The Trefusis family of Cornwall (anciently de Trefusis) continue in 2018 as lords of the manor of Trefusis, near Flushing in the parish of Mylor, Cornwall, from which they took their surname at some time before the 13th century. [2]
In 1794 Robert George William Trefusis (1764–1797) of Trefusis, the senior representative of the family, successfully claimed the peerage title Baron Clinton following the death in 1791 without progeny of his grandfather's 3rd cousin George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford, 16th Baron Clinton (1730–1791), and thus became the 17th Baron Clinton. [3] Both Walpole and Trefusis were descended from the marriage of Robert Rolle (c. 1622 – 1660) of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, Devon, and Lady Arabella Clinton, the younger daughter of Theophilus Clinton, 4th Earl of Lincoln, 12th Baron Clinton (died 1667). [4]
The senior line of the Trefusis family died out in the male line in 1957 on the death of Charles John Robert Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton (1863–1957), who left two daughters and co-heiresses to the barony, which went into abeyance, but being an ancient one created by writ, is able to descend via female lines.
The abeyancy was terminated in 1965 when the title Baron Clinton was claimed by Gerard Nevile Mark Fane-Trefusis (1934–2024), a descendant in a junior line of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland (1701–1771), and the grandson of the 21st Baron's eldest daughter, who in 1958 had assumed by deed poll the additional surname of Trefusis, and thus became the 22nd Baron Clinton.
As he inherited the vast Devonshire estates (mostly formerly belonging to the Rolle family) of the 21st Baron, who "held sway over the largest estate Devon had ever seen", [5] (now managed by his Clinton Devon Estates company), the Cornwall estates including Trefusis descended to Major Hon. Henry Walter Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis of the Scots Guards, the second son of Charles Henry Rolle Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 20th Baron Clinton (1834–1904), and in 2015 the occupant of the manor house of Trefusis is the Major's grandson Nicholas John Trefusis (born 1943), Lieutenant-Commander Royal Navy, a Justice of the Peace for Cornwall and a Deputy Lieutenant for that county. [6]
The arms of the Trefusis family are: Argent, a chevron between three spindles sable; the crest is: A griffin segreant or resting his dexter foot on a shield argent. [7]
Baron Clinton is a title in the Peerage of England. Created in 1298 for Sir John de Clinton, it is the seventh-oldest barony in England.
Charles Henry Rolle Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 20th Baron Clinton, styled The Honourable Charles Trefusis between 1832 and 1866, was a British Conservative politician. He served as Under-Secretary of State for India from 1867 to 1868.
Callington was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1585 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Reform Act 1832.
Baron Rolle was a title created twice in the Peerage of Great Britain for members of the Rolle family, related as uncle and nephew.
Bicton House, or Bickton House, is a late 18th- or early 19th-century country house, which stands on the campus of Bicton College, Bicton, near Exmouth, East Devon. It is a Grade II* listed building. The park and gardens are Grade I listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Charles Rodolph Trefusis, 19th Baron Clinton, styled The Honourable Charles Trefusis between 1794 and 1832, was a British peer and Tory politician. He succeeded to the barony following the death of his elder brother.
Sir Hugh Pollard lord of the manor of King's Nympton in Devon, was Sheriff of Devon in 1535/6 and in 1545 was appointed Recorder of Barnstaple in Devon.
Robert Rolle was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1654 and 1660.
John Trefusis lord of the manor of Trefusis in the parish of Mylor in Cornwall, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1622.
Hon. Mark George Kerr Rolle, of Stevenstone, St Giles in the Wood, Devon, was High Sheriff of Devon in 1864, a DL of Devon and High Steward of Barnstaple.
Heanton Satchville was a historic manor in the parish of Petrockstowe, North Devon, England. With origins in the Domesday manor of Hantone, it was first recorded as belonging to the Yeo family in the mid-14th century and was then owned successively by the Rolle, Walpole and Trefusis families. The mansion house was destroyed by fire in 1795. In 1812 Lord Clinton purchased the manor and mansion of nearby Huish, renamed it Heanton Satchville, and made it his seat. The nearly-forgotten house was featured in the 2005 edition of Rosemary Lauder's "Vanished Houses of North Devon". A farmhouse now occupies the former stable block with a large tractor shed where the house once stood. The political power-base of the Rolle family of Heanton Satchville was the pocket borough seat of Callington in Cornwall, acquired in 1601 when Robert Rolle purchased the manor of Callington.
Margaret Rolle, 15th Baroness Clintonsuo jure, was a wealthy aristocratic Devonshire heiress, known both for eccentricity and her extramarital affairs.
Potheridge is a former Domesday Book estate in the parish of Merton, in the historic hundred of Shebbear, 3 miles south-east of Great Torrington, Devon, England. It is the site of a former grand mansion house re-built by George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (1608–1670) circa 1660 on the site of the former manor house occupied by his family since at the latest 1287. It was mostly demolished in 1734 after the death of the widow of his son Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle.
Hudscott is a historic estate within the parish and former manor of Chittlehampton, Devon. From 1700 it became a seat of a junior branch of the influential Rolle family of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe and in 1779 became a secondary seat of the senior Rolle family of Stevenstone, then the largest landowner in Devon. Hudscott House, classified in 1967 a Grade II* listed building, is situated one mile south-east of the village of Chittlehampton. It was largely rebuilt in the 17th century by the Lovering family and in the late 17th century became a refuge for ejected Presbyterial ministers. In 1737 its then occupant Samuel II Rolle (1703-1747) purchased the manor of Chittlehampton and thus Hudscott House became in effect the manor house of Chittlehampton.
Heanton Satchville is an estate in the parish of Huish in Devon. It took its name from the nearby former ancient estate of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe. It is the seat of Baron Clinton who owns the largest private estate in Devon, known as Clinton Devon Estates.
The Manor of Otterton was a medieval manor in East Devon, England.
Clinton Devon Estates is a land management and property development company which manages the Devonshire estates belonging to Baron Clinton, the largest private landowner in Devon, England. Lord Clinton is of the Fane-Trefusis family, and is seated at Heanton Satchville in the parish of Huish, in Devon. The organisation's headquarters are situated on part of the estate at the "Rolle Estate Office" in the Bicton Arena at East Budleigh, near Budleigh Salterton, East Devon.
Robert George William Trefusis, 17th Baron Clinton of Trefusis in Cornwall and Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe in Devon, was an English peer.
The Manor of Bicton is an historic manor in the parish of Bicton in east Devon, England.
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.