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.

Showing posts with label Devon. Show all posts

Sunday, 9 August 2026

(642) Blackburn of Hayne

This family came to affluence as one of the leading wine exporters on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Their business at Quinta da Palmeira is said to have been established in 1760 or 1784 by Thomas and John Blackburn, or by Henry Blackburn, and was inherited by the brothers Robert and George Blackburn, who may have been brothers or cousins. Robert Blackburn (1779-1841), with whom the genealogy below begins, was perhaps responsible for building the rather English-looking house at Quinta da Palmeira, where he lived with his family for much of the early 19th century.

Quinta da Palmeira, Madeira, in 1843.

He then moved back to England, taking a house at Clapham (Surrey) and establishing a wine importing business at 58 Old Broad St., London; the firm later traded as Blackburn, Temple & Robinson. In 1810, Robert married Mary Bellas (1783-1829), who had recently inherited the Brampton Hall estate near Appleby (Westmld) from her uncle, the Rev. Lancelot Bellas, although the hall itself had fallen out of gentry use long before and was never occupied by the Blackburns. Robert and Mary had four sons and three daughters. Their eldest son, the Rev. Robert Blackburn (1812-99), who inherited the Brampton estate, was sent to Oxford and became a Fellow of Brasenose College before taking holy orders and serving as rector of Selham (Sussex) for more than fifty years. The next two sons, Edward Blackburn (1815-87) and Herbert Cautley Blackburn (1816-76), inherited their father's wine importing business, although their interests in Madeira were probably sold in the 1840s. Instead, the brothers opened a wine merchant's business in New York (USA), and acquired a house in Brooklyn which became their American base for the next half century. Edward seems to have managed the New York business and Herbert the London company. Their youngest brother, Henry Leith Blackburn (1822-1905) was never involved in the wine business, but joined the East India Company's Bengal Army. He retired from this service in 1856 and thereafter exhibited increasingly erratic behaviour, which be blamed on sunstroke in India. After a string of prosecutions for indecent assault on young women, he was confined for much of his life in a lunatic asylum.

Edward Blackburn spent much of the 1840s and 1850s living in New York and developing his wine merchant business, although he is known to have made several trips home during this time. By 1855, he evidently felt that the business could be left in the hands of a manager, and he returned to England full-time. After renting houses in south Devon for a number of years, in 1867 he purchased the Hayne estate at Stowford (Devon), where an attractive early 19th century Gothick house had been built about fifty years before. According to one account, the house had been damaged by fire in the 1860s, and repairs were not quite complete at the time of the sale, but I have been unable to find any evidence of a fire, although there do seem to have been alterations and additions to the house at this time. Edward Blackburn and his wife Charlotte Brooking had a large family of six sons and four daughters. Their eldest son, Edward Brooking Blackburn (1844-1900) was born in New York and educated at Oxford, but was largely cut out of his father's will, being left only a modest (and discretionary) annuity. It is unclear what caused the rift between them, but the result was that the next surviving son, Arthur Blackburn (1849-1930), was sent to New York to manage the family business in the 1870s, and eventually inherited the Hayne estate, while the younger sons received increased cash bequests. Ernest Murray Blackburn (1856-1943) gave up his post as assistant master at Westminster and used his legacy to found his own prep school at Park House, Southborough (Kent), from which he retired by 1901.

Little Thakeham: the house built by Lutyens for Ernest Murray Blackburn in 1901-03, which he sold in 1918.
Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

He then bought a small estate of around 130 acres at Thakeham (Sussex) on which he built a new country house, Little Thakeham, to the designs of Edwin Lutyens, although he sold it about 1918. Harold Bellas Blackburn (1859-1942) at first farmed one of the Stowford farms but in 1896 bought Donhead Hall at Donhead St. Mary, which was sold in 1943 following his death. Edward's third daughter, Laura (c.1854-1937), married the rector of Stowford, whose father, the Rev. John Bidlake Woolocombe, published a volume of reminiscences which is one of our chief sources for the history of Hayne and the families associated with it.

Donhead Hall, Donhead St Mary, from the sale particulars of 1943.

Arthur Blackburn (1849-1930), who inherited Hayne in 1887, married in 1875 Manuela Stubbs, the half-Peruvian daughter of an English merchant. She bore him a son and two daughters, but in 1885 she applied for a divorce on the grounds of his cruelty and adultery. Her application was withdrawn and instead she agreed a separation from him in 1886. For some twenty years she maintained her own household with her daughters. In 1906 she again applied to the courts for a judicial separation and alimony after further evidence of his persistent adultery, and this was granted, but by 1911 she was again living with her husband at a house called Rock End in Torquay. Hayne seems to have been let or unoccupied at this time, and Arthur sold it in 1923. Rock End remained the couple's home until their deaths in 1930 and 1934, and was then sold. Their son moved permanently to New York in about 1904, where he was employed in a stockbroking firm; their elder daughter married a retired New York stockbroker who had settled in Bermuda, but after his death returned to Devon and rather improbably married a Plymouth ironmonger; and their younger daughter lived all her adult life at Paignton (Devon), where she died unmarried in 1963.

Hayne, Stowford, Devon

There has been a residence on the estate since shortly after the Norman Conquest, when the Hayne family built Stowford Castle on high ground to the east of the present house. In the mid 16th century John Harris, serjeant-at-law, 'fairly rebuilded his house at Hayne', making 'a gentile and commodious dwelling for himself and his posterity', and reusing stone from the old castle. Nothing is known of the form of the Tudor house, although it has been suggested that the present service wing may incorporate parts of the building, and the foundations of outbuildings have been discovered north-east of the house. It was a large mansion, being taxed on 26 hearths in 1674, making it the third or fourth largest house in the county.

