Cross, Little Torrington

Cross House, Little Torrington
Cross House, Little Torrington, viewed from across the valley of the River Torridge on Castle Hill, Great Torrington

Cross is an historic estate in the parish and former manor of Little Torrington, Devon. The Georgian red-brick mansion house at Cross, re-built between 1744 and 1748 and classified as Grade II* listed in 1960,[1] is a conspicuous sight from Castle Hill, Great Torrington, across the River Torridge valley. Cross House is especially notable as containing an ornate staircase salvaged in about 1720 from the demolished Stowe House, Kilkhampton in Cornwall, built circa 1680-5.[2]

Descent

Welsh

In the early 18th century the estate of Cross was owned by Anthony Welsh, whose daughter Grace Welsh (1689–1770) in 1713 at the Church in Little Torrington married Joseph Coplestone (1667–1746), of Woodland, Little Torrington.[3]

Coplestone

The Coplestone family of Woodland was founded by Richard Coplestone, living in 1550, the third son of John Coplestone (1475–1550) of Copleston in the parish of Colebrooke, Devon.[4] One of the younger sons of Joseph Coplestone (1667–1746) by his wife Grace Welsh (1689–1770) was John Coplestone (1727–1801), Mayor of Great Torrington in 1760.[5] Joseph Coplestone's eldest son and heir, Joseph Coplestone (1718–1759), of Woodland, sold Woodland to Henry Stevens[6] (1689–1748), who re-built Cross House.[7]

Stevens

Christiana Maria Rolle (1710-1780), wife of Henry Stevens (1689-1748) of Cross and Smythacott. Portrait by Thomas Hudson, Great Torrington townhall

Henry Stevens (1689-1748), described in his will as "of Smithcott" in the parish of Frithelstock, but who built the existing mansion of Cross between 1744 and 1748,[8] married Christiana Maria Rolle (1710-1780), a daughter of John Rolle (1679-1730), MP, of Stevenstone, in the nearby parish of St Giles in the Wood, and sister of Henry Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1708-1750). Portraits of Christiana and of her brothers John Rolle Walter (1712-1779), and Denys Rolle (d.1797), successively owners of the Stevenstone estates, were painted by Thomas Hudson and were given in the early 1900s by Lord Clinton to the Great Torrington Town Lands and Poors Charity. They are on public display in Great Torrington townhall.

No entry for the Stevens family exists in the 1620 Heraldic Visitation of Devon, and thus the family's pedigree is not officially recorded, and the family must be assumed not to have been counted amongst the gentry of Devon at that time, or to have settled in the county after that date. The same arms as used by the Devon family were however recorded as adopted in 1606 by a Gloucestershire family called "Stephens",[9] of Chavenage House, Eastington, which family rose to considerable prominence during the Civil War as Parliamentarians. William Stevens (d.1648) of Great Torrington, was thus apparently a younger son of the Stevens family of Chavenage House.[10] The earliest known seat of the Stevens family in Devon was Vielstone, now a farmhouse in 2013 used as a care home, in the parish of Buckland Brewer( of which the Rolle family of Stevenstone were lords of the manor) about five miles south-west of Great Torrington, as is recorded on the ornate mural monument to Judith Stevens (d.1676), daughter of John Hancock of Combe Martin, and wife of Henry Stevens de Velstone, son and heir of William Stevens of Great Torrington, on the east wall of the south aisle of Great Torrington parish church. Clearly the Stevens family were even then of some high standing in view of the prominent positioning of the monument in this large and important church. One of their sons, John Stevens (d.1674) predeceased his father, as is revealed by his grave-slab under his father's mural monument in Great Torrington Church. Henry appears to have had two sisters, both listed passim in the Visitation of Devon as "daughter of William Stevens of Great Torrington":

Henry and Judith's two grandsons, the sons of Richard Stevens and Elizabeth his wife, appear to have been Henry Stevens (1689-1748) of Cross, in the parish of Little Torrington and Richard Stevens (1702-1776), MP, of Winscott.

Richard Stevens (d.1776) was MP for the Rolle pocket borough of Callington in Cornwall between 1761 to 1768. His mural monument exists in Peters Marland Church. He married Elizabeth (1707-1760), of unknown family, by whom he had three sons who pre-deceased him without progeny and two daughters who were also without progeny. His daughter Elizabeth Stevens (1727-1792) married firstly Robert Awse of Horwood House in the parish of Frithelstock, and secondly John Cleveland (1734-1817), MP, of Tapeley near Bideford. Winscott passed after Cleveland's death to the descendants of Richard's elder brother, Henry Stevens (d.1748), of Cross, thus re-uniting the three Stevens estates.

