Family and Education

bap. 20 Sept. 1629, 1st surv. s. of Valentine Pomeroy of Sandridge, being 1st s. by 2nd w. Margaret, da. of Sir John Whiddon of Chagford. m. Joan, da. of Elias Wills of Saltash, Cornw., 2s. d.v.p. 2da. suc. fa. 1645, cos. Hugh Pomeroy in Tregony estate 1674.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Devon 1673-80, j.p. 1678-89, 1703-d., Dartmouth 1680; alderman, Dartmouth 1684-Oct. 1688, freeman, Dartmouth 1684, Totnes 1688; mayor, Tiverton June-Oct. 1688.2

Biography

Pomeroy was head of a Devonshire family compared with which even the Courtenays were newcomers and the Seymours rank usurpers. His ancestor in the 18th degree is recorded in Domesday Book as holding 59 manors in chief, and between 1377 and 1413 the family regularly represented the county. But they failed to weather the political and economic storms of the 16th century, and in 1548 Berry Pomeroy, their principal residence, was alienated to the Seymours.3

The Devonshire Pomeroys played no part in the Civil War. Pomeroy himself must have opposed exclusion, since he remained a j.p. throughout the crisis, and in 1685 he was returned as a Tory for Dartmouth, three miles from his residence. He was appointed only to two committees in James II’s Parliament, to recommend expiring laws for revival and to consider the bill for this purpose. He seems to have been the only Devon Protestant to give unqualified affirmative answers to the lord lieutenant’s questions on the repeal of the Tests and the Penal Laws. But he was not popular among his constituents, who were reported in 1688 to be ready to elect any court candidate except Pomeroy and John Beare. A non-juror under William III, he is unlikely to have stood again, though he was restored to the commission of the peace in 1703. He was buried on 23 July 1708 at Stoke Gabriel, to which he gave a communion flagon. The main branch of the family became extinct in 1719.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

• 1. Vivian, Vis. Devon, 607-8.
• 2. Trans. Dev. Assoc. viii. 367; SP44/335/154, 155; Exeter City Lib. DD63604; SP44/338/25.
• 3. E. B. Powley, House of de la Pomerai, 98.
• 4. Powley, 98-99.