Feudal barony of Barnstaple From AD 1066 , the feudal barony of Barnstaple was a large feudal barony with its caput at the town of Barnstaple in north Devon , England . In 1235 / 6 it comprised 56 knight ' s fee s or individual member manor s . The feudal service owed for half the barony in 1274 was the provision to the royal army of two knights or four sergeants for forty days per annum , later commuted to scutage . Descent . de Mowbray . The barony was first granted by William the Conqueror ( 1066 – 1087 ) to Geoffrey de Mowbray ( died 1093 ) , Bishop of Coutances , who is recorded as its holder in the " Domesday Book " ( 1086 ) . His heir was his nephew Robert de Mowbray ( died 1125 ) , Earl of Northumberland , son of Geoffrey ' s brother Robert de Mowbray . In 1095 Robert II rebelled against King William II ( 1087 – 1100 ) and his barony escheat ed to the crown . de Totnes . At some time before his death in 1100 King William II re - granted the barony of Barnstaple to Juhel de Totnes ( died 1123 / 30 ) , formerly feudal baron of Totnes , from which barony the king had expelled him after the death of his father William the Conqueror in 1087 . In about 1107 , Juhel , who had already founded Totnes Priory , founded Barnstaple Priory , of the Cluniac order , dedicated to St Mary Magdalene . Juhel ' s son and heir was Alfred de Totnes , who died " sine prole " some time before 1139 , leaving two sisters as his co - heiresses each to a moiety of the barony : Aenor and a sister whose name is unknown . de Braose & de Tracy moieties . The inheritance of the barony of Barnstaple by two co - heiresses split its possession during the period c . 1139 to 1213 into two moieties , which became re - united under the de Tracy family . The descent of the two co - heiresses was as follows : Henry de Tracy ' s heir to the entire barony was his granddaughter Maud de Brian ( or Briene ) ( died pre - 1279 ) , daughter of Guy de Brian of Laugharne Castle , Carmarthenshire by his wife Eve de Tracy , daughter of Henry de Tracy . Maud ' s first husband was Nicholas FitzMartin ( died 1260 ) , who had pre - deceased his father Nicholas FitzMartin ( died 1282 ) , feudal baron of Blagdon , Somerset . Maud married secondly Geoffrey de Camville ( died 1308 ) , of Clifton Campville , Staffordshire , who had summons to attend the king at Portsmouth , with horse and arms , to embark in the expedition then proceeding to Gascony . He was subsequently summoned to parliament as Baron Camville , of Clifton , in the county of Stafford , from 23 Jun 1295 to 22 Feb 1307 . Camville survived her by about 29 years during which time he retained possession of the barony under the curtesy of England . The barony was recovered on Geoffrey ' s death by Maud ' s son William I FitzMartin ( died 1324 ) whose son and heir William II FitzMartin died " sine prole " in 1326 . His heirs were his surviving sister Eleanor FitzMartin ( died 1342 ) , who died without progeny , albeit having married twice , and James Audley , 2nd Baron Audley ( died 1386 ) , the son of his other sister Joan FitzMartin ( died 1322 ) , by her second husband Nicholas Audley , 1st Baron Audley ( died 1316 ) of Heleigh Castle , Staffordshire . James Audley thus in 1342 inherited his childless aunt Eleanor ' s moiety of the barony of Barnstaple , giving him possession of the whole . Later history . On the death of James Audley in 1386 the barony of Barnstaple passed to his son , Nicholas Audley , 3rd Baron Audley and then to King Richard II , as the Audley family had fallen out of favour . The king granted Barnstaple to Robert de Vere , but he was attainted in 1388 , and in July of that year the king granted the feudal baronies of Barnstaple , Dartington and Torrington to John Holland , 1st Duke of Exeter . On Holland ' s execution in 1400 , after a failed rebellion , the barony passed to his eldest son , Richard ( born c . 1390 ) , who died later the same year . From 1425 the barony was held by John Holland , 2nd Duke of Exeter . On his death in 1447 it passed to his son Henry Holland , 3rd Duke of Exeter , who was attainted in 1461 and his possessions granted to his wife , Anne of York . She divorced Henry and married Thomas St Leger , who held the lands after her death in 1476 by courtesy until his beheading in 1483 . In 1483 King Richard III ( 1483 - 1485 ) granted " the Castle and Borough of Barnstaple " to Thomas Everingham , who held it until King Henry VII deposed Richard III in 1485 and two years later granted it to his mother , Margaret Beaufort . Queen Mary ( 1553 - 1558 ) granted the barony to Thomas Marrow , MP , though apparently shorn of all its constituent fees and manors , held thenceforth by their tenants directly from the crown as tenants - in - chief . Thus the feudal barony was now one in name only , with no substantial constituent lands or tenants , and conferred no right on its holder of taking a seat in parliament . This so - called " castle - manor " was soon after acquired from " Samuel Marowe " by Sir John Chichester ( died 1569 ) of Raleigh , in the parish of Pilton just over the River Yeo from Barnstaple , and several leases were granted by him to townspersons of orchards gardens and houses within the walls of the castle . In 1566 Sir John Chichester assigned to the Mayor , Corporation and Burgesses of Barnstaple all his rights and interests in the Manor of Barnstaple . The ancient " Manor of Hogsfee / Hoggfee " etc . appears to have been connected with the castle manor . In 1732 the Mayor and Aldermen acquired 1 / 3 of it from John Carew and in 1734 the remaining 2 / 3 from Thomas Saltren and John Weddon . Fees in 1326 . The 1326 Inquisition post mortem of William FitzMartin ( died 1326 ) lists his fees pertaining to the Barony of Barnstaple as follows :