Peamore (anciently Pevmere, Peanmore, Peamont, etc.) is an historic estate in the parish of Exminster, Devon, situated near to the City of Exeter. In 1810 Peamore House was described as "one of the most pleasant seats in the neighbourhood of Exeter". The house was remodelled in the early 19th century and is now a grade II listed building.
The Domesday Book of 1086 records PEVMERE as the 12th of the 58 holdings of Ralph de Pomeroy, first feudal baron of Berry Pomeroy, Devon, one of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. His tenant was Roger FitzPayne. It later passed to the feudal barony of Lancaster.
According to Pole (d.1635), Peanmore in the parish of Exminster was the inheritance of the family of Bolhay, of Blackborough Bolhay. James de Bolhay was the last in the male line, whose daughter and heiress Amisia Bolhay was the wife of Sir John Cobham.
Sir John Cobham (d.1335) inherited Blackborough and Peamore upon his marriage to Amisia Bolhay, heiress of Peamore. it remained in the Cobham family for several generations until the male line failed. Elizabeth Cobham was the heiress of Peamore, but died without progeny.
The heirs general of Elizabeth Cobham were Lord Hungerford, Hill of Spaxton and Bampfield of Poltimore. However the succession was claimed by the magnate Sir William Bonville (c.1392/3-1461) (later 1st Baron Bonville) of Shute, who "carried away this and the greatest part of the land".
Upon the attainder of Bonville's eventual heir Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk (1517-1554), all his estates escheated to the crown. Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for 9 days was his eldest daughter.
Jeffrey Tothill purchased the estate from the crown. He was Recorder of Exeter. He was the eldest son of William Tothill, an Alderman of the City of Exeter, by his wife Elizabeth Mathew, a daughter of Jeoffry Mathew, possibly of the ancient Welsh Mathew family, lords of Llandaff. One of his sisters, namely Elizabeth Tothill, married Thomas Stukley (c.1525-1578), the third son of Sir Hugh Stukley (1496-1559) of Affeton, in the parish of West Worlington in Devon, head of an ancient gentry family, a Knight of the Body to King Henry VIII and Sheriff of Devon in 1545. He married twice:Firstly to Joane Dillon, 2nd daughter of Robert Dillon of Chimwell, lord of the manor of Bratton Fleming, North Devon, by his wife Isabel Fortescue (16th century), by whom he had three sons: Henry, his eldest son and heir, Robert and Eleys.Secondly in 1569 he married Elizabeth Fortescue, daughter of Bartholomew Fortescue (d.1557) of Filleigh, Devon and widow of Lewis Hatch of Aller, South Molton. Without progeny.Henry Tothill (1562-1640) (eldest son by father's 1st wife), Sheriff of Devon in 1623. He married Mary Sparke (d.1647), daughter and heiress of Nicholas Sparke of Sowton, Devon. He was in residence at Peamore in the time of Pole (d.1635). Beneath the south window of St Martin's Church, Exminster is a coffin shaped stone with the inscription: Here lyeth the Body of Henry Tothill of Peamore Esq: who dyed the 9th day of December Ano 1640, ætatis suæ 78. Mary the only wife of ye aforesaid Henry and sole Daughter and Heire of Nicholas Sparke, Gent: lieth also here. He left two daughters as his co-heiresses:Johanna Tothill (eldest daughter), wife of Robert Northleigh (1582-1638) of Matford, Alphington. His monument survives in Alphington Church.Grace Tothill (1605-1623), wife of her second cousin William Tothill, grandson of John Tothill, a younger brother to her grandfather Geffery Tothill of Peamore. She died aged 18 having produced three children, a son Henry (living in 1640) and daughters Elizabeth and Ann. Grace Tothill's monument with her semi-recumbent effigy survives in St Martin's Church, Exminster, inscribed as follows:Robert Northleigh of Matford (born 1581), married Johanna Tothill, heiress of Peamore. His family, seated