Landed families of Britain and Ireland

This site, which was short-listed for the Society of Architectural Historians (GB) Colvin Prize in 2019, presents my research into the landowning families of the British Isles and the country houses which they owned. Comments, especially in the form of corrections, additional information or new illustrations, are very welcome. Please use the Contact Form in the right hand side bar to contact me privately or the comments facility at the bottom of the page to make a public comment.

Tuesday, 31 October 2023

(561) Bennett of Faringdon House

Bennett of Faringdon

The Bennett family noticed here used the same coat of arms as the Earls of Tankerville, and the Bennets of Babraham, Widcombe and Tresillian, and they were presumably distantly related to them, although this branch of the family seem always to have spelled their name with two ts. The family can first be identified as landowners and farmers at Brokenborough and Westport St Mary near Malmesbury (Wilts) in the 18th century, when Daniel Bennett (c.1695-1779) evidently inherited the property from his wife's family. Their lands there descended to his son Giles Bennett (1721-95) and grandson, Giles Bailey Bennett (c.1768-1815). On the death of the latter they passed to Daniel Bennett (c.1760-1826) of Faringdon House (Berks), with whom the genealogy below begins. This Daniel was a grandson of Daniel (d. 1779) and the son of Thomas Bennett (c.1725-1800), a younger son of Daniel (d. 1779) who had moved to London and established a business as a brazier and ironmonger servicing the maritime industries at Wapping (Middx). After beginning his commercial life in the same trade as his father, Daniel (c.1760-1826) invested in the purchase of a vessel engaged in the South Sea whaling industry and built up a substantial business, owning fifteen vessels by 1796 and more than three times as many in the 1820s, when he was in partnership with his son. The firm was based in London, and from 1802 operated from Rotherhithe on the south bank of the Thames. The proceeds of his rather gruesome trade enabled Daniel to buy the Faringdon House estate in Berkshire in 1807, and to expand the property subsequently with additional lands at Faringdon and Eaton Hastings (Berks). He also bought a property called The Cliff at West Cowes (IoW), which he probably used as a holiday home. Daniel married three times, producing a daughter by his first marriage and a son by his second, but no other children. His daughter Sarah, who married young and was widowed in 1810, inherited his house at Cowes and one of the Wiltshire farms. His son and eventual partner, William Bennett (1790-1844), inherited the Faringdon House estate.

Vanbrugh House, Greenwich, which was William Bennett's home from 1819-27. The house was demolished in 1902.

William Bennett married in 1817 and settled soon afterwards at Mince Pie House (otherwise Vanbrugh House) at Greenwich, which had been built by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1722 for his brother Charles. The property was conveniently close to the family business in Rotherhithe, but in a select district, and several of his wife's relations also lived nearby. In 1826, William inherited his father's share of the whaling business and the Faringdon estate. He evidently put in hand some improvement works at Faringdon before moving in in 1827. Thereafter, he seems to have slowly run down the whaling business, replacing only some of the vessels that became unseaworthy. Latterly his younger sons, William (1826-48) and John Dunkin (1830-51) were named alongside him as vessel owners, but they would have been too young to be actively involved in the business. After he died in 1844 the five remaining vessels were sold to other owners. His eldest son, Daniel Bennett (1823-87), is not known to have been involved in the company at all and his career was very much the traditional one of a Victorian landed gentleman, with a short stint in the yeomanry followed by public and voluntary service. He inherited the Faringdon estate a few months before coming of age, and did not at first live in the house, but let it and occupied Sudbury House, Faringdon, which his father had acquired as a dower house.

Sudbury House, Faringdon, c.1825. The surviving right-hand part is now
part of an hotel. Image: Abingdon County Hall Museum 2007.500.22

Daniel married in 1847, but he and his wife seem to have struggled to have children, and after at least one stillbirth they produced an only daughter, Marianne Katherine Bennett (c.1858-1918), who suffered from learning difficulties from birth. When Daniel died in 1887 he left the Faringdon estate to his wife (d. 1897) for life and then to trustees for his daughter, who lived with a cousin as companion at Sudbury House. After Marianne died in 1918, both Faringdon House and Sudbury House were sold, but to different purchasers.

Faringdon House, Berkshire

The manor of Faringdon belonged to Beaulieu Abbey until the dissolution of the monasteries, and changed hands several times in the second half of the 16th century. In 1590, it was bought by Sir Henry Unton (d. 1596), the English Ambassador to France, who built a fine Elizabethan brick house between the site of the present building and the church.

Faringdon House: the Elizabethan mansion built in the 1590s for Sir Henry Unton.

Only one drawing of this house, probably of the mid-to-late 17th century, is known to survive. It shows an irregular many gabled house, apparently consisting of a three-storey hall range with three-storey cross-wings. The windows were mainly plain mullioned windows, although the reception rooms in the right hand wing had larger mullioned and transomed windows. The roofscape was given variety by at least thirteen tall chimneys and ball finials on the gables. Sir Henry, who lived nearby at Wadley House, probably died before the house was finished, but it became the home of his widow, who lived here until her death in 1634. An inventory of 1620 mentions the hall, parlour and a great chamber hung with arras and adorned with pictures, but nothing more is known of the interiors. During the Civil War, the Parliamentarian soldier, Sir Robert Pye (c.1622-1701), who was the son of the then owner, was obliged to lay siege to Faringdon town and to attack his father's own house, which suffered considerable damage as a result.

