Great House on South Street in the town of Colyton, Devon, is the remnant of an historic Elizabethan mansion house built by the Yonge family, originally prominent wool merchants in the town, later Yonge baronets. It is a grade II* listed building. [1]
It is situated on the south-east side of the town of Colyton, on the road leading to Lyme Regis, [2] today called South Street. It dates from the early 17th century and is U-shaped in plan, possibly the remnant of a previous larger building. [3]
It was built by John II Yonge (d. 1612) [4] of Colyton, son and heir of John I Yonge of Axminster, Devon. [5] John II Yonge married Alice Stere, by whom he had two sons and five daughters, including his eldest son and heir Walter Yonge (1579–1649), a lawyer, merchant and notable diarist. Walter married Jane Periam, a daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Peryam (1541 – c. 1618) of Exeter, Devon, MP four times (Barnstaple 1584, Bossiney 1586, Exeter 1589 and 1593) and Mayor of Exeter, [6] by his wife Elizabeth Hone, a daughter and co-heir of Robert Hone of Ottery. [7] Jane's uncle was Sir William Peryam (1534 –9 October 1604) of Little Fulford, near Crediton in Devon, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. His eldest son and heir was Sir John Yonge, 1st Baronet (1603–1663), MP., of Colyton, who served alongside his father in the Long Parliament. Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet (1653-1731), grandson of the 1st Baronet and a Member of Parliament for Honiton (b. 1679) and for Ashburton, abandoned his ancestral seat at Great House shortly after 1680 [8] when he purchased the estate of Escot in the parish of Talaton, Devon, where he built a grand Palladian country house. As related by Rev. John Swete (d. 1821) who passed through Colyton in 1795 on one of his Picturesque Tours, tradition states that after the Duke of Monmouth landed on Torbay at Lyme Regis on 11 June 1685, at the commencement of his ill-fated Monmouth Rebellion, he proceeded to Colyton and was secreted in Great House, then still occupied by Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet, whose new house at Escot was not completed until after the Rebellion. [9] It is possible [10] that the 3rd Baronet was a supporter of the Rebellion, as it is known that several of his workmen engaged on the building of Escot House left their work to fight for the Duke at the Battle of Sedgemoor, Somerset, on 6 July 1685, where the Rebellion was finally quashed. Several of these workmen-soldiers were captured by the king's forces and were executed at a crossway near Escot on the order of the notorious Judge Jeffreys "as a specimen of his suspicions of (the 3rd Baronet)" [11] Above a chimneypiece in the north-east first floor room of Great House survives a depiction of the coat of arms of the Stuart kings. [12]
Following their removal to Escot the Yonge family let Great House to tenants and it "became forsaken" although it and the appendage estates continued to be owned by the Yonge family until 1790, when they were exchanged for lands in the parish of Talaton owned by the Yonge's neighbour Sir John de la Pole, 6th Baronet [13] of Shute in the parish of Colyton.
It has been suggested that the original building was a "Courtyard House", with a now lost Hall range. [14]
The Yonge family of Great House had a chapel on the north side of the chancel of the parish church St Andrew, Colyton, which on the west side is separated from the north aisle by a surviving 17th-century decorative sculpted stone screen displaying the Yonge coat of arms. On the south side of the chancel is the chapel of the Pole family of Shute, which purchased Great House.
The Yonge and Pole families, closely related through the Peryams, and both resident in the parish of Colyton, had long competed with each other to win one of the two Parliamentary seats of the nearby Rotten Borough of Honiton, an electorate which expected to be bought by generous bribes which over time proved exorbitant to candidates.
The Peryam connection was as follows: Walter Yonge (1579–1649) of Colyton married Jane Periam, a daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Peryam (1541 – c. 1618), brother of Sir William Peryam (1534 –9 October 1604) Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, whose daughter Mary Peryam was the wife of Sir William Pole (1561–1635), MP, of Shute, Colyton. Thus the wife of the famous Devon historian Sir William Pole was the first cousin of the famous Devon diarist Walter Yonge.
The Yonge family were patrons of the Borough of Honiton, and held one of the seats almost continuously from 1679 to 1796 [15] and finally were almost ruined by the expense of contesting this seat. [16] [17] Sir George Yonge, 5th Baronet (1731–1812) stated that "he had inherited £80,000, his wife brought him a like amount, Government had paid him £80,000, but Honiton had swallowed it all". [18]
Sir William Pole, 4th Baronet (1678–1741) of Shute, Colyton, who had twice represented Honiton at great personal financial expense, made an "earnest request and recommendation" in his will that his son would "never stand as a candidate or if chosen will never be prevailed upon to represent or serve in Parliament for the borough of Honiton". [19]
The Devon historian Polwhele (d. 1838) opined that Great House "seems to be the best building in the place" (i.e. town of Colyton), and continued: "It is something singular that Sir W. Pole who lived in this parish, should have taken no notice of the property of the Yonge family, which was very considerable". [20] This refers to the fact that Pole's work, which consists primarily of describing ownership of estates, (admittedly consisting merely of a mass of notes and not published until several generations following his death, with much omitted due to destruction by fire and Civil War) under the section "Coliton" [21] makes no mention of Great House or the Yonges. Pole does however record the Young family's holdings elsewhere. [22]
Sir George Yonge, 5th Baronet, KCB, PC, of Escot House in the parish of Talaton in Devon, England, was a British Secretary at War. He succeeded to his father's baronetcy in 1755, which became extinct when he died without children. He is remembered by, among other things, the name of Yonge Street, a principal road in what is now Toronto, Canada, so named in 1793 by the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe.
