Catalogue description Chichester of Northover and Stoke St Michael MSS

This record is held by Somerset Heritage Centre (South West Heritage Trust)

Details of DD\EV
Reference: DD\EV
Title: Chichester of Northover and Stoke St Michael MSS
Description:

Introductory note

 

This deposit, which consists of records of both Somerset and Devon estates of the Chichester family, was made by way of the Devon Record Office, where the Devon element of the collection (listed below as DD/EV 37-58, 64 part) was briefly calendared. A copy of this calendar, which gives names of parties and brief property description for each individual document, with the S.R.O. call numbers added, is available in the Search Room. The Devon arrangement, with the exception of one will (added to DD/EV 64), has been incorporated in the present summary catalogue and unnecessary duplication of information avoided; a few details, felt to be appropriate to the explanation of the archive as a whole, have been included in this catalogue.

 

There was no trace of any original arrangement in the bundles as received, at least insofar as the Somerset element was concerned, and attempts have been made to reconstitute original bundles. Doubtless, however, certain of the wills, etc., which have been grouped artificially towards the end of the catalogue, originally formed part of earlier title deed groups.

 

The surviving records fall conveniently into three sections:

 

(1) records of the Chichester family in their original Devonshire settlements

 

(2) records of the same family as heirs by marriage to the Hody family of Northover, where Henry Chichester settled in the mid-18th century

 

and (3) records of the same as heirs by marriage to the Norman family of Stoke St. Michael (otherwise Stoke Lane), where Henry's son John Hody Chichester settled in the late 18th century.

 

The key figure in the family during its Devonshire period is Henry of Shirwell, originally of Bittadon, who died c.1705-6. He left three sons, Henry, Edward and Ames (Amias) who were all Cambridge Alumni and of these the eldest, Henry, inherited a share in certain Ackland properties through his ?step-mother. Both this Henry (d. 1714), who was rector of Berrynarbor, and his son, the Rev. Edward, also rector of Berrynarbor and vicar of Northover, married into the Hody family. At the failure of the male Hody line in 1729, the manor of Northover was bequeathed by the last John Hody to trustees during the minority of his Chichester nephews, children of his brother-in-law the Rev. Edward. Of these John Hody Chichester died at school at Tiverton in 1731 and his younger brother Henry eventually succeeded. He came of age (25 years) between 1748 and 1750 and probably settled in Northover at about the same time.

 

There are, unfortunately, few records of Northover during the Hody ownership and this fact, coupled with serious deficiencies in the

 

Northover parish registers, has made it difficult to establish a full pedigree of the family and, in particular, the number of successive Johns. Records of the pre-Hody ownership are even scantier and the only information is contained in parenthesis in the 1684 settlement(DD/EV 1) to the effect that the manor of Northover had been the inheritance of Mary Raymond, first wife of John Hody the elder and had been settled by her upon her husband.

 

Henry Chichester married in 1751 Mary, daughter of William Norman of Stoke St.Michael, and their son John Hody Chichester(c. 1752-1834)inherited the Stoke property under his grandfather's will (DD/EV 66). By 1782 he had settled at Stoke St.Michael,probably in Stoke House, the mansion possibly built by his grandfather on the site of a former mill or mills at Stoke Bottom. Nearby was the site of another mill, which at one stage in its chequered history had been a paper mill worked by Henry Fussell; this became part of the Stoke House estate between 1840 and 1865, by which time the mill had ceased to operate. J.H.Chichester died in 1834 and left a son,J.H.W.Chichester, and several daughters and the estates eventually came into the hands of Charlotte Jane, grand-daughter of J.H.Chichester, who married John L.Burnard in 1839 and who died in 1897. She was succeeded by her son Arthur Chichester Burnard who took the surname and arms of Chichester in 1898.

Date: 1543-1911
Arrangement:

PROPERTY TENURE AND PERSONAL ESTATE

 

1-18 Deeds of Hody and Chichester estates

 

1-6 Northover

 

7 Charlton Adam

 

8 Yeovilton

 

9 Trent and Queen Camel

 

10-11 Chilthorne Domer

 

12-16 Crewkerne

 

17 Montacute

 

18 Various parishes

 

19-35 Deeds of Norman and Chichester estates

 

19-30 Stoke St. Michael

 

31 Kilmersdon

 

32 Meare

 

33 Mells

 

34 Rode

 

35 Stratton-on-the-Fosse

 

36 Stoke St. Mary

 

37-60 Deeds of Chichester estates (Devon)

 

37 General estates

 

38 Axminster

 

39-44 Barnstaple - Fremington

 

45 Goodleigh

 

46-52 Instow - Thorncombe

 

53-58 Trentishoe

 

59-60 High Bray, Exmouth

 

61 Gloucestershire

 

62-72 Personal estate and testamentary records (Chichester, Hody and Norman)

 

73 Estate papers

Held by: Somerset Heritage Centre (South West Heritage Trust), not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Physical description: 7 boxes
Immediate source of acquisition:

C/2720

Subjects:
  • Chichester family of Northover, Somerset
  • Hody family of Northover, Somerset
  • Norman family of Stoke St Michael, Somerset
  • Somerset
  • Devon
  • Gloucestershire

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