Name Index

To

William Wykes, First Recorder of Exeter (14th cent.) and Wykes, Sheriff of Devon

Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. 44 (1912) pp. 561-67.

by

Ethel Lega-Weekes

Prepared by Michael Steer

Charles Worthy, in Devonshire Wills (1896) wrote "There is a popular, but erroneous tradition in this county that the "Wykes of Northwyke," in South Tawton, are as old as the Conquest; and a much more absurd one, to the effect that a fine table tomb in the parish church there, evidently Elizabethan, bears the counterfeit presentment of "old warrior Wykes," who is roundly stated to have been master farrier to " Norman William," and a trusted and highly valued retainer of that monarch, whose charger he is said to have supplied with a new set of shoes on the eve of the battle of Senlac. Although there can be no question as to the great antiquity of the race of Wykes as Devonshire landowners, these tales are as hypothetical as another which very misleadingly describes them as having been originally known as "Wray, but styled Wyke, or Wykes, since the reign of Richard II." This paper, presented at the Association's July 1912 Exeter meeting discusses two of its author's celebrated ancestors both of whom held high office in Exeter and the County. Google with the Archive Organization has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. The Internet Archive makes available, in its Community Texts Collection (originally known as Open Source Books), books that have been digitised by Google from a number of libraries. These are books on which copyright has expired, and are available free for educational and research use. The copy of this rare book is held at the Princeton University Library and is available from the Internet Archive.