Historic estate in north Devon, England
Pill ("alias" Pille, Pylle, etc.) is an historic estate in the parish of Bishop's Tawton, near Barnstaple, in North Devon, England. The surviving 18th-century mansion house known as Pill House is a grade II* listed building situated close to the east bank of the River Taw about 1 mile south of the historic centre of Barnstaple and 1 mile north of Bishop's Tawton Church. It was long a seat of a junior branch of the Chichester family of Hall, Bishop's Tawton. At some time before 1951 it was converted into apartments and is at present in multiple occupation.
Descent.
de la Pille.
The earliest recorded holder of the estate according to the Devon historian Sir William Pole (d.1635) was the de la Pille family, which took its name from the estate. Successive holders were:
Fulk/Fowke.
The descent of the Fulk family of Pill included:
The Borough of Newport lies between Pill and Barnstaple, and received its royal charter perhaps in 1294, when King Edward I granted it a market on Mondays, and a fair for three days at Midsummer. The only surviving names of Mayors of Newport discovered by the Devon historian George Oliver (1842), in ancient deeds were: Michael de la Pille, 1334; Robert Fouke, 1334; William Fouke, 1396. On 6 April 1400 Edmund Stafford (1344-1419), Bishop of Exeter, licensed a Chapel in Pill Barton for the Fouke Family.
Travers.
The Travers family from Hampshire succeeded Perrot at Pill. Travers of Pill bore arms: "Argent, three bears passant in pale sable muzzled and chained or".
Bryan Travers of Pill was seemingly the last in the male line and his daughter Catherine Travers (d.1613) married Hugh Chichester (1574-1644) of "Tavistock" ("sic", Tawstock, directly across the River Taw from Bishop's Tawton).
Chichester.
According to Oliver (1842) The Pill Estate was sold to Sir John Chichester (1598-1669), of Hall in the parish of Bishop's Tawton, by Peter and John Bulteel, on 27 May 1634. His uncle was Hugh Chichester (1574-1644) of "Tavistock" ("sic", Tawstock, directly across the River Taw from Bishop's Tawton), who married Catherine Travers (d.1613), the daughter of Bryan Travers of Pill. Hugh Chichester was the 8th son of John Chichester (d.1596) of Hall by his wife Elizabeth Marwood (d.1615), eldest daughter of John Marwood of Westcott, Devon. Pill eventually descended, by means unknown, from the Chichesters of Hall to their cousins the Chichesters of Stowford, descended from Hugh Chichester (1574-1644) and his wife Catherine Travers:
Codd.
Henry Frederick Codd (d. 1899) and his wife, Clara Virginia, née Botto (1853–1927) were living here in 1876 when their first child Clara Codd was born. She would become a suffragette and leading Theosophist.