Devon's Torre Abbey E-Book

Dr Michael Rhodes

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 280

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Torre Abbey is an archaeological site of national importance. Founded in 1196, it became the wealthiest English monastery of the order of Premonstratensian canons. The extent of its survival makes Torre Abbey the best preserved medieval abbey in Devon and Cornwall. After King Henry VIII closed the monastery in 1539, two of its former ranges were adapted for use as a private house. From 1662, this house became the home of the Roman Catholic Cary family, who lived there for nearly 300 years. The story of Torre Abbey mirrors in a remarkable way the story of English Catholics during the years of the penal laws. The local council acquired Torre Abbey in 1930, and adapted it for use as an art gallery and Mayor's Parlour. Today, the abbey provides an ideal setting for Torbay's collection of paintings and antiques, most of which have been donated by local people. It has recently been restored and modernised. This book is the first complete history of Torre Abbey. It is based on the latest historical and architectural research, and is richly illustrated throughout.

Leseprobe

1. The Torre Abbey estate, from a plan of 1808. (Cary Estate Papers, Kitson’s Solicitors)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I should like to thank the following for helping with this book: Dr John Jenkins of Oxford and York Universities for his invariably excellent advice and for allowing me to refer to his undergraduate thesis on Torre Abbey; David Wopling for recounting his experiences as hall-keeper and custodian; Hal and Wendy Cary for allowing access to the Cary family papers and for making long-term loans to Torre Abbey of some of its former contents; Sue Cheriton of Torbay Council for allowing me to undertake preparatory work for this book while employed by the council and for arranging its publication with The History Press; and my wife Patricia for her patient support and constant encouragement.

I am grateful to the following for making invaluable comments on drafts of the text: Hal Bishop of Torbay Council; Hugh Meller; Sister Benignus O’Brien; Jane Palmer of Torbay Council; Leslie Retallick; Paul Richold of Architecton; the late Malcolm Upham and Father John Smethurst. I am indebted to Clare Jones for helpful information about aspects of Catholic practice, to Dr Anita Travers for translating various documents from the original Latin, and to Joseph Harvey, of Torre Abbey, for all manner of practical help.

My thanks are due to Gordon Oliver, Elected Mayor of Torbay, for very kindly agreeing to write the foreword; to Beth Hill of Torbay Council for preparing a map; and to Mark Pool of Torquay Central Library for locating various publications and photographs.

I am grateful to the following for allowing me to publish photographs, plans and diagrams: Rick Belcher and the Norbertines of St Michael’s Abbey, Silverado, California; Sister Benignus O’Brien, archivist to the Catholic Diocese of Plymouth; Antony Gormley, sculptor; The British Library Board; Hal Cary; Richard Clover, Senior Layclerk of Ely Cathedral; Devon Heritage Services; the Guildhall Art Library, London; Peter and Rosalyn Lorimer of Pighill Heritage Graphics; Bob Newman and Jane Holdsworth; Matthew Pattison; Museum of London Archaeology; The National Archives; the Norris Museum, St Ives, Cambridgeshire; Richard Fowler Associates; the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter; the Royal Armouries; Torbay Council; Torquay Museum; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Unless otherwise stated, the photographs were taken by the writer.

CONTENTS

Title

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

1 What are Premonstratensian Canons?

2 The Founding of Torre Abbey, 1195–1196

3 The Building of Torre Abbey

4 The Daily Life of the Canons

5 Roles and Responsibilities

6 The Abbot and His Superiors

7 Finance and Resources

8 The Late Medieval Abbey, 1348–1539

9 The Dissolution, 1524–1539

10 Turbulent Times, 1540–1598

11 The Ridgeways, 1598–1653

12 The Civil War and Restoration, 1653–1685

13 The Glorious Revolution and the Jacobites, 1685–1718

14 George Cary II, 1718–1758

15 George Cary III, 1758–1805

16 The Napoleonic Wars, 1798–1812

17 George Cary IV, 1805–1828

18 Henry George Cary, 1828–1840

19 Robert S.S. Cary, 1840–1898

20 Colonel Lucius Cary, 1898–19161

21 The Coxon Carys, 1916–1931

22 Public Opening, 1930–1948

23 Unrealised Potential, 1949–1977

24 An Improving Attraction, 1977–1992

25 Concept Development, 1993–2003

26 Project Implementation, 2004–2013

27 An Enduring Legacy

Further Reading

Copyright

FOREWORD

Torre Abbey excites the eyes, curiosity, intellect and imagination of everyone who enters its gates – especially if they have an interest in art, architecture and the history of this area. It’s a place I know well, and love, and regularly use and visit.

