Manor of Upton Pyne

Pyne

The manor of Upton Pynes was long held by the Pyne family and Herebert de Pino, as he was called in a Latin charter, held the manor during the reign of King Henry I (1100–1135). He was succeeded successively by Simon, Herebert, Simon, Sir Herebert, Sir Herebert, John, William, Edmond, and Nicholas Pyne. Nicholas Pyne died without male children and left his daughter Constance Pyne as his sole heiress. She married William Larder, to which family the manor of Upton Pyne passed.

Larder

William Larder married Constance Pyne, heiress of Upton Pyne. He was succeeded by his son Edmond Larder (died 1521), whose effigy survives in Upton Pyne Church, set within a Tudor-arched recess. It is inscribed above in Latin: Orate pro a(n)i(m)a Edm(u)ndi Larder Ar(migeri) ("Pray ye all for the soul of Edmund Larder, Esquire"). Below are four sculpted heraldic shields. Edmond married Isabel (or Elizabeth) Bonville, one of the daughters and co-heiresses of John Bonville (died 1491), lord of the manor of Combe Raleigh, Devon, and bastard son of the magnate William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville (died 1461). He was followed by his son Tristram Larder (1515–1547), who married Mary Stucley, a daughter of Sir Hugh Stucley (1496–1559), lord of the manor of Affeton and Sheriff of Devon in 1545. He was followed by his son Humphrey Larder (died 1588), whose chest tomb survives in Upton Pyne Church. Humphrey died without male children and left as his sole heiress his only daughter, Margaret Larder, who married Anthony Coplestone (died 1648) of Weare Gifford, who made Upton Pyne his residence.

Coplestone

Anthony Coplestone (died 1648) inherited Upton Pyne on his marriage to the heiress Margaret Larder. He was a son of Anthony Coplestone of Weeke (or Wike), Devon, by his wife Mary Parker, a daughter of John Parker of North Molton, an ancestor of the Parker Earls of Morley of Saltram House. He was descended from the Coplestones of Instow, a junior branch of the Coplestones of Coplestone in Devon, an ancient Devon family. Although Anthony Coplestone had a son, in 1640 he sold Upton Pyne to his son-in-law Sir John Coplestone (d.1650-1) of Nash in Dorset, knighted by Oliver Cromwell, the husband of his 6th daughter Grace Coplestone and father of the Roundhead commander John Copleston.

Stafford

The present house was built by Hugh Stafford (1674–1734), between 1700 and 1725, in the Queen Anne style. He (or his father Hugh Stafford (died 1703)) purchased the estate and the manor of Upton Pyne from the Coplestone family. He was the author of A Dissertation on Cyder and Cyder-Fruit, contained in "a letter to a friend bearing date 1727" and published in 1753 as a prefix to A Treatise on Cyder-Making, with a catalogue of cyder-apples of character, in Herefordshire and Devonshire.

An article on Hugh Stafford is contained in Sabine Baring-Gould's Devonshire Characters and Strange Events, as follows:

"The family of Stafford was originally Stowford, of Stowford, in the parish of Dolton. The name changed to Stoford and then to Stafford. One branch married into the family of Wollocombe, of Wollocombe. But the name of Stowford or Stafford was not the most ancient designation of the family, which was Kelloway, and bore as its arms four pears. The last Stafford turned from pears to apples, to which he devoted his attention and became a connoisseur not in apples only, but in the qualities of cyder as already intimated. To a branch of this family belonged Sir John Stowford, Lord Chief Baron in the reign of Edward III". (Sir John Stowford (c.1290 – c.1372) of Stowford, West Down in Devon)

The descent of Stafford from the Kelloway family of Stowford (Stafford Barton) in the parish of Dolton is as follows: Thomas Kelloway of Dowland, the second son of Robert Kelloway of Stowford by his wife Elizabeth Menwenick, adopted the surname Stafford, retained use of his Kelloway paternal arms, and married Margaret Avery of Bremelcombe. Their son was John Stafford of Dowland, who married Juliana Osborne, daughter and co-heiress of Hugh Osborne of Iddesleigh. Hence Iddesleigh came to the Stafford family and then to the Northcore family. Much of this descent is laid out in large Victorian stained glass windows in Iddesleigh Church, erected by the Northcote Earls of Iddesleigh.

