The Devon Family

Historian Supplement

Search for a Saint

A link to a Devon Martyr?
Brian Everett Mayne
 Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian

Search for a Saint

Brian Everett Mayne
When I moved to England from Canada in 1980, I planned to find out more about my
paternal ancestors prior to their emigration to Ontario. Thanks to the assistance of a
great-aunt and great-uncle, I had been able to trace my Mayne family back to a great-
great grandfather, William Mayne, who had immigrated with his family to Kingston in
the 1850s. My only clues to their English origins were the facts that they had come
from the county of Devon, their birth dates, and that they were accompanied, or
joined later, by William’s sister-in-law, Susan Pearce.
The only known likeness we have of William and his wife, Mary Ann, is a charcoal
sketch made of them in their later years. (below)

Cover image: Cuthbert Mayne (1544 - 29 November 1577) of Shirwell, North Devon,
declared a saint at St. Peter’s, Rome, in October, 1970. Portrait of Cuthbert Mayne
provided by the Catholic Church based on an 18th century mezzotint by Daniel
Fournier in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Image this page: Church of St. Peter, Shirwell. Photo credit: Devon FHS.
The parish of Shirwell was originally an Anglo-Saxon ‘Hundred’ and is one of the
oldest ecclesiastically appointed Deaneries in the Exeter Diocese. The two yew trees
opposite the south porch were thought to be 13th-century, making them as old as William Mayne and Mary Ann Mills Pearce
the oldest part of the present church on the site. However, a survey by the Yew Tree
Campaign states that they are actually 1,500 years old which means they probably
date to a church on the site which predates the present one. wikipedia.org
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Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian

Background of the Search

William had been born on August 8, 1829, and his wife, Mary Ann Pearce, in 1826.
This initially proved a stumbling block, as English births did not begin to be registered
centrally until 1837. Strangely enough, my best lead turned up from a North American
source, the Mormon Computer File Index (CFI – now IGI), which lists earlier births,
christenings and marriages sorted by county, surname and date. These records show
that a William Mayne, son of Francis and Mary Mayne, was christened in East Down
(also spelt Downe), Devon on August 30, 1829, only three weeks after the birthdate I
had for my William. My best proof that the two Williams were the same would be from
a marriage certificate naming the fathers of the parties concerned. At the time, I was
unsuccessful in locating this record.
I was, however, able to note four supportive facts:
• The East Down William was a second son and therefore more likely to emigrate,
since it was common for the eldest male child to inherit any parental property.
This could have been clearer to William because his father, Francis, had died in
1848 and his elder brother James was already married and had started a family
before William went to Ontario.
• This elder brother James and my Ontario William were both carpenters and may
have been apprenticed to the same man. Their father, Francis, had been a mason.
• There is no record of the East Down William having died in that village, in nearby
parishes which were checked, or anywhere in England (from a search through wills
and administrations then at Somerset House).
• Most importantly, my William’s sister-in-law, Susan Pearce, was born after 1837 and
her birth certificate (opposite) was registered in Braunton parish, an area only a
few miles from East Down.

Armed with these supportive inferences, I set out to learn more about this north
Devonshire area and to attempt to trace back this East Down Mayne family.
My enthusiasm was in no way hampered by a conviction that my English Mayne
ancestors were rustic and undistinguished folk who had lived close to the land for
untold generations.
It therefore came as a great surprise to find the name St. Cuthbert Mayne on a list of
early north Devon worthies. I was intrigued, and became even more so when I found
that, allowing for the loss of 11 days in the calendar change of 1751-2, the date of
Cuthbert’s christening, March 20, in 1544 was the same as my birthday on March 31.
I wondered if there could possibly be a link between his family and mine. Proving
such a connection, however, would be a difficult task, since this Cuthbert had been
martyred in 1577, and about ten generations – a gap of over 250 years - would have
Birth certificate
elapsed between that date and my William’s birth. of Susan Pearce
21 January
Although it is usually a cardinal sin for genealogists to try to forge a link by tracing the 1843 - Braunton
family line of a famous personage forwards instead of working backwards on their own Sub-district)
line, my first step was to find out what I could about Cuthbert’s life and family.

