Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/100

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Devon Nates and Qneries, 65 43. Sir Nicholas Martyn, of Oxton and Netherex, Knight^ whose monument in Kenton Church, of which we give an illustration, has recently been restored, was the eldest son of William Martyn, Recorder of Exeter, of whom, and of the very ancient family of Martyn there is a long account in Prince's Worthies of Devon, published .in 1701. In the new edition of this work, published in 1810, several interesting particulars were supplied by Prebendary Swete in some '* Additional Notes " at the end of the earlier memoir. The genealogical portion, however, is inaccurate in several instances. The following is the more correct version taken from the Martyn pedigree, as recorded in the College of Arms. Sir Nicholas Martyn married Elizabeth Symes, of Pounds- ford in Somersetshire, and died in 1653. ^^ ^^^ succeeded by his only son, William Martyn, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Shilston Calmady, and died at Netherex in 1662. His widow died in 1695 ^^ Oxton. Their eldest son was Nicholas Martyn, J. P., who married in 1675 Gertrude, daughter of John St. Aubyn, Esquire, of St. Michael's Mount, and sister of Sir John St. Aubyn, first Baronet, of Clowance, Cornwall. This Nicholas Martyn greatly injured and reduced his patrimony by persistent gambling. He was followed at Oxton by his eldest son, William Martyn, who married in 1705 a cousin, Susanna, daughter of William Martyn, Esq., of Holnicote in Somersetshire, sometime Clerk of the Peace for the County of Devon. William Martyn died at Oxton in 1 710, leaving as his successor an only child, William- Clifford Martyn, who was born in 1706, and married in 1733 Mrs. Elizabeth Langton, of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, spinster, who was buried at Kenton in October, 1753. William- Clifford Martyn, Esq., died without issue at Oxton in April, 1770, and with him the male line of this family terminated. By his will he bequeathed Oxton and his lands in Kenton, and one farm in Netherex to a first cousin, Nicholas Tripe, of Ashburton, whose mother was Susanna, second daughter of Nicholas Martyn and Gertrude St. Aubyn. Mr. Tripe's eldest son, the Rev. John Tripe, took the name and arms of Swete on inheriting the estates of the last Swete of Trayne, in Modbury, in 1781. Mr, Swete was a Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral, and a most elegant classical scholar. He rebuilt the house at Oxton