The manor of Axminster was one of the many Devonshire possessions of William Brewer, granted to him by King John. His only surviving son died without progeny, when his eventual heirs became his daughters, the fourth of whom, Alice Brewer, sister and co-heiress of William Brewer, feudal baron of Horsley, Derbyshire, in 1205 married Reginald I de Mohun feudal baron of Dunster, of Dunster Castle in Somerset. The first William Brewer had founded Torre Abbey on 1196 on his manor of Tor Brewer. Alice Brewer brought to her husband a great estate, including Tor Brewer, and "is set down among the benefactors to the new Cathedral Church of Salisbury, having contributed thereto all the marble necessary for the building thereof for twelve years." The son and heir of Reginald I de Mohun by Alice Brewer was Reginald II de Mohun who in January 1247 granted a part of his manor of Axminster for the founding of Newnnham Abbey. The foundation charter was witnessed by Richard Blund, Bishop of Exeter. The mother house of Newenham was Beaulieu Abbey. Reginald II de Mohun bequeathed his manor and hundred of Axminster to Newnham Abbey. It was dedicated to God and the Virgin Mary for an abbot and twelve monks of the Cistercian Order, who were directed by the charter to pray for the soul of the founder, for the souls of his kindred, his ancestors and successors. The Latin foundation charter included the following words: The Abbey suffered greatly at the time of the Black Death in 1349, losing almost all its monks. Knowles and Hadcock state that twenty monks and three lay brothers died, leaving only the abbot and two monks alive. In 1377 there were seven monks.
Dissolution
Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries its annual income was assessed at £231 14 shillings 4 pence and it was formally dissolved on 8 March 1539. Abbot Gill and nine monks were granted pensions dating from 9 March 1539. It was purchased from the crown by Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk whose younger great-grandson Lord William Howard sold it to John Petre, 1st Baron Petre of Writtle, Essex, and it descended to his son William Petre, 2nd Baron Petre, the owner in the time of Pole. The Abbey was already in ruins at the time of the visit by Rev John Swete in 1795, as part of his "Picturesque Tours" and he made two watercolour paintings of the buildings which survive in the Devon Record Office. The remains of the abbey have now been scheduled as an Ancient Monument. Some fragments of the abbey can be found re-used in buildings in Axminster.
