Boyton Mill
The milling of corn was an important feature of everyday life in the community in days gone by and the presence of mills were often recorded in old documents. Corn was, at first, ground to produce flour by crushing it in a mortar and then later by means of a quern which was a simple hand mill consisting of two stones resting one upon the other. The water mill was introduced into Britain by the Romans during their occupation for some 400 years until the middle of the fifth century A.D.
Those who collected the information for the Doomsday Survey of 1086 as ordered by William the Conqueror were required to note among other things the number of mills on the old Saxon manors which William claimed as his by right of conquest in 1066. In Devon 97 mills were found on the manors in the county. Many more were built after the arrival of the Normans who introduced the feudal system of administration. Among the obligations placed on their tenants by the lords of the manor was a requirement that all corn grown on the manor had to be taken to the manor mill to be ground and this custom was continued well into the seventeenth century.
It is against this background that the history of Boyton Mill and the miller’s house nearby in the parish of that name has been researched. Most of the parish of Boyton lies in Cornwall and is separated from a smaller part of it in Devon and known as Northcott Hamlet by the river Tamar. It is in Northcott Hamlet that the mill, now known as Boyton Mill and at one time as Northcott Mill and Trick’s Mill, stands on the bank of the river Tamar from which, by means of a long leat, water was channelled to power the mill.
At the onset of the research it seamed likely that Boyton Mill was the mill of the manor of that name owned by the Duchy of Cornwall after first coming into possession of the crown in 1540 following the suppression of the monasteries and the confiscation of their properties by Henry VIII. Boyton manor was previously owned by the Priory of Launceston. However, research and enquiries made at the Duchy of Cornwall office in London revealed that although there had been a Boyton manor mill it was unlikely that it could have been the same one as that in Northcott Hamlet. On further investigation it was found that this place lay in the small manor of Northcott or Northcote which students of the subject have identified as the Doomsday manor of Tamerlanda on which no mill was recorded at that time. Its first sighting as Northcott manor appears in 12621 when Jordan de Loghyncote (Luffincott next to Northcott Hamlet) and Alice his wife relinquished their interest in ‘two mills and ten acres of marsh in Northcote’ to John Beaupe. Tracing the ownership of manors down the centuries is a difficult matter at the best of times and in the case of Northcott there is an additional problem because there are a number of places of that name in Devon. Other evidence indicates that the Northcote manor recorded in 1262 related to Northcott Hamlet. Of particular interest is the evidence at this early date that there were two mills on the manor. Doubtless there would have been a miller’s house nearby and it is reasonable to conclude that the properties were the forerunners of the Boyton Mill and associated premises of today.
In the fifteenth century Northcott manor appears in the possession of the Bonville family. The Bonvilles came from France and the first reference in Devon is to a Nicholas Bonville in 1199. His descendants acquired vast estates in Devon and elsewhere. During the turbulence of the late medieval period the Bonvilles sided and actively campaigned with the supporters of the House of Lancaster against the Yorkists in the Wars of the Roses which broke out in 1455. On the 30th December 1460, at the battle of Wakefield, William Bonville was killed and it was found that at his death he held among others, the manor of Northcote2. William’s father was also killed at Wakefield and at the battle of St Albans a few weeks later his grandfather was taken prisoner and executed. This left William’s daughter Cecily, only six months old when he was killed, as the heiress of the Bonville estates. As Cecily, Marchioness of Dorset, Lady Harington and Bonville as she became her estates are recorded in a survey made in 15253. In this survey the tenements and tenants of Northcote manor are described and named. The tenant of the manor mill with an orchard adjoining and three acres of pasture and meadow was one John Lacke for which he paid 16/- a year. He also rented a tenement with five acres of pasture for which he paid yearly 4/8. This tenement was in all probability his house.
Cecily Bonville married Thomas Grey, 1st Marquis of Dorset, in 1474 and she died in 1530 the same year as her son Thomas Grey the 2nd Marquis. The properties they held passed to the latter’s son Henry the 3rd Marquis and the Duke of Suffolk. He was the father of Lady Jane Grey and was executed with his daughter for his part in an attempt to place her on the throne after the death of Edward VI. His estates were then seized by the crown but the manor of Northcott was not among them4 so it must have been disposed of between 1525 and 1554.