Hugh Stafford of Pynes (died 1734) was the son of Hugh Stafford (died 1703) of Pynes, who was buried at Upton Pyne, by his second wife Lucy Courtenay (1649-1693), eldest daughter of Sir William Courtenay, 1st Baronet (died 1702), of Powderham and of Forde, Wolborough. In 1696 Hugh Stafford (died 1734) married Bridget Kelland, daughter of John Kelland of Painsford. He had two sons who both died young, William (1699–1703) and Hugh (born 1707) and two daughters, one of whom, Anne, died young in 1703. His monument survives in Upton Pyne Church.

The arms of this Stofford/Stafford family displayed on their monuments in Dowland Church, including bench-ends and stained glass windows, display the arms of Kelloway/Stowford: Argent, two grosing irons in saltire sable between four Kelway pears proper within a bordure engrailed of the second.

In 1728 Hugh Stafford of Pynes was elected as one of the feoffees of Blundell's School in Tiverton. The infant son of Hugh Stafford of Pynes was William, who died aged four in 1678, whose ledger stone survives in Dowland Church inscribed in Latin as follows: (GULIELMUS) STAFFORD FILIUS HUGONIS STAFFORD DE PYNE ARM(IGERI) QUI OBIIT VICESSIMO PRIMO DIE OCTOBRIS MDCLXXVIII ANNO AETATIS IV^TO ("(William) Stafford son of Hugh Stafford of Pyne, Esquire, who died on the 21st day of October 1678 in the year of his age the fourth"). Hugh Stafford of Pynes died without male children, leaving his only daughter Bridget Maria Stafford (1712-1773) as his sole heiress.

The arms of this Stofford/Stafford family displayed on their monuments in Dowland Church, including bench-ends and stained glass windows, display the arms of Kelloway/Stowford:Argent, two grosing irons in saltire sable between four Kelway pears proper within a bordure engrailed of the second. In 1728 Hugh Stafford of Pynes was elected as one of the feoffees of Blundell's School in Tiverton. The infant son of Hugh Stafford of Pynes was William, who died aged four in 1678, whose ledger stone survives in Dowland Church inscribed in Latin as follows: (GULIELMUS) STAFFORD FILIUS HUGONIS STAFFORD DE PYNE ARM(IGERI) QUI OBIIT VICESSIMO PRIMO DIE OCTOBRIS MDCLXXVIII ANNO AETATIS IV^TO ("(William) Stafford son of Hugh Stafford of Pyne, Esquire, who died on the 21st day of October 1678 in the year of his age the fourth"). Hugh Stafford of Pynes died without male children, leaving his only daughter Bridget Maria Stafford as his sole heiress.

Northcote

Bridget Maria Stafford, heiress of Pynes, married Sir Henry Northcote, 5th Baronet (1710 – 28 May 1743), of Hayne in the parish of Newton St Cyres near Crediton, a Member of Parliament for Exeter from 1735 until his death in 1743. The estate of Pynes thus passed into the Northcote family. Following his marriage Northcote abandoned the family seat of Hayne, which sank to the status of a farmhouse, and moved to the Stafford seat of Pynes House. In the 1790s the house was occupied by Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, 7th Baronet.

The building was enlarged in 1851 by the statesman Sir Stafford Northcote, 8th Baronet, who in 1885 was created by Queen Victoria 1st Earl of Iddesleigh, which manor had been inherited from the Stafford family with Pynes. In 1852 he added a ceremonial entrance hall, to the design of Ambrose Poynter, for a visit by Queen Victoria.

Walter Stafford Northcote, 2nd Earl of Iddesleigh claimed that Pynes House was the inspiration for Barton Park, which features in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

The Earl of Iddesleigh sold Pynes in 2006, and moved to a smaller house nearby.

Robshaw

In 2008 the house and estate was purchased for £1.9 million by Simon Robshaw, formerly of nearby Courtlands House, a 500-acre estate in the parish of Lympstone. He re-purchased 36 acres of surrounding land and effected substantial repairs to the house which had been semi-derelict, but due to bad health following a stroke, he put the property up for sale in 2016, at an asking price of £3.25 million.