Devon

From its foundation in the twelfth century, Dartmouth was important for its deep natural harbour, in a sheltered location close to the Dart estuary. A base for major mercantile and military voyages during the Middle Ages, the town first returned Members to Parliament in 1298, and secured the right to elect its own mayor in 1341. W.G. Hoskins, Devon, 179, 382-3; P. Russell, Dartmouth, 10. As the Dart silted up during the sixteenth century, Dartmouth prospered at the expense of Totnes, further upstream.

Founded in Saxon times at the head of the Taw estuary, Barnstaple developed into north Devon’s principal town, and indeed the county’s third richest urban community after Exeter and Plymouth. Although its medieval walls had crumbled by the early seventeenth century, the contemporary historian Thomas Risdon described it as ‘fair built, and populous withal, … pleasantly and sweetly situate[d] …; whose streets, in whatsoever weather, are clean and fairly paved’. In 1634, the population was estimated to be almost 8,000. W.G. Hoskins, Devon, 327-8; T.

Throughout the medieval period Tiverton was an insignificant settlement, which lay in the shadow of a castle held by the earls of Devon, and possessed only minimal privileges. It was not until the Courtenay family lost most of their power and lands in the mid-sixteenth century that the town escaped this seigneurial stranglehold, and began to achieve economic growth and political independence. J. Youings, ‘King James’s Charter to Tiverton’ (Reps. and Trans. Devon Assoc. xcix), 147-56; W.H. Hoskins, Devon, 495; M. Dunsford, Hist. Mems.

A village existed at Tavistock by the tenth century. An important Benedictine abbey was founded there in late Saxon times, and the monks encouraged the settlement’s development, obtaining grants of markets and fairs. Borough status was probably achieved during Henry II’s reign. Located on the western edge of Devon’s tin-mining zone, Tavistock was a stannary town from 1305. In the early Stuart period it was still the county’s busiest centre for coinage, the official processing of tin for sale, even though production in Devon had now significantly declined.

Founded by the Romans, Exeter flourished through its strategic location on the River Exe, which provided ready access to both the English Channel and most of Devon. Probably England’s fourth largest provincial town at the start of the seventeenth century, with a population of around 9,000, it played host to the Devon assizes and Admiralty court, while its cathedral served a diocese covering both Devon and Cornwall. W.T. MacCaffrey, Exeter 1540-1640, pp. 6, 8; P. Clark and P. Slack, English Towns in Transition 1500-1700, p.

Bere Alston originated in the late thirteenth century as a small mining settlement within the manor of Bere Ferrers. Granted a market in 1295, and established as a borough shortly afterwards, it passed with the manor into the possession of the lords Willoughby de Broke, and, in 1522, descended to the 2nd lord’s coheirs. Still barely more than a large village, Bere Alston was enfranchised in 1584 ‘at the request of William, marquess of Winchester and William, Lord Mountjoy, chief lords of the town and borough’, who initially divided the electoral patronage between them.

Founded as a Saxon burh, Totnes benefited from its strategic location at the western end of Foss Street, eight miles from the sea on a navigable stretch of the River Dart. The main outlet for tin coined at the nearby stannary town of Ashburton, Totnes also became a centre of cloth production, particularly of Devon ‘straits’. For much of the sixteenth century it was accounted the second wealthiest community in the county, its merchants trading with western France and the Iberian peninsula in particular. W.G. Hoskins, Devon, 504; T.

The borough of Saltash was created in the thirteenth century out of the great feudal honour of Trematon, and formed part of the ancient demesnes of the duchy of Cornwall. The town grew up on the western bank of the Tamar, below Trematon castle, and this favourable location on the edge of Plymouth Sound ensured its status as one of Cornwall’s principal ports. Parl. Survey of Duchy of Cornw. i. ed. N.J.G. Pounds (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. n.s. xxv), 126; R. Pearse, Ports and Harbours of Cornw. 13; I.D. Spreadbury, Castles in Cornw.