The manor of Buckland Filleigh was a manor in the parish of Buckland Filleigh in North Devon, England. Mentioned in the Domesday Book, the manor and its estates passed through several families, including over 300 years owned by the Fortescues.
The manor of Buckland Filleigh was a manor in the parish of Buckland Filleigh in North Devon, England. Mentioned in the Domesday Book, the manor and its estates passed through several families, including over 300 years owned by the Fortescues.
The manor of Bocheland was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the 13th of the 99 holdings of Geoffrey de Montbray, Bishop of Coutances. His tenant was Drogo, who held several other manors from him. It had been held before 1066 by Wulfeva. [1]
The manor became the inheritance of the de Filleigh family seated at Filleigh in North Devon. [2] On default of male heirs, the manor passed by marriage to the Denzell (or Densyll etc.) family, [2] which originated from Denzell manor in St Mawgan parish, Cornwall. [3] It was a cadet branch of this family which had acquired the de Filleigh lands by marriage.
In 1454 Sir Martin Fortescue (died 1472), second son of Chief Justice Sir John Fortescue (1395–1485) married Elizabeth Densyll (died 1508), [4] a daughter and co-heiress of Richard Densyll of Filleigh, and thereby the manor became a possession of the Fortescue family. [2] The manor was then given to Martin Fortescue's second son, William Fortescue (died 1548). [2] [5]
The subsequent descent of the manor through this family was as follows: [6] [7]
On inheriting his uncle's estates, including Buckland Filleigh, Richard Inglett "Fortescue" (1731–1790) assumed the surname Fortescue by royal licence in 1766. He was a collector of customs. [17] He was the eldest son of Caleb Inglett (died 1752) of Dawlish by his wife Rebecca Fortescue (1699–1764) who was sister to John Fortescue (1700–1776). He married Elizabeth Weston, daughter of Lucy Weston. [18]
Richard's only son was Lt. Col. John Inglett Fortescue (1758–1841) of the North Devon Yeomanry Cavalry, JP and DL for Devon. In 1792 he was appointed a trustee of the large Devon and Cornwall estates of the five-year-old Robert Trefusis, 18th Baron Clinton (1787–1832), of nearby Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, and in that connection served as MP for that family's pocket borough of Callington, Cornwall (1801–03). He was Receiver-General of the Land Tax for Devon from 1819 to 1841, [17] a lucrative post. He rebuilt the mansion house in 1810 in the neo-classical style following a fire in 1798. [13] By his first wife, Anne Saunders (died 1815), daughter of a merchant of Exeter, Thomas Saunders, he had children including his eldest son and heir, Rev. John Dicker Inglett-Fortescue (1785–1860) who sold the manor and died unmarried. [18]
In 1843 Rev. John Dicker Inglett-Fortescue sold Buckland Filleigh to Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton (1774–1848). [14] In the 1870s it was acquired by William James Browne, [14] MRCS (1815–1894) a medical doctor and owner of large agricultural stations in South Australia. He was born in Marlborough in Wiltshire, a son of Benjamin Browne (1779–1821). He moved to Australia in 1835 where he changed his career from medicine to livestock rearing and returned to England with his family in 1866. The manor passed to William Browne's fourth son, Major (Arthur) Scott Browne (1867–1946) [19] who was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and was a JP and DL for Devon. On 5 June 1894 he married Mary Frances Rolle, one of the two daughters of Hon. Mark Rolle (1835–1907) of nearby Stevenstone, Devon. [20] Major Browne's nephew, Captain Percy Browne inherited, but he sold the estate in 27 lots shortly after his newly wedded wife was killed in a fox-hunting accident in 1952. [21]
The mansion became Buckland House School, [21] whick was bought by Richard Archer Wallington in approximately 1952 from a MR Maxwell and built it from some 28 pupils to 60 and attained an excellent reputation and included girls for the first time. Mr Wallington sold the school in 1963 after suffering a coronary to Max Williams, then headmaster of Upcott House Preparatory School, Okehampton. In January 1964 the former Upcott House pupils and teaching staff were moved to the now-expanded Buckland House. In 1984 Williams closed the school and sold the house and much-reduced estate to Mr Synyard who lived there for six years until 1990. [21] The estate was then bought by an adventure holiday company which became bankrupt following its involvement in the Lyme Bay boating disaster in Dorset in 1996. As of 2014 the house and its estate of 280 acres [22] was owned by Ralph and Suzanne Nicholson, who reconverted the house back into a residence with 17 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms, [23] which they let-out for commercial and private functions and parties. [21]
Earl Fortescue is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain that was created in 1789 for Hugh Fortescue, 3rd Baron Fortescue (1753–1841), a member of parliament for Beaumaris and Lord-Lieutenant of Devon.
Tamerton Foliot is a village and former civil parish situated in the north of Plymouth, in the Plymouth district, in the ceremonial county of Devon, England. It also lends its name to the ecclesiastical parish of the same name.
Buckland Filleigh is a village, civil parish and former manor in the Torridge district of North Devon, England, situated about 8 miles south of the town of Great Torrington. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 170. It is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Peters Marland, Petrockstowe, Highampton, Sheepwash and Shebbear.
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John Denzel held large estates in Cornwall and became serjeant-at-law and Attorney-General to the Queen Consort, Elizabeth of York. He had at least two daughters who became his co-heiresses, of whom Ann married Sir William Holles (1509–91) who became Lord Mayor of London. Another daughter married into the Roskymer family.
Sir William Fortescue of Buckland Filleigh, Devon, was a British judge and Master of the Rolls 1741–1749.
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Brightley was historically the principal secondary estate within the parish and former manor of Chittlehampton in the county of Devon, England, situated about 2 1/4 miles south-west of the church and on a hillside above the River Taw. From the early 16th century to 1715 it was the seat of the Giffard family, whose mansion house occupied the moated site immediately to the west of the present large farmhouse known as Brightley Barton, a Grade II listed building which incorporates some elements of the earlier house. It is not to be confused with the 12th-century Brightley Priory near Okehampton.
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Whympston in the parish of Modbury in Devon, England, was a historic manor that belonged to the Fortescue family.
Warleigh is an historic estate within the parish of Bickleigh in Devon, about 6 miles from Plymouth. Warleigh House, the manor house of the manor of Tamerton Foliot is situated one mile west of that village on the south-east bank of the River Tavy where it joins the River Tamar. It was remodelled in about 1830 in the Gothic style by John Foulston and has been listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England since 1960.
Soldon in the parish of Holsworthy Hamlets, Devon, England, is a historic estate, a seat of the Prideaux family. The manor house is a grade II listed building dating from the mid-16th century with later alterations. It was sold in 2014 as an eight bedroomed house with an acre and a half of grounds for an asking price of £750,000.
Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton was an English peer and landowner. He built the Palladian English country house of Castle Hill, which survives to this day.
Spridleston is an historic manor in the parish of Brixton in Devon, England, long a seat of a branch of the prominent and widespread Fortescue family. The ancient manor house does not survive, but it is believed to have occupied the site of the present Spriddlestone Barton, a small Georgian stuccoed house a few hundred yards from the larger Spriddlestone House, also a Georgian stuccoed house, both centred on the hamlet of Spriddlestone and near Higher Spriddlestone Farm.