Sir William Yonge, 4th Baronet, , of Escot House in the parish of Talaton in Devon, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons for 39 years from 1715 to 1754.
Old Shute House, located at Shute, near Colyton, Axminster, Devon, is the remnant of a mediaeval manor house with Tudor additions, under the ownership of the National Trust. It was given a Grade I listing on 14 December 1955. It is one of the most important non-fortified manor houses of the Middle Ages still in existence. It was built about 1380 as a hall house and was greatly expanded in the late 16th century and partly demolished in 1785. The original 14th-century house survives, although much altered.
Honiton was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Honiton in east Devon, formerly represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It sent members intermittently from 1300, consistently from 1640. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) until it was abolished in 1868. It was recreated in 1885 as a single-member constituency.
Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet of Escot in the parish of Talaton, Devon, was an English landowner and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1679 and 1710.
Walter Yonge (1579–1649) of Great House in the parish of Colyton in Devon, England, was a lawyer, merchant and diarist.
Sir Walter Yonge, 2nd Baronet of Great House, Colyton, and of Mohuns Ottery, both in Devon, was a Member of Parliament for Honiton (1659), for Lyme Regis (1660) and for Dartmouth (1667–70).
Sir John Yonge, 1st Baronet of Great House in the parish of Colyton in Devon, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1642 and 1660.
The Yonge Baronetcy, of Culliton in the County of Devon, was a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 26 September 1661 for the merchant and Member of Parliament, John Yonge. He was succeeded by his son Walter, the second Baronet. He was also a Member of Parliament. His son, the third Baronet, sat in the House of Commons for more than a quarter of a century. On his death the title passed to his son, the fourth Baronet. He was also a politician and served as Secretary at War. He is also remembered for his diaries. He was succeeded by his son, the fifth Baronet. Like his father he served as Secretary at War and was also Governor of the Cape Colony. The baronetcy became extinct on his death in 1812.
Escot in the parish of Talaton, near Ottery St Mary in Devon, is an historic estate. The present mansion house known as Escot House is a grade II listed building built in 1837 by Sir John Kennaway, 3rd Baronet to the design of Henry Roberts, to replace an earlier house built in about 1680 by Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet (1653–1731) of Great House in the parish of Colyton, Devon, to the design of Robert Hooke, which burned down in 1808. Today it remains the home of the Kennaway baronets.
Sir William Pole (1561–1635) of Colcombe House in the parish of Colyton, and formerly of Shute House in the parish of Shute, both in Devon, was an English country gentleman and landowner, a colonial investor, Member of Parliament and, most notably, a historian and antiquarian of the County of Devon.
Colcombe Castle was a castle or fortified house situated about a 0.5 mi (0.80 km) north of the town of Colyton in East Devon.
William Pole (1515–1587), Esquire, was a lawyer and speculator in church lands following the Dissolution of the Monasteries who served as MP for Lyme Regis in 1545, Bridport in 1553 and for West Looe in 1559. He acquired lands in East Devon and was the founder of the influential and wealthy Pole family of Shute, Devon. He was the father of the famous Sir William Pole (1561-1635), the antiquary, historian of Devon.
Sir William Pole, 4th Baronet, of Colcombe Castle, near Colyton and Shute, near Honiton, Devon was an English landowner and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1701 and 1734.
John Peryam, of Exeter, Devon, was elected four times as a Member of Parliament, for Barnstaple 1584, Bossiney 1586, Exeter 1589 and 1593. He served as Mayor of Exeter. He was the younger brother of Sir William Peryam (1534-1604) of Little Fulford, near Crediton in Devon, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
Creedy is an historic estate in the parish of Sandford, near Crediton in Devon. It is named from its location on the west side of the River Creedy. It was the seat of the Davie family from about 1600 until the late 20th century. The mansion house on the estate has been called at various times New House, Creedy House, and as presently, Creedy Park. It was first built in about 1600, rebuilt in 1846, burnt down in 1915 and rebuilt 1916–21. It is surrounded by a large park, the boundary of which is enclosed by a stone and brick wall several miles long.
Netherton in the parish of Farway in Devon is an historic estate situated about 3 1/2 miles south-east of Honiton. The present mansion house known as Netherton Hall was built in 1607 in the Jacobean style, restored and rebuilt 1836-44, and is a Grade II listed building.
Mohuns Ottery or Mohun's Ottery, is a house and historic manor in the parish of Luppitt, 1 mile south-east of the village of Luppitt and 4 miles north-east of Honiton in east Devon, England. From the 14th to the 16th centuries it was a seat of the Carew family. Several manorial court rolls survive at the Somerset Heritage Centre, Taunton, Somerset.
Widworthy is a village, parish and former manor in Devon, England. The village is 3 1/2 miles east of Honiton and the parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Stockland, Dalwood, Shute, Colyton, Northleigh, and Offwell. The parish church is dedicated to St Cuthbert. Near the church is Widworthy Barton, the former manor house, which is largely unaltered from its early 17th century form. Widworthy Court is a mansion within the parish built in 1830 by Sir Edward Marwood-Elton to the design of G.S. Repton.
Weycroft is an historic manor in the parish of Axminster in Devon, England. The surviving manor house known as "Weycroft Hall" is a Grade I listed building which includes elements from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, with a great hall of circa 1400, and was restored in the 19th century.