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Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian
In Search of the Saint
Cuthbert Mayne had been christened on March 20, 1544, in the parish of Shirwell,
Devon, when Henry VIII was nearing the end of his reign and the effects of the
Reformation were still strongly felt throughout the country. Cuthbert’s father, William
Mayne, was a shepherd and tenant of Sir John Chichester of Youlston House and Park.
Records extant from that time indicate that Cuthbert had at least five brothers.
Although the family was poor, there was a rather well to-do uncle, who took a liking to
Cuthbert and arranged for the latter’s education. This uncle has been described as a
schismatical priest, having switched from the Roman Catholic faith to Henry VIII’s new
Church of England. He wished to make Cuthbert heir to the rich church living to which
he was entitled.
The Norman font in
the Church of St. Peter,
Shirwell.
Photo credit: Devon FHS
Through the assistance of his uncle, Cuthbert was able to attend Barnstaple Grammar
School. When Cuthbert was 5, an Act of Uniformity under Edward VI banned Catholic
forms of worship and Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer replaced the Latin Mass. This
resulted in a minor uprising and rebellion in the Catholic West Country against the new
forms of service. However, Mary Tudor soon assumed the throne. She restored Catholic
supremacy and burnt 300 Protestants at the stake. ‘Bloody Mary’ died when Cuthbert
was 14 and her half-sister, Elizabeth, became Queen.
Elizabeth returned the country to the Church of England, for which she was
excommunicated by the Pope. Catholics in England had to choose between their faith
or swearing the Oath of Loyalty to the Crown.
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St Anne’s Chapel on Paternoster
Row in Barnstaple. Early C14
chantry chapel raised above
undercroft, later castellated two
storey porch. In the chapel are
C16 school desks from its days as
Barnstaple Grammar school.
Photo credit: © Betty Longbottom
and licensed for reuse under this
Creative Commons Licence.
At 17, after growing up in these turbulent years, Cuthbert was appointed Anglican
Rector of Huntshaw parish, which Sir John Chichester then had the right to bestow.
Cuthbert later said that, at the time, he ‘neither knew what ministry or religion
meant’. Five years later, the same prosperous uncle helped Cuthbert go to Oxford,
where he was awarded an Arts degree from St. Alban’s Hall (now part of Merton
College) in 1567 and, afterwards, appointed Chaplain to St. John’s College. Different
members of St. John’s were still very sympathetic to the now forbidden Catholic
religion, and Cuthbert soon came under their influence. Notable among these were
Edmund Campion and Gregory Martin, both of whom soon went to study at the newly
founded English seminary in Douai, France. Campion was subsequently ordained a
Jesuit priest and later martyred in England. Martin was also ordained a priest and
became the translator of the Douai Bible.
Elizabeth’s England was threatened from within during these years, most seriously in
1569 by an armed Catholic uprising in the north led by the Earls of Northumberland
and Westmoreland, as well as other Catholic uprisings in Ireland at various times.
Cuthbert took his M.A. degree in 1570 and continued corresponding with his Catholic
friends. One of these letters was intercepted by the Bishop of London and, to avoid
persecution for his Roman sympathies, Cuthbert disappeared into the West Country
where he spent time with those who were still secretly Catholic. After much reflection
on the direction his spiritual life should take, as well as on the consequences involved,
Cuthbert finally sailed to join his friends at Douai in 1573. There, his theological
studies progressed rapidly; he was ordained a priest in 1575, and he took the degree of
Bachelor of Theology in 1576.
Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian

Francis Tregian whose properties and home

were confiscated and who was imprisoned for
almost a quarter of a century. Photo credit: CTS

Tregian was in Queen Elizabeth’s bad

graces at this time. He had been to
Court in London and had refused a
Viscountcy offered him by the Queen.
There is a family story that he had also
recently refused an offer of Elizabeth’s
personal attentions late one night and
had fled back to Cornwall early on the
following morning.
The woman scorned declared him a Catholic traitor and sent her cousin, Sir George
Front Quad, St. John’s College, Oxford. Carey, after him, offering Carey Tregian’s lands and possessions, which would become
Photo credit: Edmund Shaw,
https://commons.wikimedia.org forfeit if the charge were upheld. Carey, in turn, contacted Richard Grenville, who
was then Sheriff of Cornwall and whose family were rivals to the wealthy Tregians and
Arundells.
After these intense studies, he returned secretly to England to take up a mission in Grenville arranged an illegal raid
the West Country, where priests for the few remaining practicing Catholics had been and search of Tregian’s Golden
outlawed and were very scarce. Cuthbert obtained a position at the Manor House at Manor on June 8, 1577. This was
Golden with the family of a wealthy Cornish landowner named Francis Tregian, who probably based on reports from
was closely related to the powerful Catholic Arundell family. Ostensibly, Cuthbert’s informants. He discovered Cuthbert
position was that of steward but, secretly, he was a priest, administering to the Mayne inside along with evidences
spiritual needs of Tregian’s family and of other families nearby, including the rich and of his Catholic priesthood. Both
titled Arundells. the priest and Francis Tregian were
arrested. Cuthbert Mayne was
tried by a jury, which had been
handpicked by Grenville, and found
guilty of treason.

Sir Richard Grenville.

In 1585 he commanded the fleet which his
cousin, Sir Walter Raleigh, had organised
to colonise Virginia. On the return journey
he captured a Spanish ship and pillaged the
Azores.
He was second-in-command of the Azores
Fleet under Lord Thomas Howard which
hoped to capture the Spanish treasure fleet
in 1591. The English fleet was nearly caught
at the Azores by a much superior Spanish
fleet but escaped except for Grenville, who,
it is thought from bravado, engaged the
Spanish and fought for 15 hours against 15
ships. He then surrendered and died of his
wounds.
The ‘Revenge’, his flagship, sank shortly
The Manor House, Golden, scene afterwards. The painting is inscribed ‘Ano Dni Aetatis suae 29’ ‘Killed in a sea fight near the Azores’.
of St Cuthbert’s arrest. Photo credit: It is a copy of a contemporary original by an unknown artist.
David Gore, Geograph.org.uk
Photo credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