Enjoying a commanding view of Tor Bay, Torre Abbey has been home to our leading local residents for 800 years. In medieval times, the Abbot of Torre controlled and developed large swathes of Devon. After the canons were expelled in 1539, the abbey became the seat of the Ridgeway and Cary families, who owned the land upon which present-day Torquay was built – and influenced its development.

The abbey has always been renowned for hospitality. Medieval travellers called here for free bed and board, and during the Napoleonic wars, the Cary family held ‘open house’ for officers of the Channel Fleet – including Britain’s great national heroes, Earl St Vincent and Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson. Since 1930, when it became our local art gallery, Torre Abbey has incorporated a Mayor’s Parlour, where distinguished visitors and voluntary workers are welcomed and thanked on behalf of our local residents.

Torre Abbey’s pivotal role in the religious life of this area must never been forgotten. It was built for a community of canons, who followed a life of prayer and service. After the Cary family made it their home in 1662, they employed a Roman Catholic priest and built a secret chapel – both of which were illegal at a time when Catholicism was suppressed. During the 1700s, the Catholic community that looked to Torre Abbey for support was the largest in Devon.

Like all historic buildings, every fifty years or so, Torre Abbey has needed repair and modernisation. In 1997, Torbay Council inaugurated the ‘Torre Abbey Project’ to restore the abbey and to adapt it for the twenty-first century. Thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage and others, Torre Abbey now has new museum displays and access for wheelchair users, as well as a new education suite, ticket office and café.

As the restoration of Torre Abbey is still not complete, I invite you to join me in becoming a member of the Friends of Torre Abbey – who raise funds to support the abbey and to conserve and enhance its collections. Please ask at the abbey for further information.

The Torre Abbey Project has led to many remarkable discoveries and a programme of research into the abbey’s history and archaeology. Drawing on this wealth of new information, this book by the abbey’s former curator, Dr Michael Rhodes, is the first complete and authoritative account of Torre Abbey’s extraordinary history.

Gordon Oliver, 2015

Elected Mayor and Leader of Torbay Council

INTRODUCTION

The idea for this book arose from a conversation with a marketing professional, who called at Torre Abbey to advise us on its advertising literature. ‘If you had to name just one thing that makes Torre Abbey special,’ he asked, ‘what would that one thing be?’ ‘That’s easy,’ I answered. ‘Eight hundred years of Catholic history. Now try selling that!’

Our adviser was, of course, correct to suggest it is easier to promote an attraction that is built around a single powerful idea. Before the recent restoration works, visitors were invariably delighted by the art collections, which include nationally important nineteenth-century works by John Martin, William Holman Hunt and Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. The house they found confusing. The ruins to the rear showed it had begun as a monastery, while the eighteenth-century family chapel revealed that the Carys were Roman Catholics. But the displays did not tell the story of the house, so visitors left with no idea of its archaeological and architectural importance, or the extraordinary scope of its history.

That the story of Catholicism in England might provide a compelling, unifying framework for a new interpretation of Torre Abbey was then only a hunch. To develop the idea would require some serious research. Could it really provide a cohesive story, I wondered? I wrote this book to find out.

2. Heraldic shield bearing the arms of Torre Abbey from the medieval abbey church. (Bob Newman and Jane Holdsworth, Torre Abbey collection)

The strength of the tale that emerged took me by surprise. From the end of the Third Crusade in 1192 to the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England in 1850, every significant event that affected English Catholics was illuminated or reflected by events at Torre Abbey. Even its non-Catholic owners became embroiled in events at the core of the Catholic story: the Western Rebellion of 1549, when Catholics rebelled at the imposition of a reformed English prayer book; the failed Spanish Armada of 1588; and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, to name just a few. In all likelihood, no other individual house in the country could be used to tell the story of English Catholics so well.

Because our British national identity has been shaped by our often fraught relations with the nations of Catholic Europe, the story of Torre Abbey remains relevant and important not just to Catholics, but to everyone with an interest in history. As well as providing a framework for this book, it forms the basis of Torre Abbey’s new interpretative displays.