Henry I Stevens's heir was his son Henry II Stevens (1739-1802), who married Sarah Bridget Marwood (who married secondly John Inglett Fortescue of Buckland Filleigh), but who died without progeny leaving as heir his sister Christiana Stevens (1743-1828) who had married in 1779 Rev. Thomas Moore (1740-1802), vicar of Bishops Tawton.

Moore-Stevens

Heraldic tiles dated 1865 on floor of chancel, St Peter's Church, one of four similar groups of four, with legend Pro patria et Fide (For country and faith). The arms of Stevens in the 1st and 4th quarters seem to show in the chief inverted tinctures. The arms in the 2nd and 3rd quarters are of Moore

As indicated by the Moore arms shown on the chancel floor of Peters Marland Church (1865), Thomas Moore (1740-1802) was of the Moore family, Earls of Mount Cashell, of Cashel, County Tipperary, Ireland, and Barons Kilworth, of Moore Park, Kilworth, County Cork. He may have been the brother of Rev. George Moore (d.1807), Canon Residentiary of Exeter, Archdeacon of Cornwall and vicar of Heavitree.[13] Christiana Stevens was also the heir of her cousin Elizabeth Cleveland (née Stevens) (1727-1792), the only surviving child and daughter of Richard Stevens (d.1776) of Winscott. Their eldest son was Thomas Moore-Stevens (1782-1832), of Vielston, Buckland Brewer, later of Cross. He succeeded to Cross and other property under an entail, and to Winscott under the will of Elizabeth Clevland,[14] daughter and heir of Richard Stevens of Winscott. He adopted the name and arms of Stevens, by royal licence dated 12 July 1817, on the death of John Clevland (1734-1817), 2nd husband of Elizabeth Stevens, as a condition of her will.[15] He was of Winscott, BA Balliol College, Oxford, 1803, a barrister of the Middle Temple, and Recorder of Exeter, as recorded on his mural monument in Little Torrington Church.[16] He married in 1821 Sophia Le Marchant (1798-1860),[17] younger daughter of Rev. Joshua Le Marchant of Guernsey,[18] and had two daughters, Sophia and Louisa, who married Frederick Haworth of Kensington, Middlesex. Sophia Stevens's diaries between the years 1817-1836 are held at the North Devon Record Office in Barnstaple (ref:A 251), but a large gap exists around the time of her husband's death.[19] He was the presumptive heir and next-of-kin to John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (d.1842), (of the second creation of that title)[20] his mother Christiana Stevens (d.1828) having been first cousin of John, Lord Rolle, who had only sisters and no children of his own. Lord Rolle however disposed of his property elsewhere under his will. Thomas Stevens died by suicide, as is recorded in the death notices in the 1832 Annual Register:[21]

"14 Jan. At his seat, Cross, near Torrington, Thomas Stevens, Esq. recorder of Exeter, Barnstaple, and Torrington, and a major in the North Devon regiment of Yeomanry cavalry. Educated for the bar, he early displayed talents of a superior order, and in 1826 he was elected by the chamber of Exeter to fill the honourable and responsible office of recorder of that city. On Monday, January 9, Mr. Stevens sat in the court of quarter sessions in Barnstaple; and on Tuesday, at the quarter sessions in South Molton; and, on each of those days, he complained of indisposition in his head. A tumultuous assemblage of people at Torrington on the following days, called forth his active exertions both as a magistrate and an officer, and probably increased the excitement which disease had previously begotten in his mind. On Friday evening he wrote a letter to a gentleman, which bore strong indications of great mental agitation. In this perturbed state he retired to his room on the evening of Friday. In the morning (...) was heard from the dressing room, which induced Mrs. Stevens to hasten thither; and, on entering she caught her husband in her arms, deluged in blood flowing in torrents from a wound inflicted in his throat, which caused his death within a very short period".