In his will dated 30 October 16235, Christopher Trick of Northcott Hamlet, miller, mention is made of ‘ye tenement and Grist mill which I hold called Northcott mill or Trick’s mill’. His interest in this passed to his son William. Christopher was born in 1574, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Trick. Richard Trick is listed in the Military Muster of 1569 for Boyton and as no persons called Lacke or Lake are mentioned it therefore seems probable that Richard Trick took over the mill premises which then became known as Trick’s mill and so with it began a family association which lasted for over 200years. In 1710 Christopher Trick the son of the before mentioned William Trick died having made a will in 17076. In this he is described as ‘miller’. He left his interest in the mill tenement with ‘the houses and appurtenances thereto belonging’ to his wife Margaret for life or for as long as she lived with their son William. Thereafter it was to pass to him and then his wife Mary if she survived him and remained a widow, otherwise their son Christopher was to inherit. The Mill house ie the mill building was expressly excluded from the bequest to the above persons and it is not clear from the will why this occurred unless Christopher’s interest was limited to the miller’s house and the land around it. A Margaret Trick, widow, of North Tamerton, next to Boyton, died in 1734 and left a will. There is no reference in it to a son William but she might have been the widow of Christopher Trick who dies in 1709. In his will he declared that he made his will ‘to avoid all strife and contention which may arise after my decease’. From this there would seem there was a lack of harmony in the family and would account for his provision as to what was to happen if his widow did not live with his son.
From the land tax return of 1780 (the earliest to survive)7 we find that another Christopher Trick was the occupier of premises described as the Higher and Lower tenements in Northcott Hamlet. The tax on them amounted to 15/4 and £1.3.0 respectively. From later returns the Lower tenement can be identified as the Mill tenement in 1808. This Christopher Trick died in 1783 and it is possible that he followed his father and Grandfather at the mill. However, in a lease of another tenement in Northcott Hamlet, known as Facey’s, granted by the owner Humphrey Morice to John Stapleton in 1760, it is described as ‘now in the possession of Christopher Trick8. John Stapleton was required to grind his corn at Northcott mill which perpetuated by deed an old manorial custom that by then was virtually extinct. Another lease between Morice and Stapleton identified as The Cott was described ‘as late in the possession of Christopher Trick’. It will be recalled that he died in 1783. He may have sub-let Facey’s and The Cott and not occupied them himself.
The Land Tax return of 1780 shows that the tenements in Northcott Hamlet, with one exception, were owned by Humphrey Morice of Werrington. He inherited them from a cousin Sir William Morice who died in 1749 without a heir. His first wife left him for Lord Augustus Fitzroy and the marriage was dissolved by a private act of parliament to enable Sir William to marry again.
It has not been possible to trace the ownership of Northcott manor and its tenements after they left the possession of the Bonville family in the first half of the 16th century. There is evidence that Sir William Morice mentioned above was the owner in 17319. He was the great grandson of Sir William Morice who played the principle part in bringing about the restoration of Charles II in 1660 one of whose secretaries of State he became. He was born in Exeter and in 1651 purchased Werrington manor and it maybe that about this time he acquired Northcott manor as well.
After the death of Humphrey Morice in 1785 Northcott manor passed to a relative Lady Lavinia Luther as he had no issue. In 1805 the manor with its tenements, including ‘The Mill and Tenement adjoining’, was advertised as for sale10. Thereafter until 1819 the Land Tax Returns show the owner of the mill premises as Digory Baker. Samual Fice was the occupier until 1792 after the death of Christopher Trick in 1783. Samuel Fice was followed by the Shepherds until 1807 and then John Hobbs is listed as the occupier until1811. Then came Peter Stanbury to 1815 and during his occupation the property was advertised as for sale, first in December 181311 when it was not sold as it was advertised again in December 181412 but remained unsold as Digory Baker, in whose ownership it appears at the time in the Land Tax Returns, continues as such until 1819 when William Moyse is listed as the owner. In the 1814 advertisement the mill house with the whole of the machinery and other buildings except the miller’s house was described as being newly erected some six years previously. When Thomas Moyse was the owner in 1832 the occupier was John Oliver who bought it not long after. He is listed as the miller in the 1841 census of Boyton. Between 1841 and 1851 his son Francis took over as the miller. In the census of 1851 under Boyton Mill John Oliver is described as a farmer of 35 acres and his son Francis is listed as the miller. John Oliver died in 1852; he left the premises in trust for his wife and after her death in 1859 their son Francis inherited. He died in 1897 and the mill property was acquired by Thomas Yeo and thereafter his son Frank until 1921. Then came Jack Cole, the last miller from whose family it was bought by a Mr Hill in 1951. He converted the miller’s house and the adjoining cottage into one dwelling and modernised the premises. In 197113 the property with 25 acres of land was offered for sale. The mill building had been repaired and the grindstones and machinery retained.