Hayne, Stowford: engraving of the house from the north-east in about 1850

The present house was built in the first decade of the 19th century for Isaac Donithorne (later Harris), and was evidently completed by 1810. It has distinct similarities to nearby Lifton Park, begun in 1815, and it seems likely that the two houses were designed by the same person; both houses had belonged to the Harris family, although by the early 19th century they had descended through the female line to men who added the Harris name to their patronymic. In his 1898 memoir, From morn till eve, the Rev. John Bidlake Woollocombe, who lived at Stowford and came from gentry family of Great Bidlake, stated that Lifton was designed by George Webber, a relative of the owner, who is not recorded as an architect, and must have been a gentleman amateur. Both houses seem slightly old-fashioned for their date in the limited extent to which they are influenced by the more archaeological approach to Gothic design that became popular in the early 19th century, and there is an amateurish feel about the eclectic choice of motifs used in the designs. Webber therefore seems a more likely candidate than Sir Jeffrey Wyatville (whose authorship of Hayne was first asserted by Sabine Baring-Gould in 1919). Wyatville's career is well documented, and there is nothing to connect him with these houses except that he designed Endsleigh Cottage, a few miles south of Lifton, for the Duke of Bedford in 1810.

Hayne, Stowford: the entrance front in 1984, when the house was semi-derelict.
Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

The rubble stone entrance front faces north-east and is balanced in outline but not symmetrical in detail. Its nine bays are grouped 2-1-3-1-2, and are united by a castellated parapet, with angled buttresses at the corners, topped with pinnacles. Set into the walls are varied Gothick windows with robust but un-historical tracery, some of it executed in timber.

Hayne, Stowford: the house from the south in the late 19th century. The pyramid-roofed tower is absent from the earlier engraving
and was presumably added in the work of the 1860s.

The south-east and south-west fronts use the same palette of castellations, buttresses and tracery, but have three central bays flanked by a tower at one end and a gabled bay at the other. The north-west side forms the service wing and is an irregular L-shape, with a turret in the angle. It overlooks the kitchen court and the kennels and stables which formed the raison d'être of the estate in the early 19th century. There are reports of a fire in the 1860s, and there seem to have been additions at that time - including a pyramid-roofed tower - but it was apparently financial difficulties which forced the sale of the house in 1864, and the repairs are said to have been unfinished at that time. By 1898, the reception rooms were divided between the ground and first floors, and Woollocombe describes the hall, billiard room and dining room being on the ground floor, with the library and drawing room on the first floor, but the internal layout has been further altered since then.

In the later 20th century the house was caught up in an unfortunate family dispute between two branches of the Chichester family, one of whom wished to sell while the other did not, with the result that house rapidly decayed and the grounds were completely neglected. In 1987 Hayne was described as 'semi-ruinous', but the shell was restored over the next five years by Mr & Mrs Brian Richardson, who stripped out many of the decayed interior fittings. In 1994 they sold the estate to the Earl and Countess of Stockton, who embarked on a comprehensive programme of restoration, creating new interiors within the historic shell to the designs of Michael Brooke. The most striking of the new rooms is the remodelled entrance hall, which was given a rib-vaulted Gothick ceiling rising from slender colonettes executed in plasterwork by Hales & Howe of Bristol. At the same time, a long L-shaped galleried library was created out of former service accommodation to the right of the hall. In the south-east corner of the house is the former dining room, which retains a timber-ribbed ceiling and a Gothick chimneypiece, moved here from the hall. Between the dining room and the hall is the main staircase, converted from its original imperial form into a cantilevered dog-leg flight built with slate treads, iron balusters, and a brass rail. The Gothick theme of the house is continued by arched screens on the landing and the details of the skylights. On the first floor the former drawing room has become a ballroom, linked by folding doors to the library next door; both rooms retain their ribbed ceilings and chimneypieces, although the panelling was a casualty of 20th century neglect.

Hayne, Stowford: the house and grounds in 1883 from the Ordnance Survey 1st edn 25" plan

The Tudor house at Hayne was evidently accompanied by a terraced garden, of which some traces were recorded on the first Ordnance Survey 25" plan in 1883. What exists today, however, is the result of a landscaping scheme carried out for Christopher Harris in the early 19th century, and restored and enhanced for the Stocktons around 2000. Harris' ruling passion was hunting (he was a friend of the hunting parson, the Rev. Jack Russell), and in a shallow old quarry in the Wilderness, he created a curious structure which was known as St. Hubert's Hall.

"St Hubert's Hall", Hayne in 1984: the monument to a shared passion for hunting created in the early 19th century by Christopher Mohun-Harris.
Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

This consisted of 22 granite seats set in a circle, each dedicated to one of his hunting companions; according to Woollacombe 'the seats presented a picturesque appearance and were ornamented with a flat wooden fox's head and coat of arms at their back', while over each seat was hung a flag bearing the arms, motto and residence of the stallholder. It is not clear whether gatherings at St Hubert's Hall were abandoned after Harris gave up hunting in 1834, perhaps in response to the death of his huntsman, who was eaten alive by the hounds in the estate kennels. The other main survival in the grounds is a grotto, built of cyclopean masonry, with a shallow pedimental gable and a rustic entrance arch. Inside there were niches around the walls and a vault faced with flints and shells. Woollocombe also mentions a pagoda and a temple in the grounds, but no trace of these remains.

