by Michael P Bodman [1]
King Henry VIII of England ushered in a new middle class by granting unprecedented access for the merchants to purchase huge estates from the spoils of the dissolution of the monasteries. Among the Devonshire merchants forming this new Henrician middle class was Robert Davye (d.1570), of Crediton, co. Devon. By c.1560 he had acquired a number of former ecclesiastical properties late of the collegiate church of the Holy Cross in Crediton, proprietor of twelve manors or prebends prior to the dissolution. This article documents Robert's real property acquisitions at the dissolution and gives new information on his purported 'second wife', whom Burke et al. incorrectly state was a daughter and co-heiress of John Thomas alias Bardolph, of Titchfield, Hants, by the daughter and co-heiress of William Bardolph, of Titchfield, Hants.
Foundations (2017) 9: 71-88 © Copyright FMG and the author