Mayor of Barnstaple Mayor of Barnstaple The Mayor of Barnstaple together with the Corporation long governed the historic Borough of Barnstaple, in North Devon, England. The seat of government was the Barnstaple Guildhall. The mayor served a term of one year and was elected annually on the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin (15 August) by a jury of twelve. However Barnstaple was a mesne borough and was held by the Mayor and Corporation in chief not 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
St Peter's Church, Barnstaple windows was built in 1667 in the north-east corner of the chancel. The Dodderidge Library was founded in 1664 by the widow of John Dodderidge (1610-1659), of Barnstaple and of Bremridge in the parish of South Molton, MP for Barnstaple in 1646 and 1654, who donated or bequeathed her husband's library to the Corporation of Barnstaple. He was the son and heir of Pentecost Dodderidge (d.1650), thrice MP for Barnstaple, the younger brother and heir of Sir John Dodderidge (1555–1628), Justice of the King's Bench and Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1589. The books were removed to the North