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Not to be confused with Heanton Satchville, Huish

The mansion of Heanton Satchville in the parish of Petrockstowe, Devon, has today been obliterated almost without a trace, but was at one time "one of the most imposing houses ever to exist in Devon" The research of the Devon historian Rosemary Lauder brought this house "almost completely erased from memory" which has "for long years remained unknown" back into prominence in the 2005 second edition of her book "Vanished Houses of North Devon". The Hearth Tax return of 1674 recorded 26 hearths for the house, making it the second largest house in Devon after Werrington. The house is not to be confused with the 18th-century house named after it in the nearby parish of Huish, the seat of Lord Clinton.

Descent of the manor

The manor of "Hantone" is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, which records the tenant in 1066 as having been Edwin, and in 1086 Ralph of Byuyere, who held it from Baldwin the Sheriff. The manor of Heanton Satchville had been held by the Yeo family from at least 1359 when William Yeo was recorded as Sheriff of Devon. The family of Yeo held the manor by subinfeudation under the Courtenays, Earls of Devon. Robert Yeo (d.1530) died seized of Heanton Satchville which he held from Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter (d.1539) as of his honour of Okehampton. In 1570 Margaret Yeo, the sole heiress of Robert Yeo by his wife Mary Fortescue (daughter of Bartholomew Fortescue of Filleigh) married Henry Rolle (d.1625), the 3rd or 4th son of George Rolle (d.1552) of Stevenstone manor in the parish of St Giles in the Wood, MP for Barnstaple. Thus the manor passed to the Rolles, which family became the largest landholder in Devon, and is now represented by Baron Clinton.

The senior family line descended from Henry Rolle of Heanton Satchville ended with the heiress Margaret Rolle, suo jure 15th Baroness Clinton (1709-1781), 5th in descent from Henry Rolle and daughter and sole heiress of Samuel Rolle (1646–1719). She was married aged fifteen to Robert Walpole, 2nd Earl of Orford (d.1751), son of Robert Walpole (d.1745) the first prime minister. She thenceforth resided at Houghton Hall, the grander Walpole residence in Norfolk, and after having left her husband went to live on the Continent. The scale of the wealth of Samuel Rolle of Heanton Satchville is indicated by the following peppercorn lease dated 1704 to feoffees of the marriage settlement of his second wife Margaret Tuckfield:

"Lease for a year:
1 Samuel Rolle of Heanton Satchville, Devon
2 William Davie of Creedy, Devon, Margaret Tuckfield of Raddon Court, Devon, Roger Tuckfield of Raddon Court, Devon and John Tuckfield of Exeter, Devon

Property (1 to 2): manor, rectory and hundred of Puddletown, including Druce and Willoughbys farms; manors of West Anstey and Town, Irnall, Cotleigh, Culbeer in Offwell, Bradwell in West Down and Ilfracombe, Heanton Satchville with the Barton farm and Hall Moor, Hele Territt alias Flemings Hele, and a tenement called Cuddimors, manor and advowson of Petrockstow, manor of Broom Park Yeate , manor and advowson of West Putford, manor of Buckish, manor of Nuton , manor of Hartleigh , manor of Sheepwash, manor of Newcourt , manor of Gortleigh , manor of Merton, manor of Shebbear with property in Langtree, manor of Welcombe, and properties in Ashwater, Ringsash , Great Torrington, Sheepwash, Shebbear, Langtree, Buckland Filleigh, Petrockstow, Peters Marland, West Putford, East Putford, Hartland, Woolfardisworthy, Highhampton, Hatherleigh, Jacobstowe, West Down, Ilfracombe, West Anstey, Cotleigh, Culbeer , Monkton, Offwell, Combe Raleigh, Bere Alston, Damierton , and Merton, all in Devon; manors of Norton Rolle, Marhamchurch, manor and borough of Callington, manors of Fursden, Nethercott, Trethavie, manor and rectory of Moorewinstow, properties in Maker, Millbrook, St John, Anthony, Sheviock, Calstock, St Neot, Garrans, Liskeard, Menheniot, St Cleer, Callington, South Hill, St Dominick, Tintagel, Morwenstow, Week St Mary and St Stephen's, and the manor of Barton and Inswork in Millbrook, Maker, St John and Anthony, all in Cornwall.Consideration: 5 shillings".

