The manor of Combe passed into the FitzMartin family following the Norman Conquest. Documentary evidence firmly confirms their lordship by 1198, when William I FitzMartin engaged in a land transaction in the parish.

By the 13th century, through Sir Nicholas FitzMartin's marriage to Maud de Tracy, the family acquired the senior share of the Feudal Barony of Barnstaple, embedding Combe Martin within a major regional lordship.

In 1265 (49 Henry III), Sir Nicholas FitzMartin was granted a royal charter establishing a weekly market and an annual fair at Combe Martin.

This charter formally transformed the agricultural settlement into a chartered market town, establishing its economic role in medieval North Devon.

The Hunting of the Earl of Rone is a unique folk pageant held annually over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend. It features a procession of Grenadiers, a Hobby Horse, a Fool, and the "Earl," who is captured in the woods, paraded on a donkey, and symbolically shot.

While local tradition links the custom to Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (who fled Ireland in 1607), there is no historical record of O'Neill visiting North Devon. Historians treat the pageant as a traditional seasonal rite. Suppressed in 1837, the event was revived in 1970.

Combe Martin's silver-lead mines were a major industrial asset from the late 13th century onward. Crown-managed extraction provided critical bullion for the Royal Mint during the Plantagenet era, helping fund military operations during the Hundred Years' War.

The mines were periodically reopened in subsequent centuries, notably under the Elizabethan engineer Sir Bevis Bulmer.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Combe Martin operated as a coastal port engaged in trade across the Bristol Channel.

Local lime kilns converted imported limestone and coal into quicklime for agricultural soil improvement. The sheltered bay also accommodated small-scale shipping and coastal fishing fleets.