The Burrell Baronets of Knepp

The Woodland name, or the alternate spelling Wodeland, originated as a Saxon "location" name meaning "of or at the wood", and most likely related to the fact that the families lived in or near the forest. Some of them had held the position of royal foresters and gamekeepers, positions of great importance in medieval times, which provided them with grants of land. The French prefix "de" was added after the Norman Conquest.

Woodlands such as Sir Walter and other incumbents of these positions had ample opportunity to acquire wealth, through their own royal allowances plus what they could get by semi-legal poaching and quietly extending their own landholdings. Sir Walter Woodland was known to be a wealthy landholder at the time he was knighted by the Black Prince (Edward, son of King Edward III) in 1350. The Woodlands had been Lords of the Manor of Woodland in Devon, and in the twelfth century, they acquired the Manor of Cockington in the Torquay area. Sir Walter married Lady Katerina de Polglas, who was from a noble and wealthy family herself. Once Prince Edward dubbed Sir Walter a Chevalier, he also granted him the Manors of Morsley, Tywarnile and Penzance. Sir Walter was appointed the Black Prince’s Usher of the Chamber, as well as his Standard Bearer in battle. He was killed while fighting with the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. His wife, Lady Katerina lived on until 1375. There is still a Woodland parish only a few miles from Torquay, in Devon.

The Battle of Poitiers, fought on 19/09/1356 between the army of Edward, the Black Prince (9,000 troops) and that of John II, King of France (12,000 troops), was a victory of English strategic defence over French military ineptitude, and of the commoner armed with a longbow over the French knight. A resounding defeat for the forces of chivalry, it was the second great victory for the English in the Hundred Years’ War, the first being Crecy (1346).

A Walter de Wodeland, Knight, is mentioned as being born in 1345 at Woodlands, Cornwall, married Katherine Champernoun (Champernowne?) in 1368 at Tywardreath, Cornwall, where he also died in 1371. Katherine was born in 1349 at Cliston, Devon, and died in 1383 at Tresolyth, Cornwall.