On the death in 1766 of Henry Pye, who had been Tory MP for Berkshire for twenty years, the estate was found to be saddled with £50,000 of debt, and in the same year, the old Elizabethan house was badly damaged by fire. Rather than patch it up again, Henry James Pye decided to build a new house on a site slightly further north, on which work was begun about 1770; the architect is unknown. Perhaps because of the burden of debt on the estate, the new house was still not finished in 1785, by which time Pye was noted as a poet and dramatist, although critics have generally agreed that his appointment as poet laureate in 1790 was perhaps the weakest of all time (Sir Walter Scott waspishly remarked that Pye was eminently respectable in everything but his poetry).

Faringdon House: entrance front

Faringdon House: garden front

The new house begun in 1770 has a south (entrance) front of five bays and two storeys over a basement, but is made memorable by the central bay, which rises to two and a half storeys and is framed by a giant blank arch surmounted by an open pediment - a motif derived from the works of Lord Burlington and his circle. In front of the central bay is a Doric porch with niches in the rusticated stonework to either side. To either side of the entrance front are rusticated stone doorways with open pediments, beyond which quadrant walls curve forward to enclose the courtyard, terminating in rusticated gatepiers. The north (garden) front is plainer, with just the first, third and fifth windows decorated by triangular pediments. On this side, the basement is hidden by a high balustraded terrace carried on five basket arches and reached by staircases at either end. Inside, the entrance hall is filled with a wooden staircase that rises in two flights and returns in one that flies across the hall to a landing carried on a Doric arcade. The main rooms have simple but elegant plasterwork, including a low-relief Rococo ceiling in the drawing room and a neo-classical plaster overmantel with an urn in the dining room. At the same time as the house was built, the setting was landscaped in a Brownian style, so that the south front has a pleasing prospect over the rolling Thamesside meadows.

Faringdon House: the entrance hall and staircase.

Faringdon House: the drawing room and sitting room along the garden front.

In 1919, the house was sold to Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson (1883-1950), 14th Baron Berners, the eccentric socialite, composer, artist, and bon viveur, who bought it initially for his mother and stepfather, Col. Ward Bennitt, who had been renting it since their marriage in 1908. Two years later he established the Berners Estate Co. to manage the property, since he lived abroad and had at that time no thought over ever living permanently in England. However, when his mother and Col. Ward Bennitt died within three weeks of one another in 1931, he decided to take over the house as his own home, while retaining his other homes in London and Rome. At about the same time, he met Robert Heber-Percy at a country house party at Vaynol (Flintshire). Robert, known with a mixture of affection and exasperation as 'the Mad Boy', was to become Gerald's life partner and heir. His high spirits, elegant appearance and uninhibited behaviour brought a spice to life at Faringdon which Gerald and his constant flow of guests found irresistible.

Faringdon House: dyed doves at a garden party in 1977.
Image: Mary Kingsley

The guests were notable: not just near neighbours like John and Penelope Betjeman from Uffington or Maurice Bowra from Oxford, but Sir Robert and Lady Diana Abdy, Frederick Ashton and Constance Lambert, Noel Coward, Cecil Beaton, the Princesse de Polignac, Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, Eva Schiaperelli, and the Marchesa Casati, who travelled everywhere with her python. Penelope Betjeman went riding with Robert Heber-Percy and liked to show off the character of her much-loved horse, Moti, by bringing him inside the house: a photograph of the white horse taking tea in the drawing room at Faringdon has become emblematic of the era. There were other jokes too: the pigeons in the dovecote were dyed pink and blue and green with non-toxic dyes (a tradition still maintained, at least until recently). An elderly parrot was trained to walk across the floor entirely covered by a bowler hat, which thus had the appearance of having acquired the power of independent motion. In 1935, a tall but plain folly tower was built on a hill on the far side of Faringdon town, to the designs of Gerald Wellesley. It was approached by a path between trees, to one of which was the memorable sign: "Please do not throw stones at this notice".

When Lord Berners died in 1950, the house and its contents were left to 'the Mad Boy', Robert Heber-Percy (1911-87), who maintained the contents and traditions of the house into the 1980s. He left the house to his granddaughter, the novelist Sofka Zinovieff (b. 1961), who never lived here on a permanent basis but let the house on short-term tenancies as a very grand holiday house. Her book about Faringdon and the family, The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me, is a major source for this account. The house was sold in 2018, and regrettably a sale of many of the period contents followed.

