Thomas Hext

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=DESC&db=dblocher...

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/m/a/Margaret-A-Small/W...

he family originated in Kingston near Staverton which is close to Totnes in Devon and just over a hill or two from Berry Pomeroy. I also found Digory Hext in Access to Archives www.a2a.org.uk negotiating a lease for a house and lands in Fowey Cornwall in 1599 negotiating with the Rashliegh family Thomas Hext appears in 1408 in Kingstone, Staverton near Totnes in Devon. Since there were Hexts in Widecombe before that, its possible they came from there, having made money in wool. At that time Ashburton ,the nearest town to Widecombe and Totnes next down the line to the sea and the port of Dartmouth. Totnes was an important centre for the Devon wool trade. I surmise that Thomas Hext could have been a wool merchant or maybe a clothier.
Kingstone Staverton near Totnes in Devon as it is today Clothiers were the medieval professional class, and they got very rich. They traded buying and selling wool making huge profits in the process.

  I would guess that he made a lot of money and invested it in buying land and  building him a large house to reflect the significance of his position in local society as the highest or most important merchant in Totnes at the  time. 

http://www.geocities.ws/pomapples/Hextconnections.html