Yeo Vale (anciently Yeo) is an historic estate in the parish of Alwington in North Devon, England. The grade II listed mansion house known as Yeo Vale House, situated 1 mile east of Alwington Church and 3 miles south-west of Bideford, incorporating a 15th-century gatehouse, was demolished in 1973,Lauder, p.53 having been abandoned as a residence in 1938 and having fallen into a dilapidated state. it was situated in the valley of the River Yeo, a small river flowing into the River Torridge immediately above Bideford. The barton or farmhouse survives, to which was attached the mansion house, together with various out-buildings and stone walls. A private mediaeval chapel was formerly attached to the mansion house and in the early 18th century was demolished and rebuilt as a folly on a hill about 1/4 mile south of the mansion house. It survives today as a ruin overgrown with trees and ivy.
Descent The estate is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.
at Yeo The earliest known holder was the at Yeo (alias atte Yeo) family, which took their surname from the estate. The last male member of the family was Thomas at Yeo, who left a daughter and sole heiress Jone at Yeo (according to Pole (died 1635))Pole, p.304 or Sir Walter at Yeo, who left a daughter and sole heiress Emma at Yeo (according to Vivian, 1895).Vivian, p.404 Both sources agree however that the heiress Jone or Emma married Geoffrey Giffard, who was living in 1439, to the descendants of which marriage passed the estate of Yeo. Robert atte Yo is recorded in the Devon Lay Subsidy of 1332.Erskine, A.M., The Devon Lay Subsidy of 1332, Devon & Cornwall Record Society, New Series, no. 14, 1969, p.34, quoted in Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, part 2 9notes), 2,2 It is not known if the at Yeo family was related to the prominent Yeo family, who bore arms Argent, a chevron between three mallards azure,Pole, p.510 which prospered in North Devon in various branches, most notably at Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe until the 16th century,Vivian, p.834, pedigree of Yeo of Huish at nearby Huish until the late 18th century and at Fremington House until 1880.Vivian, p.836, pedigree of Yeo of Huish
Giffard
The Giffard family of Yeo was a parallel branch of the more prominent and longer-lived Giffard family of Halsbury in the parish of Parkham, North Devon, about 1 mile south-west of Yeo. The Giffard family of North Devon was descended from the Anglo-Norman magnate Walter Giffard, 1st Earl of Buckingham (died 1102), Lord of Longueville in Normandy.Prince, John, (1643–1723) The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, London, p.415; Vivian, p.396 His descendants, via a female branch which adopted the surname Giffard, in the 13th century held lands in Devon including the manors of Whitchurch, Wear Giffard, Clovelly Lamerton and Awlescombe.Vivian, p.396 Branches of the family later were seated at Halsbury, Yeo, Brightley in the parish of Chittlehampton, at Tapeley and at Milton Damerell. Geoffrey Giffard (fl.1439), who married Emma or Jone at Yeo, the heiress of Yeo. He was the son of Simon Giffard (fl.1410), by his first wife Emma de Bowey, a daughter and co-heiress of John de Bowey, and was 5th in descent from Walter Giffard of Clifford, whose nephew was Bartholomew Giffard (fl.1290) of Halsbury, the first of the family seated at Halsbury, which estate he obtained by marriage to the heiress of Peter de Halsbury. John Giffard (son), who married a certain Isabella. Robert Giffard (son), who married Radigand (Latinized to Radigunda) Dennis, daughter and sole heiress of Gilbert Dennis of Gidicott (about 9 miles south of Yeo) in the parish of Bradford,Vivian, p.279, pedigree of Dennis; Risdon, p.251, Gidcott Devon, and lord of the manor of Bradford.Risdon, p.250 Gilbert Dennis was the eldest son of Thomas Dennis (by his first wife Alice Bamfield) of Holcombe Burnell in South Devon, himself the son of Walter Dennis of Gidicott. The Dennis family is first recorded in Devon in the 12th century,Risdon, p.245 one branch at Orleigh, about 1 mile south of Yeo, and the other at Gidicott. Both branches had armorials containing three Danish battle-axes, supposedly referring to their Danish origins. The arms of Dennis of Orleigh Azure, three Danish battle-axes orVivian, p.281 survive in a fragment of ancient stained glass in the Yeo Vale Chapel forming the north transept of Alwington Church. The arms of the Dennis family of Gidicott (whose ancestors were the Giffards of HalsburyVivian, p.279) and later of Holcombe Burnell were: Ermine, three Danish battle axes gules. John Giffard (died 1487) (eldest son and heir), who married Joan Cooke, daughter of Christopher Cooke of Thorne and died without children. Leonard Giffard (born 1467) (younger brother and heir), who married Lucy Tremayle, daughter of Thomas Tremayle, Justice of the Common Pleas. Thomas Gifford (died 1536) (eldest son and heir), who married twice, firstly to Katherine Chudleigh, daughter of James Chudleigh and secondly to Elizabeth Dennis, a daughter of William Dennis of Orleigh, Sheriff of Devon in 1466.Vivian, p.281, regnal date 6 Edward IV In 1528 his younger brother William Giffard was appointed Rector of Bradford, which manor and advowson the family had earlier inherited from the Dennis family of Gidicott. John Giffard (died 1540/1) (son, by father's first wife Katherine Chudleigh), who married Margaret Milliton, daughter of John Milliton of Meavy. She survived her husband and remarried to Robert Cary (died 1586), lord of the manor of Clovelly, 7 miles west of Yeo, a magistrate who died of jail fever at the Black Assize of Exeter 1586 and whose monument survives in Clovelly Church. He left an infant