Peamore, Exminster

Peamore House, Exminster

Peamore, view from south-east, watercolour dated June 1794 by Rev. John Swete (d.1821)

Peamore (anciently Pevmere, Peanmore, Peamont,^[1] etc.) is an historic estate in the parish of Exminster, Devon, situated near to the City of Exeter. In 1810 Peamore House was described as "one of the most pleasant seats in the neighbourhood of Exeter".^[2] The house was remodelled in the early 19th century and is now a grade II listed building.^[3]

Descent

de Pomeroy

The Domesday Book of 1086 records PEVMERE as the 12th of the 58 holdings of Ralph de Pomeroy, first feudal baron of Berry Pomeroy, Devon,^[4] one of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. His tenant was Roger FitzPayne.^[5] It later passed to the feudal barony of Lancaster.^[6]

Bolhaye

According to Pole (d.1635), Peanmore in the parish of Exminster was the inheritance of the family of Bolhay, of Blackborough Bolhay. James de Bolhay was the last in the male line, whose daughter and heiress Amisia Bolhay was the wife of Sir John Cobham.^[7]

Cobham

Sir John Cobham (d.1335)^[8] inherited Blackborough^[9] and Peamore upon his marriage to Amisia Bolhay, heiress of Peamore. it remained in the Cobham family for several generations until the male line failed. Elizabeth Cobham was the heiress of Peamore, but died without progeny.^[10]

Bonville

The heirs general of Elizabeth Cobham were Lord Hungerford, Hill of Spaxton and Bampfield of Poltimore. However the succession was claimed by the magnate Sir William Bonville (c.1392/3-1461) (later 1st Baron Bonville) of Shute, who "carried away this and the greatest part of the land".^[11]

Grey

Upon the attainder of Bonville's eventual heir Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk (1517-1554), all his estates escheated to the crown. Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for 9 days was his eldest daughter.

Tothill

Arms of Tothill of Peamore in the parish of Exminster, Devon and of the City of Exeter: Azure, on a bend argent cotised or a lion passant sable^[12]

• Jeffrey Tothill purchased the estate from the crown. He was Recorder of Exeter.^[13] He was the eldest son of William Tothill, an Alderman of the City of Exeter,^[14] by his wife Elizabeth Mathew, a daughter of Jeoffry Mathew, possibly of the ancient Welsh Mathew family, lords of Llandaff. One of his sisters, namely Elizabeth Tothill, married Thomas Stukley (c.1525-1578), the third son of Sir Hugh Stukley (1496-1559) of Affeton, in the parish of West Worlington in Devon, head of an ancient gentry family, a Knight of the Body to King Henry VIII and Sheriff of Devon in 1545.^[15][16] He married twice:
  • Firstly to Joane Dillon,^[17] 2nd daughter of Robert Dillon of Chimwell, lord of the manor of Bratton Fleming,^[18] North Devon, by his wife Isabel Fortescue (16th century),^[19] by whom he had three sons: Henry, his eldest son and heir, Robert and Eleys.
  • Secondly in 1569 he married Elizabeth Fortescue, daughter of Bartholomew Fortescue (d.1557) of Filleigh, Devon and widow of Lewis Hatch of Aller, South Molton.^[20] Without progeny.
• Henry Tothill (1562-1640) (eldest son by father's 1st wife), Sheriff of Devon in 1623.^[21] He married Mary Sparke (d.1647), daughter and heiress of Nicholas Sparke of Sowton, Devon.^[22] He was in residence at Peamore in the time of Pole (d.1635). Beneath the south window of St Martin's Church, Exminster is a coffin shaped stone with the inscription: Here lyeth the Body of Henry Tothill of Peamore Esq: who dyed the 9th day of December Ano 1640, ætatis suæ 78. Mary the only wife of ye aforesaid Henry and sole Daughter and Heire of Nicholas Sparke, Gent: lieth also here.^[23] He left two daughters as his co-heiresses:
  • Johanna Tothill (eldest daughter), wife of Robert Northleigh (1582-1638) of Matford, Alphington.^[24] His monument survives in Alphington Church.

Monument to Grace Tothill (1605-1623), St Martin's Church, Exminster. 1794 watercolour by Rev. John Swete (d.1821)

• • Grace Tothill (1605-1623), wife of her second cousin William Tothill, grandson of John Tothill, a younger brother to her grandfather Geffery Tothill of Peamore. She died aged 18 having produced three children, a son Henry (living in 1640) and daughters Elizabeth and Ann. Grace Tothill's monument with her semi-recumbent effigy survives in St Martin's Church, Exminster,^[25][26] inscribed as follows:^[27]

"This monument is erected to the memorye of Grace, Wife of William Tothill of the Middle Temple Esq., who havinge issue Henry, dyed the 24th day of Februarye 1623 in the 18th yere of Her age and lyeth buried in this Ile, she being the daughter of Henry Tothill of Peamount then Sherife of Devon and Mary his wife".

