Ayshfords of Ayshford

The First Ayshfords
Consolidation I
Consolidation II
Risk and Renewal
Expansion
Three County Marriages
Feudal Ends
Nicholas The Much Married
The Builder
The Reluctant Cavalier
Cavalier's Heirs - Baby Henry
Cavalier's Heirs - John The Last
The Barrister
The Patron of Letters

So far, as with all landed families, the Ayshfords had tried to husband their resources through the hard times and repair deficiencies by marriage with an heiress but competition for such a marriage was hot! Suddenly, around 1400, they struck lucky, securing the marriage of Emma Ferrars, one of the two daughters of William Ferrars of Churston, a wealthy landowner and Sheriff of Devon in 1396. An idea of the difference this made to the family finances can be gained from a valuation of the Ayshford lands made in 1655. Ayshford itself was worth £15 in rents. The Wollavington inheritance £16.5.5, but the properties that came with the Ferrars marriage totalled a huge £212.19.3! We must multiply be at least 30 to get some idea of present day values, and this was annual income ... The Ferrars land was divided between Emma Ayshford and Joan Yard, her sister, after the death of their father in 1428. There was some difficulty in recovering a "certain box, with certain written documents and other muniments contained in the said box", from Celia Ferrars, a relative by marriage. The lovely illuminated manuscript, listing Ferrars properties and now held in the Somerset Record Office, is perhaps one of these documents.

The Yard family used some of their newly acquired wealth to rebuild Bradley Manor, near Newton Abbot, in 1419. Perhaps William Ayshford did something similar but the evidence is lacking. What is certain is that this marriage propelled the Ayshfords from relative obscurity to a more central role in the county.

Expansion