Sir Robert Bourchier Sherard Wrey, 11th Baronet DL JP (23 May 1855 – 16 January 1917) of Tawstock Court, North Devon, was a prominent member of the Devonshire gentry.

Early life

He was the son and heir of

Sir Henry Bourchier Toke Wrey, 10th Baronet Sir Henry Bourchier Toke Wrey, 10th Baronet DL JP (27 June 1829 – 10 March 1900) of Tawstock Court, North Devon. Early life He was the eldest son of the Rev. Sir Henry Bourchier Wrey, 9th Baronet, the Rector at Tawstock, and, his first wife ...

(1829-1900) and the former Marianne Sherard. Among his many siblings were younger brothers Philip Bourchier Sherard Wrey and Reverend Albany Bourchier Sherard Wrey.L. G. Pine, ''The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms'' (London, U.K.: Heraldry Today, 1972), page 250 His paternal grandparents were the Rev. Sir Henry Bourchier Wrey, 9th Baronet and, his first wife, the former Ellen Maria Toke (a daughter of Nicholas Roundell Toke). His maternal grandparents were Philip Castel Sherard, 9th Baron Sherard and the former Anne Weekes (a daughter of Nathaniel Weekes).

Career

He served in the Royal Navy, seeing action in the

1882 Anglo-Egyptian War The British conquest of Egypt (1882), also known as Anglo-Egyptian War (), occurred in 1882 between Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed ‘Urabi and the United Kingdom. It ended a nationalist uprising against the Khedive Tewfik Pasha. It ...

and with the Naval Brigade landed in the Third Anglo-Burmese War. He retired from the service with the rank of captain, and later served as honorary lieutenant-colonel of the

Royal North Devon Hussars The Royal North Devon Yeomanry was a Yeomanry regiment of the British Army. First raised in 1798, it participated in the Second Boer War and the First World War before being amalgamated with the Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry in 1920 to form the Royal ...

. In 1900, he succeeded his father in the baronetcy and the family estates. He was the last to live at Tawstock Court and "to keep house in the old manner" and moved to Corffe a nearby house on the estate, having let the Court.Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, p.156 In 1913, Sir Robert unsuccessfully laid claim to the barony of FitzWarin, petitioning the Crown that the abeyance should be terminated in his favor and that he should be summoned to the House of Lords as Lord FitzWarin.

Personal life

On 26 October 1905, Sir Robert was married to Jessie Maud Fraser, daughter of William Thomson Fraser and granddaughter of John Fraser, of

Mongewell Park Mongewell (first syllable rhymes with ''sponge'') is a village in the civil parish of Crowmarsh, about south of Wallingford in Oxfordshire. Mongewell is on the east bank of the Thames, linked with the west bank at Winterbrook by Winterbrook B ...

, Oxfordshire. He left no sons, only a daughter: * Rachel Wrey (1911–1991), wife of John Henry Peyto Verney, 20th Baron Willoughby de Broke (1896–1986). On his death in a nursing home in 1917 without sons, the title passed to his younger brother, Sir Philip Bourchier Sherard Wrey, 12th Baronet, who promptly in 1919 sold 2,500 acres of the estate for £67,000, leaving some 7,000 acres remaining. His widow later married Godfrey Heseltine, second son of

John Postle Heseltine John Postle Heseltine (6 January 1843 – 2 March 1929) was a painter and art collector who became a trustee of the National Gallery, London. Early life Heseltine was born on 6 January 1843 in Dilham, Norfolk. He was a son of Mary and Edwar ...

Descendants

Through his daughter Rachel, he was a grandfather of

David Verney, 21st Baron Willoughby de Broke Leopold David Verney, 21st Baron Willoughby de Broke, (born 14 September 1938) is a British hereditary peer and member of the House of Lords. Early life Leopold David Verney was born on 14 September 1938. The only son of John Verney, 20th Baron ...

(b. 1938)UKIP: People: Peers
/ref> and Hon. Susan Geraldine Verney (1942–2009).Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes.'' Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003. volume 2, page 1786.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrey, Robert Bourchier Sherard 1855 births 1917 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England Royal North Devon Yeomanry officers Royal Navy officers Royal Navy personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Burmese War