View source for Bagtor

{{Short description|Historic estate in Devon, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Unreliable sources|date=April 2020}}
[[File:Bagtor Down - geograph.org.uk - 132088.jpg|thumb|Bagtor Down, [[Dartmoor]], environs of Bagtor House]]
[[File:Bag Tor - geograph.org.uk - 130588.jpg|thumb|"Bag [[Tor (rock formation)|Tor]]", the natural rock formation after which the estate is named]]
'''Bagtor''' is a historic estate in the parish of [[Ilsington]] in Devon, England. It was the birthplace of [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]] (1586-{{Circa|1639}}) the playwright and poet. The Elizabethan mansion of the Ford family survives today at Bagtor as the service wing of a later house appended in about 1700.<ref>[[Nikolaus Pevsner|Pevsner, Nikolaus]] & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.507; [[William George Hoskins|Hoskins, W.G.]], A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.415</ref>
==Descent==
===Early records===
The [[Manorialism|manor]] of ''Bagetore'' is listed in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086 as the seventh of the twelve Devonshire holdings of [[Nicholas the Bowman]], one of the 52 [[Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief]] of King [[William the Conqueror]]. His tenant was a certain Roger, and before the [[Norman Conquest]] of 1066, it was held by a Saxon named Ordric, who had held six of the manors later obtained by Nicholas the Bowman.<ref>Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, part 1, 48:7</ref>
The earliest holder of the manor of Bagtor recorded by the Devonshire historian Sir [[William Pole (antiquary)|William Pole]] (d.1635) is the ''de Bagtor'' family.<ref>[[William Pole (antiquary)|Pole, Sir William]] (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, [[Sir John de la Pole, 6th Baronet|Sir John-William de la Pole]] (ed.), London, 1791, p.267</ref> In the [[Book of Fees]] ({{Circa|1302}}) it is recorded as held from the [[feudal barony of Plympton]] by "William de Baggetorre",<ref>Thorn, part 2, Notes, 48:7</ref> who also held Aller in [[Abbotskerswell|Abbot's Kerswell]], also a former holding of Nicholas the Bowman.<ref>Thorn, part 2, Notes, 48:11</ref> According to Pole, it was subsequently held by the Beare family.<ref>Pole, p.267</ref>
===Ford===
[[File:FordOfNutwellDevonArms.PNG|thumb|Arms of Ford of Bagtor: ''Party per fesse or and sable, in chief a greyhound courant in base an owl within a bordure engrailed all counter-changed''<ref>Vivian, Heraldic Visitations of Devon, 1885, p.349.</ref>]]
*John Ford (died 1538) of [[Ashburton, Devon|Ashburton]]<ref>[[John Lambrick Vivian|Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L.]], (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the [[Heraldic visitation|Heralds' Visitations]] of 1531, 1564 & 1620. Exeter, 1895, p.652.</ref> (the son and heir of William Ford of [[Chagford]]<ref>Vivian, p.349, pedigree of Ford</ref>) purchased the estate of Bagtor.<ref>[[Tristram Risdon|Risdon, Tristram]] (died 1640), Survey of Devon, 1810 edition, London, 1810, p.135.</ref> The Devonshire biographer [[John Prince (biographer)|John Prince]] supposes him to have been descended from the Fords of Fordmore, in [[Moretonhampstead|Moreton Hampsted]], settled there as early as the 12th century.<ref>Lysons, Samuel & Daniel. (1822). [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50555 ''Magna Britannia: volume 6: Devonshire, Families removed since 1620.''] pp. CLXXIII-CCXXV.</ref> He married three times, secondly to Joane Walrond, a daughter of William Walrond of Bovey<ref>Vivian, p.471, pedigree of Hockmore</ref> in the parish of [[Beer, Devon|Beer]],<ref>a junior line of Walrond of Bradfield House, Uffculme, Devon (Vivian's pedigree of that family, p.768)</ref> by whom he had issue:
**George Forde (1521-1570) of Bagtor, son and heir (see below);
**Margaret Ford, wife of [[John Rolle (1522–1570)]] of [[Stevenstone]].
*George Forde (1521-1570) of Bagtor, son and heir, who married Joan St Cleere, a daughter of Gilbert St Cleere of [[Budleigh Salterton|Budleigh]].
*Thomas Ford (1556–1610) of Bagtor, eldest son and heir, who married  Elizabeth Popham (d.1629) of the [[John Popham (Lord Chief Justice)|Popham family]] of [[Huntworth]] in Somerset.<ref>Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620. Exeter, 1895, p.349, pedigree of Ford of Nutwell. No first name given for her father "..Popham of Huntworthie"</ref> Her monument survives in Ilsington Church.<ref>Vivian, p.349 "MI"</ref> His second son was  [[John Ford (dramatist)|John Ford]] (1586-{{Circa|1639}}) the playwright and poet.
*Henry Ford (d.1616), eldest son and heir, who married Katharine Drake, daughter and sole heiress of George Drake of Spratshays in Littleham, Devon. He was buried at Littleham. His younger son Edward Ford (1596-1665) continued the Ford line at Ilsington,<ref>Vivian, p.350.</ref> and was the father of John Ford (1632-1677) of [[Dartington]], supposed by [[Samuel Lysons|Lysons]]<ref>Lysons, Samuel & Daniel, Magna Britannia, volume 6, ''Devonshire'', Families removed since 1620, 1822</ref> to have been the last in the line seated at Bagtor. Henry Ford's eldest son Sir Henry Ford (1617-1684) moved to the estate of [[Nutwell]].
*Sir [[Henry Ford (Tiverton MP)|Henry Ford]] (1617-1684), of [[Nutwell]] in Devon, eldest son of and heir, four times an [[Member of Parliament|MP]] for [[Tiverton (UK Parliament constituency)|Tiverton]], Devon,  between 1664 and 1685 and twice Secretary to the [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland]], 1669–70 and 1672–73.<ref>Vivian, p.350.</ref>
===Later owners===
Rev. Thomas Tothill resided at Bagtor. His daughter and heiress Penelope Tothill married Thomas Lane of Bradley, Newton Abbot; of Coffleet in [[Yealmpton]] and of [[Spridleston]], all in Devon, [[Sheriff of Devon]] in 1784.<ref>Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, "Lane of Coffleet"[https://books.google.com/books?id=YdIKAAAAYAAJ&dq=thomas+veale+Coffleet&pg=PA690]</ref> (See [[Spridleston]]).
Bagtor was later part of the large [[Dartmoor]] estate of [[John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton]] (1731–1783), whose seat was at [[Spitchwick]], about 6 miles to the south-west.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
*{{cite book| last=Meller| first=Hugh| title=The Country Houses of Devon| publisher=Black Dog Press| location=Crediton| volume=I| year=2015| pages=93–4| isbn=978-0-9524341-4-6}}
*{{cite journal | author=Ransom, Bill| title=The Manor of Bagtor, Ilsington| journal=Report & Transactions of the Devonshire Association| year=2003| volume=135| pages=99–110}}
*{{cite book| last=Wills| first=Dick| title=The Book of Ilsington: A Photographic History of the Parish | publisher=Halsgrove| year=2000| page=119| isbn=978-1841140605}} (includes old photos of the house)
[[Category:Historic estates in Devon]]