Hayne, Stowford: the grotto in 1984. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Descent: John Harris (1507-51); to son, William Harris (c.1526-91); to son, Arthur Harris (1561-1628); to son, John Harris (c.1586-1657); to son, Sir Arthur Harris (d. 1686), 1st bt.; to first cousin once removed, Christopher Harris (fl. 1718); to son, John Harris (d. 1767); to brother, William Harris; to son, Christopher Harris (d. 1775); to son-in-law, Isaac Donithorne (later Harris) (d. 1848); to son, Christopher Harris Mohun Harris (1801-86), who sold 1867 to Edward Blackburn (1815-87); to son, Arthur Blackburn (1849-1930), who sold 1923 to Mrs Lillian Wingfield; sold 1951 to Gp. Capt. Chichester... sold 1987 to Mr & Mrs Brian Richardson; sold 1994 to Alexander Daniel Alan Macmillan (b. 1943), 2nd Earl of Stockton; sold 2007

Blackburn family of Hayne

Blackburn, Robert (1779-1841). Son of John Blackburn (1733-98) of Sneaton (Yorks) and his wife Bethiah Turner, baptised at Old Malton (Yorks NR), 11 June 1779. Wine merchant at Quinta da Palmeira on the island of Madeira, in partnership with his brother or cousin George. He married, 3 March 1810 at St Chad, Rochdale (Lancs), Mary (1783-1829), daughter of Rev. Thomas Bellas of Rochdale and Long Marton (Westmld.), and had issue:

(1) Mary Eleanor Blackburn (1811-92), born 3 August, and baptised at the English church, Madeira, 26 August 1811; married, 17 January 1838 at St Mark, Kennington (Surrey), Robert Chapman (c.1803-80), of Old Charlton, Greenwich (Kent), inspector general of customs, son of Robert Chapman, gent., and had issue at least one son and three daughters; probably the woman of this name who died at Weymouth (Dorset), 24 July, and was buried at Semington (Wilts), 29 July 1892;
(2) Rev. Robert Blackburn (1812-99), born 17 October and baptised at the English church, Madeira, 29 October 1812; educated at Sherborne School, Queen's and Balliol Colleges, Oxford (matriculated 1830; BA 1834); Fellow of Brasenose College, 1834-44; ordained 1838; rector of Selham (Sussex), 1842-99; inherited the Brampton estate from his father in 1841; married, 11 April 1844 at North Cadbury (Som.), Eliza Frances (1810-75), younger daughter of Charles Casper Clutterbuck of North Cadbury, and had issue one son and two daughters; died 17 January 1899; will proved 20 February 1899 (estate £10,764);
(3) Edward Blackburn (1815-87) (q.v.);
(4) Herbert Cautley Blackburn (1816-76), born 16 December and baptised at the English church, Madeira, 25 December 1816; succeeded to his father's business as a Madeira wine merchant in Old Broad St., London; admitted a freeman of the city of London, 1856; married 1st, 22 June 1851 at St Paul, Edinburgh, Catherine (d. 1855), niece of Sir William Allan RA PRSA (1782-1850), artist, and 2nd, 12 December 1860 at Edinburgh, Alice Horner (1836-91), daughter of Robert Nasmyth of Edinburgh, by whom he had two sons and two daughters; died 25 June 1876 and was buried at Paddington Old Cemetery (Middx); will proved 16 October 1876 (effects under £18,000);
(5) Emma Blackburn (1818-58?), born 20 April and baptised at the English church, Madeira, 30 April 1818; married, 16 February 1841 at Kennington (Surrey), Edward Digby Bickerton Murray (1812-76), of Liverpool and later of Portsea (Hants), insurance broker and later wine merchant (who m2, 20 December 1864 at Cheetham (Lancs), Mary (1821-91), daughter of William Holdsworth), son of Admiral Robert Murray (c.1763-1834), and had issue two sons; probably the Emma Murray who died in Liverpool in 1858;
(6) Henry Leith Blackburn (1822-1905), born in Madeira, 12 February 1822; educated at Sherborne and Winchester; an officer in the East India Co.'s Bengal Army (Ensign, 1842; Lt., 1844; Capt., 1852; retired 1856), who was court martialled for 'conduct unbecoming' in 1848 and severely reprimanded; he later claimed to have suffered from sunstroke in India with permanent effects on his mental health, and he spent periods in mental hospitals at Hackney and Carmarthen; he was prosecuted for indecent assault and exposing himself on three occasions, in 1859, 1869 and 1873, and on the last occasion was sentenced to three months in prison with hard labour, but was removed to the Royal India Lunatic Asylum, Ealing (Middx), where he seems to have spent much of the rest of his life; he died unmarried in the Royal Naval Hospital, Great Yarmouth (Norfk), 9 April, and was buried at Great Yarmouth,14 April 1905; administration of goods granted 1 July 1905 (estate £5,281);
(7) Frances Elizabeth Blackburn (1823-61), born 15 October 1823 and baptised at Holy Trinity, Clapham (Surrey), 7 April 1824; lived in an all-female household at Bishop Tawton (Devon), and died unmarried, June 1861.

He lived at Quinta da Palmeira on the island of Madeira, and later at Clapham Rise (Surrey). He bequeathed his estate in Madeira to his brother and nephew, as trustees for sale. In 1809 his wife inherited, from her uncle, Rev. Lancelot Bellas, the manor house of Brampton Hall nr Appleby (Westmld).

He died 22 January, and was buried at Clapham (Surrey), 27 January 1841; his will was proved in the PCC, 19 March 1841. His wife died 17 May 1829.

Blackburn, Edward (1815-87). Second son of Robert Blackburn (1779-1841) and his wife Mary, daughter of Rev. Thomas Bellas of Rochdale (Lancs) and Long Marton (Westmld.), born 9 June and baptised at St George, Bloomsbury (Middx), 1 July 1815. Educated at Sherborne. Wine importer in New York (USA) and London. He married, 11 July 1843 at Dartmouth (Devon), Charlotte (1822-1919), daughter of Nicholas Brooking of Dartmouth, and had issue:

