BLACKMORE

One of the characters in the Doone saga was Tom Faggus, a well-known highwayman in the 1600s, whose guns can be seen in St. Anne's Chapel Museum at Barnstaple. He was born in North Molton and was a respected landowner, who earned his living as a blacksmith. He was to have married a local girl, but a few weeks before the wedding, he won a gold Jacobus for the best-shod horse in North Devon. This caused so much jealousy among some people that they conspired to use the intricacies of the law courts to cheat him out of his land and smithy, and succeeded. Upset, Tom went to see his girl-friend who promptly cold-shouldered him now that he was penniless. This made him so bitter that he vowed he would make the world pay for his maltreatment. During his long career as a highwayman, he had several narrow escapes from the lawmen, but there is no record that he killed anyone. As with Dick Turpin's horse, Tom's horse is legendary and was known as the Enchanted Strawberry Mare. Her fleetness of hoof was a marvel, and when in danger, she would get her master out of trouble using tooth and hoofs.