From the research carried out it may be concluded that there has been a mill in Northcott Hamlet for at least 700 years. The present building dates from 1808. It may be supposed that there was always a miller’s house next to the mill and that it was rebuilt from time to time and at some stage a cottage adjoining it was erected. This may have been by 1707 as Christopher Trick’s will of that date refers to the mill tenements ‘with houses’. The probability that the oldest part of the present dwelling dates from the 16th century associates it with that of John Lacke the miller in 1525.
John Higgens
Newton Abbot, May 1985
Source References
1. Cornwall Feet of Fines No 202. Transcribed and published by the Devon & Cornwall Record Society.
2. Inquisition Post Mortem C. Edw. IV. File 4 (37). Transcript at West Country Studies Library, Exeter.
3. Survey of West country manors of Cecily Marchioness of Dorset Lady Harington and Bonville. Edited and published by T.L.Stoate 1979.
4. Information provided by the Public Records Office 23 Nov 1984.
5. At County Record Office Truro.
6. At County Record Office Truro.
7. At County Record Office Exeter.
8. From deeds in possession of Mr J A Goode, solicitor, St Austell.
9. From deeds in possession of Mr J A Goode, solicitor, St Austell.
10. Exeter Flying Post 1 August 1805.
11. Exeter Flying Post 30 December 1813.
12. Exeter Flying Post 22 December 1814.
13. Western Morning News 2 January 1971.
The milling of corn was an important feature of everyday life in the community in days gone by and the presence of mills were often recorded in old documents. Corn was, at first, ground to produce flour by crushing it in a mortar and then later by means of a quern which was a simple hand mill consisting of two stones resting one upon the other. The water mill was introduced into Britain by the Romans during their occupation for some 400 years until the middle of the fifth century A.D.
Those who collected the information for the Doomsday Survey of 1086 as ordered by William the Conqueror were required to note among other things the number of mills on the old Saxon manors which William claimed as his by right of conquest in 1066. In Devon 97 mills were found on the manors in the county. Many more were built after the arrival of the Normans who introduced the feudal system of administration. Among the obligations placed on their tenants by the lords of the manor was a requirement that all corn grown on the manor had to be taken to the manor mill to be ground and this custom was continued well into the seventeenth century.
It is against this background that the history of Boyton Mill and the miller’s house nearby in the parish of that name has been researched. Most of the parish of Boyton lies in Cornwall and is separated from a smaller part of it in Devon and known as Northcott Hamlet by the river Tamar. It is in Northcott Hamlet that the mill, now known as Boyton Mill and at one time as Northcott Mill and Trick’s Mill, stands on the bank of the river Tamar from which, by means of a long leat, water was channelled to power the mill.
At the onset of the research it seamed likely that Boyton Mill was the mill of the manor of that name owned by the Duchy of Cornwall after first coming into possession of the crown in 1540 following the suppression of the monasteries and the confiscation of their properties by Henry VIII. Boyton manor was previously owned by the Priory of Launceston. However, research and enquiries made at the Duchy of Cornwall office in London revealed that although there had been a Boyton manor mill it was unlikely that it could have been the same one as that in Northcott Hamlet. On further investigation it was found that this place lay in the small manor of Northcott or Northcote which students of the subject have identified as the Doomsday manor of Tamerlanda on which no mill was recorded at that time. Its first sighting as Northcott manor appears in 12621 when Jordan de Loghyncote (Luffincott next to Northcott Hamlet) and Alice his wife relinquished their interest in ‘two mills and ten acres of marsh in Northcote’ to John Beaupe. Tracing the ownership of manors down the centuries is a difficult matter at the best of times and in the case of Northcott there is an additional problem because there are a number of places of that name in Devon. Other evidence indicates that the Northcote manor recorded in 1262 related to Northcott Hamlet. Of particular interest is the evidence at this early date that there were two mills on the manor. Doubtless there would have been a miller’s house nearby and it is reasonable to conclude that the properties were the forerunners of the Boyton Mill and associated premises of today.