(1) Edward Brooking Blackburn (1844-1900), born at Brooklyn, New York, 5 April 1844; educated at Marlborough and Brasenose College, Oxford (matriculated 1863; BA 1868; MA 1899); lived at Stowford Cottage; excluded from his father's will apart from a discretionary annuity of no more than £500 a year; died unmarried in Florence (Italy), 4 December 1900; administration of goods granted to his eldest sister, 22 January 1901 (estate £192);
(2) Emma Brooking Blackburn (1845-1919), born 4 October and baptised at St Saviour, Dartmouth, 31 October 1845; lived in Westminster (Middx); died unmarried at Brighton (Sussex), 11 May 1919; will proved 28 July 1919 (estate £26,300);
(3) Henry Blackburn (1847-48), born about February 1847; died in infancy at Brooklyn, New York, 14 November 1848;
(4) Arthur Blackburn (1849-1930) (q.v.);
(5) Mary Charlotte Blackburn (1851-1947), born in New York, 28 February 1851; married, 25 September 1905 at St Peter, Bournemouth (Hants), Henry Francis Garnier le Patourel (1871-1906), son of Messurier le Patourel, of St Peter Port (Guernsey), journalist, but had no issue; died aged 96 on 17 September 1947 and was buried at Torquay (Devon); will proved 9 January 1948 (estate £65,887);
(6) Laura Blackburn (c.1854-1937), born in the USA; married, 2 January 1878 at Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, Paddington (Middx), Rev. John Henry Bidlake Wollocombe (1854-1930) of Stowford (Devon), son of Rev. John Bidlake Wollocombe of Great Bidlake (Devon), vicar of Lamerton (Devon), and had issue four sons; died 4 January 1937; will proved 16 February 1937 (estate £7,858);
(7) Alice Maud Blackburn (1855-1939), born in New York, 7 March 1855; married, 30 April 1881 at St Augustine, Queen's Gate, South Kensington (Middx), as his second wife, Stephen Roland Woulfe (1822-99) of Tiermaclane House* (Co. Clare) and London, and had issue one son (who died young) and one daughter; as a widow lived at Shaftesbury (Dorset); died 18 October 1939 and was buried at Donhead St Mary (Wilts); will proved 2 January 1940 (estate £56,521);
(8) Ernest Murray Blackburn (1856-1943), born 26 November 1856 and baptised at West Teignmouth (Devon), 26 January 1857; educated at Winchester and Corpus Christi College, Oxford (matriculated 1876; BA 1880; MA 1882); schoolteacher; assistant master at Westminster, 1881-86; headmaster of Park House Preparatory School, Southborough (Kent), 1887; he retired by 1901 and built a country house at Little Thakeham to the designs of Sir Edwin Lutyens, which he sold in about 1918; married, 28 July 1891 at St Mark, Broadwater, Frant (Sussex), Fanny Julia (1870-1954), third daughter of George James Greystone Reid, and had issue two sons and four daughters; died 13 February 1943; will proved 9 July 1943 (estate £4,475);
(9) Harold Bellas Blackburn (1859-1942), born 6 July and baptised at West Ogwell (Devon), 24 July 1859; educated at Winchester College; purchased Donhead Hall, Donhead St Mary (Wilts), in 1896 and lived there until his death**; married, 1 January 1895 at St John, Bathwick (Som.), Constance Verena (1869-1956), younger daughter of Rev. Richard Thomas Blagden (1826-98), vicar of Broadwoodwidger (Devon), and had issue two daughters; died 25 January 1942; will proved 28 May 1943 (estate £14,952);
(10) Robert Blackburn (1860-1926), born 28 July and baptised at West Ogwell, 14 October 1860; merchant; said to have married but had no issue; died at Levallois-Perret, Paris (France), 6 October 1926.

In 1861 he was living at West Ogwell (Devon). He purchased the Hayne estate at Stowford in 1867.

He died 27 August, and was buried at Stowford, 1 September 1887; his will was proved 9 January and 14 March 1888 (effects £92,117). His widow lived latterly in London and died aged 96 on 26 February 1919; administration of her goods was granted 12 November 1919 (estate £30,901).

* Tiermaclane House was in ruins by 1840, possibly following a fire.

** It was sold in 1943, following his death.

Blackburn, Arthur (1849-1930). Third son of Edward Blackburn (1815-87) and his wife Charlotte, daughter of Nicholas Brooking of Dartmouth (Devon), born 21 August 1849. Manager of his father's wine importing business in New York (USA) in the 1870s. His wife sought a divorce in 1885 but withdrew her petition and agreed a separation the following year; she was granted a judicial separation in 1906 on the grounds of his repeated adultery with Bessie Pengelly (a servant at Hayne) and Maria Augusta Dalton, but had returned to live with her husband by 1911. He married, 4 August 1875, at St James, Paddington (Middx), Manuela Georgina Alice (1853-1934), second daughter of Charles Edward Stubbs of Arequipa (Peru) and later of London, and had issue:

(1) Claud Arthur Charles Blackburn (1876-1941), born in New York 15 June 1876 but was brought to England by his parents; returned to New York about 1904; employed as clerk at Chisholm & Chapman, stockbrokers, on Broadway, New York; married, 12 November 1902 at the Church of the Resurrection, Richmond Hill, New York, Edna Isobel Summerfield (1875-1953), but had no issue; lived at Brooklyn, New York, and died there 25 April 1941; will proved 13 December 1945 (estate in England, £13,647);
(2) Violet Ethel Blackburn (1877-1965), born 9 September and baptised at All Saints, Margaret St., Marylebone (Middx), 5 October 1877; married 1st, 10 May 1923 at the Church of the Transfiguration, New York, Alexander Ewing Tucker (1852-1934) of Paget (Bermuda), a retired American stockbroker and a member of the Bermudan Parliament; and 2nd, 19 November 1941 at St Jude, Plymouth (Devon), as his second wife, (Thomas) Harold Hearn Martin (1886-1967); died 13 March 1965; will proved 14 March 1966 but subject of a Chancery order, 28 April 1967 (estate £7,146);
(3) (Kathleen) Olive Blackburn (1884-1963), born 1 September and baptised at Stowford, 19 October 1884; educated at Queen Anne's School, Caversham (Oxon) and Kensington High School (Middx); lived at Paignton (Devon) and was president of Paignton Cage Bird Fanciers' Society, 1942-48; died unmarried, 2 February 1963; will proved 10 April 1963 (estate £14,968).

He inherited the Hayne estate from his father in 1887, but sold it in 1923. He was already resident at Rock End, Torquay in 1911; it was sold by the executors of his widow in 1935.

