fault the buyer demanded his money back, Froude refused, exclaiming: "Sir, you asked me for a hunter, and one that could jump, and I sold you a hunter that could jump. You saw the horse, and it was a bargain. You did not ask me if it could see". Despite all this criminal behaviour, he was a magistrate who wielded considerable local judicial power, as did many of his fellow country gentlemen, most of whom discharged their important duty in an honourable manner. Froude however was not averse to using his position to obtain search warrants from fellow magistrates on false pretences, and thus to have police ordered to search the residence of one of his enemies, destroying his home during the process. He was a close friend of another "hunting parson", namely the famous Parson Jack Russell, who also lived in North Devon, who recorded many personal anecdotes of Froude's character, mainly concerning his prowess on the hunting field and in breeding hounds. Russell was also a target of Bishop Phillpotts, and avoided his attentions in equally humorous ways as did Froude. He lived for most of his life at Knowstone Rectory, in the middle of what was then wild and untamed moorland. Later he moved to nearby East Anstey Barton, a house he built in 1848 on the site of "the old mansion" in the village of East Anstey, next to the church. In 1850 he was the principal landowner in that parish. In 1866 a "Mrs Froude" (presumably his widow) was residing at Barton House. Until recently his family was commemorated by the "Froude Arms" public house at East Anstey, closed in about 2012. He appears to have been succeeded by his sister's descendant, John Froude Bellew, in 1866 living at Rhyll Manor, East Anstey, and in 1878 described as lord of the manor. Marriage He married late in life, before which time it was noted that he always employed good-looking housekeepers. Baring-Gould relates the circumstances of Froude's marriage as follows: "Froude married a Miss Halse, the pretty sister of two well-known yeomen of Anstey. She was quite young enough to have been his daughter, and they had no children perhaps fortunately. The circumstances of the marriage are said to have been these. Froude had paid Miss Halse some of his insolent attentions, that meant, if they meant anything, a certain contemptuous admiration. The brothers were angry.