The Dominican Friary—excavated in Exeter city centre prior to building the Princesshay shopping precinct—served as the elite final resting place for Sir Henry Pomeroy (who died in 1281).

In mainstream genealogical records, this individual is recognized as Henry de Pomeroy V(c. 1236–1281), the ruling Feudal Baron of Berry Pomeroy. His presence in the consecrated ground of the friary bridges several verified historical details: 

  • The Military Career: In 1259, King Henry III issued a royal summons ordering this exact Henry Pomeroyto report to Salop (Shropshire) with horse and arms to defend the realm against the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.
  • The Secular and Sacred Links: As a major local lord, he confirmed historical land grants to nearby Ford Abbey, and his burial inside the Exeter Dominican Friary demonstrates the high social status the family maintained in Devon decades after the Norman Conquest. 
  • The Grizzly Discoveries: While the skull with the horrific “spinning arrow through the eye” puncture wound dates from a slightly later era (estimated around 1405 to 1447), it was disinterred from the exact same institutional trench where Sir Henry Pomeroy’s generational contemporaries were entombed. 

Sir Henry de Pomeroy (died 1281) was a prominent Anglo-Norman nobleman and the ruling Feudal Baron of Berry Pomeroy in Devonshire during the thirteenth century. Descended from an elite line of Norman companions who fought alongside William the Conqueror, his life unfolded through a series of rigid medieval inheritances, royal military summonses, and highly strategic marital alliances across the English West Country.

The Feudal Barony and Early Inheritance

Sir Henry, historically classified by genealogists as Henry V de Pomeroy, was born into the deep ruling class of Devonshire. When his father, Henry IV de Pomeroy, passed away in 1237, the young heir was still a minor under the age of twenty-one. Because of his legal minority, his vast ancestral estates were placed under a protective royal wardship until he officially came of age around 1249. Upon taking formal control of his inheritance, one of his first civic and religious acts was to officially confirm and renew the extensive land grants that his ancestors had historically bestowed upon Ford Abbey, solidifying his family’s standing as foundational patrons of the local monastic community.

Military Service and Welsh Summonses

As a primary feudal tenant of the English Crown, Sir Henry’s status required direct military obedience to King Henry III. During the late 1250s, the English borders faced severe military incursions from the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. To counter the threat, King Henry III issued a strict royal summons ordering Sir Henry to report directly to Shrewsbury (Salop) with horses, heavy armor, and a full contingent of arms to defend the realm. This military obligation highlighted the Pomeroy family’s role as primary cross-border enforcement agents for the Crown during the chaotic final years of the King’s reign.

Marriages, Descendants, and Dower Estates

Sir Henry carefully managed his territorial and political influence through two successive marriages into influential regional bloodlines. His first marriage was to Isabella de Bathonia (of Bath), a woman from a wealthy landowning family who became the mother of his direct heirs, including his eldest son, Henry VI de Pomeroy (born 1265). Following Isabella’s passing, he entered into a second marriage with Isolda (also recorded as Iseult or Iseud) de Pyn, the widow of the prominent Cornish knight Sir Roger de Bodrugan. Sir Henry died shortly before July 12, 1281. Following his death, Isolda successfully navigated the royal courts to secure her widow’s dower, which granted her legal possession of one-third of the valuable family manors of Berry and Stockleigh Pomeroy, a holding she maintained into the 1290s.

Final Entombment and Archaeological Context

Upon his death in 1281, Sir Henry was accorded a high-status burial inside the consecrated ground of the Dominican Friary in Exeter. This sacred site served as the ultimate resting place for the brethren and the wealthiest secular elites of medieval Devon. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, archaeological excavations carried out by Exeter Archaeology in advance of city center development uncovered his final resting trench.

While subsequent bone analyses from the same disarticulated collection revealed horrific battle casualties—such as a later fifteenth-century skull shattered by a spinning armor-piercing longbow arrow—Sir Henry’s presence in the registry confirms the long-standing prestige of the Pomeroy lords at the heart of medieval Exeter’s ecclesiastical history.

Bibliography

  1. The Feudal Lineage & Dower Records:
  2. The Archaeological Excavation Report:
  3. The Genealogical Reconstructions & Primary Source Tracking:
  4. Regional Anglo-Norman Fines and Court Rolls: