File:Arms of Brewer.svg|Arms of Brewer File:MohunArms.png|Arms of Mohun of Dunster File:RidgewayArms.png|Arms of Ridgeway File:PalkArms.PNG|Arms of Palk
William the Usher The manor of
TORRE is listed in the
Domesday Book of 1086 as held
in-chief and in
demesne by
Willelmus Hostiarius ("William the Usher"), a servant of King
William the Conqueror and one of the minor
Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of that king. He also held from the king in Devon the manors of Taw Green, Raddon, Bolham, Ilsham and Mariansleigh.
Brewer The
manor subsequently became known as
Tor Brewer a
monastery for
Premonstratensian canons. The two estates of Tor Mohun and Torre Abbey remained apart until shortly after the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century and were once again parted in the 17th century (see below). Since Brewer's only surviving son died childless, his eventual heirs became his daughters, the fourth of whom, Alice married (as her first husband) Reginald de Mohun (1185–1213)
feudal baron of Dunster, of
Dunster Castle in Somerset. She brought him a great estate, and "is set down among the benefactors to the new
Cathedral Church of Salisbury, having contributed thereto all the marble necessary for the building thereof for twelve years."
Mohun Reginald de Mohun (1185–1213) acquired Tor on his marriage to Alice Brewer, and thenceforth it was known as
Tor Mohun. She gave the manor to her younger son, who died childless, when it reverted to the Mohun family of Dunster. from
Sir Edward Seymour, 1st Baronet (–1613) Torre Abbey was sold to Sir John Stawell (1625-1669) of
Parke in the parish of
Bovey Tracey, Devon (whose mural monument survives in Bovey Tracey Church), a counsellor-at-law. In 1662 Stawell sold it to Sir George Cary, (d.1678) whose first cousin Sir Henry Cary,
Sheriff of Devon in 1637, had sold nearby Cockington (the ancient Cary family seat) during the
Civil War "in his zeal for royalty". The last male member of the family was
Robert Ridgeway, 4th Earl of Londonderry (died 1714), who died without male progeny and was buried at Tor Mohun. His two daughters and co-heiresses were: • Lucy Ridgeway (died 1736), wife of
Arthur Chichester, 4th Earl of Donegall (1695–1757), without progeny. Tor Mohun was sold "by the Earl of Donegal" (sic, deceased) and several other estates, to
Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet (1717–1798), who had recently returned from his career as
Governor of Madras in the
East Indies with a "princely fortune" at his disposal and was "in quest of a seat in his native county where he might enjoy the fruits of his toil in elegant leisure and courteous hospitality". He let Torwood House and the Tor Mohun estate to a farmer ("converted it into a farm house" (Swete)). Torwood House was described by Rev.
John Swete as follows, when he visited the area in 1793: :''"The house was not quite half mile distant from the quay: passing by an elm of great bulk I ascended some steps and through an arch'd gateway enter'd a spacious court of a quadrangular form surrounded by high walls. The house had a venerable aspect, its windows formed by stone mullions and over its projecting doorway was a sculpture, possibly the arms of the family of Ridgeway, its antient possessor. The rooms within have nothing remarkable but their size; the
Hall in particular possesses from this circumstance no small degree of consequence and the chamber above, now converted into a general dormitory for the servants of the farmer who rents the estate, seems to be of equal dimensions. There are however no other remains of the magnificence of the family that inhabited it, no fretwork, no sculpture but the arms I have before noticed, no painted glass in the windows..."'' Swete painted three watercolours of the house and its setting in 1792/3, which survive in the Devon Record Office. The only element he found which reminded him of the "savour of antient workmanship" was the staircase, the steps of which were made not of planks but of solid blocks of oak. Cockington Chapel was anciently a
chapel of ease of St Saviour's Church, Tor Mohun. The Manor itself and manorial title are now separated. The current manorial lord is American Philanthropist Terry A. Perkins. ==References==