on one knee, his glowing tinted proportions, amid the crimson interlacery, and quarrels of pale-pencilled leaflets, that fill the east window, arrayed in gilded chain-mail, silver genouilleres and sword-hilt, with the armories of his race, the dark bend and gleaming horse-shoes traversing both ailette and surcoat. In his raised hands he bears the offering of a grand church, having three spires, and over his head runs a legend that apparently reads "(SYR) E WILL"S FERREYS ME FECIT." Fronting him in the adjoining light, with hands uplifted in prayer, kneels his wife Matilda Carminow, in snowy wimple and cover-chief, pink boddice and sleeves, with the broad bend of her husband"s arms embroidered on her golden robe. The inscription above her head, seems to be confused and undecipherable. Studding the borders of the lights, interspersed among other ornaments, are the arms of Ferrers and Carminow, and a grand escutcheon similarly charged, and encircled with beautiful green-foliaged ornament occurs below.
Thus much for the history of the foundation of the arch-presbytery as depicted in the window; immediately beneath on the north side of the altar, upon a raised tomb of plain character, rest the rec.u.mbent effigies of the Founder and his wife, carved in stone, and habited almost exactly in duplicate of the figures limned on the gla.s.s above.
Over them rises a beautiful pyramidal canopy, cusped below, flanked by pinnacles rising from the ground, the whole richly foliaged and finialed. In the upper spandrels are angels swinging censers.[5] But the peculiarity of this memorial consists in the lower portion of the canopy being cut through the wall, and opening to the side-chapel or chamber that adjoins the chancel on that side, where its elevation is repeated, as in the church, but with much less ornament.
[5] There appears to be only two examples of this fine style of monument found in the county, the other occurring in the Chapel of St. James, in Exeter Cathedral.
In the transept, which appears to be coeval with the chancel, in the east wall is a piscina, and the moulding immediately adjoining, marks the position of an altar that once had its position there. In a recess beneath a finely moulded arch at the north end under the window, is the effigy of a knight in chain-mail and surcoat, with shield, and hands grasping his sword, cross-legged,--the head raised and supported on a large bascinet-shaped helmet. The legs are destroyed to the knees, and of the lion on which his feet rested, only the paws remain.
This figure is of contemporary date with the Founder in the chancel, with great probability is a Ferrers, and may represent his father, who was on the bede-roll of the foundation.
Here concludes our notices of the memorials of Ferrers, the first of the influential families Blanche Willoughby represented. Our next care, will, if it may be, to note any traces of the equally antient race that succeeded them at Beer, and gave to her, her maiden name of Champernowne.
One only, humble but characteristic, remains, now ousted from its original position in the pavement of the church, to the yard outside, where it must speedily pa.s.s to decay. It is a flat stone, on which is incised a Calvary cross on degrees, having at the intersection the Sacred Heart _rayonne_, inscribed with the Sacred Monogram. Below is this inscription,--
=Hic iacet Roger Champnow"e Armiger cui" a"i"e p"p"cietur de" ame"=
This was the eldest brother of John Champernowne, to whom he succeeded at Beer, and uncle to Blanche Willoughby. Roger died 14 November, 1422.
Following these, our investigations naturally carry us on to note such remembrances of Willoughby as occur in the sacred edifice. There are several, actual and inferred, but our jottings must be stayed for the present, as the first memorial to that n.o.ble race is found elsewhere,--and our steps will return here after a while to conclude them.
