Stevenstone - Wikipedia Stevenstone Coordinates: 50.9542°N 4.0983°W from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
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24/09/2017 Stevenstone - Wikipedia Stevenstone Coordinates: 50.9542°N 4.0983°W From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Stevenstone is a former manor within the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington, North Devon. It was the chief seat of the Rolle family, one of the most influential and wealthy of Devon families, from c. 1524 until 1907. The Rolle estates as disclosed by the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 (corrected by Bateman, 1883) comprised 55,592 acres producing an annual gross income of £47,170, and formed the largest estate in Devon, followed by the Duke of Bedford's estate centred on Tavistock comprising 22,607 Stevenstone House, built by Hon. Mark Rolle between with an annual gross value of nearly 1868 and 1872 to design of Charles Barry junior (died £46,000.[3] 1900). Now a largely demolished ruin. Surviving today is the Palladian library outbuilding, visible to the left, From the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to built by Lord Rolle's grandfather John Rolle (died the Reform Act of 1832 the county 1730). The contemporaneous orangery behind it also parliamentary representatives were chosen survives, both now the property of the Landmark Trust. Published in Morris, Rev. F.O. Picturesque Views of effectively from only ten great families, Seats of Noblemen & Gentlemen of Great Britain & mostly territorial magnates. The three most Ireland, London, 1880 dominant of these were the Bampfyldes of Poltimore House and North Molton, the Courtenays of Powderham Castle, and the Rolles of Stevenstone and Bicton.[4] The Rolles were not from the mediaeval aristocracy as were the Courtenays, but were descended from an able lawyer and administrator of the Tudor era, as were the Russells, later Earls and Dukes of Bedford. Both Russells and Rolles acquired much former monastic land in Devon following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Indeed, the Rolles were in the opinion of Hoskins (1954) "second only to the Russells in the extent of their monastic and other lands and in time were to The ivy-covered ruins of Stevenstone House in 2012. Hoskins surpass them".[5] described it in 1954 as "A villainously ugly house whose In 1669 Sir John Rolle (died 1706), KB of Stevenstone present dereliction need bring no had an annual income of £6,000 making him "one of the [1] [6] tears", and "An ugly ruin in a richest gentlemen in the country". He died in 1706 [2] [7] naked and devastated park". To seized of more than 40 manors in Devon. The family the left is the Palladian Library built several different houses on the same site known as Room and behind it the Orangery, Stevenstone House, the last Victorian version of which built c. 1715-30 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevenstone 1/12 24/09/2017 Stevenstone - Wikipedia was built between 1868 and 1872, but was demolished in two stages firstly by a reduction in size soon after 1912 and then after 1931 it was gradually demolished piecemeal for building materials. Contents 1 Descent of the manor 1.1 Rolle 1.1.1 Descent in Rolle family 2 Forms of Stevenstone House 3 Victorian re-build 4 Sale and demolition 4.1 Trefusis, Baron Clinton 4.2 Clemson 4.3 Piecemeal disposal 5 Stevenstone today 6 See also 7 References 8 Sources 9 Further reading Descent of the manor John Prince in his "Worthies of Devon" gives the descent of Stevenstone as follows, based on the work of the Devon topographer Tristram Risdon, himself born within the parish of St Giles, at Winscott House. The earliest recorded holder of the manor was Michael de Stephans, who granted it to Richard Basset, the father of Elias Basset, who granted it to Walter de la Lay, or Ley. His descendant John de Lay changed his name to John de Stephenston. The overlord who was then a later Elias Basset, lord of the manor of Beaupier in Wales, released all his interest in Stevenstone to John de Stevenstone. He was followed by another John, Walter and John de Stephenston. The latter left a daughter Elizabeth de Stephenston his sole heiress, who brought the manor by marriage to her husband Grant of Westlegh, near Bideford. Grant was himself also lacking in male progeny and left two daughters joint heiresses, one of whom married Monk of Potheridge, whilst the other married a member of the Moyle family, who received Stevenstone as his wife's share of the inheritance. He made it his chief residence, and Prince suggests, on the basis of Tristram Risdon's assertion, that his descendant Sir Walter Moyle, a Justice of the King's Bench in 1454, was born here. Rolle George Rolle (died 1552), MP, the founder of that family in Devon, purchased the estate not long before 1524.