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Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian
Launceston Castle where Cuthbert Mayne was imprisoned
with other Cornish recusants. View up to the Castle Keep,
Launceston. Photo credit: Colin Park, Geograph.org.uk
Inset: Window to the dungeon at Launceston Castle.
Photo credit: CTS
After five months of imprisonment at Launceston
Castle, Cuthbert was hanged, drawn and quartered in
Launceston on St. Andrews Day, November 30, 1577.
Portrait of Cuthbert Mayne
provided by the Catholic
Church based on an 18th
century mezzotint by Daniel
Fournier in the Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford. The likeness
is understood to have been
from a contemporary portrait
sketched of Cuthbert while
he was a prisoner in the
Launceston castle dungeon.
In the background are
two scenes of Cuthbert’s
martyrdom – on one side
Launceston Castle and on
the other the gibbet set up
in the town’s market square.
Cuthbert is shown wearing the
illegal Roman Agnus Dei (a wax
imprint of a lamb bearing a flag
blessed by the Pope) he was
discovered to have when he
was arrested.
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Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian
Arresting and trying Cuthbert had been a pretext to confiscate the well-to-do Tregian’s
home and property. These went to Sir George Carey. Tregian was imprisoned and
not released until 1601. He went into exile on the Continent in 1603, where he could
openly be a Catholic. He died in Lisbon in 1608.
Richard Grenville’s reputation went up in the Queen’s estimation and he was later
knighted. He died a hero in 1591 on his captured ship, The Revenge, off the Azores
when battling overwhelming odds against Spanish galleons.
It has been noted that Cuthbert was hanged, drawn and quartered. It was customary
for the authorities to impale each quarter of those who had been put to death on a
town gate or on a pole in a public square as a warning to others. Cuthbert’s remains
suffered the same fate, and each quarter of his body was displayed in a different
town. His head, however, was placed above the castle gate at Launceston and, after
being exposed there for several days, was secretly stolen away by a member of the
powerful Catholic Arundell family. The deed is thought to have been done by Thomas
Arundell, an uncle to Francis Tregian, who wished to keep the martyr’s skull as a
religious relic. The major portion of Cuthbert’s skull surfaced in 1807 at Trevithic,
Cornwall, the family home of Thomas Arundell’s descendants, and was given to the
Carmelite nuns at Lanherne at St Mawgan for keeping. Another smaller portion of
Cuthbert’s skull came to light around 1850, hidden behind paneling of what used to
be the chapel in the ancient Sutton Place mansion in Surrey. This was also presented
to the nuns at Lanherne. In the late sixteenth century, Dorothy Arundell had been the
lady of Sutton Place, and it is presumed that she was given this part of the skull by her
first cousin, Thomas.
The Manor House of Sir John
Arundell which Cuthbert used
to visit as a priest. Lanherne
Manor, Trerice was the seat of
the Arundell family from the
14th century. It was later given
as a convent for Carmelite nuns.
Now it is an enclosed community
of Franciscan sisters where
Cuthbert Mayne’s relics were
kept.
Photo credit: © David Gore,
Geograph.org.uk and licensed
for reuse under this Creative
Commons Licence.
Cuthbert Mayne was the first Catholic priest to be put to death under Queen Elizabeth I.
He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and, in 1970, declared a saint along with 39
other companion martyrs who had been put to death under the laws of the English
Reformation. Together they are known as the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales.
Today, Launceston’s Roman Catholic Church is dedicated to St. Cuthbert Mayne, the
road encircling the church grounds is Mayne Close. The church is a shrine to the saint
and has part of his skull as a relic. There are also three schools in England bearing the
Saint’s name: a primary one in Surrey, a junior one in Hertfordshire and a secondary
school in Torquay, Devon.
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Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian

The Quest Continued

I was fascinated by this story and by the insights it gave me into the personalities and
history of that far-away time. However, as regards my quest for a connection between
Cuthbert’s family and my own, there appeared more difficulties. All I could find out
about Cuthbert’s family, from the Mormon CFI/IGI and from a family will dated 1575,
was that one of his older brothers in Shirwell had had five children. Two of these
were male, John and Abraham Mayne, and had been christened in 1560 and 1562
respectively (see chart, “Ontario Mayne’s and Cuthbert Mayne’s Family Trees”).
There was, though, one very optimistic indication of a possible link between the two
families. Cuthbert Mayne’s birthplace in Shirwell was less than three miles from East
Down, where my ancestor William had been born nearly three centuries later.

