Hartland Abbey is a former abbey and current family home to the Stucley family. It is located in Hartland, Devon. The current owner is Sir Hugh George Copplestone Bampfylde Stucley, 6th Baronet.
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Hartland Abbey was built in 1157 and consecrated by Bartholomew Iscanus in 1160[1] (Bartholomew was appointed Bishop of Exeter the following year). One of the most generous donors to the Abbey were the Botreaux family of Boscastle, Cornwall, of which a 12th.c. "William de Botreaux" (all male heirs of the family were called William apparently until the death in 1462 of the last of the line William de Botreaux, 3rd Baron Botreaux) gave the advowsons of the churches in his manors of Molland[2] and Knowstone in Devon and of the church of Forrabury in his Cornish manor Boscastle in 1187 to Hartland Abbey. The grants were confirmed by a charter temp. Richard I(1189-1199). It was converted into an Augustinian abbey in 1189.
In 1539 it was the last monastery to be dissolved by Henry VIII. The King gave the building to William Abbot, his Sergeant of the Wine Cellar at Hampton Court.[1] William Abbot converted what had been the Abbot's Lodging into a mansion. In September 1544 the following lands of "Hartland Priory" were granted, with other lands, by Henry VIII to Thomas Godwyne in fee, for a consideration of £1,122 2s 6d: "the messuage, etc., called Abbottes in the parish of Molland alias Batters Moland (i.e. "Molland Bottreaux"), Devon, in tenure of Anthony Deye and a messuage, etc., in Moore alias Moore Town, in Bedyford (i.e. Bideford)parish, Devon, in tenure of Richard Penhorewod" [3] In March 1547 a royal licence was obtained by James Gunter and Henry Wescott, who presumably had been granted them on Dissolution, to alienate the "rectory and advowson of the vicarage of Knoweston and Molland, Devon" to Hugh Culme.[4]
The present house incorporates a few components from Tudor times but is mainly the wing added to the old house in 1705 (the north-west corner being the work of 'Mr Mathews' (according to the author of the Beauties of England and Wales). Further alterations were done about 1860.[5] The gardens were laid out by Gertrude Jekyll.