Teignwick, Lord of the Manor

If the Lord of the Manor fell out of favour with the King the land reverted back to the King, as in the case of Teignwick’s Lord of the Manor, William of Montaine, which occurred during the reign of King Henry I. Teignwick was presented to Lucas, King Henry II’s butler and subsequently passed to Lucas’ son, John Fitz-Lucas.

By 1205 Teignwick had once again reverted to the crown, as King John granted the Manor of Teignwick to the widow of Lucas’s grandson, Eustacia de Courtenay. Following the death of Eustacia de Courtenay, King Henry III gave Teignwick to Theobald de Englishville.

Theobald de Englishville was granted a charter, for a market, to rent land and to inflict capital punishment.

• The Charter was for a weekly market, held on land behind St. Mary’s in Highweek Street, known as Triangle Hill and later corrupted to Trigle Hill and then Treacle Hill.

• Theobald was given permission to lease land near the banks of the River Lemon from which he could draw rents.

• Theobald erected his gallows at Forches Cross.

These rights were conferred outright to him and his heirs in 1247 in return for an annual nominal sum. Childless, Theobald adopted his sister’s son in 1262, Robert Bushel as his heir, which is where Newton Bushell comes from.

In 1269, Robert Bushel was succeeded by his 4 year old son Theobald, whose mother had already died, and Theobald was placed in the guardianship of Henry and Matila de Bickleigh, tenants of Bradley Manor, and as a consequence became the Manor House of Teignwick, up until the last male heir in 1402.

Forches Cross