The Acorn Archive

 

 

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The MORICE family

of Werrington, Devon

This page is “under construction”.

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Sir William Morice, Knight,

was brother in law to

Edmund Prideaux of Padstow

 

The family of Sir Nicholas Prideaux

Sir Nicholas Prideaux of Soldon (b 1550, d 1628) = Thomasine Henscot (d 1573)

1 Child : Humphrey Prideaux of Soldon (b1573, d 1617) = Honour Fortesque (m 1600, rm 1618, d 1663)

Six Children ….

1] Tomasine (b 1603 Sutcombe Devon, m John Fortesque)

2] Elizabeth (b 1604?), m 1630? Sir William Morice, Sec of State Charles II

3] John (b 1605 East Allington)

4] Edmund Prideaux of Padstow (b 1606, d 1683) = Bridget Moyle (m 1638, d 1690)

    [ Edmund Prideaux was father of Humphrey Prideaux, Dean of Norwich

       and grandfather to Edmond Prideaux of Padstow (b 1693) ]

5] Nicholas (b 1607 East Allington, m Ann Coryton 1621)

6] Humphrey (b 1611 Padstow, m 1640 Elizabeth Waldron, rm 1654 Frances Berrie)

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Morice of Werrington

 

Three generations are recorded at Werrington.

They are the direct descendents of …

Sir William Morice, Knight; Secretary of State to King Charles II; Exeter

Married Elizabeth Prideaux c1627; she was born 1604(?)

They had two sons – William and a younger brother (unknown name)

and two daughters - Anne and Elizabeth.

[I have not yet discovered details for the younger brother, Anne or Elizabeth.]

 

[1] Sir William Morice, 1st Bart lived in Exeter, Devon. Created Baronet 20 Apr 1661.

(MP for Newport 1689-1690)

Born 1628; Death 7 Feb 1690

Married Gertrude Bampfylde 21st July 1653

Werrington Registers of Marriages. 1654 to 1812

Transcribed from the Parish Register ….

The earliest register of this parish is a small neatly bound Volume, of which the first page had evidently become much stained and worn before the present binding was added. The first entry records the publication in 1654, Commonwealth fashion, of Banns between William Morice, Esq., afterwards created a Baronet by Charles II., and Gertrude, daughter of Sir John Bampfylde, Bart, Unless this a copy of some previously existing record, the entry must  have been made subsequent to 1660, for it was not until the Restoration that William Morice, the father, was made a Knight.

At the head of the first page occurs the following declaration signed by Sir William Morice, Knt., Secretary of State for Charles II “Nov. 14, 1653. Thomas Pearce was approved and sworne the Parish Register in Werrington. Will. Morice.”

“The 21st day of July in the yeare aforesaid, (1653) Mr. William Morice, sonne of Sir

William Morice, Knight, of this psh, desired publication of a contract of marriage between him and Gartreide, daughter of Sir John Bampfeilde, Baronet, wh. said contract was duly published three several Lord’s days then next following after the mornings exercise”.

They had Children : Nicholas, Mary, Thomasine

He later married Anne Lower (daughter of Richard Lower MD) baptised 25th March 1673 (born 1668?) Covent Garden; married William Morice eldest son of Sir William Morice Sec State Ch II.  She re-married to Maj Gen Charles Trelawney. She died 8th  June 1691.

Agreement dated 30 Aug 1676; Between Sir William Morice and Thomas Reynell on the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Reynell, and Sir William Morice, son of Sir William Morice.

[I have yet to find full details and just how these marriages date, etc.,.]

 

Sir John Carew Bart (d 6 Aug 1692), married (3rd wife) Mary daughter of Sir William Morice Bart of Werrington.

Thomasine Morice married Sir Walter Moyle of Bake. Sir Walter Moyle was baptised 1627, St Germans; Died 1701. Thomasine died 1682.

 

[2]  Nicholas Morice, 2nd Bart, born 1681(?) Died 27 Jan 1726, aged 44 years.

(MP for Newport 1702-1726); Buried 7 February 1726 Werrington

Made Baronet upon the death of his father 7 Feb 1690

Married Lady Catherine Herbert; 21 March 1704 St.James's, Westminster

She was buried 18 September 1716 Werrington, Devon.

They had Children : William, Catherine & Barbara


[3] William Morice, 3rd Bart, Born  c1707; Died 24 Jan 1749/50;

MP for Newport 1727-1734; MP for and Launceston 1734-1750

Became 3rd Baronet  27 Jan 1726 

He was married 1st Sep 1731 to Lady Lucy (b 1710) daughter of Thomas Marquess of Wharton and Lucy Loftus (of Winchendon, Buckinghamshire ).

Sir William married again (when Lady Lucy left him to live with Lord Augustus Fitzroy) to Ann daughter of Thomas Bury in 1738.

Sir William Morice had estates in Padstow, which he sold in 1732

There were no children, so the title became extinct on the death of Sir William, the third baronet, and his large estates went to the families of St Aubyn and Molesworth. His sisters and co-heiresses having married; Catherine to Sir John St. Aubyn, Bart., and Barbara to Sir John Molesworth, 4th Bart.

Anne Bery; remarried into the Bennet branch of the Pine Coffin family of Portledge, when Sir Wm died.

Sir John Molesworth of Pencarrow, 4th Bart, married Barbara Morice, 2nd daughter of Sir Nicholas Morice of Werrington. Barbara died 1735; Sir John died 1766.

Sir John St Aubyn of Clowance m 1st October 1725 Werrington to Catherine, sister to Sir William Morice of Werrington, son of Sir Nicholas Morice

 

WERRINGTON, The Duke of Bedford is lord of the manor, but the Barton estate belongs to the Duke of Northumberland, who resides occasionally at Werrington House, a neat mansion, with a well-wooded park, which was purchased by his grandfather of the Morice family, who were seated here in the 17th century. 

[From White's Devonshire Directory (1850)]

 

Notes …

Sir Walter Moyle’s sister Bridget married Edmund Prideaux.

Sir Walter Moyle’s father was John Moyle of Bake – his mother was Admonition Prideaux, daughter of Edmond Prideaux of Netherton.

John Prideaux of Breoke (Sherrif of Cornwall) married Ann Moyle, an aunt of Sir Walter Moyle.

 

Sources : The Visitations of Cornwall, 1887.

m=Married / rm=married again

 

 

 

 

 

Raymond Forward