"If Grace coulde length of dayes thee give,

Or Vertue coulde have made thee live,

If Goodnesse coulde thee heere have kept,

Or tears of friendes which for thee wept,

Then had'st thou lived amongst us heere,

To whom thy vertues made thee deere.

But thou a Sainte did'st Heaven aspire,

Whilst heere on earthe wee thee admire.

Then rest deere Corps in Mantle Clay,

Till Christ thee raise the latter day.

Thy years were fewe - thy glasse being runn,

When death did ende - thy lyfe begunn."

Beneath is a recumbent figure, in alabaster, of a female, the elbow resting on a pillow, the hand supporting the head. She wears ruff, mantle open at the front, showing the tight-fitting bodice, and long full skirt.^[28] Beneath the figure are the lines:—

"Speake statue tell her story,

Its Grace inherits Glory."

Northleigh

Arms of Northleigh of Northleigh in the parish of Inwardleigh, Devon: Argent, a chevron sable between three roses gules^[29]

• Robert Northleigh of Matford (born 1581), married Johanna Tothill, heiress of Peamore.^[30] His family, seated at Matford in the parish of Alphington, near Exeter, was a junior branch of the ancient Northleigh family of Northleigh in the parish of Inwardleigh, near Okehampton, Devon.^[31][32] The Northleigh family thereupon made Peamore their seat and abandoned their previous residence of Matford. In 1799 the Devon topographer Rev. John Swete (d.1821) visited the area and noted in his journal that the ancient mansion of "Matford Dinham" had been an ancient seat of the Dinhams and Northleighs, and "a century ago of respectability among the mansions in the neighbourhood, is now on the verge of ruin and desolation, by an anticlimax it has pass'd from the hands of the gentleman to those of the farmer and is now become the habitation of a family or two of labourers, dilapidated and overspred with huge volumes of ivy, it will perhaps soon become untenantable".^[33]
• Henry Northleigh (born 1612) (eldest son and heir), who in 1639 married Lettice Yarde, daughter of Edward Yarde of Bradley, Devon.^[34]
• Henry Northleigh (1643-1694) (2nd and eldest surviving son and heir) of Peamore House, thrice MP for Okehampton, Devon. He married Susanna Sparke, daughter of John Sparke, dyer, of Exeter.^[35] She was the granddaughter of Stephen Toller, haberdasher of Exeter, who in 1673 purchased "Crediton Parks", the former park of the Bishops of Exeter, from Sir John Chichester of Hall, Bishop's Tawton. Susanna devised Crediton Parks to her daughter Susanna Northleigh, who devised it to her nephew John Tuckfield (c.1719-1767) of Little Fulford, MP for Exeter, eldest son of her sister Elizabeth Northleigh by her husband Roger Tuckfield of London, Merchant.^[36]
• Stephen Northleigh (c.1692-?1731) of Peamore (son), MP for Totnes (1713-1722), which seat he obtained on the interest of his cousins the Yarde family.^[37] He married Margaret Davie daughter of Sir William Davie, 4th Baronet (1662-1707), of Creedy House in the parish of Sandford, Devon.^[38] He died without male progeny, leaving his daughter Mary Northleigh as heiress.

Hippisley-Coxe

• John Hippisley Coxe (1715-1769) of Ston Easton, Somerset, who in 1739 married Mary Northleigh (d.1773),^[39] heiress of Peamore.^[40] He was the builder of the Palladian mansion Ston Easton Park in Somerset.
• Henry Hippisley Coxe (1748-1795) (3rd son) of Ston Easton Park, Somerset, MP for Somerset (1792-5), who died without progeny. The Devon topographer Rev. John Swete (d.1821) visited the area in 1789 and made a sketch of Peamore, from which he made a watercolour painting in 1794. In 1789 he noted in his journal that it was then the residence of Sam Strode, Esquire^[41] (d.29 August 1795),^[42] lord of the manor and hundred of Crediton in 1790,^[43] who had purchased a life interest lease from Henry Hippisley Coxe. In 1789 Swete noted concerning Peamore:^[44]

"The foregoing sketch was taken near the road leading into the house just within the gate of entrance in the front of a noble and magnificent grove of elms. The building is here seen in its east and south aspect and though low carries with it a venerable look. But the chief beauty of Peamore lies in the undulating form of its grounds, rising and falling in the regular alternation of hills and dales; in its woods, groves and trees and in a quarry which surrounded by a thicket of high towering oaks, beech, etc., is one of the grandest and most romantic objects in the country".

