History of the Manor of Codiford Farleigh or Lancorla

The Manor of Codiford Farleigh or Lancorla

The Lordship of the Manor of Codiford Farleigh, otherwise known as Codiford-Farlegh, Lancorla, Cudiford or Cotford Farlo, is a feudal lordship in the county of Cornwall. It was first recorded in 1066 in the reign of King Edward the Confessor and has a history to 1533 in the reign of King Henry VIII. Over the centuries, the Lordship was recorded in historical documents and books with the aforementioned different name variants.
The lordship in the parish of St. Wenn lies about four miles nearly east-north-east from St. Columb and about eight west from Bodmin, the same distance north from St. Austell, and seven south from Padstow.
The manor also received special mention in "One of books of the exchequer for Cornwall, in Westminster Abbey, the jurisdiction of a cucking stool of some account has been given in the preceding volume was granted or rather at inquisition was declared to belong to the manor of Cotford Farlo in the parish St Wenn and there that there was a walled pool for this purpose by highway side and that the cucking stool had been in existence within the memory of man".

 History of the Manor & Lordship of Codiford Farleigh

The ancient manor of Codiford Farleigh belonged at a remote period to the priory of Bodmin, under the church of St Petroc's, which it was held by Brictric as first lord, in the reign of Edward the Confessor in 1066.
1086 Domesday Book: Brictric held the manor of Codiford-Farlegh (also Cudiford or Gudiford) under the Earl of Cornwall for King William I. Brictric died in imprisonment 1083. It is recorded as the manor of Cudiford in St Wenn Parish, in the hundred of Rialton (Pyder).

Domesday Book extract of Cudiford

Later the Manor of Codiford-Farlegh was held by the priory of Farleigh, then the Earls of Cornwall under the King and in 1259 the manor came into ownership of the Botreaux family of Boscastle. The Botreauxs' were prominent Knights and later Barons by writ and held substantial landholdings, which also included the manor of North Cadbury in Somerset.

William de Botreaux, 1st Baron Botreaux and Lord of the Manors of North Cadbury and Codiford Farleigh in 1349 was married with Elizabeth Daubeney. Lady Elizabeth wished to found a college of priests in North Cadbury Church, possibly for the safe return of her grandson from the Agincourt campaign of 1415. She was licensed in 1417 to found a college of chaplains in the church. Papal approval was given in 1418 when the church was named St. Michael the Archangel. William, 1st Baron Botreaux died in 1391 and his wife Lady Elizabeth died much later in 1433. In 1423 royal licence was granted for Elizabeth, Lady de Botreaux and Sir William de Botreaux to convert the parish church of North Cadbury into a college of seven chaplains and four clerks, one of the chaplains being in charge as rector of the college of St. Michael. Heir was their eldest son William, then 2nd Baron Botreaux. 1391 William, 2nd Baron Botreaux married Elizabeth St. Lo. He died end of 1395. Their son William, 3rd Baron Botreaux was the next and 15th Lord of Codiford Farleigh.

William was first summoned to parliament in the age of 23 the first time being in 1412 and lastly in 1461, aged 72. He married first Elizabeth Beaumont and second Margaret de Ros. He inherited from his father the barony of Botreaux as well as substantial family landholdings which also included the manors of Codiford Farleigh in Cornwall and North Cadbury in Somerset. In the parish church of which capital manor he was buried, as he requested in his will written 38 years before in 1424.

Between 1413 until 1422 William as an attendant to King Henry V, he attended to Court. William served the monarch throughout the Siege of Harfleur and the subsequent Battle of Agincourt in 1415. He died without surviving male issue 1462 and was buried in church of North Cadbury as well as his first wife Lady Elizabeth. He died seized of 50 manors, mostly in the West-country, including the manor of Codiford Farleigh. By his first wife Elizabeth he had four children, but three of them died early and his daughter Margaret, was his sole heiress, 4th Baroness Botreaux in her own right (suo jure) and 16th Lady of Codiford Farleigh.

Margaret, Baroness Botreaux died in 1478 in her will of August 8, 1476 she inherited the Lordship of Codiford Farleigh to her great-granddaughter Mary Hungerford Botreaux, 5th Baroness Botreaux in her own right (suo jure). Mary died in 1533 and after her death the Botreaux family and their peerage has been extinct. The Manor and Lordship of Codiford Farleigh has been dismembered and disappears from records. The Lordship title became dormant.

In the year 2020, Jörg Hubert and Regina Dumke, 6th Baron and Baroness of North Cadbury became the rightful successors as 18th Lord and Lady of Codiford Farleigh. The Lord and Lady obtain the title and all associated hereditary rights of the Lordship of the Manor of Codiford Farleigh in Cornwall.