3. Schematic aerial view of Torre Abbey from the west.(David Lawrence)

Given the extent of its architectural and archaeological remains, it is no surprise that historians should take an interest in Torre Abbey. One of the oldest and most important historic buildings in the South West of England, Torre Abbey is the most complete surviving example of a small medieval abbey in Devon and Cornwall.1 Its documentary records, scattered between various archives, are also unusually extensive. Two surviving compilations of medieval deeds, plus some remarkable visitation records, combine to reveal more about medieval Torre Abbey than is usual for a small religious house.2 The sources for its history after the Dissolution of the Monasteries are even more diverse, but so widely scattered that they have never before been drawn together. The task of tracing and analysing them has fallen largely to me. So much new information is introduced in this volume that I have provided endnotes for the benefit of future researchers.

The first historian to take an interest in Torre Abbey was the Revd George Oliver DD (1781–1861). A Roman Catholic priest from the chapel of the Society of Jesus at St Nicholas, Exeter, Oliver undertook a huge amount of original research on the history of Catholic Devon. He studied not just Torre Abbey’s medieval history, but also the story of the Cary family and the missionary priests who served in their chapel. Although his major works are well known, Oliver published some of his research in local newspapers where it might easily have been forgotten.3 Fortunately, some of this material found its way into White’s The History of Torquay of 1878 – the first comprehensive history of the town.4

Apart from some small-scale excavations in 1825 by Father John McEnery (Fig. 93, p. 91, and pp. 89–91), the site of Torre Abbey remained largely unexplored until 1906–11, when retired businessman Hugh Watkin dug a series of exploratory trenches. Although his methods were unsophisticated, Watkin managed to establish the basic layout of the abbey, and published his work in a slim volume that went through three editions.5 He gave his notes, photographs and finds to Torquay Museum, where they were used to create a small display.

Watkin was the first to transcribe the Dublin cartulary of Torre Abbey – a collection of medieval deeds once owned by the abbey, acquired by Trinity College Library, Dublin, in 1741. His manuscript was used to good effect in 1930, when local history teacher, A.C. Ellis published An Historical Survey of Torquay. As well as summarising the abbey’s history, Ellis’ work contains valuable information about the Cary family, derived from previous publications and documentary sources, including the Cary estate papers.6

It was left to local music teacher Deryck Seymour to publish Torre Abbey’s ‘Exchequer Cartulary’, so called because it was once held by the Exchequer – the government body responsible for collecting taxes prior to 1834. Having transcribed the cartulary, Seymour made a comprehensive study of Torre Abbey’s possessions which, despite significant shortcomings, remains a unique study of abbey lands.7 A more scholarly appraisal of the cartularies and other medieval sources for Torre Abbey may be found in a recent PhD thesis by John Jenkins, who is preparing for publication a new authoritative transcript of the Dublin cartulary, supplemented by some corrections of Seymour’s earlier work.8

Gaining a fuller understanding of the abbey’s archaeology, architecture and history was a prerequisite for the recent programme of repair and restoration. A better appreciation of the site would strengthen the case for grant aid. Moreover, because Torre Abbey is a site of national importance, detailed supporting information has to be supplied to English Heritage before it can grant permission for any such work. With this in mind, in 1993 John Thorp, Jo Cox and Dr Anita Travers of Keystone Historic Building Consultants were commissioned by English Heritage to undertake the first ever architectural assessment and building history of Torre Abbey. Although not intended for publication, and in some respects now superseded, Keystone’s survey broke new ground in revealing the complexity of the abbey buildings and how they may have evolved.9 As it was restricted to the buildings, Keystone’s work encouraged me to start compiling information about events that had taken place at the abbey and biographical information about its occupants. This information was arranged in date order in a series of ‘Chronological Files’ – which provide the foundation upon which this book is based.

Our archaeological knowledge of Torre Abbey has been greatly enhanced by a series of excavations of the abbey church undertaken by the Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit from 1986 to 1988, and of the abbey cloister by Museum of London Archaeology and Oxford Archaeology from 2001 to 2013.10 The cloister excavations were undertaken to inform the recent restoration work, during which detailed archaeological records were made of the standing structural remains. I am grateful for having had an opportunity to read the interim reports and drafts of a monograph that will incorporate the results of all these excavations and surveys.11 As I was able to observe most of the discoveries myself, the interpretations of the findings are largely my own. Although the archaeological monograph is intended for an academic audience, whereas this book is for the general reader, our intention is that these two publications should be seen as complementary. As well as showing why public money has been well spent on preserving Torre Abbey, they will hopefully highlight the extraordinary interest and importance of the abbey site, while providing a springboard for future research.