Descent: sold 1590 to Sir Henry Unton (d. 1596); to widow, Lady Unton (d. 1634) and then to his nephew, Sir John Wentworth, who sold his reversionary interest in 1623 to Sir Robert Pye (c.1586-1662); to son, Sir Robert Pye (c.1622-1701); to son, Dr. Edmund Pye MD (c.1640-1705); to son, Henry Pye (1683-1749); to son, Henry Pye MP (1709-66); to son, Henry James Pye (1745-1813); sold before 1791 to William Hallett (1764-1842); sold 1807 to Daniel Bennett (1760-1826); to son, William Bennett (1790-1844); to son, Daniel Bennett (1823-87); to widow, Mary Elizabeth Bennett (d. 1897) and then to trustees for daughter, Marianne Katherine Bennett (1858-1918); sold 1919 to Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson (1883-1950), 14th Baron Berners; to partner, Robert Heber-Percy (1911-87); to granddaughter, Sofka Zinovieff (b. 1961); sold 2018 to Charles Kenneth Crossley-Cooke (b. 1967). The house was let in the mid 19th century; and again (to Col. & Mrs. Ward Bennitt) from 1908.

Bennett family of Faringdon House

Daniel Bennett (1760-1826)
Image: Faringdon Library
Bennett, Daniel (c.1760-1826). Son of Thomas Bennett (c.1725-1800) of Wapping (Middx), ironmonger and brazier, and his wife Elizabeth Chambers (b. c.1727), and a grandson of Daniel Bennett of Westport St Mary (Wilts), a gentleman farmer, born about 1760. At the age of 21 he set up his own business as a brazier and ironmonger in Wapping, working chiefly to support the shipping industry of east London. By 1786 he had acquired his first vessel,the Lively, built in America in 1777, which was engaged in the South Sea whaling trade. He gradually expanded his whaling fleet and in 1796 had fifteen vessels with an aggregate tonnage of 1,354 tons. His background in metalworking seems to have allowed him to keep his ships in better condition than his rivals, and he suffered fewer losses and made greater profits as a result. From 1802 he operated from the Oil Wharf at Rotherhithe, and by the 1820s he had a fleet of fifty vessels and was the largest proprietor in the whaling trade, and he had also diversified into general shipping. He married 1st, 1 January 1780 at St John, Wapping (Middx), Mary King of Wapping; 2nd, 17 May 1786 at High Wycombe (Bucks), Elizabeth (1756-1815), daughter of William Ball of High Wycombe, and 3rd, 2 August 1820 at St Swithin, Walcot, Bath (Som.), Ann Elizabeth Boughton (c.1780-1838), widow, and had issue:

(1.1) Sarah Bennett (1780-1858), born 12 October and baptised Old Gravel Lane Independent Chapel, Stepney (Middx), 25 October 1780; married, 9 December 1801 at St Alfege, Greenwich, John Goodwin (c.1773-1810), and had issue one daughter; buried at Holy Trinity, Cowes (IoW), 15 January 1858;

(2.1) William Bennett (1790-1844) (q.v.).

He purchased the Faringdon House estate in 1807, and a property called The Cliff at West Cowes (IoW). He inherited Boakley Farm at Brokenborough and Backbridge Farm, Westport, both near Malmesbury (Wilts), from his first cousin once removed, Giles Bailey Bennett (c.1768-1815). He sold Backbridge in 1822. Boakley was offered for sale in 1816, but did not sell and was bequeathed to his daughter, who retained it in 1839.

He died 14 October 1826, and was buried at High Wycombe, where he and his two wives are commemorated by a monument designed by Richard Westmacott; his will was proved in the PCC, 2 November 1826. His first wife died 24 November 1815 and was buried at High Wycombe. His widow died 26 July 1838 and was buried at High Wycombe.

William Bennett (1790-1844)
Image: Faringdon Library
Bennett, William (1790-1844). Son of Daniel Bennett (c.1760-1824) and his wife, born 1790. He was in partnership with his father in the whaling industry, but after his father's death he gradually ran the business down, so that at the time of his death he owned only five vessels. High Sheriff of Berkshire, 1836-37. He was an early patron of the artist, Samuel Palmer, who was related to his wife. He married, 25 September 1817 at Ingatestone (Essex), Marianna (d. 1840), daughter of John Dunkin of Fryerning (Essex), and had issue:

(1) Elizabeth Emma Bennett (1818-52), baptised at St Alfege, Greenwich (Kent), 29 October 1818; married, 29 July 1845 at Faringdon, Richard Meredyth Richards (1821-73), only son of Richard Richards MP of Caernywch (Merioneths.); died without issue, 10 December, and was buried at Dolgellau (Merioneths), 16 December 1852; will proved in the PCC, 26 February 1853;
(2) Marianne Bennett (1820?-37), said to have been born 5 August 1820 and baptised 6 November 1823; died unmarried, 22 March and was buried at High Wycombe (Bucks), 1 April 1837;
(3) Daniel Bennett (1823-87) (q.v.);
(4) William Bennett (1826-48), baptised at St Alfege, Greenwich, 28 July 1826; an officer in the 15th Hussars (Ensign, 1847; Lt., 1848); died at Madras (India), 29 September 1848;
(5) John Dunkin Bennett (1830-51); born 25 January and baptised at Faringdon, 8 July 1830; died unmarried, 6 November, and was buried at Faringdon, 13 November 1851; will proved in the PCC, 22 November 1851;
(6) Horace Hughes Bouverie Hill Bennet (1836-37), born about March 1836; died in infancy and was buried at High Wycombe, 23 January 1837, where he and his sister Marianne are commemorated by a monument.

