Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/222

Devon Notes and Queries. i6i 125. Bishop Stapledon and Ashburton. — Walter Stapledon, one of the greatest of the bishops of Exeter, was a thorough Devonshire man and has left his mark deeply sunk in the sands of time. He was a younger son of William and Mabilla de Stapledon. Their eldest son Robert, was a puisne judge of the King's Bench and resided chiefly at Stapledon Manor, in the parish of Cook- bury. Walter is said to have been bom at Annery, another seat of the family in the Parish of Monkleigh, in or about the year 1260. Little is known of his early life, but he was a man of learning and became Professor of Canon Law of the University of Oxford. He was a chaplain to Pope Clement V., and was rector of Aveton-Gififard from before 1294 ^^ ^® became Bishop. He was a canon of Exeter as early as 1302, and was chosen precentor a short time before his elevation to the Episcopate. He was elected Bishop of Exeter in 1307, but it was not until October, 1308, that he was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canter- bury. It is not to Stapledon's episcopal work that we wish to draw attention. Other and abler hands have done that, but rather to note some local examples of his social and educa- tional policy in which we are interested. The trade of the various boroughs and manors he held under the King as a temporal lord, early received his attention, especially those connected with the woollen industry, as Ashburton and Crediton. On 12th December, 1309, he obtained from the King a charter for a market on Saturdays throughout the year within the Manor of Ashburton, which is still held. Also for an annual fair on S. Laurence^s day, nth August, extending from the vigil over the morrow of the feast. Then in 1313 a charter for a second fair at Martinmas. These fairs are also still maintained. To meet the requirements of the weekly markets, Stapledon built a market house wholly of timber which stood with very little alteration until 1850, when it was taken down and a new market erected on another site by the late Lord Clinton. The timber for its construction was felled in the extensive manor woods, and tradition says that shipwrights were employed from Sutton, Plymouth, to execute the M