4. Damian Goodburn and Ryszard Bartkowiak recording roof timbers at Torre Abbey on behalf of Museum of London Archaeology in 2006.

Notes

1 M. Rhodes, ‘Torre Abbey, Torquay, Conservation Management Plan’ (unpublished report for Torbay Council, July 2009).

2 Trinity College Dublin has a thirteenth-century cartulary of 170 folios under MS E.5.15. The Public Record Office in London has a fifteenth-century cartulary of 114 folios (E164/19), as published by D. Seymour (ed.), The Exchequer Cartulary of Torre Abbey (Torquay, 2000). An early copy by R. Dodsworth and others, c. 1637, is held by the Bodleian Library, Department of Western Manuscripts, 5008 (3). The Bodleian Library also holds the Register of the Acts of Richard Redman, Bishop of Shap, 1474–1505 in 162 folios (Ashmole MS 1519). F.A. Gasquet (ed.), Collectanea Anglo-Premonstratensia, vol. I, Camden Soc. 3rd Ser. 6 (1904); 10 and 12 (1906); J.A. Gribbin, The Premonstratensian Order in Late Medieval England (Woodbridge, 2001).

3 T.N. Brushfield, ‘The Bibliography of the Rev. G. Oliver, D.D., of Exeter’, Transactions of the Devonshire Association … vol. XVII (1885), pp. 266–76.

4 J.T. White, The History of Torquay (Torquay, 1878).

5 H.R. Watkin, A Short Description of Torre Abbey, Torquay, Devonshire (Torquay, 1st edn 1907; 2nd edn 1909, 3rd edn 1912).

6 A.C. Ellis, An Historical Survey of Torquay (Torquay, 1930), vols V–VI. The early Cary Estate Papers are held by the Devon Record Office. Most of the later records are held by Kitsons Solicitors, Torquay, while a remnant is retained by the Cary family.

7 D. Seymour, Torre Abbey: An Account of its History, Buildings, Cartularies and Lands (privately printed, Exeter, 1977).

8 J. Jenkins, ‘Torre Abbey: Locality, Community, and Society in Medieval Devon’ (D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University, 2010), and The ‘Dublin’ Cartulary of Torre Abbey (Devon and Cornwall Record Soc. forthcoming).

9 J. Cox and J.R.L. Thorp, Torre Abbey, Torquay, Devon, Report K436 (unpublished report by Keystone Historic Building Consultants, Exeter, 1995).

10 For a summary of the first season of excavations, see P.A. Patch and C.G. Henderson, Torre Abbey Excavation 1986: Report and Recommendations for Future Work, Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit Report 86.04 (Exeter, 1986).

11 J. Munby et al., Torre Abbey, Devon: The Premonstratensian Abbey and Country House (working title, forthcoming).

1

WHATARE PREMONSTRATENSIAN CANONS?

The story of Torre Abbey begins on 25 March 1196 with the arrival at Torre of a Christian abbot and six canons. They had been sent to colonise the site by the abbey of Welbeck in Nottinghamshire, and belonged to the order of Premonstratensian Canons Regular.1

The Premonstratensians took their name from Prémontré, near Leon, in northern France. It was here that the first monastery of the order was founded in 1120 by a visionary priest, the later beatified St Norbert, hence its alternative name of ‘Norbertine’. When the Premonstratensian order was recognised by Pope Honorius II in 1126, seven other houses had already been established. The order then spread across Western Europe, so that by around 1350 there were up to 500 Premonstratensian houses for men and women, each containing at least twelve canons or canonesses as well as ‘novices’ (trainees on probation). As the English Church was Catholic and the English nobility spoke a version of French, the Premonstratensians found it easy to move to Britain. They established their first monastery here in 1143, and over the next half-century built around thirty-two more, mostly in the north and east of England. One of the last, Torre was also the most remote.2

5. Lay brothers stand respectfully as some Premonstratensian canons process up the nave of an abbey church. (Illustration by Peter and Rosalyn Lorimer, Pighill Heritage Graphics)