He lived at Vanbrugh House alias Mince Pie House, Maze Hill, Greenwich, from 1819-27, while his wife's aunt, Mary Hays, lived in Vanbrugh Castle nearby. He inherited the Faringdon House and West Cowes properties from his father in 1826, and purchased Sudbury House, Faringdon as a dower house.

He died 18 January and was buried at High Wycombe (Bucks), 25 January 1844. His wife died 24 February and was buried at High Wycombe, 3 March 1840, where she is commemorated by a monument signed by Broughton of Wycombe.

Bennett, Daniel (1823-87). Eldest son of William Bennett (1790-1844) and his wife Marianna, daughter of John Dunkin of Fryerning (Essex), born 29 June and baptised at Faringdon, 6 November 1823. An officer in the Wiltshire Yeomanry Cavalry (Lt.) and the Berkshire Rifle Volunteers (Capt., 1860; retired 1873); JP for Berkshire (Chairman of Faringdon Petty Sessions) and Wiltshire and DL for Berkshire, and he also served as a poor law guardian, highway commissioner and local tax commissioner. A Conservative in politics, he was chairman of the Faringdon & District Conservative Association. He was a major contributor to the restoration of Faringdon church. He married, 28 October 1847 at Shifnal (Shrops.), Mary Elizabeth (c.1826-97), eldest daughter of Uvedale Corbett of Aston Hall (Shrops.), barrister-at-law, and had issue, with a stillborn son:

(1) Marianne Katherine Bennett (1858-1918), born 24 January 1858; the 1911 census stated she had been 'slightly deficient from birth'; died unmarried and without issue, 26 August 1918; her will was proved 13 February 1919 (estate £11,524).

He inherited the Faringdon House estate from his father in 1844, but at first let it and lived at Sudbury House. At his death the estate passed to his widow for life, and then to trustees for his daughter, who lived at Sudbury House. Both Faringdon House and Sudbury House were sold after her death.

He died 24 April and was buried at Faringdon, 28 April 1887; his will was proved 8 June 1887 (effects £2,820). His widow died 18 November 1897; her will was proved 2 May 1898 (estate £8,994).

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1894, p. 130; D.A. Crowley (ed), VCH Wiltshire, vol. 14, 1991, pp. 29-31; G. Tyack, S. Bradley & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Berkshire, 2nd edn., 2010, pp. 300-02; S. Zinovieff, The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me, 2014;

https://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/faringdon_house.html;

https://www.faringdon.org/bennett-family.html;

https://www.faringdon.org/uploads/1/4/7/6/14765418/extract_from_owners_in_the_british_southern_whale_fishery.pdf.

Location of archives

Bennett of Faringdon: deeds of manor of Faringdon, 1847-97 [Berkshire Record Office, D/EX 487]

Coat of arms

Gules, a bezant between three demi-lions rampant, argent.

Can you help?

Can anyone provide portraits of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
If anyone can offer further information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 31 October 2023 and updated 2 November 2023. I am grateful to Dart Montgomery for a correction.

Saturday, 28 October 2023

(560) Bennet of Tresillian

Bennet of Tresillian

This family used the same coat of arms as the Earls of Tankerville, and the Bennets of Babraham and the Bennets of Widcombe House, but the precise connection to these families is unclear. By the mid 18th century, the Rev. Thomas Bennet (d. 1767) was vicar of St. Enoder in Cornwall, and his son John (c.1735-85) followed in his father's footsteps and became vicar of Gwinear (Cornw.) in 1768. It was the Rev. John Bennet who laid the foundations of the family's rise into the landed gentry by his marriage in 1764 to Philippa Gully (1742-84?), the daughter of Samuel Gully of Tresillian, whose family had owned that estate since 1694. When Philippa's brother, Richard Gully, died unmarried in 1791, the Tresillian estate passed to John and Philippa's eldest son, the Rev. John Bennet (1765-1804), who was then just embarking on an ecclesiastical career, and held a curacy at Anthony (Cornw.). John, who had recently married Elizabeth Wallis, the daughter of another minor Cornish squarson, the Rev. Mydhope Wallis, seems to have abandoned the idea of a clerical career and embraced the life of a landed gentleman; he never proceeded to priestly orders. He and Elizabeth produced four children who were all still young when both parents died within the space of eight months in 1804-05. Under John's will, responsibility for the children - two sons and two daughters - passed to John's unmarried brother, Major William Bennet (1780-1817), and his sister Patty (1777-1851) and her husband, Joseph Norway (1774-1825), who was an attorney at St Columb Major (Cornw.). With Major Bennet serving in the army, the bulk of the responsibility for the young family fell on Patty and her husband. Everything seems to have gone well until the children approached adulthood, when the eldest daughter, Elizabeth Bennet (1792-1842), caught the eye of Francis Camborne Paynter (1785-1858). Paynter had set himself up as a solicitor at St Columb Major in competition with Joseph Norway, and there seems to have been a very real dispathy between the two lawyers. Norway naturally discouraged his ward from having anything to do with Paynter, who responded by persuading the heir to the Tresillian estate, Richard Gully Bennet (1793-1836), that his uncles had been quietly milking the estate during his long minority. Rather than raising these concerns directly with his trustees, however, Paynter helped Gully (as he was usually known), who was then an Oxford undergraduate, to launch a legal case in Chancery, seeking the appointment of Paynter as receiver of the estate revenues, and requiring a complete accounting for the estate income and expenditure since 1805. Norway, who seems to have been largely blameless, was absolutely furious at his integrity being publicly impugned in this way, and at the ingratitude exhibited by his nephew, although he seems to have recognised Paynter as the villain of the piece. The case took several years to unfold - as Chancery cases usually did - but in the end Joseph Norway's stewardship was vindicated and his relationship with Gully Bennet seems to have been repaired. Paynter may have failed to get his hands on the estate revenues, but in 1815 he did marry Elizabeth Bennet, and they went on to have four daughters.