Ontario Maynes’ and Cuthbert Mayne’s family trees

I set myself the task of tracing William Mayne’s family in East Down. The best place
to do this research was at the Devon County Record Office in Exeter, where most of
Devon’s parish records had been centralized. On my first day there, I was disappointed
to find that the earliest record for a Mayne in East Down was an entry for William’s
father Francis, showing his marriage there to Mary Adams, a widow, in 1818. I made
a more thorough search on the next day (my last) and, not long before the Records
Office was to close, I found an 1829 East Down burial record indicating that a William
Mayne had originally been from the nearby parish of Marwood. This gave me a vital
lead to Francis Mayne’s possible birthplace. I used the remaining minutes to confirm,
through a microfilm of the Marwood Bishop’s Transcripts, that Francis had indeed been
christened in Marwood in 1797.
I could not follow up this lead, though, until my next visit to Exeter two weeks
later. When I did get back I had very good luck on two counts. The first was that the
Marwood parish registers had only been deposited in the County Record Office the
week before (they had been kept at the parish church up until then, which was why I
had had to consult Bishop’s Transcripts on my preceding visit). The second fortunate
point was that the Mayne family, with one possible break, had remained in Marwood
from the marriage of a John Mayne in 1611 up until the birth of Francis in 1797
(see the bottom portion of the chart, “Ontario Mayne’s and Cuthbert Mayne’s Family
Trees”).
Whereas I had previously spent years trying to work the family tree back one
generation, I was now able to trace it back a further six in a single day!
The possible break in the Marwood Mayne family continuity was the absence of a birth
and parentage record for Edward Mayne, Francis’s great-grandfather, who had married
Grace Comer in I721. However, there were two brothers, Richard and Edward Mayne,
who had been christened in Marwood in 1648 and 1650 respectively. One of these was
almost certainly father or grandfather to the 1721 Edward. For these brothers I could
find no certain record of marriage, the christening of any children, or burial in the
Marwood registers. I can only surmise that, during the gap, either the existing records
are incomplete or the family had moved to another parish, where the marriages and
births are recorded, before returning to Marwood in, or prior to, 1721.
Ontario Maynes’ and Cuthbert Mayne’s family trees

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Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian

The Marwood registers were begun in 1602, and the earliest record of a Mayne in • “Marriages Ano Domi: 1647” “Richard Mayne & Elinor Balden were marryed
them is for a John Mayne, who married a Marie Garland on the 30th of January 1611 the 18th day of November”
(pre-England’s change to the Gregorian Calendar, when the new year started on Lady • “1620” [fifth line down] “Richard Mayne ye sonne of John Mayne was christened
Day, March 25, so this would have been 1612 in our current years). Following the ye first day of November”
register forward, there is a clear trail showing that the two brothers born in 1648 and
I650, Richard and Edward, were grandchildren to this John. It was beyond what I had
ever imagined that I would hold these original documents in my hands and see the
actual entries which these ancestors had also gazed upon centuries ago. There was a
strange feeling of these earlier times and personalities coming alive when noting how
the handwritings and spellings in the entries altered dramatically as I turned the pages
going backwards in time.
This can be seen in the following illustrations.
“Early Mayne Family Entries from the Marwood Parish Registers”. They include:
• “William Son of William & Ann Mayne was baptized Augt 17th” [1762]
[1762]

• “William Son of Edward Maine was baptized March 1st” [ 1726]

• “Marriages 1721” “Edward Mayne & Grace Comer were married Apr. 10.”
• “Baptizms Ano Domi: 1650” “Edward son of Richard Mayne was baptized
the 6th day of October”

Two of the earlier examples of these can be seen in these from the 1600s.
• “The yeare of o[ur] Lord 1611” [sixth line down]
“John Mayne & Marie Garland were married the XXXth day of Januarie ...”

• “Baptizms Ano Domi 1648” “Richard son of Richard Mayne was baptized
the 19th day of June”

Early Mayne Family Entries from the Marwood Parish Registers

Photo credit: Reproduced by kind permission of Rev. R.M.C. Beak, Marwood parish Rector.

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Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian Search for a Saint - A link to a Devon Martyr? Devon Family Historian

• “Marriages 1647 4th line down, ‘Richard Mayne & Elinor Balden were marryed
the 18th day of November’ from the Marwood Parish Registers.