He died 1 April 1930 and was buried at Torquay Cemetery; his will was proved 27 May 1930 (estate £34,040). His widow died 5 November 1934 and was buried with her husband at Torquay Cemetery; her will was proved 11 March 1935 (estate £3,621).

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1952, p. 194; Rev. J.B. Woollocombe, From morn till eve, 1898; B. Cherry & Sir N. Pevsner, The buildings of England: Devon, 2nd edn., 1984, pp. 465-66; H. Meller, The country houses of Devon, 2015, pp. 496-98;

http://www.rawes.co.uk/families/brooking/brookingmanuscript.htm.

Location of archives

No significant accumulation is known to survive.

Coat of arms

None recorded.

Can you help?

Can anyone provide evidence for the fire that is supposed to have occurred at Hayne in the 1860s, or what was done by way of post-fire reconstruction?
Does anyone know what caused the rift between Edward Blackburn (1815-87) and his eldest son, Edward Brooking Blackburn?
Can anyone provide portraits or photographs 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 9 August 2026 and was updated 17 August 2026.

Friday, 12 December 2025

(620) Bidlake of Great Bidlake

Bidlake of Great Bidlake

The manor of Bidlake in Bridestowe parish (Devon) was acquired by Ralph de Combe in 1268, and his grandson John took the name Bidlake as a surname. It then descended through several generations to Thomas Bidlake (c.1461-1531), with whom the genealogy below begins. Throughout the medieval period, the family seem to have been very minor gentry, kept above the status of yeomen largely by virtue of being tenants in chief of the Crown. Even as late as the 16th century, when they rebuilt or enlarged their house at Bidlake (the name Great Bidlake was not adopted until the late 18th century, but is used throughout this account for clarity), the heads of the family described themselves as 'gentleman' rather than 'esquire'.

Thomas Bidlake (d. 1531) married twice and had children only by his second wife, who were all still very young when he died, aged about seventy. His elder son, Henry Bidlake (c.1527-1604), was made a ward of Sir George Rolle, who brought him up with his own sons, but when he was a teenager, Rolle sold the wardship to Roger Denys of Lodsworth (Sussex), who married Henry to his daughter Anne in about 1546. Henry and Anne had one son and two daughters who reached adulthood and have been recorded, and Great Bidlake descended to their son, John Bidlake (c.1547-1625), whose short biographical notes about himself and his family formed the basis, with other family papers, for a short account of the family in Devon Notes and Queries, 1905. The article helps to compensate for the fact that the Bridestowe parish registers do not survive before 1696, so many genealogical details of the family have been lost. John's notes state that Henry undertook work to extend and improve the house in 1575 and there was evidently further work in 1594. John Bidlake married Elizabeth Langsford, and through his marriage acquired a property at Germansweek, where he lived in preference to Great Bidlake. In 1610 he settled Great Bidlake on his eldest son, William Bidlake (c.1585-1625) on the latter's marriage; William and his wife seem to have been prickly and litigious characters, and John had occasion to write to his son begging him to " seeke peace" and warning him that "suits of law . . . are as variable as the turnings of a woadercock [weathercock]." As it happened, William died a few weeks before his father, when the Great Bidlake estate descended to his eldest son, Henry Bidlake (1612-59).

Henry Bidlake was of the generation most closely involved in the Civil War, and although his wife belonged to a family which declared for Parliament, he became a zealous Royalist, who took an active part in the fighting in the south-west between 1642 and 1646, and was heavily fined by the victorious Parliamentarians. It took him some seven years to borrow enough from friends, relations and neighbours to pay off his sequestration fine and the accrued interest, and recover his estates, and he died just five years later, shortly before the Restoration of the Monarchy. His eldest son and heir, William Bidlake (1639-70), was also left in straightened circumstances, and attempted to repair the position by marrying an heiress, Elizabeth Furlong, who gave him two sons. Sadly William died after less than ten years of marriage and long before his wife came into her inheritance; moreover, when Elizabeth secured her own future by marrying again in 1677, her second husband became entitled to her eventual inheritance, cutting out the sons of her first marriage. To try and compensate for this, Elizabeth's father took William's two sons into his own household, and did his best to provide for their futures, including apprenticing the younger son, Thomas Bidlake (c.1669-88?), to a wine merchant kinsman. The young man was unlucky enough to be injured when the powder magazine of the ship he was on exploded while the vessel was in Plymouth harbour, and he died not long afterwards, presumably from the injuries he received.

The elder son, Henry Bidlake (c.1664-1718), came of age in about 1685 but did not gain possession of Great Bidlake until 1697, when he reached an agreement with his grandmother for her to hand over most of the house. This Henry was married twice, and produced five daughters but only one son, who died aged two, a few months after his father. By Henry's will, the estate thus passed to his widow and her three daughters, and the two daughters of his first marriage were excluded from a share in the inheritance. They were married off by their stepmother within a year of Henry's death, but her own children were almost a generation younger, and lived with their mother at Great Bidlake for the next twenty years. Two of the three eventually married, leaving the youngest, Philippa Bidlake (1717-92) looking after Henry's widow until she died in 1755. She then stayed on in the house, eventually sharing it with a tenant farmer, who ran the estate, and a companion who had come to her as a pauper apprentice in the domestic arts. From the 1730s, the three sisters and later their husbands, had to fight off a series of challenges to their inheritance from an audacious fraudster calling himself 'Sir Richard Bidlake' and his relatives. 'Sir Richard', who was really a man of humble origins called Richard Becklake or Beckalake, had cleverly laid the groundwork for his claim by creating forged title deeds and altering entries in parish registers. He claimed to be a descendant of the Thomas Bidlake who had been blown up in Plymouth harbour, but although he garnered quite a lot of support for his claim, he was never able to make it stick. Moreover, he tried the same thing - with rather more success - on the heirs of Sir Richard Combe of Hemel Hempstead (Herts).

