Reginald I
It was founded at some time before 1129 by Ralph de Vautort and his brother Reginald I de Vautort (died about 1123), 1st feudal baron of Trematon in Cornwall (Latinised to "de Valletorta"), an Anglo-Norman follower of Robert, Count of Mortain, half-brother of King William the Conqueror. Reginald I de Vautort held 55 manors in Devon and Cornwall from Robert, one of which was Modbury. The Vautort family is believed to have originated at the manor of Torteval in Calvados, Normandy. The priory was a dependency of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives in Calvados. The right to appoint a new prior continued to be held by the lord of the manor of Modbury, for many generations in the 15th and 16th centuries the Champernowne family (Latinised to "de Campo Arnulphi"), with the approval of the Bishop of Exeter. Thus this right was exercised in 1361/2 by Thomas Champernowne and in 1429/30 by Hugh Champernowne.