A great support of old Barnstaple was the shipping industry. Vessels of one hundred to two hundred tons were built here and owned by Barnstaple men, amongst whom was Mr Bament, father of Mrs Carruthers Gould, who was also a tanner. The ships were employed in different services, and known as London traders, Liverpool traders, Bristol traders, etc., according to the port of arrival. Their cargoes were of all kinds—groceries, draperies, and general merchandise. There was also a considerable traffic in Scotch herrings. The quays, of which there were four—three above Barnstaple Bridge—were at right angles to the river. At present, ships are barred from coming up beyond a certain distance by the railway bridge. Below this, however, is the Rolle Quay (so called after the Rolle family, to whom it belongs), which is still accessible, and where much business is done. When in Barnstaple recently, I watched a sailing ship from the opposite bank, and her action in entering curiously resembled that of a mouse stealing into its hole. One of the services of the Barnstaple vessels was as emigrant ships, and Mr Bament helped to export hundreds of sturdy colonists to the Antipodes. In the Maid of Sker (chapter xxx.), the “Tawton fleet” of brown-sailed lighters is referred to; the river is navigable for barges and small craft to about three miles above the town.
Mr Parminter has many appetising reminiscences of parliamentary elections, which in days of yore were in the hands of the freeman. This position was esteemed a valuable privilege, since it carried with it other rights, not merely that of voting. Mr Parminter, for instance, as a freeman, was able, when building a chapel at Ilfracombe, to convey all the material by sea without paying quay dues. As to politics, however. Adjoining the North Walk is a mansion called the Castle, in the grounds of which is a raised mound, on which in former times guns were mounted for the defence of the river passage. This house was occupied for many years by Mr Brembridge, M.P. for the borough (commonly known as “Dick Brembridge”), who was pitted against Lord Ebrington, the present Lord Fortescue, on one occasion, and, together with his colleague, unseated for bribery. His lordship, however, was unable to occupy either of the vacant places, as one of his own agents was convicted of corruption, to the tune of £10. This was really a modest amount, seeing that in 1841 as much as £80 was paid for a single vote. There were other modes of gaining or retaining support, and amongst these may be reckoned a champagne breakfast at the King’s Arms, which Mr Parminter recollects attending when quite a boy, with his father. A famous contest was that in which Messrs Hudson and Gore, the former a wealthy brewer, succeeded in ousting the Hon. John Fortescue, brother of the present Earl, and Sir John Palmer Chichester (“Arlington Jack”), representing two of the oldest local families.
All the world has heard of Mr F. Carruthers Gould, the renowned caricaturist, but all the world may not know that, although not a resident in the town, Mr Gould is a thorough Barnstaple man, and his wife, as we have seen, is a Barnstaple lady. The Goulds are an old Barnstaple family. The grandfather of F. C. G. was a lime and slate merchant, and his father, Mr Richard David Gould, a very clever architect, in large practice, who designed the market and many private residences, including the house in which Mr Parminter lives and I lodged. Prior to this my excellent landlord occupied the Castle, an hotel which he built for himself in the street of the same name, where he had Mr R. D. Gould himself as a paying guest. In his youth Mr Carruthers Gould was a clerk in the Old Bank, and, whilst in that position, presumed to caricature old Trewin, the jailor—a terrible personage, with a great capacity for holloaing. The sight of the picture enraged him beyond measure, and it is said he was almost for murdering the daring young artist.
For many years Barnstaple has known no such benefactor as the late Mr W. F. Rock, who, I believe, started in life as a linen-draper and lived to found the North Devon Athenæum, which originated in a debating society. He was the author of a dialogue in the North Devon dialect, and took an interest in many other things besides literature. For instance, he gave a most useful stimulus to the slumbering artistic taste of the townspeople; and the wonderful development of Barum ware and cabinet work may be attributed, directly or indirectly, to the seed sown by this wise and patriotic townsman.
