Potheridge is a former Domesday Book estate in the parish of Merton, in the historic hundred of Shebbear, 3 miles south-east of Great Torrington, Devon, England. It is the site of a former grand mansion house re-built by George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarlecirca 1660 on the site of the former manor house occupied by his family since at the latest 1287. It was mostly demolished in 1734 after the death of the widow of his son Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle. The surviving section forms the present Great Potheridge farmhouse, a Grade I listed building, inside which however some remnants of the former mansion remain, including a grand staircase, two massive 17th-century classical-style doorcases and a colossal relief-sculpted wooden overmantel. The latter depicts within a wreath of flowers, against a background of an elaborate antique trophy of arms, five putti, two of which, in flight, hold between them a crown, an allusion to Monck's central role in the Restoration of the Monarchy. The chapel "of Grecian architecture", i.e. classical, was in ruins in 1770 and was almost entirely demolished before 1822, with only the west wall left standing. In 1879 the stables, however, were still standing and were said to "give the visitor some idea of the magnificence of the ancient building". In 2014 Great Potheridge with 6 acres of land remaining of the former estate is used as an outdoor activity centre for young people operated by Encompass Training. It is today known as "Great Potheridge" to distinguish it from the nearby house, formerly on the estate, known as "Little Potheridge".
In the Domesday Book of 1086 the estate of Porrige was listed as the 36th of the 176 Devonshire holdings of Baldwin de Moels, Sheriff of Devon. His tenant was Alberi, who also held from him the estates of Stockleigh and Woolladon, both also in today's Meeth parish. The tenant prior to the Norman Conquest was Ulf.
According to the Devon antiquarian Sir William Pole, Potheridge was the residence of the family of Monk since at the latest 1287. The family was recorded in ancient Norman-French charters as le Moigne or de Moigne and was Latinized as Monachus, from ancient Greek μοναχός, "single, solitary" and Anglicised as "Monk", or "Monck". According to Tristram Risdon in about 1216 Roger le Moyney held one fee in the Devon parish of West Anstey and was succeeded by William le Moyney. As recorded in the Book of Fees William le Moigne and Roger le Moyne held land in West Anstey from Ralph de Champeus who held from the feudal barony of Barnstaple. The family is memorialised by today's "Money Common" in that parish. Another part of Anstey was held by the feudal barony of Okehampton. The descent of the family of "Monk of Potheridge" is given as follows in the Heraldic Visitation of Devon:
Anthony Monke of Powdrig who married Mary Arscott, daughter of Richard Arscott of Arscott, Ashwater.
Sir Thomas Monke, of Powdridge, MP for Camelford in 1626. Sir Thomas married was Elizabeth Smith, a daughter of Sir George Smith of Madworthy, near Exeter, Devon, a merchant who served as MP for Exeter in 1604, was three times Mayor of Exeter and was Exeter's richest citizen, possessing 25 manors. His 4th son, and a subsequent heir to Potheridge, was the royalist general George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, KG, the key figure in effecting the Restoration of the Monarchy to King Charles II in 1660. Elizabeth's half-sister Grace Smith was the wife of Sir Bevil Grenville, lord of the manors of Bideford in Devon and Stowe, Kilkhampton in Cornwall, the Royalist soldier killed in action during the Civil War in heroic circumstances at the Battle of Lansdowne in 1643. Sir Bevil's son and heir, and thus the first cousin of Sir Thomas Monk's famous son the Duke of Albemarle, was John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath, a fellow promoter with the Duke of the Restoration of the Monarchy to King Charles II in 1660, whose elevation to the peerage was largely due to the Duke's influence.
Col. Thomas Monk,, who in 1626 married Mary Gould, a daughter of William Gould of Hayes. He had two sons, who succeeded him successively, and three daughters: Elizabeth Monk, wife of General Sir Thomas Pride a parliamentarian commander in the Civil War, best known as one of the Regicides of King Charles I and as the instigator of "Pride's Purge"; Frances Monk, buried in Westminster Abbey, first wife of John Le Neve the antiquary and author of Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ; Marie Monk, whose monument exists in the parish church of Totnes, Devon.
Lt. Thomas Monk , a lieutenant to his father. He was slain during the Civil War in South Street in Exeter on the night of 9 July 1644 through some mistake as to the password, and was buried 10 July 1644 at Great Torrington. Died without progeny.
George Monk , buried at Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland, next to the 1st Duke of Albemarle's former Scottish headquarters Dalkeith Castle. Died without progeny.
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle , KG, the key figure in effecting the Restoration of the Monarchy to King Charles II in 1660. He re-built the mansion at Potheridge on a grand scale, at about the same time his first cousin and colleague in effecting the Restoration of the Monarchy John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath rebuilt Stowe House in Kilkhampton, Cornwall, about 18 miles west of Potheridge. Both houses were demolished within a few decades of their re-building.
The ancient Grenville family, lords of the manors of Bideford in Devon and Stowe in Cornwall, was earliest related to the Monk family through Honor Grenville, wife of Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle, KG, and mother of Frances Plantagenet, wife of Thomas Monk of Potheridge. Thomas's great-grandsons renewed the kinship to the Grenvilles through their mother Elizabeth Smith, half-sister of Grace Smith, the wife of Sir Bevil Grenville. The 1st Earl of Bath fixed the spelling of the family name to "Granville".
John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath on whom was settled a considerable part of the Monck estates by his childless cousin Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle.
John Granville, 1st Baron Granville of Potheridge . In 1703 he was elevated to the peerage as "Baron Granville of Potheridge". He died without issue.
William Granville, 3rd Earl of Bath , following whose death in 1711 aged 19 the male line of the Granville family of Stowe became extinct. The estate of Potheridge fell to the inheritance of the descendants of his aunt Jane Granville, a daughter of the 1st Earl of Bath and wife of Sir William Leveson-Gower, 4th Baronet.