Again we have recourse to our little craft, and crossing the bright Tamar, land on the Cornish side, and thence by a circuitous and winding lane of considerable length, find ourselves on the high road about halfway between the old half-maritime, half-inland borough of Saltash, and the equally antient half-mining, half-agricultural borough of Callington. As we steadily climb the gentle but continual ascent that leads to the old tinners" town, a grand and varied prospect surrounds us. Immediately in front looms the immense pyramidal ma.s.s of Hingston Down and Kit Hill rising over it, in all near eleven hundred feet above the tidal marge of the blue sea that gleams behind us, its crest garnished with many a tall chimney stack, the out-growth of that glamour of wealth so invincibly dear to the Cornishman"s heart, that is always coming, but so seldom arrives, and whose witchery has been handed down from countless generations even long before old Leland"s foot pa.s.sed over it, and he made note of it as "being a hy hylle, and nere Tamar yn the easte part, baryn of his self, yt it is fertile by yielding of tynne both by water and dry warkes." Hence the distich,
"Hengston Down well yrought, Is worth London Town dear ybought,"
but whose smokeless chimneys now stand as the witness-ghosts of the hundreds of thousands of buried treasure sunk aforetime within its vast bosom, yet nevertheless rich to a degree in mineral wealth, and boundless resource of granite and clay of the finest quality, from which considerable returns have been made. To the right in the far distance rise the shadowy tors of Dartmoor in successive range, melting back and merging into the grey realms of cloud-land. On the left, clear cut into the bright evening sky, appears the magnificent boldly outlined ma.s.s of the Caradons, behind which the sun has just dipped, and a blue aerial haze of singular beauty and varying density, stretches down their side and unites them to the broad valley beneath.
We pa.s.s the skirt of Viverdon Down, an immense common, susceptible of better cultivation, but now a fastness for game only, and rough food for young animals; albeit gay in its appointed season with wealth of heather and gorse, and, if neglected by man, glorified by the unseen touch of the Infinite,--
"How full of love must He In all things be, Who strews with beauty e"en the waste and wold, Who gives the moorland lark His purple heath-bower dark; The mountain bee, his wilderness of gold."
Quietly continuing our way, a short distance further brings us to the apex of the ascent, and as we begin to descend, before us is the "tynner"s towne" of Callington, with its granite-built, expressively-pinnacled church tower rising well above the cl.u.s.tering houses that surround it.
Here, at Callington, Lord Willoughby de Broke held another large property by right of his wife as a descendant of Ferrers, and also at South-Hill, as being himself the representative of the family of Stafford. Lysons says,--
"The manor of Callington was in the Ferrers family when the market was granted in 1267 by Henry III.; Joan daughter of Martyn Ferrers, brought it into the Champernowne family, Lord Willoughby de Broke became possessed of it by marrying their heiress. It appears that he occasionally resided, and that he died, at the Manor-house of Callington, for he directed in his will he should be buried in the church of that parish in which he should die.
From Willoughby it pa.s.sed by successive marriages to Paulet, Marquis of Winchester (who married his grand-daughter Elizabeth), Dennis, Rolle, Walpole, and Trefusis. At Southill, two-thirds of the great manor or franchise of Callilond or Kalliland, to which the church of Southill is appendant, which belonged formerly to the baronial family of Stafford, and pa.s.sed by a coheiress to Willoughby Lord Broke, and now vested in Trefusis."
Where the Manor-house mentioned by Lysons was situate cannot now be determined, but it is surmised to have been a building, which has long wholly disappeared, and was called Chickett-Hall, that formed Lord Willoughby de Broke"s residence at Callington, and where he presumably departed this life. He was patron of the important benefice of South-Hill, and in its daughter church of Callington he was buried.
But according to Sir R. C. h.o.a.re he died at Wardour Castle, Wilts, which he had purchased.
Lord Broke made his will 19 August, 1502, and "_ordered his body to be buried in that parish wherein he should happen to die appointing that part of the issues and profits of Mitton and Kelmesham, &c., Co.
Worcester, and the Manors of Helmingham, Thorpe-Latimer, Skredyngton, Heckington, Ledynghall and Swynehead in Com: Lincoln (then lately belonging to Lord Latimer) should be employed, by the s.p.a.ce of twenty years next after his decease, to the finding of a priest to sing in the parish church of Hoke in Com: Dorset, for that term, taking for his salary every year ten marks, and to the relief of fourteen poor men and women, by the s.p.a.ce of the said twenty years, to pray for his soul, as also for the soul of Blanche his wife, and the souls of his father and mother_." Probate, 25 December next ensuing. (Dugdale.)
