stranger in blood - Georgeham Devon

Elaborate monument on the east wall of the south Pickwell side chapel

In 1776 a licence was granted to Honor Harris to erect a monument in the Pickwell Chapel to her parents John and Dorothy and three children who died in infancy. Honor +++ was their only surviving child and did not marry living into old age. In order to erect the monument the east window was blocked up, but its shape can be clearly seen on the outside of the building. The monument is by W Tyler

 

It has carved portraits of John Harris 1703- 1768 MP for Barnstaple and wife Dorothy Herbert

He was the son and heir of William Harris 1720 who had inherited Pickwell Manor and Wortham via a distant relative Jane Chichester 1685 heiress of Tobie Newcombe www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/D51v5s : His mother was Honor daughter of Arscott Bickford of Dunsland 1693

He was MP for Barnstaple in 1741 and 1754

He m 1730 Dorothy 1709-59 2nd daughter of Francis Herbert 1718/19 of Oakley Park, Shropshire & Dolgiog, Montgomeryshire by Dorothy daughter of John Oldbury, merchant of London, sister of Henry Arthur, 1st Earl of Powis.

Children - 2 sons and 2 daughters. (3 children died in infancy)

1. Honor Harris dsp 1790 unmarried +++

 

Heiress Honor of Wortham and Pickwell never married & after living to a ripe old age, left all her property to a "stranger in blood", Maria daughter of John Harrup, who m1 John Middleditch 1799 m2 General Mackenzie, thus passing over her first cousin and heiress at law, Dorothy daughter of her uncle Samuel Harris of Smallacombe

Maria Mackenzie d1827 bequeathed her property to a daughter of Charles Woodley of the island of Jamaica. The reversion of Pickwell had been sold to John Newton of Bridestowe,. In 1806 Wortham was sold to a Captain Cox,

 

Previously in 1771 Honor applied to the diocese for permission to erect a 12-seated gallery at the rear wall of the church at the south side of the archway to the tower. The cost of erection was paid by her father John Harris There had already been a smaller gallery built by Gregorie Chichester, but John Harris replaced it with one made of oak without obtaining a faculty.

- Church of St George, Georgeham Devon

Derek Voller CCL www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5752173