Gully Bennet himself married in 1820, but his wife died less than two years later, leaving him with a single surviving son, called Richard Gully Bennet after his father. Gully Bennet subsequently took a mistress, Elizabeth Mountstevens Tinney, who lived with him as his housekeeper, and by whom he had four children before he died at the age of forty-three in 1836. His will appointed his friends, Edward William Wynne Pendarves MP and Thurston Collins, to be his legitimate son's guardians and trustees, and stipulated that a servant should occupy the house at Tresillian until his son came of age. He probably had Elizabeth in mind for this role, but by 1841 she had become an innkeeper at St Enoder and taken a local farmer as a husband, and Tresillian may have fallen into disrepair. Richard Gully Bennet (1820-1910) came of age in 1841 and decided soon afterwards to rebuild Tresillian House. George Wightwick had produced plans by 1846, which were used as the basis for Twycross' engraving of the intended new house, published in that year, but work did not actually begin until 1848. Part of the new house was ready for occupation in 1849, but work continued in a desultory fashion until final completion in 1862.

Richard Gully Bennet married Mary Jean Hosken in 1846 and the couple had two sons and two daughters. Both of the sons, Edward Gully Bennet (1849-1927) and Ferdinando Wallis Bennet (1850-1929) were career soldiers, achieving the ranks of Lt-Col. and Col. respectively. Edward retired from the army in 1893 and gradually took over some of his ageing father's roles in local government, but he was unmarried, and in 1921 he was living at Tresillian with just one servant. His brother, who inherited the estate in 1927, settled at Northam (Devon) on leaving the army in 1901 and became heavily involved in local government and voluntary work in north Devon for the next quarter of a century. He handed over Tresillian to his son, Major Leonard Wallis Bennet (1897-1957) shortly after his brother's death and it was Major Bennet who led a campaign of restoration work on the then neglected house and grounds, including refitting the library in 1928. Shortly before the Second World War, however, Major Bennet decided to let the house to Thomas Albert Victor Wood (1893-1978), who was looking for a property on which he could selectively breed new daffodils, and moved to Northam Lodge near where his father had lived. Wood remained as tenant at Tresillian until at least 1950, but in 1947 Major Bennet had sold the freehold to Frederick J. Davy, who brought a legal action against the sitting tenant in 1950 for breach of the maintenance conditions in the lease, and seeking possession of the property. His action was unsuccessful, but Wood seems to have left soon afterwards. In due course, the estate descended to Rex Davy (1917-2007) who created the 'Dairyland' farming theme park on the Home Farm in the 1970s. In 2000, he sold the estate to the present owner, a grandson of the Mr T.A.V. Wood who was a tenant in the 1930s and 1940s, and the house has since been thoroughly restored. The sale of the estate in 1947 brought the Bennet family's status as landed gentry to an end. Major Bennet had no son to succeed him, but produced four daughters, at least two of whom settled in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where in 1963 the eldest daughter, Armenell Mary Betty Bennet (1929-2000), married Clifford Walter Dupont (1905-78), a leading figure in the government of the self-styled republic of Rhodesia and its President, 1970-75.

Tresillian House, St Newlyn East, Cornwall

A substantial manorial barton or farm on this site belonged in the medieval period to the Tresilian family, of whom Sir Robert Tresilian was Lord Chief Justice before his execution at Tyburn in 1388. It subsequently passed through the hands of the Hawley and Davies families, before being bought in 1694 by Samuel Gully. Instructions were given for repairs and alterations to the house in 1777, and some accounts suggest that part of the 18th century house is incorporated in the present building, which is a solidly-built but severely plain L-shaped house with a five-bay entrance front, designed by George Wightwick for Richard Gully Bennet (1820-1910), but there is nothing obvious in its plan or appearance to suggest the existence of older fabric.

Tresillian House: entrance front.

The present building was illustrated in Twycross' Mansions of England and Wales volume on Cornwall, published in 1846, although construction did not actually begin until 1848: his illustration was based on sight of the architect's drawings. The family were able to move into part of the house in 1849, but it was not completely finished until 1863.

Tresillian House: engraving of the house built for Richard Gully Bennet in 1848-50, from Twycross' Mansions of England & Wales: Cornwall, 1846.