Male members of the Premonstratensian order became ‘canons regular’, meaning that they were ordained priests who observed the monastic ‘rule’ of St Augustine, Bishop of Hippo from AD 395–430. While Augustine’s rule was concerned with the broad principles of monastic living, the supplementary statutes of the Premonstratensian order reveal the influence of St Benedict’s ‘rule’, formulated around AD 530, which made detailed prescriptions for every aspect of monastic life. After Benedict, anyone wishing to join a Christian monastery was required to take vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience, and to live in a self-contained, single-sex community of monks or canons, nuns or canonesses. An abbey is a monastery governed by an abbot or abbess, while smaller houses known as priories are governed by a prior or prioress. Benedict’s rule specified when the community was to wake, the number and times of services, what prayers were to be said, how the monastic buildings should be laid out and organised, and what the community should eat, drink and read. It provided little scope for personal choice, and for this reason, someone who entered a monastery was called ‘a religious’, meaning a bound person. In medieval times a religious was prevented by law from ever renouncing the monastic life.

Originally an Augustinian canon, Norbert concluded that Augustinian practises were much too lax. Like St Robert of Molesmes, who had founded the Cistercian order twenty-two years earlier, Norbert wanted to return to a strict interpretation of St Benedict’s rule. He was also personally acquainted with the famous early Cistercian, St Bernard of Clairvaux. It is therefore understandable that the constitution of the Premonstratensian order should be based on that of the Cistercians, and that the two orders should have seen themselves as complementary, both wearing white woollen habits. But because Norbert’s followers were canons, and not enclosed monks like the Cistercians, their Premonstratensian rule allowed them to leave the monastery to preach and to serve as parish priests.

6. Late medieval carved image of a Premonstratensian canon, from the medieval abbey church. (Bob Newman and Jane Holdsworth, Torre Abbey collection)

7. A Premonstratensian canon – from an eighteenth-century print. (Torre Abbey collection)

Leaving the monastery exposed the canons to temptations not found within the cloister walls. For this reason a canon might not serve in a parish church without one or more companions, while, in common with all other orders, their abbeys were subject to a system of official inspections known as ‘visitations’. To make the visitors’ task more manageable, England was divided into three separate circuits, Torre being in the southern one.3 We know that in 1280 and 1293, the person appointed to inspect the southern circuit was Richard, Abbot of Torre.4

8. Early eighteenth-century prayer card showing St Norbert with wolves and sheep. (Torre Abbey collection)

9. Hand-written music on vellum – from a missal (a book of chants for the Mass). The words are based on Psalm 67, Verse 2, and were used in the Mass for the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. Because they were expensive, missals were written large enough to be used by several choristers. Similar missals would have been used at Torre Abbey, though this example is probably Spanish, around 1600–50. (Torre Abbey collection)

St Norbert required the Premonstratensians to observe fasts and to maintain a special devotion to the Virgin Mary and to the Holy Eucharist. They soon developed their own service-books and traditions, and their own version of Gregorian chant, in which traditional melodies were enriched by adding or altering one or more notes.5

Notes

1 Seymour, op. cit. (1977), pp. 7–10 and 29.

2 H.M. Colvin, The White Canons in England (Oxford, 1951).

3 Colvin, op. cit., pp. 198, 268 and 278.

4 Jenkins, op. cit. (2010), p. 258, quoting the Dublin Cartulary, ff. 161v, 164v and 165r.

5 See the official website of the Premonstratensian order: www.premontre.org.

2

THE FOUNDINGOF TORRE ABBEY, 1195–1196

Torre Abbey came to be established as the result of gifts of lands and privileges by William Brewer, the lord of the manor of Torre, from which the more recent names of Torquay and Torbay are derived. First mentioned in the Domesday record of 1086, William’s manor was situated in the north-east corner of Tor Bay – a huge natural harbour caused by the erosion of sandstone and conglomerate rocks between harder limestone ridges to the north and south. Torre takes its name from a rocky limestone outcrop (like the ‘Tors’ of Dartmoor) that once towered over William’s manor house, which stood to the east of present-day Torre church (see Fig. 1, p. 2).1

10. Map to show the location of Torre Abbey. (Beth Hill, Torbay Council)

11. Map showing the boundaries of the medieval abbey site. (Museum of London Archaeology)

Due to his skills as a tough administrator and negotiator, William Brewer gained high office during the reign of three warrior kings: Henry II, Richard I and John, whose lands included England, western France and the eastern half of Ireland. They are known as the Angevin kings because they were descendants of the tenth-century Count of Anjou. To stay in favour, the Angevins’ high-ranking servants had to pursue their king’s interests with ruthless determination, in return for which they were allowed to use their position to amass huge estates, by extortion and bribery if necessary.2