Of the three sisters, only Elizabeth Bidlake (1714-1802) produced any children. She married John Hiern (c.1720-90) of Great Torrington, a solicitor, and they had two sons and five daughters. The two sons both died in their father's lifetime, so on Elizabeth's death the estate came into the hands of her eldest daughter, Mary (1746-1835), who was the wife of Col. Thomas Stafford Woollocombe (1742-1814), whose descendants owned Great Bidlake until the mid 20th century. The Woollocombes will be the subject of a future post.

Great Bidlake (formerly Wester Bidlake), Bridestowe, Devon

The house appears to be a plain, two-storey Tudor E-plan manor house with a later wing to one side, but while it does have genuine Tudor origins, much of what exists today was created in the 19th and 20th centuries. The manor was acquired by Ralph de Combe, from whom the Bidlakes traced their descent, in 1268. Nothing is known of the medieval house on the site, but the core of the present building was a great hall, perhaps of early Tudor date, which was enlarged in 1575 by Henry Bidlake to create 'the newe parlour and chamber over it'. Further work may have taken place in 1594 and in the early 17th century, but the family were heavily fined for their support of the Royalist cause in the Civil War, and are unlikely to have made many changes after 1640. In 1674, Philippa Bidlake was taxed on eight hearths, and in 1693 a deed lists the accommodation as 'the kitchen, the dairy, the brewhouse, the new house or wash house, and chambers over the hall, the great parlour, the chamber over the said greate parlour, the chamber over the little parlour, the malthouse, the larder and the little house at the higher end of the sayd malthouse, and chambers over the same'. It is clear from this list that the house was little more than a large farmhouse, and some of the chambers were probably unheated.

Great Bidlake: the entrance front in 1927. Image: Chapman Collection, © The Dartmoor Trust Archive

Great Bidlake: the entrance front today.

In 1792 the house descended to Thomas Woollocombe (d. 1829), who let it as a farmhouse. He or his brother, the Rev. John Stafford Woollocombe (d. 1866), seems to have demolished 'the greater part of the old mansion', but in the 1840s there was a rebuilding in fairly convincing Tudor style to recreate the appearance of an E-plan manor house. The surviving original work lies to the left of the porch and is constructed of rubble stone, whereas Woollocombe's new building is in coursed rubble, and includes the porch and everything to its right, and the upper parts of the bays left of the porch. The lintels and sills on the new work have helpful dates and initials, but the old part of the house also has a reused lintel with the date 1594 and the initials AB. On the far left of the facade, and disturbing its symmetry, is an additional bay of the 1880s that also incorporates some reused stonework. This addition was designed to link the main block with the early 19th century south-east wing and the three-storey tower with a pyramid roof.

Great Bidlake: the rear elevation in 1927. Image: Chapman Collection. © The Dartmoor Trust Archive

The rear of the house is also gabled, but is more irregular in form, and retains a few early windows, including a reused 15th century cinquefoil-headed one. The central two bays on this side may be an early 20th century addition, and the bay its left the remnant of a gabled stair turret. On this side, the approach to the house is framed by a fine pair of gatepiers, apparently those supplied in 1701 by John Doidge and Richard Gunn, stonemasons.

Great Bidlake: entrance hall, now used as a dining room.

Inside, the house has few surviving pre-19th century features, and those that do exist are mainly in the south-east wing and adjoining room. The latter room may have been the hall in the 16th century, and although it was later divided horizontally, the roof supported on five trusses is still visible in the upper room. The next room, which was perhaps originally the parlour, has a 17th century granite fireplace which was reconstructed in the 19th century and the massive lintel of which is now carved with the Woollocombe arms. The granite heraldic fireplace in the entrance hall, bearing the Bidlake and Woollocombe arms, and the carved granite fireplaces in the north wing are all 20th century. The house was used as a school during the Second World War but returned to private occupation in 1946. For twenty years after 1985 it was the home of Professor John Robinson, an aerospace engineer who composed musicals, some which were performed in a natural wooded amphitheatre in the grounds. The house was restored, re-roofed and given a new main staircase in 2007, and in 2015, in a remarkable twist of fate, was bought back by members of the Bidlake family. At the time of writing it is available for short-term lets.

Descent: Thomas Bidlake (c.1461-1531); to son, Henry Bidlake (c.1527-1604); to son, John Bidlake (c.1547-1625); to son, William Bidlake (c.1570-1625); to son, Capt. Henry Bidlake (1612-59); to son, William Bidlake (1639-70); to son, Henry Bidlake (c.1664-1718); to daughters, Anne (1712-38?), wife of John Herring, Philippa (1717-92) and Elizabeth (1714-1802), wife of John Hiern (c.1720-90), whose daughter Mary Hiern (1746-1835) was their heir and married Col. Thomas Stafford Woollocombe (d. 1829); to brother, Rev. John Stafford Woollocombe (1776-1866); to son, Rev. John Bidlake Woollocombe (1823-1903); to son, Rev. John Henry Bidlake Woollocombe (1854-1930); to son, Cdr. Henry Bidlake Woollocombe (1894-1944); used as a school during the Second World War; sold 1946 and returned to private occupation; sold 1985 to Prof. John Robinson; sold 2005 to Moya and Richard Connell; sold 2015 to James & Alex Bidlake.

Bidlake family of Great Bidlake

Bidlake, Thomas (c.1461-1531). Son and heir of John Bidlake and his wife Joan Come, born about 1461. He married 1st, Elizabeth [surname unknown] and 2nd, 1523, Katherine, daughter of Thomas Hadde of Canterbury (Kent), and had issue:

(2.1) John Bidlake; died young;
(2.2) Edward or Edmund Bidlake; died young;
(2.3) Alice Bidlake; married William Smallacombe of Smallacombe, and had issue one son and two daughters;
(2.4) Henry Bidlake (c.1527-1604) (q.v.);
(2.5) James Bidlake (d. by 1606); married [forename unknown], widow of [forename unknown] Denys, and had issue one daughter;
(2.6) Dorothy Bidlake (fl. 1605).

He inherited Great Bidlake from his father.

