page_title: Creedy, Sandford
section_title: John Davie
hierarchical_section_title: Creedy, Sandford / Descent / Davie / John Davie
caption_attribution_description: English: Mural monument to John Davie (d.1611), thrice Mayor of Exeter. St Mary Arches Church, Exeter, Devon, England. John Davie (d.1611) was seated at of Creedy in the parish of Sandford, near Crediton, Devon, and at Exeter, Devon. Central inscribed panel within a strapwork surround. Heraldry: Sir Michael Ferguson-Davie, 8th Baronet (born 1944) wrote on 30 May 2007 as follows to Mike Bodman of Highland, California, U.S.A. (posted on Ancestry.org[1]): "My cousin, Sir Patrick Ferguson Davie 5th Baronet, asked the College of Heralds to investigate the Bardolph connection in the 1950s or sometime soon thereafter - in particular to assess his chances of establishing a claim to the abeyant barony of Bardolph (see Burke's Extinct Peerages). The Herald he employed (Colin Cole?) advised him that any claim would now belong to the Duke of Norfolk. Robert Davie's son John Davie (1541/2-1612) (subject of this monument in St Mary Arches Church, Exeter) applied for the right to bear the arms of Bardolph (his maternal grandfather’s family – Azure, three cinquefoils or on a chief of the second a lion passant gules) and he was granted this right on 20th April 1594. (He also adopted the halcyon bird crest, which had been granted by Dom Antonio, the pretender to the Portuguese throne [a reference the hospitality that Robert Davie showed The King of Portugal when he was Mayor of Exeter; and "The pretender to the Portuguese throne (who) granted John Davie “the right to clothe his servants in the Braganza livery of blue and gold and to wear the kingfisher or halcyon bird as his crest", next post by 8th Baronet]), but he did not augment his arms with the ensign of Burgundy (his grandfather’s canton). The decision to claim the arms of his mother’s family reflected the noble ancestry of his mother’s family and demonstrated his superior lineage to his older half-brothers. Had he, as a younger son, decided to claim his father’s family’s arms (de la Wey) he would have had to add a mark of cadency; this would have reflected his lowly ranking among his siblings. It is also possible that he might have harboured an idea of trying to claim for himself the ancient, abeyant barony of Bardolph (which my cousin Sir Patrick FD investigated in the 1950s or thereabouts). We still use both de la Wey and Bardolph escutcheons on our coat armour, but the Bardolph coat alone is shown as the main escutcheon on John Davie's memorial in St Mary Arches church in Exeter (and on the memorial in Sandford Church to his daughter-in-law, Juliana Strode). This memorial also includes the arms of Owlacombe and three smaller shields, which impale the arms of de la Wey and those of his two wives, Willmot Peter and Margaret Southcote. It was erected by his son, Sir John, who quartered the arms of de la Wey and Bardolph for the first time, doubtless because he needed to prove his own entitlement to coat armour and this is the way the arms have appeared ever since. John's son (Robert's grandson), Sir John Davie (1589-1654) had to have a pedigree drawn up at the time to be eligible to become a baronet (1641) and this was duly produced and dated 1647, and it states that John Thomas’s descent from “the noble family of Bardolph” was recorded by Sir Gilbert Dethick (Garter King of Arms) “in his own writinge”. This pedigree is now in the West of England Studies Centre in Exeter - sadly it is in very poor condition thanks to the fire at Creedy in 1914. The connection with the noble family of Bardolph is interesting, but unfortunately I don’t know any more about it - although I think we must assume it does exist and that William Bardolph and his daughter, the wife of John Thomas of Tichfield, emanated from a junior branch of the noble Bardolph family. There is only one family called Bardolph that I have found in Hampshire from early days; and they held the manors of Greatham, Emsworth and Warblington, which their ancestors had inherited in 1286. The family owned these properties for only about a century