CHAMPERNOWNE, Hugh

By the early fifteenth century the Champernownes numbered among the longest established families of south-western England. As a result of the successive marriages of a 14th-century ancestor, Sir Richard Champernowne of Modbury, two branches of the family had become established in Devon. Sir Richard had three sons, the elder two, Richard and John, from his first marriage to Katherine, the daughter of Sir Giles Daubeney†, and the youngest, Alexander, from his second to Alice, daughter of Thomas, Lord Astley. For two of these sons, Sir Richard contracted advantageous marriages: Alexander was betrothed to one of the coheiresses of Martin Ferrers† of Bere Ferrers, while Richard, the eldest, married Isabel, a grand-daughter of the wealthy Sir William Bonville of Shute.4 Reg. Stafford ed. Hingeston-Randolph, 422-3; Vivian, 262; Reg. Lacy, i (Canterbury and York Soc. lx), 20. As a consequence, Richard found himself brother-in-law to one of the most influential men of his generation in the south-west and might have expected to play a prominent part in local politics, but his career was cut short when he died less than a year after his father in January 1420, leaving his own son and heir, Hugh, a boy of two.5 C138/40/51. There was also an earlier namesake, who is recorded as attorney to William Bigbury of Bigbury in 1415, but of whom nothing is otherwise known: Cornw. RO, Edgcombe mss, ME1468-9. The inheritance which awaited the infant and which was placed in the custody of Sir Hugh Courtenay† of Haccombe and the prominent lawyer John Copplestone*, included the Devon manors of Modbury, Dodbrooke, Bridford, Hurberton, Buckland Dynham and Bradninch, as well as the duchy of Cornwall manor of Aston Rowant in Oxfordshire, estates which at the time of Sir Richard’s death were assessed at £82 p.a., but were clearly worth far more, for when Hugh’s son William died in 1464 the manors of Dodbrooke, Bridford and Modbury alone were said to be worth £120 p.a.6 CIPM Hen. VII, iii. 437; CFR, xiv. 330; C140/12/2; C138/40/51.

As the Champernownes’ Devon holdings were spread along the southern coast of the county, Hugh was not a natural choice to represent the burgesses of the northernmost borough of Barnstaple in Parliament. Rather, he found himself propelled into parliamentary affairs as a consequence of the political ambitions of his wider family. As a result of the minority of the natural leader of Devon society, Thomas Courtenay, earl of Devon, in the 1420s and 1430s Hugh’s uncle, Sir William Bonville, and a group of his associates, including (Sir) Philip Courtenay* of Powderham, came to dominate the political scene in Devon. It was their influence to which Champernowne’s cousin Roger owed his return as one of the knights of the shire for Devon in 1437, and it cannot be doubted that they were also instrumental in securing Hugh’s election for Barnstaple in the same year. It was undeniably a surprising choice, even for one of five boroughs in the county, for at the time of his election Hugh was still under age. The 1437 Parliament was a short one, sitting for just over two months from January to March and there is no indication that Hugh either distinguished himself at Westminster or even formed any useful connexions. In any case, his career was soon cut prematurely short, for he was dead by August 1438, at which date an inquiry into the patronage of the church of Bridford found that William, his son and heir, had last presented to the living.7 Reg. Lacy, ii (Canterbury and York Soc. lxi), 90.

Hugh was survived by his wife, Alice, who went on to marry Sir Thomas Beaumont,8 CP40/803, rot. 136. and left an underage son, William.9 Reg. Lacy, iii (Canterbury and York Soc. lxii), 35. During William’s minority the place that Hugh, had he lived, might have expected to fill in Devon society was instead occupied by his bastard brother and namesake, Hugh Champernowne alias Rowe, who acquired considerable wealth by his marriage to Joan, widow of the prominent soldier Sir John Speke* of Haywood.10 C139/105/3; C1/70/47. William for his part never achieved a prominent position in the locality. In the 1450s he became associated with his uncle William, Lord Bonville, and as such came to blows with his bastard uncle Hugh, who had taken the earl of Devon’s part in the quarrel between the two south-western magnates.11 C1/1/97. William made his will on 6 Oct. 1464 and died the following day, leaving his son John as his heir. He bequeathed his gowns to his brother Thomas and his jewels to his son, with the exception of a silver cup, which his widow Elizabeth (who went on to marry Charles†, eldest brother of John, Lord Dynham) was to have for life. He was however anxious for his valuables to remain with his immediate family for in the case of John’s death without issue all his goods and chattels were to fall to Thomas. Only in the case of Thomas’s death without surviving descendants were the jewels to be sold to establish chantries at Modbury and Dodbrooke.12 CP40/836, rot. 133-133d; PCC 7 Godyn; C140/12/2. These elaborate provisions, however, never had to take force, for Hugh’s descendants in the direct male line survived long into the sixteenth century.13 CIPM Henry VII, iii. 437.