He died in 1531. His first wife died before 1523. His widow married 2nd, John Coke of Thorn in Ottery St Mary (Devon) and 3rd, William Trent of Ottery St Mary; she died after 1555 and was buried at Aylesbeare (Devon).

Bidlake, Henry (c.1527-1604). Elder surviving son of Thomas Bidlake (c.1461-1531) and his second wife Katherine, daughter of Thomas Hadde of Canterbury (Kent). After the death of his father when he was aged four, the Crown granted his wardship to Sir George Rolle, 'who most honestly brought him up among his sons at school and in his house fifteen years or thereabout' and then granted his wardship to Roger Denys of Lodsworth (Sussex), who married him to his daughter. He was churchwarden of Bridestow in 1596. He married 1st, c.1546, Anne, daughter of Roger Denys (d. 1550) of Lodsworth, and 2nd, Jane, widow of Richard Denys, and had issue including:

(1.1) John Bidlake (c.1547-1625) (q.v.);
(1.2) A daughter; married Robert Stokes (fl. 1604);
(1.3) Thomasine Bidlake (d. 1621); married William Langsford (d. 1603) of Bratton Clovelly (Devon), and had issue at least one son and one daughter; died 13 April 1621.

He lived at Broadwoodwidger (Devon) from the time of his marriage until his mother gave him possession of Great Bidlake in 1555. He altered and improved the house and reconstructed Bidlake Mill.

He died 20 April 1604 and was buried at Bridestowe; his will was proved at Totnes (Devon), 1 May 1604. His first wife's date of death is unknown. His second wife's date of death is unknown.

Bidlake, John (c.1547-1625). Only recorded son of Henry Bidlake (c.1527-1604) and his wife Anne, daughter of Roger Denys of Lodsworth (Sussex), born about 1547. He left short autobiographical notes about himself and his family. He married, c.1566, Elizabeth, daughter of Roger Langsford of Germansweek, and had issue including:

(1) William Bidlake (c.1570-1625) (q.v.);
(2) John Bidlake (fl. 1627), of Germansweek; married Mary, daughter of Oliver Denham, and had issue one daughter;
(3) Grace Bidlake; married John Davy (b. 1585?), attorney, of Sanford by Crediton (Devon), and had issue at least three sons and five daughters.

He lived at Germansweek. He inherited Great Bidlake from his father in 1604 but never lived there, giving it to his elder son on his marriage in 1610.

He died after 27 May 1625 and his will was proved in 1626. His wife's date of death is unknown.

Bidlake, William (c.1570-1625). Elder son of John Bidlake (c.1547-1625) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Roger Langsford of Germansweek, born about 1570. His wife was evidently quick to detect a slight and highly litigious, and she picked fights with the rector of Bridestowe and the neighbouring Ebsworthy family, who had been in disputes with the Bidlakes before. He married, 1610 (settlement 20 April), Agnes (d. 1651), daughter of Richard Sture of Morley (Devon), and had issue:

(1) Henry Bidlake (1612-59) (q.v.)
(2) Anna Bidlake (b. c.1614); married John Taverner; living in 1652;
(3) Thomas Bidlake (b. 1619); died young; living in 1625;
(4) William Bidlake, born after 1620; married, 27 July 1658 at Germansweek, Tabitha Rundle (d. 1671), and had issue five sons and four daughters.

His father settled Great Bidlake on him in 1610, and his widow retained it until 1641. She then moved to south Devon, where she is said to have indulged in more costly law suits.

He died in the lifetime of his father and was buried 2 May 1625; administration of his goods was granted to his widow, 23 May 1625, and an inquisition post mortem was held on 24 August 1627. His widow died in 1651; administration of her goods was granted to her daughter, 22 January 1651/2.

Bidlake, Henry (1612-59). Eldest son of William Bidlake (c.1570-1625) and his wife Agnes, daughter of Richard Sture of Morley (Devon), born 1612. His wardship was first granted to Sir Thomas Wise of Sydenham House (Devon), but was bought back by his mother who was reluctant to lose control of her son and the estate. A zealous Royalist in the Civil War, in 1642 he joined Sir Ralph Hopton and Edmund Fortescue who were mustering men at Modbury (Devon), but the event was surprised by a party of Parliamentarian dragoons who arrested many men, including Henry Bidlake, who was taken to London and imprisoned for treason, although he seems to have merely been fined and released. He rejoined the Royalist army (Capt. of Horse, 1643 in Sir Thomas Hele's regiment), and was probably present at the Battle of Sourton Down in April that year, after which the defeated Royalists withdrew to Bridestowe. In 1645-46 he was one of the defenders of Pendennis Castle (Cornw.), where he was among the starving survivors who eventually accepted honourable terms of surrender. His estates were sequestrated and he was fined three times the annual value of the estate. Because he seems already to have been in debt before the start of the Civil War he was unable to pay, and he was obliged to borrow widely from friends and neighbours. His mother-in-law, Philippa Kelly, repaid some of these creditors, in return for which Bidlake signed over to her all his goods and chattels except his clothes. He later sold some land, raising enough to finally pay off the fines and accrued interest and recover his property in 1654. Churchwarden of Bridestowe, 1659, He married, 1633, Philippa (c.1614-1701), daughter of William Kelly of Kelly, and had issue:

(1) William Bidlake (1639-70) (q.v.);
(2) Henry Bidlake (fl. 1663); living, unmarried, in 1663;
(3) Charles Bidlake (d. 1705); solicitor in Crediton (Devon); married and had issue two sons; buried at Crediton, 12 November 1705; will proved at Exeter, 1706;
(4) Margery Bidlake (d. 1663); died unmarried, 1663; will proved at Exeter, 19 January 1663/4;
(5) Philippa Bidlake (d. 1706); married, by 1660, Peter Manaton (1640-1708) of Manaton (Devon), son of Sampson Manaton (d. 1657), and had issue three sons and five daughters; buried at Stoke Climsland (Cornw.), 15 February 1705/6;
(6) Elizabeth Bidlake (fl. 1663); living, unmarried, in 1663;
(7) Mary Bidlake (fl. 1663); living, unmarried, in 1663.

