St Peter's Church, Barnstaple Devon Athenaeum in 1888 and from there in 1957 on permanent loan to Exeter University Library. In the north transept is the ceremonial pew of the Mayor of Barnstaple, in the form of a large wooden armchair with heraldic beasts to each side. The organ, one of the largest in Devon, was made by John Crang in 1764 and was donated by Sir George Amyand, 1st Baronet (1720–1766), MP for Barnstaple 1754-1766. It is decorated with his armorials: "Vert, a chevron between three garbs or" with an inescutcheon of unidentified arms, overall the Red Hand of Ulster. Inside the church
Barnstaple August) by a jury of twelve. However Barnstaple was a mesne borough and was not held by the Mayor and Corporation in chief from the king but from the feudal baron of Barnstaple, later known as the lord of the "Castle Manor" or "Castle Court". The Corporation tried on several occasions to claim the status of a "free borough" which answered directly to the monarch and to divest itself of this overlordship, but without success. The mayor was not recognised as such by the monarch, but merely as the bailiff of the feudal baron. The powers of the borough were