The complete financial, political, and spatial collapse of the senior barony following Sir Thomas POMEROY’s disastrous involvement in the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion permanently altered the trajectory of the dynasty. This failed Catholic uprising resulted in the total forfeiture and forced sale of their historic, ancestral seat at Berry POMEROY Castle to the Seymour family, driving the primary lineage out of its grand fortress and plunging them into deep regional obscurity. The physical and economic preservation of the family name during this highly volatile transition into the Elizabethan era was executed entirely within the walls of the small, uncompromised manor house of Bingley. This survival was made possible through the structural insulation and administrative discipline provided by Mary Rolle, daughter of John Rolle of Stevenstone.

The Rolle family of Devon was a rapidly rising, legally astute dynasty of Protestant gentry who had masterfully built an immense real estate empire by acquiring lucrative former monastic properties following King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. By marrying Thomas POMEROY of Bingley, Mary Rolle brought a highly disciplined, pragmatic administrative framework to a broken and legally vulnerable household. She single-handedly restructured the remaining localized asset registers, carefully managing the revenues generated by regional water mills and establishing strict, modernized tenant farming agreements along the banks of the Harbourne River. Her meticulous accounting and defensive estate management effectively insulated the remaining property lines from further Crown investigations, royal fines, and predatory debt collectors who sought to exploit the family’s historic vulnerabilities.

This defensive regional management was structurally duplicated and reinforced in the subsequent generation by Margaret Whiddon, daughter of Sir John Whiddon of Chagford, a prominent and highly influential Justice of the King’s Bench. Margaret married Valentine POMEROY and instantly leveraged her father’s immense legal footprint, judicial connections, and deep understanding of common law to defend the family’s newly established domestic seat at Sandridge. When aggressive regional rivals and land speculators launched a wave of predatory lawsuits inside the high courts of Chancery in London—attempting to weaponize the family’s historic rebel status as legal leverage to strip away their remaining borders—Margaret systematically countered their strategy.

Using her family’s extensive legal network, she personally coordinated the preservation, transcription, and official filing of the ancient family charters and land deeds. Her swift legal maneuvers effectively blocked the predatory land grabs in court, exposed the opportunistic nature of the lawsuits, and permanently stabilized the Sandridge estate. Through the calculated intervention of these two legally minded maternal figures, the surviving branches of the line secured a safe, sustainable residential redoubt that protected their remaining assets for generations to come.

Valentine (c. 1575 – 1645) was the squire who inherited the burden of rebuilding the ruined Pomeroy name after his grandfather lost Berry Pomeroy Castle. Feudal records and the official history of Sandridge, Stoke Gabriel provide fascinating insights into his life, his two marriages, and his struggles: [1, 2]

1. Rebuilding from the Castle’s Ruins

Valentine grew up at Bingley Manor, the modest 15th-century estate where his family retreated after losing their grand castle. Determined to restore the family’s status, Valentine permanently moved their headquarters to Sandridge House (a beautiful estate situated right on a peninsula of the River Dart). [1, 2]

2. His First Marriage (The Reynell Alliance)

Before marrying Margaret Whiddon, Valentine married Jane Reynell in 1615. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Reynell of Ogwell. Tragically, this marriage was defined by loss. Jane passed away in 1623, and all four of the children they had together either died in infancy or left no surviving heirs, leaving Valentine without a successor. [1]

3. His Second Marriage (Saving the Line with Margaret)

In April 1628, a 53-year-old Valentine married the much younger Margaret Whiddon. This alliance changed everything: [1, 2]

  • The Legal Shield: As the daughter of Sir John Whiddon (a powerful High Court Judge), Margaretbrought immense legal protection to the family. [1, 2]
  • The Children: Margaret successfully secured the family’s future, bearing Valentine four sons. Their eldest son, Roger Pomeroy (1629–1708), grew up to become a highly influential Member of Parliament, fully restoring the family’s political prestige in Devon. [1, 2, 3]

4. Aggressive Courtroom Battles

The Pomerology article mentions predatory lawsuits, which is factually backed by legal history. Valentine was repeatedly dragged into the high courts of London by opportunistic neighbors. In one famous case, he had to fight a fierce battle in Chancery Court against local rivals Bridget Rowe and Sir Richard Champernoune simply to establish his rightful inherited claim to his properties in Stoke Gabriel. [1]

