Hams is an historic estate situated within the parish of Chudleigh in Devon. The surviving remnant of the former mansion house of the Hunt family, known as Hams Barton is a grade II* listed [2] building, situated one mile north-east of the town of Chudleigh, near Kate Brook.
The Hunt family was settled at Hams before the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603). [3] Thomas Hunt (d.1548) was thrice Mayor of Exeter, [4] including in 1517 and 1537. [5] The last entry of the name in the Parish Register is the burial of Thomas Hunt in 1730. [6] According to the Devonshire historian Polwhele: "Hams was an estate of very considerable extent when in possession of the Hunts". [7] It afterwards belonged to the Inglett family (later Fortescue-Inglett) of Buckland Filleigh, who sold it to a certain Mr Beech, who sold it to Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet (1717-1798) of Haldon House in the parish of Kenn, Devon. [8] It was sold by Palk to Charles Clifford, 6th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1759–1831), of Ugbrooke within the parish of Chudleigh, and in 1852 belonged to his son Hugh Clifford, 7th Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1790–1858). [9] Hams was originally a large Elizabethan structure, approached by an avenue. In 1852 it had descended in status to a farm house, situated in a court, and surrounded by a few chestnut trees. [10] The principal doorway and several others are arched and made of granite. The ceilings of some of the rooms are supported by oak beams, smoothed and jointed and in 1852 the windows were "of the ancient form, some of them are now blocked up or modernized". A fine banquetting room [11] survives, called by Pevsner "the sumptuous first-floor great chamber, one of the best of its date in the county", [12] with fireplace overmantle inscribed with the date "1621" and displaying the arms of Hunt (Azure, on a bend between two water bougets or three leopard's faces gules) [13] impaling Meredith [14] commemorating the marriage of Bennett Hunt (1573-1643), Mayor of Exeter, [15] and Elizabeth Meredith (d.1659), a daughter of Thomas Meredith of Slapton. [16] The Bennett family at that time resided at nearby Whiteway. On the opposite wall are the royal arms. [17] The couple's mural monument survives in Chudleigh Church inscribed: "Here lyeth the body of Bennett Hunt of Hams, in this p'ish, esqr. who was buried ye first day of July, Anno Dom. 1643, aged 70 years. Also the body of Elizabeth Hunt, the wife of Bennett Hunt, was buried the 2d day of November, 1659. Also the body of Nicholas Hunt, son of Bennett Hunt, was buried the 19h day of October, 1639, aged 22 years. Also the body of Frances, ye wife of John Hunt of Hams, esqr. was buried the 26h day of March, 1672." [18] Other monuments to the family also survive in the church. [19]
Colebrooke is a village and parish in Devon, England about 8 km west of Crediton. The main point of interest is the church and the connection to Henry Kingsley's novel The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn. Also Uncle Tom Cobley, of the folk song, signed his will at Pascoe House, but is buried 4 miles west at Spreyton. The champion Devon wrestler, Abraham Cann was born and buried here. He won the all-comers wrestling crown in London.
Chudleigh is an ancient wool town located within the Teignbridge District Council area of Devon, England between Newton Abbot and Exeter. The electoral ward with the same name had a population of 6,125 at the 2011 census.
John Hales was Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (1459-1490). He was one of the Worthies of Devon of the biographer John Prince (d.1723).
Farringdon is a village, civil parish and former manor in the district of East Devon in the county of Devon, England. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Clyst Honiton, Aylesbeare, a small part of Colaton Raleigh, Woodbury, Clyst St Mary and a small part of Sowton.
Benjamin Incledon (1730–1796) of Pilton House, Pilton, near Barnstaple in North Devon, was an English antiquarian and genealogist. He served as Recorder of Barnstaple (1758–1796).
