Editing Devon (section)

===Human occupation===
[[File:Drizzlecombe stones 6.JPG|thumb|upright|left|[[Menhir]] at [[Drizzlecombe]]]]
[[Kents Cavern]] in [[Torquay]] had produced human remains from 30 to 40,000 years ago. [[Dartmoor]] is thought to have been occupied by [[Mesolithic]] [[hunter-gatherer]] peoples from about 6000 BC. The Romans held the area under military occupation for around 350 years. Later, the area began to experience Saxon incursions from the east around 600 AD, firstly as small bands of settlers along the coasts of [[Lyme Bay]] and southern estuaries and later as more organised bands pushing in from the east. Devon became a frontier between [[Britons (Celtic people)|Brittonic]] and [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] Wessex, and it was largely absorbed into Wessex by the mid ninth century.

A genetic study carried out by the [[University of Oxford]] and [[University College London]] discovered separate genetic groups in Cornwall and Devon. Not only were there differences on either side of the River Tamar—-with a division almost exactly following the modern county boundary,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-03-19-who-do-you-think-you-really-are-genetic-map-british-isles |title=Who do you think you really are? A genetic map of the British Isles – University of Oxford |access-date=13 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170217145104/http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-03-19-who-do-you-think-you-really-are-genetic-map-british-isles |archive-date=17 February 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref> but also between Devon and the rest of Southern England. Devon's population also exhibited similarities with modern northern France, including [[Brittany]]. This suggests the Anglo-Saxon migration into Devon was limited, rather than a mass movement of people.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2015/WTP058941.htm |title=Who do you think you really are? The first fine-scale genetic map of the British Isles |publisher=wellcome.ac.uk |access-date=19 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321213121/http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2015/WTP058941.htm |archive-date=21 March 2015 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=jobs |url=http://www.nature.com/news/uk-mapped-out-by-genetic-ancestry-1.17136 |title=UK mapped out by genetic ancestry : Nature News & Comment |journal=Nature |date=18 March 2015 |doi=10.1038/nature.2015.17136 |s2cid=88369661 |access-date=13 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110165750/http://www.nature.com/news/uk-mapped-out-by-genetic-ancestry-1.17136 |archive-date=10 November 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The border with Cornwall was set by King [[Æthelstan]] on the east bank of the [[River Tamar]] in 936 AD. Danish raids also occurred sporadically along many coastal parts of Devon between around 800AD and just before the time of the Norman conquest, including the silver mint at ''Hlidaforda'' [[Lydford]] in 997 and Taintona (a settlement on the [[River Teign|Teign]] estuary) in 1001.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lydford.co.uk/stockholm-museum.htm |title=Lydford Silver Pennies In The Stockholm Coin Museum |website=Lydford.co.uk |access-date=13 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305063037/http://www.lydford.co.uk/stockholm-museum.htm |archive-date=5 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Devon was the home of a number of [[anticlericalism|anticlerical]] movements in the [[Later Middle Ages]]. For example, the [[Order of Brothelyngham]]—a fake [[monastic order]] of 1348
— regularly rode through Exeter, kidnapping both religious men and laymen, and extorting money from them as ransom.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England |last=Heale |first=M. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-19870-253-5 |location=Oxford |page=260}}</ref>

Devon has also featured in most of the civil conflicts in England since the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman conquest]], including the [[Wars of the Roses]], [[Perkin Warbeck]]'s rising in 1497, the [[Prayer Book Rebellion]] of 1549, and the [[English Civil War]]. The arrival of [[William III of England|William of Orange]] to launch the [[Glorious Revolution]] of 1688 took place at [[Brixham]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ackroyd |first1=Peter |title=Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution |date=2014 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4668-5599-1 |page=465 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kbVzAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA465 |language=en}}</ref>

Devon has produced [[tin]], copper and other metals from ancient times. Devon's tin miners enjoyed a substantial degree of independence through [[Stannary Convocation of Devon|Devon's Stannary Convocation]], which dates back to the 12th century. The last recorded sitting was in 1748.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://users.senet.com.au/~dewnans/Devon_Stannary_History.html |title=Devon's Mining History and Stannary parliament |publisher=users.senet.com.au |access-date=29 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511181455/http://users.senet.com.au/~dewnans/Devon_Stannary_History.html |archive-date=11 May 2008 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>