While moral compromises were daily realities for twelfth-century noblemen, they were also acutely aware of their susceptibility to untreatable injuries and diseases, and of the shortness of life in general. After death, the Church taught that the soul entered purgatory – a physical location where the soul was purified by fire to make it fit for heaven. Filled with guilt for their misdeeds, people were terrified for themselves and for their loved ones, and would do anything to shorten their time there. The Church responded by establishing a scale of penitential acts appropriate to the gravity of the sins a person might have committed. The higher the rank, the more onerous were the penances. For a young knight, the most potent way to gain absolution was to join a Crusade to bring the Holy Land back under Christian control. Men and women of noble birth might enter a monastery as a monk or a nun, but those with family commitments would usually endow an abbey with lands or money.

12. The Brewer family arms, on a corbel of the abbey gatehouse.

13. Stone coffin believed to be that of William Brewer. Found at Dunkeswell Abbey during the nineteenth century and placed in the present church.

14. The lower half of the stone coffin of William Brewer the Younger, Torre Abbey. (Torbay Council)

In return for receiving an endowment, an abbey would sign a contract to bury the bodies of the nobleman and his loved ones, and to pray for their souls and the souls of their descendants, who were treated as hereditary founders. The names of the deceased were entered into a calendar called a ‘necrologium’, alongside those of former abbots and religious, so that Masses could be said forever on the anniversary of their death. If a benefactor wanted more frequent Masses, a family altar or chapel, known as a ‘chantry’, might be built and specific priests employed. The founder of an abbey could expect the same spiritual benefits as a monk or canon, and was buried in a place of honour dressed in a monastic habit.3

15. Medieval lead water pipe in a protective stone channel (bottom left). The water pipe, which crosses the Torre Abbey cloister, was discovered when it was excavated by Museum of London Archaeology in 2005.

The practice of endowing monasteries became so popular during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that every noble family in the country acquired an interest in one or more monastic houses. In Devon the number of monasteries grew from two to fifteen. Torre was one of four religious houses founded by William Brewer, who towards the end of his life retired to the Cistercian abbey he had founded in 1201 at Dunkeswell, east Devon. He died there on 24 November 1226, and was laid to rest beside the remains of his wife in the chapter house, dressed in a Cistercian habit.4

William’s son, William Brewer the Younger, died seven years later and was buried in front of the high altar at Torre Abbey, where the lower half of his stone coffin may still be seen (Fig. 14, p. 15). The abbey had previously agreed to celebrate the anniversary of his death with solemn Masses and gifts of food to the poor. In return, it had gained valuable farms at Ilsham and Collaton near Torquay, where medieval buildings owned by the abbey may still be seen. It had also gained the right to use the spring water from St Petroc’s well, near the present site of Torre church.5 We know from archaeological excavations in 2005 that the water was conveyed to Torre Abbey under pressure in a long lead water pipe, which passed close by William’s coffin before crossing the cloister diagonally to feed the cloister basin (lavabo) and the abbey kitchens.

The abbey’s foundation charter tells us that William founded Torre Abbey so the canons could pray for his own soul, for those of his predecessors and successors, and for the souls of King Henry II and his son King Richard the Lionheart – the two men to whom William most owed his position, his influence and his many extensive feudal estates.6 Henry had appointed William to be Sheriff of Devon in 1179, while Richard promoted him to be one of four lesser justices, whose role was to help the two justicars (king’s representatives) appointed to run England while the king was abroad, leading the Third Crusade to the Holy Land.