In the fifteenth century Northcott manor appears in the possession of the Bonville family. The Bonvilles came from France and the first reference in Devon is to a Nicholas Bonville in 1199. His descendants acquired vast estates in Devon and elsewhere. During the turbulence of the late medieval period the Bonvilles sided and actively campaigned with the supporters of the House of Lancaster against the Yorkists in the Wars of the Roses which broke out in 1455. On the 30th December 1460, at the battle of Wakefield, William Bonville was killed and it was found that at his death he held among others, the manor of Northcote2. William’s father was also killed at Wakefield and at the battle of St Albans a few weeks later his grandfather was taken prisoner and executed. This left William’s daughter Cecily, only six months old when he was killed, as the heiress of the Bonville estates. As Cecily, Marchioness of Dorset, Lady Harington and Bonville as she became her estates are recorded in a survey made in 15253. In this survey the tenements and tenants of Northcote manor are described and named. The tenant of the manor mill with an orchard adjoining and three acres of pasture and meadow was one John Lacke for which he paid 16/- a year. He also rented a tenement with five acres of pasture for which he paid yearly 4/8. This tenement was in all probability his house.
Cecily Bonville married Thomas Grey, 1st Marquis of Dorset, in 1474 and she died in 1530 the same year as her son Thomas Grey the 2nd Marquis. The properties they held passed to the latter’s son Henry the 3rd Marquis and the Duke of Suffolk. He was the father of Lady Jane Grey and was executed with his daughter for his part in an attempt to place her on the throne after the death of Edward VI. His estates were then seized by the crown but the manor of Northcott was not among them4 so it must have been disposed of between 1525 and 1554.
In his will dated 30 October 16235, Christopher Trick of Northcott Hamlet, miller, mention is made of ‘ye tenement and Grist mill which I hold called Northcott mill or Trick’s mill’. His interest in this passed to his son William. Christopher was born in 1574, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Trick. Richard Trick is listed in the Military Muster of 1569 for Boyton and as no persons called Lacke or Lake are mentioned it therefore seems probable that Richard Trick took over the mill premises which then became known as Trick’s mill and so with it began a family association which lasted for over 200years. In 1710 Christopher Trick the son of the before mentioned William Trick died having made a will in 17076. In this he is described as ‘miller’. He left his interest in the mill tenement with ‘the houses and appurtenances thereto belonging’ to his wife Margaret for life or for as long as she lived with their son William. Thereafter it was to pass to him and then his wife Mary if she survived him and remained a widow, otherwise their son Christopher was to inherit. The Mill house ie the mill building was expressly excluded from the bequest to the above persons and it is not clear from the will why this occurred unless Christopher’s interest was limited to the miller’s house and the land around it. A Margaret Trick, widow, of North Tamerton, next to Boyton, died in 1734 and left a will. There is no reference in it to a son William but she might have been the widow of Christopher Trick who dies in 1709. In his will he declared that he made his will ‘to avoid all strife and contention which may arise after my decease’. From this there would seem there was a lack of harmony in the family and would account for his provision as to what was to happen if his widow did not live with his son.
From the land tax return of 1780 (the earliest to survive)7 we find that another Christopher Trick was the occupier of premises described as the Higher and Lower tenements in Northcott Hamlet. The tax on them amounted to 15/4 and £1.3.0 respectively. From later returns the Lower tenement can be identified as the Mill tenement in 1808. This Christopher Trick died in 1783 and it is possible that he followed his father and Grandfather at the mill. However, in a lease of another tenement in Northcott Hamlet, known as Facey’s, granted by the owner Humphrey Morice to John Stapleton in 1760, it is described as ‘now in the possession of Christopher Trick8. John Stapleton was required to grind his corn at Northcott mill which perpetuated by deed an old manorial custom that by then was virtually extinct. Another lease between Morice and Stapleton identified as The Cott was described ‘as late in the possession of Christopher Trick’. It will be recalled that he died in 1783. He may have sub-let Facey’s and The Cott and not occupied them himself.
