Grant of the Priory to Richard Duke AD 1540
Letters Patent 5th Feb 31 Henry V111
Henry the Eight by the Grace of God, King of England and France
etc.
To all that these letters come greeting. Know ye that for the sum
of £1727.14s.2d paid into the hands of the treasurer of the Court
of Augmentations by our beloved Richard Duke, Clerk of the
Council of the said Court, by these present do give and grant to
the same Richard Duke, and Elizabeth his wife, all those our
lordship and manors of Otterton and Budlegh. Otherwise called
Esbudlegh with all their Appurtenancies which late to the
Monastery of St Savouire and Brigetta of Syon, now dissolved,
belonged and appertained. Also our Churches and Rectories of
Harpford, Otterton, and Fen Ottry and their rights, glebes and
tithes etc. And also our 40 messuages and100 cottages.251

Otterton priory, founded temp. William II, was a dependent of Mont St. Michel in Normandy. It was sup- pressed as an alien priory in 1414 and its endowments granted to Syon Abbey in Middlesex. At the dissolution of Syon in 1539, Richard Duke (who was clerk of the Court of Augmentations, handling the disposal of monastic property) immediately bought the manor of Otterton. He converted part of the monastic buildings into a mansion, which still stands by the church, and is now divided internally and occupied by several cottagers. The manorial mills, recorded in Domesday Book, are still working. 377