Situated 1/2 mile to the north of the village was Colcombe Castle, now demolished, a former seat of the Courtenay family, Earls of Devon.
(Many streets in New Plymouth bear the names of the company’s directors, including Woolcombe, the Earl of Devon, Thomas Gill, Sir Anthony Buller, Lord Eliot, George Leach, Sir Charles Lemon, Edward St Aubyn, E.W.W. Pendarvis, Lord Courtenay and Hussey Vivian.)
Isabella outlived all her children, so after her death in 1293 her inheritance was disputed between Warin de Lisle and Hugh de Courtenay, who later became 9th Earl of Devon.
The Earl of Devon afterwards procured for him the additional situation of auditor of the metropolitan district asylums.
Devon | James Earl Jones | Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex | Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma | Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener | Earl | Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts | Earl of Derby | Earl Warren | Earl of Pembroke | Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Warwick | Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | Earl of Shrewsbury | William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham | Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester | Devonport, Devon | Tiverton, Devon | Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick | Earl of Leicester | John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon | Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex | Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester | Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer | Earl of Devon | Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig | My Name Is Earl | Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon | Earl Scruggs |
Paraded by the company's weavers through the town, it was then blessed by the Bishop of Exeter and presented to the Earl of Devon.
They were later joined by the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Devon, who brought their forces from the West Country.
All his honours were forfeited by attainder, and the earldom eventually passed, after a brief period of confusion during the Wars of the Roses (for which see Earl of Devon), by a new creation in 1485 to Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (d.1509), the grandson of Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccombe and Bampton (1358–1425), brother of the 11th Earl.
The extant 14th century buildings evidence primary links to the important de Courtenay family of the medieval period, Earls of Devon, close blood relatives of the Plantagenet, Lancastrian and Tudor kings, and one of the most important English Renaissance families.
In 1451, when the Earl of Devon besieged the castle which was held by Lord Bonville, it was arranged around two baileys.
He was distantly related to the Courtenay family who held the title Earls of Devon and were seated at Powderham Castle in Exeter, and was a distant cousin to the novelist Maria Edgeworth, but his own family was not well-to-do.
William Courtenay, 1st Viscount Courtenay (11 February 1709–16 May 1762), also de jure 7th Earl of Devon, was a British peer.
Her first romance, Almagro, appeared in 1837, followed by De graaf van Devonshire ("The Earl of Devonshire") in 1838; De Engelschen te Rome ("The English at Rome") in 1840, and Het Huis Lauernesse ("The House of Lauernesse") in 1841, an episode of the Reformation that has been translated into many European languages.
It was founded as a Benedictine abbey around 970 by Ordgar, Earl of Devon, or his son, Ordulph, and dedicated to Olfrida, the mother of Saint Edith of Wilton by King Edgar the Peaceful.
Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Devon (c. 1409–1449), the daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, the mother of both Thomas Courtenay, 14th Earl of Devon and John Courtenay, 15th Earl of Devon.
Edward conferred on him in 1467 rich estates in Devon forfeited by the Earl of Devon; and in 1465 Blount was made lord high treasurer and created Baron Mountjoy.