Swete again visited the area in 1800 and noted in his journal that "Mr Coxe of Peamore" had planted a "crest of firs" on top of a local conical hill owned by him, a "conspicuous knoll of a conical shape", in the parish of Exminster or Alphington, which he compared to a similarly shaped hill at Killerton.^[45] Shortly thereafter "H.H. Coxe" sold Peamore to Samuel Kekewich (d.1822), who was the owner in 1810.^[46]

Kekewich

• Samuel Kekewich (d.1822) DCL, a barrister, Sheriff of Devon in 1805.^[47] He purchased Peamore from "H.H. Coxe".^[48] In the early 1800s the house was remodelled.^[49] He was the eldest son of William Kekewich of Bowden House, Ashprington, Devon, a member of Royal Exchange Assurance. The Kekewich family was originally from Lancashire then moved to Shropshire and in the 16th century was seated at Catchfrench in Cornwall. George Kekewich (1530-1582) of Catchfrench was Sheriff of Cornwall in 1576 and MP for Salisbury in March 1553.^[50] The owner in 1937 was his descendant Lewis Pendarves Kekewich (b.1859), JP. The arms of Kekewich are: Argent, two lions passant guardant in bend sable between two bendlets gules.^[51]

Present day

Peamore House was used as a country hotel in 1952. The house is currently divided into 4 residences.>

Further reading

• Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, pp. 626–7, Peamore House

References

1. Risdon, p.118
2. Risdon, 1810 Additions, p.374
3. Listed building text
4. Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford, 1960, p.106
5. Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, Part 1, 34,12
6. Thorn & Thorn, Part 2 (notes), 34,12
7. Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.253
8. http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:John_Cobham_%286%29
9. Pole, p.195
10. Pole, p.253
11. Pole, pp.253, 195
12. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.729, pedigree of Tothill of Peamore; Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.504, arms of Tothill of Peamore, but given with bend or cotised argent. The monument to Grace Tothill (d.1623) in St Martin's Church, Exminster (possibly resored/repainted) shows no bend at all, the lion being shown in bend on a field azure cotised or
13. Vivian, p.729, pedigree of Tothill
14. Vivian, p.729, pedigree of Tothill
15. Stucley, Sir Dennis, 5th Baronet, "A Devon Parish Lost, A new Home Discovered", Presidential Address published in Transactions of the Devonshire Association, no. 108, 1976, pp.1-11
16. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.721
17. Risdon, p.118
18. Risdon, p.329
19. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.284, pedigree of Dillon
20. Vivian, p.456, pedigree of Hatch
21. Risdon, 1810 edition, list of Sheriffs; Inscription on monument to daughter Grace Tothill in Exminster Church
22. Vivian, p.729; Risdon, p.118
23. Stabb, John, Some Old Devon Churches, pp.97-108
24. Monument in Alphington Church; Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.584, pedigree of Northleigh of Northleigh
25. Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.442. Image, Church Monuments Society
26. Description and watercolour circa 1794 see: Gray, Todd & Rowe, Margery (Eds.), Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of The Reverend John Swete, 1789-1800, 4 vols., Tiverton, 1999, vol.2, pp.74-5
27. Text transcribed by Swete; also (with variations in spelling, etc.) by Stabb, John, Some Old Devon Churches, pp.97-108
28. Stabb, John, Some Old Devon Churches, pp.97-108
29. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.584
30. Vivian, 1895, p.584
31. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.584, pedigree of Northleigh of Northleigh
32. Risdon, p.256, Inwardleigh; Pole, p.354, Inwardleigh
33. Gray, Todd & Rowe, Margery (Eds.), Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of The Reverend John Swete, 1789-1800, 4 vols., Tiverton, 1999, Vol.4, pp.160-1
34. Vivian, 1895, p.584
35. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/northleigh-henry-1643-94
36. Oliver, Rev. George, History of Exeter, Exeter, 1821, pp.87-8, footnote
37. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/northleigh-stephen-1692-1731
38. Vivian, 1895, p.270, pedigree of Davie
39. Swete, Vol.1, p.55
40. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, p.1119, pedigree of Hippisley of Ston Easton
41. Swete, Vol.1, p.56
42. Date of death per The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 78, London, 1795, p.706
43. Lysons, Daniel & Lysons, Samuel, Magna Britannia, Vol.6, Devonshire, London, 1822, p.145
44. Swete, Vol.1, p.56
45. Gray, Todd & Rowe, Margery (Eds.), Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of The Reverend John Swete, 1789-1800, 4 vols., Tiverton, 1999, Vol.4, p.212
46. Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, p.374
47. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp.1276-7, pedigree of Kekewich of Peamore, p.1276
48. Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, p.374
49. Listed building text
50. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/kekewich-george-1530-82
51. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, pp.1276-7, pedigree of Kekewich of Peamore