This role involved him in performing a role unpopular with his fellow Devon gentry whose weirs were major assets in providing salmon. One of his last actions before his death, recorded in the Lisle Papers is to have received a visit at Powderham on 11 November 1535 from Lady Lisle's land-agent begging him to spare her weir at Umberleigh. Courtenay replied that he dare not as he had received "privy letters" from the king which determined him to report when next at court that all the weirs in Devon were down, and that not even for an inducement of 1,000 marks would he contemplate leaving Umberleigh weir standing for one week longer "for fear of the king's displeasure". Courtenay married twice:  He died at Powderham between 23 and 24 November 1535. His heir was his grandson Sir William Courtenay (1527–1557) of Powderham, "de jure" Earl of Devon (recognised retrospectively in 1831 by the House of Lords), son of his eldest son George Courtenay who had predeceased him in 1533.