The main block of the house is a double pile, with a central spine wall dividing a hall, dining room and library along the front from a large drawing room and a dramatic top-lit staircase hall at the back. The service wing lies behind the staircase hall and is connected to the dining room by a small room under the staircase which at one time was the butler's pantry.

Tresillian House: staircase hall. Image: Tresillian House.

Tresillian House: drawing room. Image: Tresillian House.

Tresillian House: library, remodelled in 1928. Image: Tresillian House.

The house has recently been nicely restored, and it seems to have been very little altered since it was first built, apart from a refitting of the library in 1928. The main house and two cottages are now available for holiday lets. A walled kitchen garden was laid out in woodland a short distance from the house in the mid 19th century and is immaculately maintained today. It featured on television recently as part of the Rick Stein's Cornwall series, in which the presenter interviewed the characterful head gardener, John Harris.

Descent: sold 1694 to Samuel Gully; to son?, Enodor Gully (d. 1748); to great nephew, Richard Gully (d. 1791); to nephew, Rev. John Bennet (1765-1804); to son, (Richard) Gully Bennet (1793-1836); to son, Richard Gully Bennet (1820-1910); to son, Edward Gully Bennet (1849-1927); to brother, Ferdinando Wallis Bennet (1850-1929), who gave it to his son, Maj. Leonard Wallis Bennet (1897-1957); sold 1947 to Frederick J. Davy; to son, Rex Davy (1917-2007), creator of the DairyLand Farm World theme park; sold 2000 to George Edward Silvanus Robinson (b. 1956), hedge fund manager and grandson of Thomas Albert Victor Wood (1893-1978), who leased the property from 1937 until after 1950.

Bennet family of Tresillian

Bennet, Rev. John (c.1735-85). Son of Rev. Thomas Bennet (d. 1767), vicar of St Enoder (Cornw.) 1735-67, and his wife Dorothy Vinicombe, born at Exeter about 1735. Educated at Clare College, Cambridge (matriculated 1754; BA 1758; MA 1761). Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, 1761-64. Vicar of Gwinear (Cornw.), 1768-85. He married, 22 May 1764 at Newlyn East, Phillippa (1742-84?), daughter of Samuel Gully and sister of Richard Gully (d. 1791) of Tresillian House, and had issue:

(1) Rev. John Bennet (1765-1804) (q.v.);
(2) Philippa Bennet (b. 1766), born 20 September and baptised at St Enoder, 2 October 1766; probably died unmarried;
(3) Dorothy Bennet (1767-1815), baptised at St Ewe, 2 December 1767; married, 29 July 1790 at Fowey (Cornw.), Rev. James Pascoe (c.1765-1807), vicar of St Keverne (Cornw.), 1789-1807, and had issue seven sons and three daughters; buried at St Keverne, 22 March 1815; will proved in the PCC, 17 July 1815;
(4) Mary Bennet (b. 1769), baptised at Gwinear, 26 July 1769;
(5) Elizabeth Bennet (b. 1772), baptised at Gwinear, 27 March 1772;
(6) Ann Bennet (b. & d. 1773), baptised at Gwinear, 11 December 1773; died in infancy and was buried at Gwinear, 18 December 1773;
(7) Ann Bennet (1776-1862), baptised at Gwinear, 17 April 1776; died unmarried at Wadebridge (Cornw.), 19 September 1862;
(8) Patty Bennet (1777-1851), baptised at Gwinear, 31 October 1777; married, 28 April 1801 at St Keverne, Joseph Norway (1774-1825) of St Columb Major (Cornw.), attorney, who acted as one of the guardians and trustees of his brother-in-law, Rev. John Bennet's, children from 1805, son of Neville Norway of Lostwithiel (Cornw.), and had issue one son and four daughters; died at St Columb Major, Jul-Sept. 1851;
(9) William Bennet (1780-1817), baptised at Gwinear, 2 March 1780; an officer in the army (Maj.), who acted as one of the guardians and trustees of his brother, Rev. John Bennet's, children from 1805; died 20 April 1817;
(10) Kitty Bennet (1783-1819), baptised at Gwinear, 9 February 1783; died unmarried and was buried at St Columb Major, 22 February 1819.

He was buried at Gwinear, 17 February 1785. His wife is said to have died in 1784, but I have been unable to trace a matching burial in that year.

Bennet, Rev. John (1765-1804). Son of Rev. John Bennet (c.1735-85) and his wife Phillippa, daughter of Samuel Gully of Tresillian House, born 6 June and baptised at St Enoder (Cornw.), 18 June 1765. Educated at Clare College, Cambridge (matriculated 1785; BA 1789). Ordained deacon, 1789. Curate of Antony (Cornw.). He married, 31 October 1791 at Stoke Damerel (Devon), Elizabeth (1770-1805), daughter and heir of Rev. Mydhope Wallis (d. 1791) of Trethill in Sheviock (Cornw.) and vicar of Rame (Cornw.), and had issue:

(1) Elizabeth Bennet (1792-1842), baptised at Anthony, 3 October 1792; married, 2 November 1815 at Newlyn East, Francis Camborne Paynter (1785-1858) of St Columb Major, solicitor, and had issue four daughters; died 4 November 1842;
(2) Richard Gully Bennet (1793-1836) (q.v.);
(3) Rev. Mydhope Wallis Bennet (1795-1824), baptised at Newlyn East, 13 April 1795; educated at Pembroke College, Oxford (matriculated 1813; BA 1817); ordained deacon, 1818 and priest, 1819; curate of Talland, 1818; died unmarried at East Looe (Cornw.) and was buried at Morval (Cornw.), 8 November 1824; will proved in the PCC, 10 December 1824;
(4) Ann Bennet (1796-1870?), born 3 November 1796 and baptised at Newlyn East, 2 January 1797; married, 30 December 1818 at St Martin by Looe (Cornw.), Rev. James Pascoe (c.1792-1839), vicar of St. Keverne, and had issue six sons and two daughters; probably the 'Ann Pascoe' buried at Sithney (Cornw.), 10 August 1870.

He inherited Tresillian House from his maternal uncle, Richard Gully in 1791.

He died 31 December 1804 and was buried at Newlyn East, 7 January 1805; his will was proved in the PCC, 28 May 1805. His widow died 17 August and was buried at Newlyn East, 24 August 1805.

Bennet, Richard Gully (1793-1836). Elder son of Rev. John Bennet (1765-1804) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Rev. Mydhope Wallis of Trethill, born 13 November and baptised at Newlyn East, 21 December 1793. Educated at Pembroke College, Oxford (matriculated 1811). JP for Cornwall. He married, 3 January 1820 at St Enoder (Cornw.), Loveday (1798-1821), daughter of William Basset of Pencorse, St Enoder, and had issue:

(1) Richard Gully Bennet (1820-1910) (q.v.);
(2) John Bennet (1821-22), baptised at Newlyn East, 27 December 1821; died in infancy and was buried at St Columb Major, 22 September 1822.

After the death of his wife he seems to have taken as his housekeeper and mistress, Elizabeth Mountstevens Tinney, by whom he apparently had four illegitimate children (mentioned but not named in his will):

(X1) Francis Tinney (b. 1830), baptised at Cuby with Tregony (Cornw.), 13 August 1830; living in 1841 but apparently died in the lifetime of his mother;
(X2) Millicent Tinney (b. 1832), said to have been born in May 1832; baptised at St Columb Minor, 16 March 1837;
(X3) Melissa Tinney (b. c.1834); living in 1841;

(X4) John Wallis Tinney (b. 1836; fl. 1895), baptised at Newlyn East, 30 August 1836; living in Truro in 1895.

He inherited Tresillian House from his father in 1805 and came of age in 1814.

He died 2 December and was buried at Newlyn East, 9 December 1836; his will made provision for his housekeeper and her children. His wife died 22 December and was buried at Newlyn East, 28 December 1821. His partner became the innkeeper of the Anchor Inn, St. Enoder, and married, Oct-Dec 1841 at Stoke Damerel (Devon), Anthony Cock of St Enoder (Cornw.), yeoman, and had further issue one son; she was buried at St Enoder, 24 October 1846 and her will was proved in the PCC, 27 July 1847.

Bennet, Richard Gully (1820-1910). Only surviving legitimate son of Richard Gully Bennet (1793-1836) and his wife Loveday, daughter of William Bassett of Pencorse, St Enoder (Cornw.), born 31 October 1820 and baptised at Newlyn East, 12 January 1821. Educated at Taunton, Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1839; BA 1843) and the Inner Temple (admitted 1843). JP and DL for Cornwall; County Councillor, 1889-98; chairman of St Columb Board of Guardians, 1845-95. He married, 21 April 1846 at Cubert (Cornw.), Mary Jean (1821-1906), fourth daughter of Richard Hosken of Carines House, Cubert (Cornw.), and had issue:

(1) Kathleen Tryphena Bennet (1848-1931), baptised at Newlyn East, 12 June 1848; married, 9 August 1871 at Newlyn East, William Vigor Fox (1832-95) of Comberbach House (Ches.), son of Rev. William Fox, but had no issue; died 13 April 1931; will proved 16 May 1931 (estate £3,227);
(2) Edward Gully Bennet (1849-1927) (q.v.);
(3) Ferdinando Wallis Bennet (1850-1929) (q.v.);
(4) Edith Mary Bennet (1858-1941), born 27 May 1858; lived with her sister at Comberbach; died unmarried at Newquay (Cornw.), 28 February 1941.

He inherited Tresillian House from his father in 1836, came of age in 1841, and rebuilt the house in 1848-63.

He died aged 89, on 11 January 1910; his will was proved 6 April 1910 (estate £22,179). His wife died 2 June 1906.

Bennet, Edward Gully (1849-1927). Elder son of Richard Gully Bennet (1820-1910) and his wife Mary Jean, fourth daughter of Richard Hosken of Carines House, Cubert (Cornw.), born 24 October and baptised at Newlyn East, 4 December 1849. An officer in the army (Ensign, 1868; Lt., 1871; Capt., 1881; Maj. 1886; retired as Lt. Col., 1893). JP (Chairman of St Columb Petty Sessions) and County Councillor for Cornwall. He was unmarried and without issue.