and there is no mention of Tichfield. As you will know, the principal Bardolph family died out in 1408 when the 5th Lord Bardolph was mortally wounded at Braham Moor in the rebellion against Henry IV. Bardolph was declared a traitor, his property was sequestered and his remains were ordered to be quartered. Somewhere along the way something led me to suggest that John Thomas alias Bardolph of Titchfield who died (as you say in 1529) might have been born in 1489. Also that his wife's father was called William and that he may have died in 1508". Heraldry: On top of pediment: Left: Davie (Bardolph) impaling Petre (Gules, on a bend or between two escallops argent a Cornish chough proper between two cinquefoils azure on a chief of the second a rose between two demi-fleurs-de-lis palewise of the first), apparently for the marriage of John Davie d.1611 and Willmot Peter (see letter above from Sir Michael Ferguson-Davie, 8th Baronet). Such a marriage is not recorded in either of the Heraldic Visitation pedigrees of either Davie or Peter/Petre. However, a sister of the great Sir Wikipedia:William Petre (c.1505-1572), Secretary of State to King Henry VIII, was named Wilmot Petre, and she married her cousin John Petre of Bowhay House, Devon, Mayor of Exeter in 1557 and 1562. (Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 &amp; 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.592, pedigree of "Peter of Bowhay") It is possible this marriage produced a further daughter named Wilmot Peter, who became the first wife of John Davie d.1611. Centre: Davie (Bardolph) arms alone; Right: Davie (Bardolph) impaling Southcott (Argent, a chevron gules between three coots sable), for Margaret Southcote, 2nd wife of John Davie d.1611. On frieze, smaller shields: Left: Davie (Bardolph) impaling Davie (de Way) (Argent, a chevron sable between three mullets gules) Centre: Per pale gules and sable, a castle or (unknown. Arms of Mayor of Exeter?) Right: Haydon of Cadhay (Argent, three bars gemels azure on a chief gules a fess dansettée or) impaling Davie (Bardolph), for Margaret Davie, daughter of John Davie d.1611 and wife of Gideon Haydon (Vivian, pp.270, 459)
context_page_description: Creedy is an historic estate in the parish of Sandford, near Crediton in Devon. It is named from its location on the west side of the River Creedy. It was the seat of the Davie family from about 1600 until the late 20th century. The mansion house on the estate has been called at various times New House, Creedy House, and as presently, Creedy Park. It was first built in about 1600, rebuilt in 1846, burnt down in 1915 and rebuilt 1916-21. It is surrounded by a large park, the boundary of which is enclosed by a stone and brick wall several miles long.
context_section_description: John Davie (1541/2-1611/2) of Exeter, Crediton and Creedy, fourth son of Robert Davie (d. circa 1570), a wealthy cloth merchant of Crediton.  He was three times Mayor of Exeter, in 1584, 1594 and 1604, and in about 1600 built the first recorded mansion on the Creedy estate which was called "New House". The Devon historian Sir William Pole (died 1635) wrote concerning Credy: "Mr John Davy of Exceter hath bwilded a newe howse in this place & called it New-Howse unto wᶜʰ hee added a fair demesnes wᶜʰ hee hath left unto John Davy Esq his sonne & hath a mannor called Credy which adjoineth unto his demesnes".   He married twice, by his first wife he left no issue, as his second wife he married Margaret Southcott, daughter of George Southcott of Calverleigh, Devon, second son of John Southcott (died 1556) of Indio in the parish of Bovey Tracey, Devon, by whom he had a son and heir Sir John Davie, 1st Baronet (died 1654) and a daughter Margaret Davie, wife of Gideon Haydon of Cadhay, Epford and Woodbury.
  He founded two alms houses, one in the parish of St Mary Arches, Exeter, and another in Crediton, each for relief of two poor men and their wives, and two single persons.  His monument survives in St Mary Arches church in Exeter.
caption: Mural monument to John Davie (died 1611), St Mary Arches Church, Exeter.
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