page_title: Holcombe Burnell
section_title: Medieval manor
hierarchical_section_title: Holcombe Burnell / Medieval manor
caption_attribution_description: English: Holcombe Burnell Barton, Devon
context_page_description: Holcombe Burnell is a civil parish in Devon, England, the church of which is about 4 miles west of Exeter City centre. There is no village clustered around the church, rather the nearest village within the parish is Longdown. Only the manor house and two cottages are situated next to the church. The former manor house next to the church is today known as Holcombe Burnell Barton having subsequently been used as a farmhouse. The manor was in the historical Hundred of Wonford.
context_section_description: The Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor as held by Queen Matilda. Before the Norman Conquest it had been a possession of Brictric, a powerful thane based in Gloucestershire. After the death of Queen Matilda the manor was granted by the king to Tetbald FitzBerner, one of King William's knights. The manor derives its appellation "Burnell" from a corruption which has developed over the centuries of the name "Berner".
  From the 15th century the manor was held by a branch of the Denys family. Thomas Denys (died 1498) of Holcombe Burnell married Janera Loveday, daughter of Philip Loveday of Sneston in Suffolk, and their son was Sir Thomas Denys (c. 1477 – 1561), a prominent lawyer who served as Sheriff and MP for Devon.  He married twice, firstly to Anne, widow of Thomas Warley a Treasury official, and secondly to Elizabeth Donne, widow of Sir Thomas Murfyn, Lord Mayor of London. Sir Thomas is notorious as having supervised the burning at the stake of the Protestant martyr Thomas Benet in Exeter in January 1531/2.
  His eldest son was Sir Robert Dennis (died 1592), MP for Devon in 1555 and Sheriff of Devon, who acquired Bicton House. According to W. G. Hoskins, the Easter Sepulchre in the church is his tomb and monument. Sir Robert married Mary Blount, a first cousin of Lady Jane Grey. In March 1591 he founded the Livery Dole Almshouses in Heavitree Road, Exeter.
  Sir Robert's eldest son and heir, Sir Thomas Denys married Anne Paulet, daughter of William Paulet, 3rd Marquess of Winchester, and left two co-heiresses, Anne Denys who married Sir Henry Rolle (died 1616) of Stevenstone, and Margaret Denys (died 1649) who married Sir Arthur Mainwaring of Ightfield, Shropshire.
caption: Holcombe Burnell Barton, contains remnants of the former 16th-century grand manor house of the Denys family
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