The WILLS Family of Lustleigh Devon

The Farms Where they Lived from 1439

Other Information

NOTE:- These pages were compiled by Mike Wills in 2003. Mike passed away in 2017.
In 2020 his pages were resurrected by Tom Wills. All of Mike's original wording and photos have been retained only the coding has been updated to ensure that the pages will display on mobile phones, tablets and other modern computers.

Introduction

I am Mike WILLS, descended from the Eastwrey branch of the WILLS family. Records show our ancestors living, in the 15th century, in the Manor of Wreyland, Devon, England. This site is intended to supplement the information on our family that is available on other sites. In particular to integrate pictures of the farms and villages where many of our ancestors lived and worked with the large family pedigree published and researched by my 5th cousin Greg. My 6th cousin Tom has a site for Australian WILLS families, including our own. Links to both of these sites are provided above. Much of the research into the family was carried out by the late Dick WILLS, another 6th cousin, without his work our main source of research would not exist.

Lustleigh Village

 

Lustleigh is a small village on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, England.The village centre is south of the main road between Bovey Tracey and Moretonhampstead in the valley of the small river Wrey or Wray. It was mentioned in the Doomsday book of 1086 where reference is made to a John in Lustleigh, we will never know if he was an ancestor of John, my 14th great grandfather, who was tenant of Willmead in 1439. The earliest part of the present Lustleigh church dates back to the 13th century but the christian graveyard is believed to date from the fifth or sixth century. Many of the old farm houses have now been restored as private residences and are not now part of working farms.