William Beaumont was lord of the manor of Shirwell in North Devon and a substantial landholder in Devon. The Beaumont family of Devon, generally said to have been seated at the estate of Youlston within their manor of Shirwell in North Devon, is supposed by that family's historian Edward Beaumont in his 1929 work The Beaumonts in History. A.D. 850–1850, to have descended from Hugh de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Bedford. William Beaumont was the second son of Sir Thomas Beaumont of Shirwell by his first wife Philippa Dinham, a daughter of Sir John Dinham of Hartland in North Devon, Kingskerswell and Nutwell in South Devon, Buckland Dinham in Somerset and Cardinham in Cornwall. According to Sir William Pole, writing in the early 17th century, Beaumont married "Jone", a daughter of Sir William Courtenay of Powderham. Joan had borne him no children and William separated from her two years before his death and went to live in London, leaving her in Devon. It is thought the split was due to Joan having had an affair with the Cornish gentleman Henry Bodrugan. Certainly during this period of separation from her husband she gave birth to a son John "Bodrugan alias Beaumont" who was later declared by royal letters patent a bastard. After William's death Joan married Henry Bodrugan. This so-called "Beaumont Bastard" was later to make persistent, and ultimately partly successful, efforts to claim the Beaumont inheritance. The right heir to William, namely his younger brotherPhilip Beaumont, in order to counter his persistence obtained royal letters patent dated 1467 proclaiming the bastardy. John was not put off and ultimately gained the Beaumont manors of Gittesham and Lampford, changed his name and armorials to Beaumont and established a family of that name which survived at Gittesham for three generations. William Beaumont died in 1453. His heir was his younger brother Philip Beaumont, a Member of Parliament for a constituency in Devon and Sheriff of Devon in 1469.
