1547 (SIR) GAWAIN CAREW C219/282/2; Hatfield 207.
Devon remained largely a county of prosperous freeholders farming their own lands, although speculation following the Dissolution brought considerable estates to the Denys, Edgecombe, Pollard and Russell families. The influence of the most important noble family, the Courtenays, continued paramount despite the attainder of the Marquess of Exeter, the lengthy imprisonment of his son and the failure of direct male heirs in 1556. Other noblemen with extensive property in Devon before the 1540s were Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, and John Bourchier, Lord Fitz Warine, who in 1536 became 1st Earl of Bath, while during the period Sir John Russell, later Baron Russell and 1st Earl of Bedford, emerged as one of the wealthiest figures in the south-west. None of these magnates is known to have exerted any pressure in support of their relatives or clients at elections, but Sir William Courtenay presumably benefited from his kinship with Exeter, (Sir) Gawain Carew from his with the Dorsets father and son, and John Chichester and John Fulford as nephews of the 2nd Earl of Bath.
5. C219/18A/1, 2, 18B/159, 18C/32, 33, 20/41, 21/41, 23/38, 39, 24/41, 282/2, 3.
6. LP Hen. VIII, i. g. 257(87).
7. CJ, i. 2, 3, 11, 38, 42-46; LJ, i. 39, 40, 131.