The estate of Wood was held by the Whiting family between the reigns of King Edward III (1327-1377) and King Henry VIII (1509-1547). The last in the male line was John Whitinge (d.1529), a member of the Merchant Venturers, whose elaborately panelled chest tomb survives in Kentisbeare Church, in the chapel at the east end of the south aisle, which he built. The two monumental brasses which were originally affixed to the monument are now lost, but his armorials survive sculpted on the wooden screen.[6] John Whiting left four daughters and co-heiresses:[7]
Whiting daughter, married to a FitzJames.
Agnes Whiting, 2nd daughter, who married Henry I Walrond (d.1550), of Bradfield, Uffculme. Wood passed to the Walrond family, and appears to have been used as a secondary residence and dower house as several members of the family were subsequently buried in Kentisbeare Church.[8]
Whiting daughter married to an Ashford.
Whiting daughter married to a Keynes.
In 1810 Wood belonged to Samuel Southwood, Esq.[9]
Betty Limpany
In 1799, Betty Limpany was executed in Exeter for burning down the house of her master, William Leech of Kentisbeare.[10]
Further reading
Whiting, Richard, Whiting of Wood, a mediaeval landed family (Lords of the Manors of Wood, Payhambury, Pridhamsleigh, etc.) In Family History Tracts, vol. 91. (Typescript, Library of Society of Genealogists) Copy deposited with the Devon Record Office.
Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, pp. 768–770, pedigree of Walrond
Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1810 edition, p. 89, Kentisbeare