page_title: Floyer Hayes
section_title: Floyer
hierarchical_section_title: Floyer Hayes / Descent / Floyer
caption_attribution_description: English: 19th century engraving of arms of Floyer family, originally of Floyer Hayes, parish of St Thomas, Exeter, Devon: Sable, a chevron between three arrows points downward argent; crest: A stag's head erased or holding in the mouth an arrow argent. (*Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitation of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 &amp; 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.344) Motto: Floret Virtus Vulnerata ("Virtue flourishes wounded")
context_page_description: Floyer Hayes was an historic manor in the parish of St Thomas on the southern side of the City of Exeter in Devon, England, from which city it is separated by the River Exe. It took its name from the ancient family of Floyer which held it until the early 17th century, when it was sold to the Gould family. In the 19th century the estate was divided up and the manor house demolished. The parish church of St Thomas, situated a short distance to the west of the house, was burned down in 1645 during the Civil War, and was rebuilt before 1657. Thus no monuments survive there of early lords of the manor, namely the Floyer family.
context_section_description: According to the Exon Domesday Book of 1086 in the section listing holdings of Terrae Francorum Militum in Devenesira ("Lands of French knights in Devonshire"), a man whose name was Latinised to "Floherus" (in French probably Flohère) held the manor of Sotrebroc in Wonford hundred, which later became known as Floyer Hayes. The text is as follows:
  Floherus habet i mansionem quae vocatur Sotrebroc quam tenuit Alviet ea die qua rex Eduuardus fuit vivus et mortuus et reddidit gildum pro dimidia virga. quam possunt arare iiii boves et valet per annum ii solidos (which may be translated as: "Flohere has 1 estate which is called ‘Shutbrook’, which Ælfgeat held on the day that King Edward was alive and dead, and it paid geld for half a virgate. 4 oxen can plough this and it is worth 2 shillings a year.")
  The scribe preparing the main (Exchequer) Domesday Book appears to have overlooked this entry when transcribing from Exon Domesday, thus it was omitted. This early name of the estate may have come from the Schute Broke, a stream, whose name was recorded by the now lost "Shutbrook Street" in this vicinity. It was later held from the feudal barony of Okehampton. Flohere was also the mesne tenant of the manor of Sutton in the parish of Halberton, Devon, which he held from a certain Aiulf, one of the minor Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. Flohere's mesne-tenancy of Sutton is mentioned only in the Exon Domesday Book. It is unclear whether Flohere was connected to Fulchere a Devon Domesday Book tenant-in-chief, called in the Exon Domesday "Fulchere the Bowman", as the arms adopted by the Floyer family at the start of the age of heraldry (c.1200-1215) featured arrows.
  The pedigree of "Floyer of Floyer Hayes" as submitted in the 1564 Heraldic Visitation of Devon by William Floyer (d.1578), commences in the reign of King Hery II (1154-1189) with "Richard Floyer of Floyer Hayes". The manor remained in the possession of the Floyer family until it was sold by Anthony Floyer (born 1596) (son of Anthony Floyer (d.1608) and grandson of William Floyer (d.1578)) to Henry Gould (died 1636). This younger Anthony Floyer married Elinor Pole, a daughter of the Devon historian Sir William Pole (died 1635), who wrote concerning "Floyerhays": Antony Floier, nowe livinge, hath by Elinor, daughter of mee Sʳ Willᵃm Pole, of Colcombe, Kt, issue: William, John, and others. The said Antony hath alsoe diverse tenements in the parish of St Thomas. Pole's contemporary and fellow Devon historian Tristram Risdon (died 1640) also referred to Anthony Floyer of "Floyers Heyes" thus: The now inheritor thereof married Pole, his father Martin. This refers to Anthony Floyer's mother Anna Martin, 4th daughter and co-heiress of Nicholas Martin of Athelhampton, Dorset, descended from the ancient Martin family, feudal barons of Barnstaple in Devon. Nicholas Martin married Margaret Wadham, one of the three wealthy sisters and co-heiresses of Nicholas Wadham (died 1609), co-founder with his wife Dorothy Petre of Wadham College, Oxford. The Tudor manor house of the Martins survives at Athelhampton. Subsequently the Floyers lived in Dorset for several generations. Vivian completed the family's subsequent pedigree down to 1895, which includes the Floyer family of Martin Hall in Lincolnshire and in a junior line John Floyer (1811-1887) of West Stafford, a well-known cricketer and Member of Parliament for Dorset 1846-57.
caption: Arms of Floyer of Floyer Hayes: Sable, a chevron between three arrows points downward argent; crest: A stag's head erased or holding in the mouth an arrow argent.[7] Motto: Floret Virtus Vulnerata ("Virtue flourishes wounded")
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