Whiteway House in the parish of Chudleigh in Devon is a Grade II* listed Georgian house set in parkland. It was built in the 1770s by John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon (1735–1788) of Saltram House, Plympton, and has early 19th-century alterations. It is situated 2½ miles (4 km) north of Chudleigh, at the foot of the Haldon Hills. The house had formerly a 5-bay north-east wing, a service range and a separate 19th-century service block to the rear, all demolished since 1962.
The landed gentry and nobility of Devonshire, like the rest of the English and European gentry, bore heraldic arms from the start of the age of heraldry circa 1200–1215. The fashion for the display of heraldry ceased about the end of the Victorian era (1901) by which time most of the ancient arms-bearing families of Devonshire had died out, moved away or parted with their landed estates.
Sir Henry Carew, 7th Baronet (1779–1830) of Haccombe in Devon, was a member of the landed gentry of Devonshire.
Cofton is a small village, parish and former historic estate, near Dawlish in south Devon,
Haldon House on the eastern side of the Haldon Hills in the parishes of Dunchideock and Kenn, near Exeter in Devon, England, was a large Georgian country house largely demolished in the 1920s. The surviving north wing of the house, comprising the entrance front of the stable block, consists of two cuboid lodges linked by a screen pierced by a Triumphal Arch, with later additions, and serves today as the "Lord Haldon Hotel". The house was originally flanked by two such paired pavilions, as is evident from 19th century engravings.
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.
The Manor of Ashton was a historic manor in Devonshire, England, of which the manor house was called Ashton House, in the parish of Ashton, situated about 6 miles south-west of Exeter, on the western slopes of the Haldon Hills. It was long the seat of the Chudleigh family, from about 1320 to 1745, which originated at the manor of Chudleigh, 3 miles south of Ashton, and for which was created the Chudleigh baronetcy in 1622. It was abandoned by Sir George Chudleigh, 4th Baronet who in 1735 built himself nearby a grand mansion named Haldon House, on the east side of the Haldon Hills, influenced by Buckingham House in London, and moved his residence there.
West Ogwell is a village and former civil parish and manor in Devon, England, located 2 miles south-west of the town of Newton Abbot and 1 mile west of the village of East Ogwell. It is now in the civil parish of Ogwell, administered by Teignbridge District Council. The church and manor house "lie hidden away on their own".
Sir Peter Courtenay of Ugbrooke in the parish of Chudleigh, Devon, was Sheriff of Devon in 1548/9.
North Wyke is an historic manor in the parish of South Tawton, Devon. The surviving grade I listed manor house, the original Devonshire seat of the Wyke family from the early 13th century to 1714, retains its basic mediaeval form, but was "improved and reconstructed" by Rev. William Wykes-Finch (d.1920) in 1904, historian and descendant of the Wyke family, to the design of G.H. Fellowes Prynne. Currently, the manor is part of Rothamsted Research's North Wyke site.
George Kendall (1610-1663), Doctor of Divinity, of Cofton in Devon, was a theologian.
Collacombe is an historic manor in the parish of Lamerton, Devon, England. The manor house survives as a grade I listed building, known as Collacombe Barton or Collacombe Manor (House).
Walter Palk (1742-1819), of Marley House in the parish of Rattery, Devon, England, was a Member of Parliament for his family's Pocket Borough of Ashburton in Devon from 1796 to 1811. He served as Sheriff of Devon (1791-2) and in 1798 was a Captain in the Ashburton Volunteer Militia, one of many such units formed across Devon to counter a possible invasion by Napoleon.
Fardel is a historic manor in the parish of Cornwood, in the South Hams district of Devon. It was successively the seat of the Raleigh and Hele families. The surviving Grade I listed medieval manor house is situated about half-way between Cornwood and Ivybridge, just outside the Dartmoor National Park on its south-western border.
Bagtor is an historic estate in the parish of Ilsington in Devon, England. It was the birthplace of John Ford (1586-c.1639) the playwright and poet. The Elizabethan mansion of the Ford family survives today at Bagtor as the service wing of a later house appended in about 1700.