The Land Tax return of 1780 shows that the tenements in Northcott Hamlet, with one exception, were owned by Humphrey Morice of Werrington. He inherited them from a cousin Sir William Morice who died in 1749 without a heir. His first wife left him for Lord Augustus Fitzroy and the marriage was dissolved by a private act of parliament to enable Sir William to marry again.
It has not been possible to trace the ownership of Northcott manor and its tenements after they left the possession of the Bonville family in the first half of the 16th century. There is evidence that Sir William Morice mentioned above was the owner in 17319. He was the great grandson of Sir William Morice who played the principle part in bringing about the restoration of Charles II in 1660 one of whose secretaries of State he became. He was born in Exeter and in 1651 purchased Werrington manor and it maybe that about this time he acquired Northcott manor as well.
After the death of Humphrey Morice in 1785 Northcott manor passed to a relative Lady Lavinia Luther as he had no issue. In 1805 the manor with its tenements, including ‘The Mill and Tenement adjoining’, was advertised as for sale10. Thereafter until 1819 the Land Tax Returns show the owner of the mill premises as Digory Baker. Samual Fice was the occupier until 1792 after the death of Christopher Trick in 1783. Samuel Fice was followed by the Shepherds until 1807 and then John Hobbs is listed as the occupier until1811. Then came Peter Stanbury to 1815 and during his occupation the property was advertised as for sale, first in December 181311 when it was not sold as it was advertised again in December 181412 but remained unsold as Digory Baker, in whose ownership it appears at the time in the Land Tax Returns, continues as such until 1819 when William Moyse is listed as the owner. In the 1814 advertisement the mill house with the whole of the machinery and other buildings except the miller’s house was described as being newly erected some six years previously. When Thomas Moyse was the owner in 1832 the occupier was John Oliver who bought it not long after. He is listed as the miller in the 1841 census of Boyton. Between 1841 and 1851 his son Francis took over as the miller. In the census of 1851 under Boyton Mill John Oliver is described as a farmer of 35 acres and his son Francis is listed as the miller. John Oliver died in 1852; he left the premises in trust for his wife and after her death in 1859 their son Francis inherited. He died in 1897 and the mill property was acquired by Thomas Yeo and thereafter his son Frank until 1921. Then came Jack Cole, the last miller from whose family it was bought by a Mr Hill in 1951. He converted the miller’s house and the adjoining cottage into one dwelling and modernised the premises. In 197113 the property with 25 acres of land was offered for sale. The mill building had been repaired and the grindstones and machinery retained.
From the research carried out it may be concluded that there has been a mill in Northcott Hamlet for at least 700 years. The present building dates from 1808. It may be supposed that there was always a miller’s house next to the mill and that it was rebuilt from time to time and at some stage a cottage adjoining it was erected. This may have been by 1707 as Christopher Trick’s will of that date refers to the mill tenements ‘with houses’. The probability that the oldest part of the present dwelling dates from the 16th century associates it with that of John Lacke the miller in 1525.
John Higgens
Newton Abbot, May 1985
Source References
1. Cornwall Feet of Fines No 202. Transcribed and published by the Devon & Cornwall Record Society.
2. Inquisition Post Mortem C. Edw. IV. File 4 (37). Transcript at West Country Studies Library, Exeter.
3. Survey of West country manors of Cecily Marchioness of Dorset Lady Harington and Bonville. Edited and published by T.L.Stoate 1979.
4. Information provided by the Public Records Office 23 Nov 1984.
5. At County Record Office Truro.
6. At County Record Office Truro.
7. At County Record Office Exeter.
8. From deeds in possession of Mr J A Goode, solicitor, St Austell.
9. From deeds in possession of Mr J A Goode, solicitor, St Austell.
10. Exeter Flying Post 1 August 1805.
11. Exeter Flying Post 30 December 1813.
12. Exeter Flying Post 22 December 1814.
13. Western Morning News 2 January 1971.