[9] He was probably born in Dorset, rose to prominence as a lawyer in London, and had as clients several monastic houses in Devon. One of his most prominent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevenstone 2/12 24/09/2017 Stevenstone - Wikipedia clients was Arthur Plantagenet, 1st Viscount Lisle (died 1542), whom he served as legal counsel until the latter's death. He served as MP for Barnstaple in 1542 and again in 1545.[10] The male descendants up to 1842 of George Rolle included about twenty Members of Parliament. In 1842 died the last of the male line, John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1750-1842), descended from George Rolle's second son George Rolle (died 1573) of the manor of Marrais in the parish of Week St Mary in Cornwall, which manor had been procured for him by his father who had obtained the wardship of Margaret of Marrais and bequeathed the same in his will to his son George, who became her husband. Arms of Stefenston as given by The descendants of George Rolle the patriarch's eldest son Tristram Risdon in his "Notebook" John Rolle (died 1570) failed in the male line in 1642 on (c. 1630): Sable, a chevron between the death of the infant John Rolle (1638-1642). three dexter hands clenched couped Stevenstone and several other manors which had by then at the wrist in each a purse (should been accumulated by purchase and inheritance from be flintstone or stone) argent. heiresses, passed eventually to Sir John Rolle (1626- Risdon was uncertain of the charge 1706), the grandson of George Rolle (died 1573) of and placed a question mark against Marrais. Some of the estates of the patriarch's fourth son the word "purse". These appear to Henry Rolle of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, also be canting arms, the act of a reverted to the line of George Rolle of Marais on the grasping hand suggests possession failure in the male line in 1747 on the death of Samuel and if the owner of the hand be Rolle of Hudscott, Chittlehampton. given the name "Steven" this suggests "Steven's stone". If the Descent in Rolle family spirit of rebuses be followed, the higher the absurdity of the device the more acceptable. George Rolle George Rolle (died 1552), MP. Purchased (died 1552), the 16th-century Stevenstone pre-1524. purchaser of the estate, adopted this John Rolle (1522–1570), eldest son, husband of charge as his crest, extended to a Margaret Ford (died 1570) commemorated by cubit arm vested, as can be seen on [11] monumental brass in St Giles Church. the Library Room at Stevenstone built by John Rolle Walter (died Sir Henry Rolle (1545-1625), eldest son, married 1779). John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle firstly Elizabeth Watts, daughter and heiress of (died 1842) changed the stone into a Roger Watts of Somerset, secondly a Fortescue, canting roll of parchment, as is daughter of John Fortescue (1525-1595) of shown in the stained glass window [12] Fallapit, East Allington by his wife Honor on the grand staircase at Bicton [13] Speccot (died 1606), whose monumental brasses House, and the monument of exist in East Allington Church.[14] His Exeter Samuel Rolle (1669–1735) of townhouse was the "Abbot's Lodge" (destroyed in Hudscott in Chittlehampton Church 1942 during World War II bombing), in Cathedral shows a baton. The badge of the Close within the precincts of Exeter Cathedral. He hunt class destroyer HMS made alterations to that house and added decorative Stevenstone named after the Rolle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevenstone 3/12 24/09/2017 Stevenstone - Wikipedia heraldic plaster escutcheons dated 1602, one of family's fox-hunt substituted in the which showed Rolle impaling Watts, of six quarters hand a hunting horn (1st & 6th Watts: Argent, on a fesse vert between three eagle's heads erased sable as many crosses sarcelly of the first, the arms of Sir John Watts (died 1616), Lord Mayor of London in 1606)[15] the other Rolle impaling Fortescue.[16] The house had been the townhouse of the Abbot of Buckfast Abbey, which Abbey and much of its lands, including the Abbot's Lodge, had been acquired in 1545 by the patriarch George Rolle (d.1552) following the Dissolution of the Monasteries.[17] It had been used by George Rolle as his townhouse, by the name of "Buckfast Place" and was the place of his death in 1552. In 1609 he purchased from William Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Effingham (1577–1615) several of the larger former holdings of Barnstaple Priory in Pilton and Bradiford, whose family had held the lands since the Dissolution of the Arms of Rolle: Or, on a fesse dancetté between three billets azure Monasteries.[18] [12] each charged with a lion rampant of Denys Rolle (1614–1638), grandson.