File:HooperArms HeraldicBrass 1913 QueenAnne'sWalk Barnstaple.jpg

English: 1913 heraldic monumental brass with enamelled arms of Hooper: Gyronny of eight or and ermine, a tower triple towered sable. Stamped at top "PARTRIDGE 1913".

Made 1n 1913 by w:May Hart Partridge (born c.1881 in Harborne, Staffordshire - died 1917), an art enameller who studied at the w:Birmingham School of Art.^[1] She was "the most notorious pupil of w:Arthur Gaskin".^[2] Her works are mainly in the w:Arts and Crafts style. She later worked at w:London County Council schools and at home.^[3][4][5] She was the wife of w:Frederick James Partridge (c.1877-1946) (known as "Fred Partridge", works signed "FJP"), born in Barnstaple, an English jeweller, silversmith and teacher of jewellery making, active circa 1901-1930.^[4] His works are in the w:Art Nouveau style. He has been called the "British w:René Lalique".^[6]

Queen Anne's Walk (formerly The Mercantile Exchange) is a grade I listed building in the town of Barnstaple, North Devon, completed in 1713 as a meeting place for the town's merchants. It was promoted and financed by the thirteen members of the Corporation of Barnstaple whose armorials are sculpted in stone on and above the parapet, and the work was overseen by Robert Incledon (1676-1758), Mayor of Barnstaple in 1712-13. The armorial bearings on the structure are illustrated and described in Blaylock's 1985 survey. As the contemporary brass tablet affixed to the east parapet suggests, they represent the members of the Corporation of Barnstaple, viri ipsi ornatissimi & honorabiles, "men themselves honourable and most illustrious", who financed the building work. Nine of them are members of a tightly-knit group closely related by blood or marriage, namely: Acland, Hooper, Basset, Davie, Clevland, Chichester, both Incledons and Lethbridge (see pedigree chart illustration). The arms shown on the entablature were repeated on twelve 1913 small escutcheons and crests in coloured enamels on small decorative brass plates, made by May Hart Partridge (c.1881-1917). These are now displayed in individual glazed wooden frames affixed to the walls of the staircase of the Barnstaple Guildhall, six on each side.

Arms of Sir Nicholas I Hooper (1654-1731) of Fulbrooke, Braunton, Serjeant-at-Law,^[7] MP for Barnstaple 1695-1715,^[8] who purchased nearby Raleigh House, Pilton (now the site of the Barnstaple Hospital), from his fellow MP Arthur Champneys in 1703.^[9] Richard Hooper was Mayor of Barnstaple in 1660 and 1674.^[10] He was buried at Barnstaple, with "his magnificent funeral attracting some caustic comment".^[11] The son of Sir Nicholas I Hooper was Nicholas II Hooper who rebuilt Raleigh House on an adjacent site slightly higher up the hill, which building survives today. Nicholas II Hooper's heir was his sister Elizabeth Hooper (d.1726), who in 1713 married John Bassett (1683-1721),^[12] of Heanton Punchardon, MP for Barnstaple 1718-1721. She survived her husband and remarried to Rev. Thomas Morrison, and was buried at Bath Abbey. Her descendant Rev. Hooper Morrison in 1769 purchased Yeo Vale, Alwington and married Charlotte Orchard (d.1791), whose monument survives in the Yeo Vale Aisle of Alwington Church, sister and in her issue heiress of Paul II Orchard (1739-1812) of Hartland Abbey. Rev. Thomas Hooper Morrison (1767-1824) was the owner of Yeo Vale, Alwington in 1810 and of Hartland Abbey.^[13] These arms are shown in enamel with tinctures on the staircase of Barnstaple Guildhall, with the name "Hooper" inscribed on the frame. These gyronny arms, with variant tinctures, were also borne by Howper of Musbury, Devon;^[14] by George Hooper (1640-1727), of Grimley, Worcestershire, Bishop of Bath and Wells; by Hooper of Hendford, Yeovil, Somerset; by Hopper of Shincliffe, Durham; by Hopper of Witton Castle, County Durham.