Walter Yonge (1579–1649) of

Great House A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff. The term is used mainly historically, especially of properties at the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the late Victorian or ...

in the parish of Colyton in Devon, England, was a lawyer, merchant and diarist.

Origins

He was the eldest son and heir of John II Yonge (d. 1612) of Colyton by his wife Alice Stere. His grandfather was John I Yonge of

Axminster Axminster is a market town and civil parish on the eastern border of the county of Devon in England. It is from the county town of Exeter. The town is built on a hill overlooking the River Axe which heads towards the English Channel at Axmou ...

, Devon (who has been confused in Vivian (1895) with

John Young John Young may refer to: Academics * John Young (professor of Greek) (died 1820), Scottish professor of Greek at the University of Glasgow * John C. Young (college president) (1803–1857), American educator, pastor, and president of Centre Coll ...

(died 1589) of The Great House,

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, Gloucestershire, MP for

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

in 1555.) His great-grandfather was Walter I Yonge (fl. ''tempore'' Henry VII (1485–1509) & Henry VIII (1509–1547)) of Bossington, Berkshire (sic), who having been the first of his family to settle in Devonshire purchased several estates in that county, including: *Stuttecomb, in the parish of

Axmouth Axmouth is a village, civil parish and former manor in the East Devon district of Devon, England, near the mouth of the River Axe. The village itself is about inland, on the east bank of the Axe estuary. The parish extends along the estuary ...

, purchased during the reign of Henry VIII (1509–1547) from Sir

Peter Carew Sir Peter Carew (1514? – 27 November 1575) of Mohuns Ottery, Luppitt, Devon, was an English adventurer, who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England and took part in the Tudor conquest of Ireland. His biography was written by h ...

(c. 1514 – 1575) of

Mohuns Ottery Mohuns Ottery or Mohun's Ottery ( "moon's awtrey"),Gover, J.E.B., Mawer, A. & Stenton, F.M. (1931). ''The Place-Names of Devon''. English Place-Name Society. Vol viii. Part II. Cambridge University Press. p.642 is a house and historic manor in ...

, Devon. *Buckland Trill, in the parish of

, purchased from Sir Peter Carew. *Batteshorn, in the parish of

Honiton Honiton ( or ) is a market town and civil parish in East Devon, situated close to the River Otter, north east of Exeter in the county of Devon. Honiton has a population estimated at 11,822 (based on mid-year estimates for the two Honiton Ward ...

(one

moiety Moiety may refer to: Chemistry * Moiety (chemistry), a part or functional group of a molecule ** Moiety conservation, conservation of a subgroup in a chemical species Anthropology * Moiety (kinship), either of two groups into which a society is ...

), purchased from Sir

Amias Paulet Sir Amias Paulet (1532 – 26 September 1588) of Hinton St. George, Somerset, was an English diplomat, Governor of Jersey, and the gaoler for a period of Mary, Queen of Scots. Origins He was the son of Sir Hugh Paulet of Hinton St Georg ...

(1532–1588) of Hinton St. George, Somerset. *Cob Whimpell, in the parish of

Whimple Whimple is a village and civil parish in East Devon in the English county of Devon, approximately due east of the city of Exeter, and from the nearest small town, Ottery St Mary. It has a population of 1,642, recounted to 1,173 for the villa ...

, purchased from Sir

Career

Yonge was educated at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...

, and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

from

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

. In 1628 he was

Sheriff of Devon The High Sheriff of Devon is the Queen's representative for the County of Devon, a territory known as his/her bailiwick. Selected from three nominated people, they hold the office for one year. They have judicial, ceremonial and administrative f ...

. As a merchant he invested in the

Dorchester Company The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as th ...

, a joint-stock company promoting fishing and colonisation in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. He was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

, Devon, in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

from 1640, but did not sit after

Pride's Purge Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England. Despite defeat in the ...

in December 1648. From 1642 to 1648 he was one of the victuallers of the Navy.

Marriage and children

The Great House, South Street, Colyton - geograph

Yonge married Jane Periam, a daughter and co-heiress of Sir

John Peryam John Peryam (1541 – c. 1618), of Exeter, Devon, was elected four times as a Member of Parliament, for Barnstaple 1584, Bossiney 1586, Exeter 1589 and 1593. He served as Mayor of Exeter. He was the younger brother of Sir William Peryam (153 ...