From this gossip of recent days I turn to severer researches, suggested in part by points that have already cropped up—for instance, the matter of the castle. When Barnstaple Castle was first erected, whether by King Athelstan or some other Saxon ruler, cannot be accurately stated. This much is certain—that there was ample reason for such a fort in Anglo-Saxon times, since the berserker Hubba appeared in the neighbourhood, and at the mouth of the Taw is the so-called Hubba-stone, supposed to mark his grave. Two other Norse chieftains, Crida and Putta, are reputed to have given their names to Croyde and Putsborough. The castle was rebuilt or considerably extended by Judhel de Totnes, a favourite of William the Conqueror, to whom he, William, granted the borough of Barnstaple, and who occasionally resided there. He also repaired the town walls. Judhel was afterwards banished, and the barony and castle, after passing through a number of different hands, came at length to Sir John Chichester, who in 1566 conveyed the entire manor, with the exception of the castle, to the corporation, in whom it is still vested. For some reason the fortress attracted the jealous attention of the Government, and in the reign of Henry III., A.D. 1228, a precept was directed to the Sheriff of Devon, commanding him to reduce its walls to a height not exceeding ten feet. According to Fuller, it was in the following century the principal residence of the worthy Lord Audley, but in Leland’s time (1542) it was already a ruin.
“The town of Berdenstaple,” he says, “hath been waulled, and the waulle was in compace by estimation half a myle. It is now almost clene faullen. The names of the four gates by east, west, north and south, yet remain, and manifest tokens of them. There be manifest ruines of a great castelle at the north-west side of the towne, a little beneath the towne bridge, and a place of dungeon yet standeth.”
The next notice of the castle is found in the Journal of Philip Wyott, Town Clerk of Barnstaple from 1586 to 1608: “1601, nineteenth day of December, at night, some of the castle walls was blown down and blown into the Castle, and did no harm, saving some ravens were found dead, and belike sat within the wall.” Elsewhere the Journal tells how two hundred trained soldiers were reviewed in the Castle Green, and, how, in October 1606, a great flood “threw down the whole house wherein James Frost did dwell, whereby himself was slayne, and two children lying within bed was slayne, with the falling of the walls, and all the walls between that and the Castle fell.”
The aforesaid mound, and some remains of two or three massive walls incorporated with the Castle House, alone are left to mark the site of the once proud river-fort. With regard to the mound, time was when it was surmounted by a small keep or watch-tower, and it is supposed that part of a wall on one side of it is a remnant of the ancient building. This had plainly vanished in 1727, when trespassers on the mound were put on their trial at Exeter.
Next, as to shipping. Barnstaple was one of the subsidiary Cinque Ports, and, as such, assisted in repelling the Spanish Armada. The local contribution to the English fleet amounted to five ships out of a total number of 197. Old Philip Wyott says briefly: “Five ships went over the bar to join Sir Francis Drake at Plymo,” but Stow, in his Annals, supplies the names of three of them—the Tiger, the God Save Her, and the Galleon Dudley. On the dispersal of the dreaded Armada, letters of marque were issued by the English Government, and piracy having become both legal and respectable, Barumites engaged in it with considerable energy and success, the reprisal ships bringing in freights of gold, ivory, and wine. The White Hart, the Blessing, the Prudence, the John of Braunton, and the Mayflower were the names of some of these Barnstaple vessels, and in the case of the two last, complete lists of the “governors” and crews in 1612, together with inventories of the fittings, are yet extant.
One of the sights of Barnstaple is Queen Anne’s Walk, with its convenient colonnade, in which one may see old men, who have borne the burden and heat of the day, resting placidly and watching the stream of traffic surge past them. Originally the building was intended as an exchange or merchant’s walk, and did not acquire its present name till 1708, when it was restored by the Corporation, with the help of some noblemen; and the statue of Queen Anne, in the costume of the period, was presented by Mr Rolle, of Stevenstone.