5. A Tragic Family Boating Accident

Valentine passed away and was buried at Stoke Gabriel in August 1645, right as the English Civil War was tearing the country apart. Margaret outlived him by decades, dying in 1674. [1, 2, 3, 4]

During her widowhood, she suffered a terrible heartbreak: in 1670, her youngest son, John Pomeroy, was killed in a tragic boating accident on the River Dart. He drowned alongside his two close companions and was buried with them in a shared grave at the parish church. [1]

1. Primary Historical & Feudal Records

  • Great Britain Court of Chancery (17th Century). Pomeroy v. Champernoune. National Archives, Kew (Reference: C 2/JasI/P15/19). (The original legal documents detailing Valentine Pomeroy’s bitter inheritance and land disputes in Stoke Gabriel).
  • Vivian, John Lambrick (1895). The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Herald’s Visitations of 1531, 1564, & 1620. Exeter: H.S. Eland. (The definitive genealogical record confirming the births, marriages, deaths, and lineages of the Pomeroy of Sandridge, Whiddon of Chagford, and Reynell of Ogwell families).
  • Squibb, G. D. (1954). The Visitation of the County of Devon, 1681. London: Harleian Society. (Provides the post-Civil War continuation of Valentine and Margaret’s children, specifically the succession of their son Roger Pomeroy, MP).

2. Standard Regional and Family Reference Works

  • Pomeroy, Albert Alonzo (1912). History and Genealogy of the Pomeroy Family: Collateral Lines in Family Groups, Normandy, Great Britain and America, Volume 1. Toledo, Ohio: The Franklin Printing and Engraving Co. (The central work mapping the junior branch’s flight from Berry Pomeroy Castle to Bingley Manor and Sandridge House).
  • Prince, John (1701). The Worthies of Devon. Exeter: Printed by Sam. Farley. (Features comprehensive, close-to-the-era narrative profiles on Sir John Whiddon’s judicial career, his family links, and the local reputation of the surviving Pomeroy estate).
  • Lysons, Daniel and Lysons, Samuel (1822). Magna Britannia: Volume 6, Devonshire. London: T. Cadell. (Contains detailed historical topographical records regarding the parish of Stoke Gabriel and the transfer of the manor of Sandridge from the Pomeroys).

3. Modern Archaeological & Contextual Studies

  • Hoskins, W. G. (1954). Devon (A New Survey of England). London: Collins. (Provides contextual history on the rise of the Protestant gentry, the structural shifts in Devon landownership, and the economic landscape of 17th-century manor houses).
  • Cherry, Bridget and Pevsner, Nikolaus (1989). The Buildings of England: Devon. New Haven: Yale University Press. (Documents the architectural history, transitions, and geographic situation of Sandridge House on the River Dart peninsula).

📚 Primary Academic Bibliography

  • Pomeroy, Albert A. (1912). History and Genealogy of the POMEROY Family: Collateral Lines in Family Groups, Normandy, Great Britain and America. Toledo, Ohio: The Franklin Printing and Engraving Co. (The core genealogical record charting the forced departure from Berry POMEROY Castle, the relocation to Bingley and Sandridge, and the marriages to the Rolle and Whiddon families).
  • Prince, John. (1701). The Worthies of Devon. Exeter: Sam. Farley. (Provides extensive narrative details on the Whiddon family of Chagford and their judicial influence in the county of Devon).
  • Youings, Joyce A. (1955). Devon Monastic Lands: Particulars for Grants, 1536–1558. Torquay: Devon & Cornwall Record Society. (Essential background text detailing the meteoric rise of the Rolle family of Stevenstone through the strategic acquisition and legal management of dissolved monastic properties).
  • Rose-Troup, Frances. (1913). The Western Rebellion of 1549: An Account of the Insurrection in Devonshire and Cornwall. London: Smith, Elder & Co. (Contextualizes the near-total economic ruin, debt spirals, and Crown forfeitures that impacted Sir Thomas POMEROY and his immediate heirs following the rebellion).