He inherited Great Bidlake from his father in 1625 and came of age in 1633. After his death his widow remained in occupation of the house until 1697, when she ceded most of the property to her grandson, Henry Bidlake (c.1668-1718).

He died in 1659; his will was proved 31 December 1659. His widow was buried at Bridestowe, 7 March 1700/1.

Bidlake, William (1639-70). Eldest son of Henry Bidlake (1612-59) and his wife Philippa, daughter of William Kelly of Kelly, said to have been born 2 September and baptised 29 September 1639. He was in straightened circumstances because of the family's role in the Civil War, and in an attempt to repair the situation he married and heiress, but her father outlived him and so he never came into possession of her fortune, which passed instead to her second husband. He married, 1661 (settlement 20 July), Elizabeth (c.1637-82), only child of Anthony Furlong (d. 1690) of Carbeel, Antony (Cornw.), and had issue:

(1) Henry Bidlake (c.1664-1718) (q.v.).
(2) Thomas Bidlake (c.1669-88?), born about 1670; apprenticed to a wine importer; was injured in 1688 when a ship he was aboard blew up and sank in Plymouth harbour; he died unmarried soon afterwards;

He inherited Great Bidlake from his father in 1659, but his mother remained in occupation.

He was buried 22 November 1670. His widow married 2nd, 1677, Roger Collings, and had further issue one son; she was buried at Antony, 30 September 1682.

Bidlake, Henry (c.1664-1718). Elder son of William Bidlake (1639-70) and his wife Elizabeth, only child of Anthony Furlong of Carbeel, Antony (Cornw.), born about 1664. After his mother's remarriage, he and his brother were placed in the care of their grandfather, Anthony Furlong (d. 1690). He married 1st, 12 February 1693/4 at Shillingford (Devon), Mary (d. 1706), daughter of Edward Greenwood and widow of Edward Kneeboone, and 2nd, 8 February 1710 at Throwley (Devon), Anne (d. 1755), daughter of Rev. Edward Seddon, rector of Throwley, and had issue:

(1.1) Agnes Bidlake (c.1694-1747), said to have been born in 1694; married, 1 June 1719 at Launceston (Cornw.), Richard Beare of Sourton; died without issue and was buried at Bridestowe, 8 April 1747;
(1.2) Mary Anne Bidlake (b. 1698), baptised at Bradstone (Devon), 21 March 1697/8; married, 16 October 1719 at Stoke Climsland (Cornw.), William Warne of Bridestowe; died without issue;
(2.1) Anne Bidlake (1712-38?), baptised at Bridestowe, 18 December 1712; married, 1738, John Herring of Langstone; died without issue and was perhaps the woman of this name buried at Newton St Cyres (Devon), 8 December 1738;
(2.2) Elizabeth Bidlake (1714-1802) (q.v.);
(2.3) William Bidlake (1716-18), baptised at Bridestowe, 17 April 1716; died young and was buried at Bridestowe, 24 October 1718;
(2.4) Philippa Bidlake (1717-92), baptised at Bridestowe, 18 August 1717; lived at Great Bidlake with her widowed mother and later with a companion who had been her pauper apprentice; died unmarried and was buried at Bridestowe, 19 July 1792.

He inherited Great Bidlake from his father in 1670 and came of age about 1685, but his grandmother remained in occupation of the house until 1697.

He was buried at Bridestowe, 14 February 1717/8; his will was proved at Exeter in 1718. His first wife was buried at Bridestowe, 14 July 1706. His widow was buried at Bridestowe, 15 July 1755.

Bidlake, Elizabeth (1714-1802). Second daughter of Henry Bidlake (c.1664-1718) and his second wife, Ann, daughter of Rev. Edward Seddon, rector of Throwley, baptised 9 March 1713/4. She married, 14 July 1741 at Bridestowe, John Hiern (c.1720-90) of Great Torrington (Devon), attorney, and had issue:

(1) Mary Hiern (1746-1835), baptised at Great Torrington, 21 May 1746; married, 7 May 1774 at Great Torrington, Col. Thomas Stafford Wollocombe (1742-1814) of Lifton (Devon), and had issue three sons (from whom descended the later owners of Great Bidlake) and three daughters; died 8 April and was buried at Bridestowe, 15 April 1835; will proved at Exeter, 1835;
(2) Elizabeth Hiern (1747-85?), probably the person of this name baptised at Langtree, 10 September 1747; living in 1766 when she was named as an executor of her father's will, but perhaps died in his lifetime as three Elizabeth Hearns were buried at Langtree between 1779 and 1785;
(3) James Hiern (1753-79), baptised at Langtree, 15 March 1753; died unmarried and was buried at Langtree, 22 January 1779;
(4) Bidlake Hiern (1755-1810), baptised at Great Torrington, 17 September 1755; married, 13 August 1798 at Great Torrington, Rev. Richard Slade (1767-1823), curate of Gt Torrington, 1791-98 and vicar of Thornbury (Glos), 1798-1823, son of Rev. Richard Slade of Westwell (Oxon), but had no issue; died 14 August and was buried in the chancel at Thornbury, 18 August 1810;
(5) Anne Hiern (b. 1756; fl. 1790), baptised at Langtree (Devon), 4 March 1756; living in 1790, when she was an executor of her father's will;
(6) Frances Hiern (1759-64), baptised at Langtree, 17 April 1759; died young and was buried at Langtree, 7 March 1764;
(7) Thomas Hiern (b. & d. 1767), baptised at Langtree, 11 November 1767; died in infancy and was buried at Langtree, 1 December 1767.

She and her sisters inherited Great Bidlake jointly from her father in 1718, but she was the only one to leave issue, and the estate therefore passed to her daughter's husband, Col. Wollocombe, and his descendants.

She was buried at Great Torrington, 7 July 1802. Her husband was buried at Great Torrington, 4 August 1790; his will was proved in 1791.