In 1192, on his way back from the Crusade, King Richard was captured by Duke Leopold V of Austria, who handed him over to King Henry VI of Germany, also known as the ‘Holy Roman Emperor’. Although they had a genuine grievance against Richard, detaining a Crusader was against Church law, so both men were excommunicated by the Pope. Richard’s captors took no notice, and proceeded to demand a ransom of 150,000 marks – a huge sum, equivalent to two or three times the annual income of the English Crown. William Brewer was present in person at Worms on 29 June 1193, when the terms of the ransom were agreed. He then returned to England to help raise new taxes in order to pay the ransom money. On 4 February 1194, Richard was released for a part-payment of 100,000 marks, while sixty-seven hostages were handed over as a guarantee for the remainder.7 Although not one of the four named hostages, it is possible that William Brewer’s son, William Brewer the Younger, was among the group. The youth would not have been excused on grounds of age, since the use of child hostages was already well established.8

Once freed, King Richard made no attempt to raise the balance of the ransom, or to honour a promise that within seven months his niece Eleanor of Brittany would marry Frederick, Duke Leopold’s son. This provoked Henry VI to threaten to hang the hostages. Then, in a strange twist of fate during the Christmas of 1194, Duke Leopold was thrown from his horse while taking part in a tournament, as a result of which his leg had to be amputated. When no surgeon dared perform the operation, the duke held an axe to his leg and instructed his chamberlain to strike it with a hammer, which worked on the third attempt. Realising he was mortally wounded, the duke appealed to the Archbishop of Salzburg to lift his excommunication, to which the archbishop agreed, but only after the duke had sworn to free the hostages and to forfeit the ransom money. After his death, the duke’s son at first hesitated to honour his father’s oath, but he relented when the clergy refused to bury his father’s body. The hostages were finally released in April 1195, whereupon Duke Leopold was buried in the Cistercian abbey of Heiligenkreuz.9

16. The tomb of Richard I, in the nave of Fontevraud Abbey, France. To its rear is the tomb of Isabella of Angoulême, wife of King John.

The first canons arrived at Torre Abbey just eleven months later, but preparatory work for the new abbey must have begun much sooner. We know this because under the rules of the Premonstratensian order an abbot could not be sent to colonise a site until certain temporary buildings had been erected: an oratory, dormitory, guest chamber and porter’s lodge.10 Because many other abbeys were founded to honour an oath made at a time of great danger, we may infer from the sequence of events that William Brewer founded Torre Abbey to fulfil a vow he had made to God for the safe return of the hostages (including his own son, if he was indeed among them), whose blood might otherwise have been on his hands.

Notes

1 P. Russell, A History of Torquay and the Famous Anchorage of Torbay (Torquay, 1960), pp. 7–10.

2 S.D. Church, ‘Brewer [Briwerre], William (d. 1226), administrator and justice’, OxfordDictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004); Ellis, op. cit., p. 28 &c.

3 Seymour, op. cit. (1977), pp. 57 and 149; Colvin, op. cit., pp. 257–78 and 304.

4 Seymour, op. cit. (1977), p. 49; Colvin, op. cit., p. 153.

5 Seymour, op. cit. (1977), p. 85.

6 Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Eng. Hist. c. 241; Seymour, op. cit. (1977), p. 82.

7 H.T. Riley (trans.), The Annals of Roger De Hoveden, vol. II (London, 1853), pp. 295–312.

8 S. Shahar, Childhood in the Middle Ages (1990), p. 294 fn. 227.

9 W.E. Aytoun, The Life and Times of Richard I … King of England (London, 1856), p. 232 et seq.

10 Colvin, op. cit., p. 32.

3

THE BUILDINGOF TORRE ABBEY

William erected the new abbey buildings on some of the best farm land in his manor – a row of four huge oblong fields in the north-west corner of Tor Bay (still visible on the 1808 estate map; see Fig. 1, p. 2).1 These fields sloped gently towards the south-west and the sea, which reflects the warmth of the sun, creating ideal conditions for pasture. The field nearest the sea (now called Torre Abbey Meadow) was at risk of flooding at high tide, so the abbey buildings were sited on the lower slopes of the next field inland, along with their gardens and orchards. The western boundary of the fields was marked by an ancient raised causeway leading to the beach, which ran alongside a shallow valley drained by two streams.2

The two fields above the abbey, known as Higher and Lower Rowedone, were used for grazing. We know from later records that the abbey kept horses, oxen, cows and pigs, and maintained a rabbit warren, a dovecote and a flock of up to 200 sheep.3 The abbey barn was constructed around 1300 to store hay, straw, grain and other produce from the fields, and perhaps also for drying wood and gorse, which was used as fuel for lime kilns (Fig. 55, p. 57). When the great opposing doors in the central transepts were both opened, they caught the sea breezes to facilitate threshing – the process of separating the grain from the straw. Sheaves were lain on the floor between the doors and then beaten with flails. This caused the grain to fall to the ground while the chaff was blown aside.4