Reflections
A search further back than the 1611 entry for John Mayne would mean a lengthier
investment of time. The principal sources for information before 1600 are copyhold
tenures, Court Rolls and other manorial documents which, when kept, were often
written in Latin. Besides, there is much scope available for work in fleshing out the
skeletal tree since 1611 with the personal histories and activities of the different
families shown on it.
In spite of all these finds, one wonders, “How near have I come to my objective of
showing a connection between St. Cuthbert Mayne’s family and my own?” and the Marriage certificate
answer is: tantalizingly close. On the illustration of the Mayne family trees, it can be of William Mayne
seen that Cuthbert had at least two nephews, John and Abraham, who were baptized and Mary Ann Pearce
12 January 1850, in
in Shirwell in 1560 and 1562 respectively. There is no later record in the Shirwell the parish of High
registers of their having married or having had children in that parish. My John Mayne Bickington.
married in 1611 in Marwood, the parish of which is adjacent to that of Shirwell. There William and Mary Ann
is a blank space of fifty years between the two families and dates. If we allow for 25 had already had their
first daughter and the
years per generation, it is very possible that my John was a son of either the earlier second one was born
John or Abraham. Of the two, the John baptised in 1560 is the more likely suspect, as just a month after the
marriage - and William
it was traditional then, as now, for a father to name his eldest son after himself. was still a minor then
Happily, several years after this research was done, the marriage certificate of William at 20. They went on to
have at least 8 other
Mayne and Mary Anne Pearce was discovered. It had taken place in High Bickington children.
in the Torrington District of north Devon in 1850, just 3 years before they emigrated. in the 1851 census
The spaces for the name and occupation of William’s father, Francis, are left blank. William and Mary Ann
Perhaps this was because Francis had died 2 years earlier or maybe William did not were living in Litchdon
Street, Barnstaple with
want his family to know about the marriage. Mary Ann’s parents
and younger sister.
A definite link to Cuthbert’s family has not been proven, and the more I reflect on
From Canadian
it, the more I feel that that’s just as well. The whole point of being a saint means records, it seems
that Cuthbert’s priorities transcended such temporal matters as DNA and family they all immigrated
relationships. together in 1853.

Personally, I find it a rather happy ending to be so close, and yet left wondering.
Brian Mayne (Devon FHS 1284) Email: bemayne@gmail.com

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Acknowledgements and credits

For information on Cuthbert Mayne, I am indebted to the following individuals and sources:
• Barry, Patrick, Office of Vice-Postulation, 114 Mount Street, London, U.K.
• Boyan, P.A., Blessed Cuthbert Mayne, Catholic Truth Society (no. 8425), London. 1961.
• Caraman, Philip, S.J., Saint Cuthbert Mayne, Catholic Truth Society (No. 8487), London,
(Recent.) (referred to as ‘CTS’ in the illustration credits)
• Davey, Frank, Blessed Cuthbert Mayne, Office of the Vice Postulation, London. c.1961.
• *Gore, David, St. Cuthbert and the Road to Launceston, Cornwall Today, November 1999.
(referred to as ‘CT’ in the illustration credits)
• Gore, David, Soldiers, Saints and Scallywags – stirring tales from family history, 2009.
• McElroy, R.A., C.R.L., Blessed Cuthbert Mayne, Sands & Co., London, 1929.
• Webb, Fr. Peter, Parish Priest, Church of St. Cuthbert Mayne, St. Stephen’s Hill, Launceston,
Cornwall.
David Gore also produced an article called ‘A Pair of Devonshire Divines’ which included St
Cuthbert Mayne’s story, that was published in the Devon Family History magazine in August 1997.
This is a revision of the original article, which appeared in Families, a publication of the Ontario
Genealogical Society, Vol. 22 – No. 2, 1983.
Sally Macdougall, Devon Family History Society, for the design of this Historian Supplement.

Photo Credits:
Devon Family History Society.
Betty Longbottom, licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Edmund Shaw, https://commons.wikimedia.org.
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Colin Park, Geograph.org.uk, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.
David Gore, Geograph.org.uk, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence.
Early Mayne Family Entries from the Marwood Parish Registers, reproduced by kind permission
of Rev. R.M.C. Beak, Marwood parish Rector.

Church of Marwood St Michael and All Angels,

Marwood. Photo credit: Devon FHS.
2023 Devon Family History Society
Registered Charity Number 282490

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