The Speke family were long established in Devon, holding lands at Wembworthy and Brushford from the twelfth century. Their name appears frequently in medieval records connected with service to the Crown and the Church. The family’s position was strengthened through military service and land grants, and by the fifteenth century they were among the recognised gentry of the county. The Wembworthy estate lay close to Eggesford, and the Spekes maintained connections with neighbouring manors through marriage and patronage.
John Speke, the most prominent member of the family, was knighted by Henry VII and served in the early Tudor administration. In 1518 he founded a chantry in Exeter Cathedral, endowing it with the manor of Langford Fivehead near Taunton to provide perpetual prayers for his soul. The effigy in the Speke Chantry shows him in plate armour, hands clasped in prayer, and remains one of the finest surviving monuments of its period in the cathedral. The chantry itself, with its carved canopy and heraldic panels, reflects the family’s wealth and their established role in regional society. The Reformation less than two decades later saw such chantries dissolved, but the monument survived as a record of pre‑Reformation piety and local status.
The Spekes’ earlier history in Devon included service under the Beauforts and the Earls of Arundel, and participation in the campaigns of the Hundred Years War. A William Speke is recorded at Harfleur during the Agincourt campaign of 1415, guarding the town after its capture. Their estates at Wembworthy and Brushford were managed through a network of tenancies and church patronage, typical of the Devon gentry of the period. The family also gave land to religious houses, including property for Hartland Abbey, confirming their long‑standing ties to ecclesiastical institutions.
By the sixteenth century the Spekes were expanding northwards. The marriage of John Speke’s descendant to Alice Beauchamp, heiress of Westonzoyland, transferred the family’s principal seat to Somerset. The Devon lands were gradually sold or leased, and the Somerset branch became dominant. George Speke of White Lackington supported the Crown during the Civil War, lending £2000 in gold to Prince Rupert — a loan never repaid. The family’s Royalist loyalty cost them heavily under the Commonwealth, forcing the sale of remaining Devon property around Wembworthy.
The Speke Chantry itself was a functioning pre‑Reformation institution with defined financial and liturgical obligations. Sir John Speke endowed it in 1518 with the manor of Langford Fivehead in Somerset, whose rents funded two priests appointed to say daily masses for Speke, his family and specified ancestors. The foundation was authorised by the Bishop of Exeter, and the priests were required to reside at the cathedral and perform their duties at the dedicated altar within the chantry. The structure was built as a self‑contained chapel on the south side of the choir, with a carved canopy, heraldic panels and Speke’s effigy placed directly above the altar. After the Chantries Act of 1547 the endowment was seized by the Crown, the priests were dismissed and the liturgical function ceased. The chapel survived only because it formed part of the cathedral’s masonry and was not demolished, leaving a complete example of an early Tudor chantry with its founder’s monument still in situ. It provides a precise architectural record of the Speke family’s position in Devon before their estates shifted to Somerset.