daughter as his sole heiress, Wilmot Giffard (born 1541), successively the wife of John Bury (1540–1574) lord of the manor of Colleton, Chulmleigh (whom she divorced) and of Sir George Cary of Cockington. John Bury was aged 3 at the death of his father and became a ward to a person unknown. He was said by Pole to have been "simple". He married twice, firstly when both parties were aged only 13, contrary to ecclesiastical law, to Wilmot Giffard, without children.Vivian, p.404, pedigree of Giffard; Pole, p.304, Risdon p.244, Pevsner, p.127: Yeo in Alwington, modern: "Yeo Vale" He was divorced from her by Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker in 1560Vivian, p.123, note 5 and she remarried to Sir George Cary (1541–1616) of Cockington, South Devon, Lord Deputy of Ireland, and half-nephew of her step-father Robert Cary of Clovelly.Vivian, pp. 150–7, pedigree of Cary
Cary
Sir George Cary (1541–1616) of Cockington, who married as his first wife Wilmot Giffard (born 1541), heiress of Yeo, by whom he had children two daughters, who died without issue, and two sons who also died without issue, namely Thomas Cary and Sir George Cary, who was killed in the Irish Wars and predeceased his father.Vivian, p.151, pedigree of Cary he married secondly to Lettice Rich, daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick (1559–1619), without issue. His heir to his seat of Cockington was his nephew George Cary,Pole, p.279 5th son of his younger brother John Cary of Dudley, Staffordshire, and husband of Elizabeth Seymour, a daughter of Sir Edward Seymour, 1st Baronet (died 1613), grandson of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector.Vivian, p.703, pedigree of Seymour; Pole, p.279 His heir to Yeo Vale, however, was Sir Edward Cary of Dungarvon, Ireland, the second son of his younger brother John Cary of Dudley Sir Edward Cary (died 1654) of Dungarvon, Ireland, and of Bradford, Devon (elder nephew). He was knighted in Ireland in 1625 by his cousin Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland.Vivian, p.152 He died in 1654 and was buried in Marldon Church, South Devon. "In the east window of the south aisle are some remains of old glass, bearing the arms of the Cary family. In the chancel are several old tombstones, one, with an inscription in memory of Edward Cary, bears the date 1654" (Stabb).See Some Old Devon Churches By J. Stabb He married Margaret Blackhurst of Lancashire, whose monument survives in Marldon Church. Sir George Cary (died 1678)(eldest son and heir), of Torr Abbey, South Devon, which he purchased in 1662.
Bruton In about 1683 Yeo Vale was sold by the Cary family to John Bruton,Risdon, p.414; Lysons, Samuel & Daniel, Magna Britannia, Vol.6: Devon, London, 1822 whose descendant William Bruton in 1769 sold it to Rev. Hooper Morrison.Risdon, p.414
Morrison
The Morrison family of Yeo Vale bore the same armorials as Sir Charles Morrison, 1st Baronet (1587–1628) of Cashiobury House in Watford, Hertfordshire.
Rev. Hooper Morrison (1737–1798) Rev. Hooper Morrison (1737–1798), purchased Yeo Vale from William Bruton. He was the only son of Rev. Thomas Morrison by his wife Elizabeth Hooper, daughter of Sir Nicholas Hooper (1654–1731) of Fullabrook,Fulbroke per Venn, 1897 BrauntonVivian, p.633, pedigree of Pyne of East Down and Raleigh, Pilton in Devon, Tory Member of Parliament for Barnstaple 1695-1715. In 1795 he acquired from Richard Bennett-Coffin (died 1796),Vivian, p.210 lord of the manor of Alwington, a lease for one life of Ley Mills and of the waste ground near Alwington Church for the erection of a stable."Lease for 1 life (99 years) ...". The National Archives. Retrieved on 12 January 2017. Long after his death, his daughters in 1836 (as recorded by a surviving inscribed stone tablet) erected on this land Alwington Schoolhouse, which survives today. The stables are today a house ("The Old Stables"). He married Charlotte Orchard (1735–1791), daughter of Paul Orchard (died 1740) of Kilkhampton, Cornwall and Hartland Abbey, Devon. Her mural monument survives in the Yeo Vale Chapel in Alwington Church. She was the sister of Paul Orchard (1739–1812) of Hartland Abbey, who bequeathed the Abbey to her son and his nephew Rev. Thomas Hooper Morrison (1768–1824).
Monument to wife
A mural monument to Charlotte Orchard (1735–1791) survives in the Yeo Vale Chapel of Alwington Church, in the shape of an obelisk, inscribed as follows: Underneath is deposited the body of Charlotte Morrison daughter of Paul Orchard Esq. of Hertland (sic) Abbey and wife of the Rev. Hooper Morrison of Yeo Vale in this parish for many years. She bore severe sickness with the most unrepining resignation and on the 30th of Octr 1791 in the 56th year of her age she departed hence dying with well grounded hopes of exchanging a life of suffering for that happy state where pain and sorrow are no more.
In the same vault lies also the body of Charlotte Morrison her eldest daughter who in the bloom of life was torn from her disconsolate parents Sep. 18 1788 aged 18.
By his affectionate and beloved wife and daughter are placed the remains of the Revd Hooper Morrison A.M., rector of Alwington in this county and Vicar of Launcells, Cornwall. He was the only son of the Revd Thomas Morrison A.M., by Elizabeth daughter of Sr Nicholas Hooper Knt. As a man, a clergyman and a Christian he discharged his several duties with the most anxious fidelity. Revered, respected and beloved by all for his unaffected piety, his zealous friendship and his warm benevolence, it pleased that Being in whose hands are the (is)sues of life and death to take him from his afflicted family and friends on the 7th November 1798 in the 61st year of his age
Rev. Thomas Hooper Morrison (1768–1824)