Kentisbeare is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Mid Devon Mid Devon is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Tiverton, Devon, Tiverton. The district was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the boroug ...

district of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, England. Its nearest town is Cullompton.

Descent of the manor

In the 17th century the manor of Kentisbeare was owned by Sir

John Wyndham John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (; 10 July 1903 – 11 March 1969) was an English science fiction writer best known for his works published under the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names ...

(1558–1645) of Orchard Wyndham, Somerset. In 1810 it was owned by his descendant Hon. Percy Charles Wyndham (1757-1833), MP, 2nd son of

Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont, PC (19 August 171021 August 1763), of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, Petworth House in Sussex, and of Egremont House in Mayfair, London, was a British statesman who served as Secretary of State for the Sout ...

, who also owned the manor of Blackborough where in 1838 George Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont (d.1845) built a palatial villa, known as Blackborough House. The 4th Earl built Kentisbeare House in 1841, to the designs of J. T. Knowles, for his relative the rector of Kentisbeare.

Historic estates

Wood

The estate of Wood was held by the Whiting family between the reigns of King Edward III (1327-1377) and King Henry VIII (1509-1547). The last in the male line was John Whitinge (d.1529), a member of the

Merchant Venturers The Society of Merchant Venturers is a charitable organisation in the English city of Bristol. The society can be traced back to a 13th-century guild which funded the voyage of John Cabot to Canada. In 1552, it gained a monopoly on sea tradi ...

, whose elaborately panelled

chest tomb Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and com ...

survives in Kentisbeare Church, in the chapel at the east end of the south aisle, which he built. The two

monumental brass A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the pav ...

es which were originally affixed to the monument are now lost, but his armorials survive sculpted on the wooden screen. John Whiting left four daughters and co-heiresses: *Whiting daughter, married to a FitzJames. *Agnes Whiting, 2nd daughter, who married Henry I Walrond (d.1550), of Bradfield, Uffculme. Wood passed to the Walrond family, and appears to have been used as a secondary residence and dower house as several members of the family were subsequently buried in Kentisbeare Church. *Whiting daughter married to an Ashford. *Whiting daughter married to a Keynes. In 1810 Wood belonged to Samuel Southwood, Esq.Risdon, 1810 additions, p.372

Betty Limpany

In 1799, Betty Limpany was executed in

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 ...

for burning down the house of her master, William Leech of Kentisbeare.

Sources

*Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, pp. 768–770, pedigree of Walrond * Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1810 edition, p. 89, Kentisbeare

References