Lord Willoughby de Broke is buried on the north side of the chancel of Callington church, and his monument--perhaps the finest of its kind in Cornwall--consists of his effigy rec.u.mbent on a high-tomb, both composed of alabaster. He is habited in complete plate armour, collar and ap.r.o.n of mail, and broad-toed sollerets, and is armed with sword and misericorde. The hands are in gauntlets, the head--which rests on a helmet--is uncovered, the hair cut short across the forehead, but flowing by the sides of the face, to the shoulders. The helmet is mantled, and surmounted by the crest _a Saracen"s head affronte, couped at the shoulders, ducally crowned, and with ear-rings_. The feet are on a lion, and behind the soles, are two monks, or weepers, their heads bowed and inclining toward each other, resting on one hand, with the other they hold a rosary. The Garter appears below the left knee, and over the armour he wears the Robe and Collar of the Order, on the left shoulder is embroidered the Shield encircled by the Riband, the Collar is composed of roses within a garter, and garter-knots alternate, and from it is suspended the George.
The tomb below is formed of panels filled with rich tracery, having in their centres shields with carved armorial bearings, and twisted pillars were at the corners; of these two remain. No inscription is visible, it was probably only painted on the verge of the ledger-moulding, but traces of colour and gilding are faintly discernible on the figure. The effigy is in a fair state of preservation, but wretchedly disfigured on the surface, by legions of names and initials, barbarously cut into, and scratched on it.
The shields,--two of which are encircled by the Garter,--are charged with the arms borne by Lord Willoughby de Broke, as derived from Willoughby de Eresby with due difference. Quarterly: first grand quarter 1 and 4, _Sable, a cross engrailed or_ (UFFORD); 2 and 3, _Gules, a cross moline argent_ (BEC or BEKE), at the intersection _a crescent for difference_; second, _Gules, a cross patonce or_ (LATIMER); third, _Gules, four fusils argent, on each an escallop sable_ (CHENEY); fourth, _Or, a chevron gules, within a bordure engrailed sable_ (STAFFORD). On the styles between the panels appears the _rudder_, surmounted by the _rose_ of his patron Henry VII.
It is singular that no armorial alliance allusive to his wife appears on the tomb, but only his own family achievement with its proud distinguishment conspicuously displayed, finds place thereon. Yet Blanche Champernowne was an heiress of no mean descent, and richly dowered also, being the representative of the two very antient races of Ferrers and Champernowne, west country names of remote descent, and wide-spread renown, whose property she inherited. The more to be noted also, as he was presumably buried and his monument occurs in the church at Callington, whose manor formed a portion of her possessions.
Where Lady Willoughby de Broke was buried does not appear. At Beer-Ferrers the _horse-shoes_ of Ferrers do find position of equal consequence with her husband"s, but largely super-imposed with the _rudders_ of Willoughby. Champernowne does not appear in either church, but on her descendant"s tomb at Alcester, both Ferrers and Champernowne are carefully marshalled among the elaborate heraldic display.
Stay thy foot, friend of mine, a short while, ere thou pa.s.sest out of the sacred enclosure, and scan yon venerable churchyard cross--how rich is Cornwall in these reminders--slightly leaning, yet hale in the strength of the almost imperishable granite, and with the age-worn imagery of the Great Sacrifice, still plainly discernible, insculped on one of the faces of its pediment. There it was before the honour-bedizened n.o.ble--whose tomb we have been just surveying--found his way to Callington to enjoy the portion of his great possessions, situate near it; and who shall say he may not many a time have bowed his head in silent prayer, and crossed himself reverently at the sight of its solemn appeal, when in life he pa.s.sed in front of it, as he entered the adjoining sanctuary for worship, ere he finally found therein his grave. And here also it is to-day, speaking the same eternal lesson to us, who are seeking to gather back from the woof of the Past, ravelled threads of his memory; and there it will doubtless be found, when we also are merged into the things that were. Such is
THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS.