Arms of Richard Fortescue (d.1570) of Filleigh.



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Detail from overmantel now at Simonsbath House, Exmoor, originally at Weare Giffard Hall, Devon.
Impalement as follows: Baron: Fortescue, Femme: Quarterly 1st & 4th: Morton, 2nd & 3rd Hagget,
per hand written framed note c.1900 written by member of Fortescue family.




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Fortescue family heraldic panel from Weare Giffard Hall, Devon, now in Simonsbath House, Exmoor, both former residences of the Fortescue family . It may be dated c.1550 based on the persons represented, the Renaissance elements of portrait quasi-medallions, the grotto-esque decoration and the shape of the shields. Shields from L to R: First shield: Arms of w:Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford (1527–1585), Lord Lieutenant of Devon, of Bedford House, Exeter and of Chenies in Buckinghamshire (the arms of Sapcote, his mother are quartered) (see: Middlesex Heraldry Society - Chenies (Bedford Chapel); HERALDRY of the BEDFORD CHAPEL CHENIES www.middlesex-heraldry.org.uk ) Quarterly of 7: 1st grand quarter: 1 and 4, Argent, a lion rampant gules on a chief sable three escallops of the first (Russell); 2 and 3: Azure, a tower argent (de la Tour); 2: Or, three bars gules (Muschamp) 3: Gules, three herrings hauriant argent (Herringham) 4: Should be: Sable, a griffin segreant between three cross-crosslets fitchy argent (Froxmere), tinctures shown incorrectly here. 5: Sable, three chevronels ermine with a crescent for difference (Wyse) 6: Sable, three dovecotes argent (Sapcote) 7: Argent, on a cross gules five mullets or (Semark, an heiress of Sapcote. Anne Semark was the heiress of her aunt Dame Agnes Cheney, from whom she inherited the estate of Chenies in Buckinghamshire, later the seat of the Russell Earls of Bedford. Anne Semark married Sir William Sapcote of Elton Hall, Huntingdonshire, and was the mother of Sir Guy Sapcote, whose daughter and heiress Anne Sapcote married John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford. (G. E. Cokayne, The Complete Peerage, n.s., Vol.2, p.75)) (written above this first shield is "Some of the coats in this shield appear also in 30 on the west wall of Wear Giffard Hall"). Many of these arms are visible on the monument in Tawstock Church to William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath (1557-1623) and his wife Lady Elizabeth Russell, daughter of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, Lord Lieutenant of Devon; Second shield from L: quarters: 1&4, Pollard of King's Nympton; 2&3, Pollard of Way or Horwood or Westcote. Probably for Sir Lewis II Pollard of King's Nympton, Devon, sergeant-at-law, or of his son Sir Hugh II Pollard of King's Nympton, Devon, who in his youth, following his father's death, had been a ward of Sir John Chichester (1519/20-1569) of Raleigh (arms at far right, shield 4) and to whose daughter Dorothy Chichester he had been married. (Source: Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.598, pedigree of Pollard) Third shield from L: the arms of Richard Fortescue(d.1571) of Filleigh, impaling the arms of his wife: baron, Fortescue; femme, quarters 1&4, Morton of Kent, 2&3, Hagget of Kent. (These arms can be seen on monumental brasses of 1571 in Filleigh Church.) Fourth shield from L: Chichester (of 4 quarters) impaling Courtenay (of 4 quarters). Chichester quarters (baron): 1: Chichester; 2: Raleigh of Raleigh, Pilton; 3: Beaumont of Shirwell quartering Willington of Umberleigh; 4: Wyse of Devon; Courtenay quarters (femme) Redvers, Earl of Devon, quartering Courtenay, Earl of Devon. This represents the marriage of Sir John Chichester (1519/20-1569) of Raleigh in the parish of Pilton, near Barnstaple in North Devon, a leading member of the Devonshire gentry, a naval captain, and ardent Protestant who served as Sheriff of Devon in 1550-1551, and as Knight of the Shire for Devon in 1547, April 1554, and 1563, and as Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1559, whose large monument survives in Pilton Church. He married Gertrude Courtenay, a daughter of Sir William III Courtenay (1477–1535) "The Great", of Powderham, Devon, MP for Devon in 1529, thrice Sheriff of Devon, in 1522, 1525-6, 1533-4, an Esquire of the Body to King Henry VIII, whom he accompanied to the w:Field of the Cloth of Gold. He was 6th in descent from w:Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon (died 1377), and his own grandson William Courtenay (1527–1557) of Powderham became himself de jure 2nd Earl of Devon under the 1553 creation of that title.