It must be assumed that the Stevens inheritance was in tail-male as Thomas's heir was his younger brother the Revd John Moore-Stevens (d. 1865), appointed in 1822 Vicar of Otterton by Lord Rolle[22] (whose main seat was then at nearby Bicton House and whose father Dennis Rolle (d.1797) had purchased the adjoining manor of Otterton.) John (by then Archdeacon of Exeter) also adopted the additional surname of Stevens (the king's royal license to that effect, dated 17 July 1832, was gazetted on 24 July 1832.)[23] He would also have assumed himself to have become, after his brother's death, the presumptive heir and next-of-kin to Lord Rolle. He married Anne Eleanor Roberts, daughter of Rev. William Roberts, fellow and vice-provost of Eton College. An inscribed white marble tablet exists to the memory of his wife and himself in Exeter Cathedral.[24] His son was John Curzon Moore-Stevens (b. 1818), JP, DL, MP for North Devon, High Sheriff of Devon 1870,[25] who rebuilt Winscott in 1865, immediately folling his inheritance. He had been brought up in the expectation of becoming the heir of John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1750-1842), of Stevenstone,[26] who died childless and was his great-grandmother's nephew. However, Lord Rolle instead left his fortune to Hon. Mark Trefusis, who changed his name to Mark Rolle (d.1907), the nephew of his second wife Louisa Trefusis, a daughter of Baron Clinton. He married in 1850 Elizabeth Anne Johnson, daughter of Rev. Peter Johnson.[27] He served as a JP on the Quarter Sessions Court of Devon, and Winscott House was built with its own "Magistrate's Room" with a separate entrance. He was especially reactionary and old-fashioned and at the Mid-Summer sessions of 1882 had declared his object was "to get rid of traction-engines altogether".[28] On the abolition of the Quarter-Sessions in 1889 he was the only former JP to have been defeated by a non-magistrate in the elections for councillors to the new replacement governing body of the Devon County Council.[29] His son was Col. Richard Arthur Moore-Stevens (1854-1931), 3rd Battalion Devon Regiment,[30] a strong believer in the Anglican faith, who moved to Bellenden House, Exeter,[31] and shut up Winscott House in 1920.[32] He married in 1886 his third cousin May Clare Sophy Haworth (d.1930), daughter of Frederick Haworth of Kensington,[33] Middlesex by his wife Louisa Moore-Stevens, daughter of Thomas Moore-Stevens (d.1832). They had three children: John (b. 1900), Ralph (b. 1904) and Joyce.[34] He disinherited his son for marrying a Roman Catholic. After his death in 1931 Winscott House was sold. A timber merchant purchased the grounds and felled the trees, whilst the building firm of Chambers of Winkleigh purchased the house, which eventually was demolished without a trace surviving above ground. Some materials were used to construct a new village hall. A few specimen trees survive, but all traces of the orchard, terraces, tennis court and walled garden have vanished. The imposing entrance gates and lodge survive.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-91734-cross-house-little-torrington-devon
  2. ↑ Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.301-2, Cross
  3. ↑ Vivian, Lt.-Col. J. L. (ed.), The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564, & 1620 (Exeter: Henry S. Eland, 1895), Coplestone of Woodland, p. 230.
  4. ↑ Vivian, pp. 224 & 230.
  5. ↑ Vivian, p. 230.
  6. ↑ Vivian, p. 231.
  7. ↑ Inscribed slate tablet erected by present owner (2014) of Cross, Mrs. Rowena Cotton.
  8. ↑ Slate tablet erected by present owner of Cross, Mrs Rowena Cotton
  9. ↑ Burke's General Armory, 1884
  10. ↑ The two Stevens/Stephens families bear the same armorials, per Visitations of Gloucestershire, pp.151-153 and those shown on Stevens family monuments in the Devon churches of Great Torrington, Little Torrington and Peters Marland
  11. ↑ Vivian, Visitation of Devon, 1895, p.653 (Rolle), p.177 (Chichester, with her father incorrectly given)
  12. ↑ Vivian, Visitation of Devon, 1895, p.653
  13. ↑ Mural tablet 1807 in Exeter Cathedral. Both Rev. Thomas and Rev. George Moore subscribed to the 1810 edition of Risdon's "Survey of Devon"
  14. ↑ Heralds Visitation of Devon, Moore; Lysons (Magna Britannia, Vol.6, 1822, Gentry) on the other hand states Thomas Stevens to have acquired Winscott "by the bequest of the late John Cleveland, Esq."
  15. ↑ http://stalkingdeadpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/thomas-moore.html
  16. ↑ See also: http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I43421&tree=Nixon
  17. ↑ dates per: http://stalkingdeadpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/thomas-moore.html
  18. ↑ Heralds Visitation of Devon, p.109, Moore
  19. ↑ http://stalkingdeadpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/diaries-of-sophia-stevens.html
  20. ↑ Heraldic Visitation of Devon, ed. Vivian, footnote
  21. ↑ Quoted in: http://stalkingdeadpeople.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/thomas-moore.html
  22. ↑ Per marble tablet listing incumbents and patrons in Otterton Church
  23. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 18959. p. 1704. 24 July 1832. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  24. ↑ East end of South Ambulatory, south wall
  25. ↑ Fox-Davies, A.C., A Directory of Gentlemen of coat-armour, Volume 2, page 87
  26. ↑ Harrison, E.M., History of the Church at Otterton (church leaflet), 1982, p.29
  27. ↑ Fox-Davies
  28. ↑ Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959, p.194
  29. ↑ Hoskins, p.194
  30. ↑ Fox-Davies
  31. ↑ Fox-Davies; London Gazette, 26/6/1931, p.4206, Re estate of Richard Arthur Moore-Stevens, deceased 8/3/1931 of Bellenden, will proved 23/5/1931 Exeter District Probate Registry
  32. ↑ Lauder, p.55
  33. ↑ http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I43421&tree=Nixon
  34. ↑ Fox-Davies