Richard Fortescue

Richard Fortescue (c. 1517–1570) of Filleigh, North Devon was an English Member of Parliament and prominent land-owner and member of the Devonshire gentry, ancestor to the Earls Fortescue.

The Fortescues are an ancient family, whose roots can be traced back to Norman times. He was the eldest son of Bartholomew Fortescue, Esq. (d. 1557), lord of the manor of Filleigh and of several other manors, by his wife Ellen More (or Moore), daughter of Maurice More of Moor Hayes in Cullompton, Devon. He was a great-grandson of Sir John Fortescue (c. 1394 - c. 1480), chief justice.

Richard Fortescue was elected MP for in 1545. He was a Justice of the Peace for Devon by 1558/9, and Sheriff of Devon in 1562-3.

He married about 1544 Joan Morton, daughter of Robert Morton, by Dorothy, daughter of Sir John Fitz James, of Redlynch (in Bruton), Somerset, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, 1526–39 [see Benolte et al., Vis. of Somerset 1531, 1573 & 1591 (1885): 24, 106; Hunter, Familiæ Minorum Gentium 1 (H.S.P. 37) (1894): 241–244 (Morton ped.); Foss, Judges of England 5 (1857): 170–181 (biog. of John Fitz-James)]. They had at least one son, and two daughters, including:

He died on 30 June 1570 at Filleigh, and was buried in Filleigh Church, where two monumental brasses exist in his memory.

Two monumental brasses which formerly adorned a tomb-monument of Richard Fortescue exist in Filleigh Church, having been removed from their original setting in the old parish church of Filleigh, demolished c. 1730 to make way for landscaping surrounding the Palladian mansion of Castle Hill, which was a re-modelling of Richard Fortescue's ancient manor house. Both are now affixed within Victorian wooden frames on the north wall of the nave of the new parish church of St Paul, built in 1732 some half mile away from its former location next to the manor house. There are two heraldic escutcheons on each brass, in poor condition with parts torn away.

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