He inherited Tresillian House from his father in 1910.

He died 1 August 1927 and his body was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, London; his will was proved 12 November 1927 and 19 April 1928 (estate £35,660).

Col. F.W. Bennet (1850-1929)
Bennet, Ferdinando Wallis (1850-1929). Second son of Richard Gully Bennet (1820-1910) and his wife Mary Jean, fourth daughter of Richard Hosken of Carines House, Cubert (Cornw.), born 13 December 1850 and baptised at Newlyn East, 17 January 1851. Educated at Sherborne School, 1862-67, and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. An officer in the Royal Engineers (2nd Lt., 1871; Capt., 1883; Maj. 1889; Lt. Col., 1900 retired as Br. Col., 1901). He served as British Vice-Consul at Adana in Anatolia, 1880-82, and later in Egypt, 1882, 1884-85 and the Boer War, 1899-1901. In retirement he was much involved in public affairs in north Devon, serving as a JP for Devon (Chairman of Bideford Petty Sessions); Vice-Chairman of Northam Urban District Council, and as a poor law guardian and hospital trustee. After joining the army he had a brief but spectacular career as a cricketer, playing regularly for the Royal Engineers and also in four first class matches, and he was also a keen golfer. He married, 18 February 1896 at All Saints, Paddington (Middx), his cousin, Evelyn Mary (1865-1944), a nurse in Hong Kong, daughter of Maj-Gen. Henry Spencer Palmer RE (1838-93), and had issue:

(1) Maj. Leonard Wallis Bennet (1897-1957) (q.v.);
(2) twin, Charles Hosken Bennet (1898-1919), born in Belfast (Co. Down), 6 July 1898; educated at Marlborough and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; an officer in the Royal Artillery (2nd Lt., 1915; Lt. 1917); died of pneumonia, 25 February 1919;
(3) twin, Mary Kathleen Bennet (1898-1985), born in Belfast, 6 July 1898; married, 3 October 1928, Vice-Adm. John Guy Protheroe Vivian CB (1887-1963) of Northmoor (Oxon), son of Rev. Charles Henry Gerald Vivian of Grampound (Cornw.), but had no issue; died 10 July 1985; will proved 16 September 1985 (estate £67,209);
(4) Evelyn Marjorie Bennet (1902-96), born 17 June and baptised at Northam, 23 July 1902; married, 22 December 1923, Wing-Cdr. John Allan Ferguson OBE (1889-1953), who served in the Indian Army (Col.) and later in the RAF, and had issue one son; died 16 January 1996.

After retiring from the army, he settled at Fairlea, Northam (Devon). He inherited Tresillian House from his elder brother in 1927, but handed it on to his elder son in his lifetime.

He died 17 October 1929; his will was proved 15 February 1930 (estate £57,898). His wife died 25 October 1944; her will was proved 23 May 1945 (estate £4,310).

Bennet, Leonard Wallis (1897-1957). Elder son of Col. Ferdinando Wallis Bennet (1850-1929) and his wife Evelyn Mary, daughter of Maj-Gen. Palmer RE, born 3 January and baptised at St Philip, Kensington (Middx), 10 February 1897. Educated at Marlborough, 1910-14, and Royal Military Academy. An officer in the Royal Artillery (2nd Lt., 1915; Lt., 1916; Capt. 1917; A/Maj., 1918; retired 1928; returned to colours, 1939; Br. Maj., 1944; retired 1949), who served in the First World War from 1916 and throughout the Second World War. He was a freemason from 1920. He married, 4 September 1928, Armenell Betty (1897-1958), only daughter of Gerald Merritt Wynter of Luxstowe, Liskeard (Cornw.), and had issue:

(1) Armenell Mary Betty Bennet (1929-2000), born 10 August 1929; married, 23 May 1963 at Salisbury (Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe), as his third wife, Clifford Walter Dupont (1905-78)*, but had no issue; died at Harare (Zimbabwe), 10 April 2000;
(2) Evelyn Jennifer Bennet (b. 1931), born 2 November 1931; married, Jan-Mar 1954, Peter David Raymond (1926-93), stockbroker, son of Joseph Raymond of Kensington (Middx);
(3) Rosemary Ann Bennet (b. 1934), born 29 November 1934; married, 11 August 1954, Thomas Ian Fraser Sandeman (1931-95) of Kilkhampton (Cornw.), farmer, and had issue four children; emigrated to Southern Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe) with her husband, 1959;
(4) Jeanette Elizabeth Bennet (b. 1936), born 21 March 1936.

He was given Tresillian House by his father in about 1927 and undertook repairs to the house and grounds before letting the house in 1937 to Thomas Albert Victor Wood (1893-1978). He lived subsequently at Northam Lodge (Devon).

He died 5 February 1957; administration of his goods was granted 15 May 1957 (estate £18,712). His widow died 2 August 1958; her will was proved 9 October 1958 (estate £9,996).

* After the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Ian Smith's government in Southern Rhodesia in 1965, Dupont was appointed 'Acting Officer Administering the Government'; he served as President of Rhodesia, 1970-75.