HEMYOCK, or Hemiock, is a parish and considerable village, having a station on the Culm Valley branch of the Great Western Railway. It is pleasantly situated on the south side of the river Culm, in the picturesque valley near Culmbridge, 5 miles S. of Wellington, and 9 miles N.E. of Cullompton. The parish, which gives name to a hundred, is in Wellington union and county court district, Cullompton petty sessional division, Exeter archdeaconry, and Tiverton East rural deanery. It had .963 inhabitants (497 males, 486 females) in 1871, living in 206 houses, on 6437 acres of land. The rateable value of the parish is £6388 7s, 2d. Hemiock / Hamihoch on the south side of the river Culm near Culmbridge and Cullompton is in the parish of Wellington Union comprising Culm-Davy (Columb David or Northcombe).
Cvmbe, held by Oliver from Theobald son of Berner. In 1166 it was held with Widworthy and Westcot in Marwood by William FitzHugh de Widworthy. In 1198 it was acquired by William de Widworthy in exchange for land in Shebbear. In 1242 David de Widworthy held half a fee here of the honor of Torrington. It then passed to Robert de Dinham, from whom it was held by John Wogan in 1284 and 1303 and 1346 in the hands of Roger Corbet, in whose family it remained in 1428.
The villages of Barrowhill (in the town tithing); Madford (in Madford tithing), Ashculm and Pennycross (in Ashculm tithing), and the tithing of Culmdavey, are all in this parish. Culmdavey is on the opposite acclivities of the valley, adjoining the lofty Black Down hills and the borders of Somersetshire. The principal owners of the soil are Captain Follett, and Messrs. E. Farrant, George Barton, Marh Matthews, Thomas Hine, and James Bowerman. The manor of Hemyock, part of the demesne of the-crown at Domesday Survey, was soon afterwards possessed by the ancient family of Hidon, who had a castle here, which was used as a garrison and prison by the Parliamentarians in the 17th century. There are still some remains of four of the towers and a gateway of this castle, which passed, with the manor, from the Hidons to the Dinhams, and was purchased by the late General Simcoe. The manor of Culmdavey is the property of Captain Follett, and was formerly held by the Widworthy, Wogan, Corbett, Bowerman, and other families.
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By 1090 Richard Baldwin had succeeded his father, and Osbern and Geoffrey De Hidon were chief tenants or Lords of the manor. Osbern’s daughter married a Dane called Dacus or Deneis, who possibly as a result of his marriage held one third of a knight’s fee. During the early 12th Century a Dane William Dacus was the King’s forester for Exmoor. Was this the same man who married Osbern’s daughter and lived in the centre of the manor in the area known as Dencehayes. In 1136 Richard Baldwin established an Abbot and twelve Cistercian monks at Brightley in Dorset. The honour of Okehampton descended through the female line to Matilda D’Alranches who married Robert Fitzroi, son of Henry I. Both parents died whilst their two daughters were minors. Reginald De Courtney obtained wardship and married the eldest when she obtained her age.
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Opposite the valley, the Black Down Hills and borders of Somersetshire are included by Millays and Westown. The manor of Culm-Davy is vested in the devisees under the will of the late Henry Pook, Esq., and was formerly held by the Widworthy, Wogan, Corbett, Bowerman, and other families. Culm Pyne was held by Otelin from Baldwin the Sheriff- in 1166 it was held by John de Hidon, but by 1242 had passed to the Pyne family, it being held that yeare by Herbert de Pyne. The manor was succesively in the families of Courtenay, Calmady, Chase, Baker, Gill and Edgell. |
In 1198 Robert Foliot's lands were in the joint possession of Geoffrey de Barenton, Thomas Foliot, Richard de Hidon and Emma de Botreaux, his grandchildren. Richard de Hidon became the sole lord of the manor of Hemyock between 1212 and 1228, and in 1238 held it of the honor of Plympton.
Margaret the last of the De Hidons married Josce De Dynham in 1291. She later married Sir Peter Uvedale. She lived to a great age, surviving her children and grandchildren. Bolham descended to three little sisters, her great grandchildren who were held in the King’s wardship. Her son, John Dinham, came of age in 1316 and the Dinham family held the manor until the death of the last member, Sir John Dinham, in 1509 The two youngest became nuns in their minority and the eldest, Margaret, inherited the estate as chief tenant. In 1384, Abbot Robert of Dunkeswell Abbey apparently did not render services due and consequently Sir William seized the Abbot’s cattle and impounded them at Kynwardleigh. His estate was taken by the King and granted to John Dynham III a relative of his late wife.
Although in the late fourteenth century the manor was held by William Asthorp, on the death of Sir John Dinham it was divided between his four sisters and co-heiresses, Margaret, who married Nicholas Carew; Elizabeth, who married Fulk Bourchier; Joan, who married Lord Zouche; and Catherine, who married Sir Thomas Arundel; but the major part was bought by Sir John Popham in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
In 1461 Thomas Courtenay sixth earl of Devon was beheaded by Edward IV as a result of his support for the House of Lancaster. The King granted the Barony of Okehampton to the grandson of John Dynham III; John Dynham V, Sheriff of Devon and Lord High Treasurer of England. He died in 1502, his four surviving sisters were co- heiresses, one of whom, Elizabeth, was the widow of Fulk Bourchier. Their son was John Bouchier, first Earl of Bath.
In 1539 Henry VIII confiscated the manor of Bolham from Dunkeswell Abbey, and a little later granted the former monastic manors of Hackpen, Bolham, Sheldon and Saint Hill to the second Earl of Bath, John Bouchier, who had already inherited the Barony of Okehampton from the Dynham line. The quarter which passed to the Arundell family was purchased by the Every family and passed by marriage to the Leigh family, from whom it was purchased by General Simcoe.