John Northcote (1570-1632)

John Northcote (1570-1632) of Uton and Hayne, Newton St Cyres, near Crediton, Devon, was a member of the Devonshire gentry, lord of the manor of Newton St Cyres, who is chiefly known to history for his artistically acclaimed effigy and monument in Newton St Cyres Church. Little or no documentary evidence concerning his career as a soldier or county administrator has survived, but either he or his identically named son was Sheriff of Devon in 1626, his own tenure of that office being suggested by the baton or staff of office held in the hand of his effigy. Such a baton is also held by the effigy of Lord Edward Seymour (d.1593), Sheriff of Devon in 1583, in Berry Pomeroy Church. He was ancestor of the Earls of Iddesleigh.

He was the 2nd son and heir of John Northcote (d.1587), a cloth merchant of Crediton, by his wife Elizabeth Dowrish (d.1587), daughter of Thomas VII Dowrish (d.1590) of Dowrish near Crediton, of an ancient Devonshire family. His elder brother was Walter Northcote (1566-1587), baptised and buried in Crediton Church, who predeceased his father. In 1585, aged 21 and two years before his death, Walter had married Mary Drewe, daughter and heiress of Edmund Drewe of Hayne, in the parish of Newton St Cyres. Although he had by her a daughter Elizabeth Northcote (b.1586), who married twice, the estate of Hayne became the inheritance of his brother John (d.1632), subject of the present article. His grandfather was Walter Northcote (d.1572) of Crediton, a cloth merchant, who married Elizabeth Hill, of the family of Hill of Shilston, in the parish of Modbury, Devon. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, on 16 August 1557 Walter Northcote and his son acquired jointly from the crown for the sum of £827 8s 9d the manor and advowson of Newton St Cyres, formerly a possession of Plympton Priory, together with other lands in the parish of Crediton formerly owned by the Collegiate Church of Crediton, also dissolved, with other lands in Wiltshire, Westmoreland and non-monastic lands in Devon.

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