(1541 – c. 1618) of

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

, Devon, MP four times (Barnstaple 1584, Bossiney 1586, Exeter 1589 and 1593) and

Mayor of Exeter This is a chronological list of the Mayors and Lord Mayors of the city of Exeter, England. The role of Mayor was granted the dignity and style of Lord Mayor by letters patent dated 1 May 2002 as the result of a competition to celebrate the Gol ...

, by his wife Elizabeth Hone, a daughter and co-heir of Robert Hone of Ottery. Jane's uncle was Sir

William Peryam Sir William Peryam (15349 October 1604) of Little Fulford, near Crediton in Devon, was an English judge who rose to the position of Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1593, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. Origins Peryam was born in E ...

(15349 October 1604) of

Little Fulford Little Fulford was an historic estate in the parishes of Shobrooke and Crediton, Devon. It briefly share ownership before 1700 with Great Fulford, in Dunsford, about to the south-west. The Elizabethan mansion house originally called Fulford ...

, near

Crediton Crediton is a town and civil parish in the Mid Devon district of Devon in England. It stands on the A377 Exeter to Barnstaple road at the junction with the A3072 road to Tiverton, about north west of Exeter and around from the M5 motorway ...

in Devon,

Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer The Chief Baron of the Exchequer was the first "baron" (meaning judge) of the English Exchequer of Pleas. "In the absence of both the Treasurer of the Exchequer or First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was he who pre ...

. By his wife he had two sons and one daughter as follows: *

Sir John Yonge, 1st Baronet Sir John Yonge, 1st Baronet (2 October 1603 – 26 August 1663) of Great House in the parish of Colyton in Devon, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1642 and 1660. Yonge was the son of Walter Yonge of C ...

(1603–1663), MP, of Colyton, eldest son and heir, who served alongside his father in the Long Parliament. *Walter Yonge (1608–1667) of Ford, 2nd son, a lawyer at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

. *Jane Young (1605–1666), died unmarried.Vivian, p. 840, Not to be confused with

Jane Yonge Jane Yonge is a New Zealand theatre director of Fijian and Chinese descent. Biography Yonge grew up in Auckland. Her father is Fijian and her mother was Chinese-Fijian. Yonge's mother died when she was 23 years old and Yonge travelled to China ...

(died 1652) (whose monument is in Musbury Church, Devon), daughter of "Sir John Younge of Stutcombe", Devon (Vivian, pp. 297, 840), wife of

Sir John Drake, 1st Baronet Sir John Drake, 1st Baronet (4 April 1625 – 6 July 1669) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1660. Drake was the son of Sir John Drake of Mount Drake and Ashe, and his wife Eleanor Boteler, daughter of John Boteler, 1 ...

(1619 – 7 July 1669) of

Ash, Musbury Ash in the parish of Musbury in the county of Devon is an historic estate, long the residence of the ancient Drake family, the heir of which remarkably was always called John, only one excepted, for ten generations. It was formerly believed to ...

Works

Yonge is now best remembered as an author: his well-known diaries (1604–1627 and 1642–1645) are valuable historical material, especially four volumes now in the British Library (Add MSS 18777–18780). These were published in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

in the 19th century by the

Camden Society The Camden Society was a text publication society founded in London in 1838 to publish early historical and literary materials, both unpublished manuscripts and new editions of rare printed books. It was named after the 16th-century antiquary an ...

. Full text on-line at archive.or

References

*D. Brunton & D. H. Pennington, ''Members of the Long Parliament'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
Yonge family
*''

Concise Dictionary of National Biography ''The Concise Dictionary of National Biography: From Earliest Times to 1985'' is a dictionary of biographies of people from the United Kingdom. It was published in three volumes by Oxford University Press in 1992.. The dictionary provides summa ...

'' (1930)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yonge, Walter 1579 births 1649 deaths Lay members of the Westminster Assembly English diarists 17th-century English merchants 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers People from East Devon District Lawyers from Devon Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Honiton Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Members of the Middle Temple High Sheriffs of Devon English MPs 1640–1648