at Matford in the parish of Alphington, near Exeter, was a junior branch of the ancient Northleigh family of Northleigh in the parish of Inwardleigh, near Okehampton, Devon. The Northleigh family thereupon made Peamore their seat and abandoned their previous residence of Matford. In 1799 the Devon topographer Rev. John Swete (d.1821) visited the area and noted in his journal that the ancient mansion of "Matford Dinham" had been an ancient seat of the Dinhams and Northleighs, and "a century ago of respectability among the mansions in the neighbourhood, is now on the verge of ruin and desolation, by an anticlimax it has pass'd from the hands of the gentleman to those of the farmer and is now become the habitation of a family or two of labourers, dilapidated and overspred with huge volumes of ivy, it will perhaps soon become untenantable".Henry Northleigh (born 1612) (eldest son and heir), who in 1639 married Lettice Yarde, daughter of Edward Yarde of Bradley, Devon.Henry Northleigh (1643-1694) (2nd and eldest surviving son and heir) of Peamore House, thrice MP for Okehampton, Devon. He married Susanna Sparke, daughter of John Sparke, dyer, of Exeter. She was the granddaughter of Stephen Toller, haberdasher of Exeter, who in 1673 purchased "Crediton Parks", the former park of the Bishops of Exeter, from Sir John Chichester of Hall, Bishop's Tawton. Susanna devised Crediton Parks to her daughter Susanna Northleigh, who devised it to her nephew John Tuckfield (c.1719-1767) of Little Fulford, MP for Exeter, eldest son of her sister Elizabeth Northleigh by her husband Roger Tuckfield of London, Merchant.Stephen Northleigh (c.1692-?1731) of Peamore (son), MP for Totnes (1713-1722), which seat he obtained on the interest of his cousins the Yarde family. He married Margaret Davie daughter of Sir William Davie, 4th Baronet (1662-1707), of Creedy House in the parish of Sandford, Devon. He died without male progeny, leaving his daughter Mary Northleigh as heiress.John Hippisley Coxe (1715-1769) of Ston Easton, Somerset, who in 1739 married Mary Northleigh (d.1773), heiress of Peamore. He was the builder of the Palladian mansion Ston Easton Park in Somerset.Henry Hippisley Coxe (1748-1795) (3rd son) of Ston Easton Park, Somerset, MP for Somerset (1792-5), who died without progeny. The Devon topographer Rev. John Swete (d.1821) visited the area in 1789 and made a sketch of Peamore, from which he made a watercolour painting in 1794. In 1789 he noted in his journal that it was then the residence of Sam Strode, Esquire (d.29 August 1795), lord of the manor and hundred of Crediton in 1790, who had purchased a life interest lease from Henry Hippisley Coxe. In 1789 Swete noted concerning Peamore:Swete again visited the area in 1800 and noted in his journal that "Mr Coxe of Peamore" had planted a "crest of firs" on top of a local conical hill owned by him, a "conspicuous knoll of a conical shape", in the parish of Exminster or Alphington, which he compared to a similarly shaped hill at
Killerton. Shortly thereafter "H.H. Coxe" sold Peamore to Samuel Kekewich (d.1822), who was the owner in 1810.
Samuel Kekewich (d.1822) DCL, a barrister, Sheriff of Devon in 1805. He purchased Peamore from "H.H. Coxe". In the early 1800s the house was remodelled. He was the eldest son of William Kekewich of Bowden House, Ashprington, Devon, a member of Royal Exchange Assurance. The Kekewich family was originally from Lancashire then moved to Shropshire and in the 16th century was seated at Catchfrench in Cornwall. George Kekewich (1530-1582) of Catchfrench was Sheriff of Cornwall in 1576 and MP for Salisbury in March 1553. The owner in 1937 was his descendant Lewis Pendarves Kekewich (b.1859), JP. The arms of Kekewich are: Argent, two lions passant guardant in bend sable between two bendlets gules.Peamore House was used as a country hotel in 1952. The house is currently divided into 4 residences.>