Her only son was George Walpole, 3rd Earl of Orford (d.1791) who died without progeny and never visited his Devon seat, according to Swete. The manor was then inherited in tail-male by his cousin Robert George William Trefusis(1764–1797), who successfully claimed the title 17th Baron Clinton in 1794. His inheritance was due to his great-great-grandfather Francis Trefusis of the manor of Trefusis, Mylor, near Falmouth, in Cornwall having married in 1672 Bridget Rolle (1648–1721), Margaret Rolle's aunt and the daughter of Robert Rolle (d.1660) by his wife Lady Arabella Clinton. Only four years after having inherited the Walpole former Rolle lands, in 1795 the mansion house of Heanton Satchville was destroyed by fire, and two years later in 1797 the 17th Baron died, leaving his son and heir Robert Cotton St John Trefusis, 18th Baron Clinton (1787–1832) a minor aged ten. The house was never rebuilt. The Earl of Orford's heir general was George Cholmondeley, 4th Earl of Cholmondeley (1749–1827), later 1st Marquess, who launched a legal suit against the young Robert Trefusis for possessiion of the former Rolle estates. Although the legal case took nine years to resolve, it was decided in favour of Baron Clinton, and the tail-male was deemed enforceable. Some time after having reached his majority, in 1812 the 18th Baron purchased the contiguous manor of Huish to the east together with its capital mansion Innes House, and made it the new family seat, having renamed it Heanton Satchville. Samuel Lysons wrote in 1822: "Heanton Sachville, which was some time a seat of the Rolles, and afterwards of the Earls of Orford, was burnt down several years ago. A farm-house has been fitted up out of the ruins. The deer-park is still kept up". The only remnants of the original mansion is the stable block, now the site of a modern farmhouse called Heanton Barton. A large modern tractor shed occupies the flat site of the former mansion house. Plans of Old Heanton Satchville, house, gardens and park exist within the Cholmondeley Archives at Houghton Hall, under ref. J/7-8 and J/9-10

Description by Swete in 1789

The mansion was described by Rev. John Swete (d.1821) in 1789:

"Heanton...a vast pile built at different periods having a date of 1639 engraved in a tablet of moorstone which is certainly from the architecture not the oldest but simply ascertaining the time in which the portal over which it has been placed was erected - from the figure of the house, which wears the form of the letter E in its front the period of erection is possibly determined...on the southern side of the house is a most noble terrace of considerable width and in length 130 paces which, with the bowling green and the walks around are kept in most excellent order, and are the finest of the kind that I have ever met with. On the parapet walls, the mullions and the flat pavement, all of which are moorstone, I observed that a white moss had so encroached as nearly to hide the superficies...All that is seen from the terrace of any note are the adjoining oak trees which are generally of great height and wonderful magnitude, particularly a clump of 5 or 6 close to the house..."

Furthermore he also states that from the park there are "several pleasing views...where through the trunks of an old grove several churches and the house of Sir James Innes" could be seen. The house he refers to was Innes House in the parish of Huish to the east, renamed "Heanton Satchville" and rebuilt in 1935 by Baron Clinton after a fire.

Rubens painting rescued

Historical descriptions of Heanton Satchville are rare, and Swete's account includes an account of the fate of a Rubens painting in the house. He reported in his journal of 1797 that a painting by Rubens had been purchased "abroad" by Mr Trefusis, (i.e. Robert Cotton Trefusis (1742–1778), father of Robert George William Trefusis, 17th Baron Clinton (1764–1797)), and that his son Baron Clinton, who had inherited Heanton Satchville from his cousin the Earl of Orford in 1791 and brought the painting there from Trefusis Manor near Falmouth, had himself rescued it from a devastating fire at his residence of Heanton Satchville. He had at some time been offered the huge sum of 1,500 guineas to sell it but had refused. Whilst still homeless he had loaned it for safekeeping to his neighbour John Inglett Fortescue Esq., at Buckland Filleigh, and it was displayed in the guest bedroom when Rev. Swete stayed the night. Swete wrote of it as follows: "At night as he introduced me to my bedchamber I observed what I thought a remarkable fine painting standing against the wall, and the next morning about six, the sun shining in at the windows, I drew back the curtains of the bed and contemplated it with admiration for at least an hour. The subject was taken from the New Testament, and was the compulsion of Simon to bear the Cross. The figures were five and the expression of the several countenances, the accuracy of the drawing and in particular the stile of colouring gave conviction to my mind that the master was Rubens. When I met Mr Fortescue at Breakfast I found that I was right in my conjecture... Swete also reported that in the same fire Mr Fortescue had lost a much valued family portrait of his ancestor Sir John Fortescue (c. 1531-1607), Lord Chancellor, which he had sent to Heanton Satchville to be restored by Lord Clinton's picture restorer. He calls this Sir John Fortescue "Lord High Chancellor in the time of Henry VI", but is mistaken in not having written "in the time of Queen Elizabeth", although another Sir John Fortescue (c. 1394-c. 1480), another eminent lawyer, lived during the reign of Henry VI, but did not rise to become Lord Chancellor.

Sources

• Lauder, Rosemary, Vanished Houses of North Devon, Tiverton, 2005, Heanton Satchville, pp. 49–53

References

1. Lauder, Rosemary, Vanished Houses of North Devon, 2005, p.49
2. Lauder, 2005, p.49
3. Lauder, 2005, p.3
4. Lauder (2005), pp. 49–50.
5. http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SS5311/heanton-satchville/
6. Dorset Archives D/PUD/A3/1
7. Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, p.69
8. Lysons, Magna Britannia
9. Lauder, Rosemary, Vanished Houses of North Devon, 2005, pp.49-53
10. Cholmondeley Archives
11. Gray, Todd & Rowe, Margery (Eds.), Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of the Reverend John Swete, 1789-1800, vol.3, Tiverton, 1999, p.113

50°52′36″N 4°07′54″W / 50.8766°N 4.1317°W / 50.8766; -4.1317

• Country houses in Devon
• Petrockstowe