Downes, Crediton

Downes House, near Crediton, detail from drawing & engraving by T Bonner, (see below) published by Richard Polwhele (1760-1838)
"Downes the seat of James Buller Esqr. to whom this plate is inscribed by his obliged servant R. Polwhele. Drawn & engraved by T. Bonner". Published by Richard Polwhele (1760-1838)

Downes House is situated about one mile east of Crediton in Devon.[1] The house is an 18th-century Palladian re-modelling of an earlier house.[2] It was classed Grade II* listed on 20 May 1985.[3] Nearby is the site of a Roman villa, revealed by crop-marks as a rectangular enclosure containing a winged-corridor structure.[4]

History

Gould

The estate of Downes was purchased in 1692 by Moses Gould (1668-1703),[5] eldest son and heir of William Gould (1640-1671) of Hayes and Dunscombe, MP for Dartmouth in 1671. The Gould family was descended from a certain John Gold, a crusader present at the siege of Damietta in 1217 who for his valour was granted in 1220 by Ralph de Vallibus an estate at Seaborough in Somerset.[6] Moses married twice, firstly in 1690 to Anne Prust (d.1691), daughter and heiress of Mr Prust of Rawley. Without issue.[7] Secondly to Susanna Kelland, daughter and co-heiress of John Kelland of Painsford, MP for Totnes. His eldest son and heir was William Gould (1697-1726), of Downes, who married Elizabeth Quicke, daughter of Andrew Quicke of Newton St Cyres. William and Elizabeth left no male progeny, only two daughters as co-heiresses (a third daughter Frances I Gould (1720-1720) having died an infant):

Buller

Arms of Buller: Sable, on a cross argent quarter pierced of the field four eagles displayed of the first[11]

The ancient family of Buller is descended from Ralph Buller of Word in Somerset, sixth in descent from whom was Richard Buller who settled in Cornwall and married the heiress of Tregarrick.[12] The estate of Morval was inherited by John Buller (1632-1716), MP, of Shillingham near Saltash, in Cornwall, from his wife Anne Coode daughter and sole heiress of John Coode of Morval. The descent of Downes in the Buller family was as follows:

Visit by Swete

"Downes, seat of James Buller Esq", watercolour by Rev. John Swete (1752-1821) dated 1797. Devon Record Office 564M/F11/147

The Devon topographer Rev. John Swete (1752-1821) visited Downes in 1797 and made a watercolour painting of the house with the following record in his diary:[17]
"The next morning I quitted Crediton, not without the thanks of the very civil people who kept the White Hart, and travelling on a good road soon came to the gate of Downes, the seat of James Buller Esq., lying a little on the left of the road at one mile distance from the town. The family of Buller is from Cornwall and transplanted hither or rather engrafted (for it is a branch of the original stock) into that of Gould, whose possession Downes was, as well as several other estates now the Buller property in this neighborhood. The heiress of the Goulds was the grandmother of the present proprietor who married the eldest daughter of his uncle the late Bishop of Exeter. The house is of modern structure having two wings annex'd to it & is seated on ground which is of the richest nature gently rising from the Rivers Creedy and Fordton that wind their streams to its great refreshment and benefit through the estate. Passing a bridge over the latter I took the following sketch of Downes which is perhaps as favorable a station to view it from as may be obtained. The scenery is of a pleasing nature including the gradually declining hill on the side of which the house is placed and a winding valley water'd by the Creedy which descends thro' an expanse of most fertile pastures from Little Fulford which is distinguishable in the remoter parts. The whole of this however would in itself have been tame and naked as a landscape but the contrast which it received and the relief given to it by the fine foreground of oaks added beauties to the prospect below which though not its own served to render those which it had more pleasing and to give them a zest which they seem'd to stand in need of".
He then proceeded to Dunscombe House, also a former property of the Goulds, purchased by them from the Bodley family, which had been inherited by the Bullers.

Sources

References

  1. ↑ Risdon, Tristram, Survey of Devon, 1810 edition, p.373
  2. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, pp.339-40
  3. ↑ http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-95165-downes-crediton-hamlets-devon
  4. ↑ http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=918313
  5. ↑ Pevsner, p.339
  6. ↑ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitation of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, pedigree of Gould, pp.418-432, p.418
  7. ↑ Vivian, p.422
  8. ↑ Burke's, p.277
  9. ↑ Vivian, p.422
  10. ↑ http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/tuckfield-john-1719-67
  11. ↑ Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937, p.279, Buller of Downes
  12. ↑ Burke's Landed Gentry, 1937, p.277, Buller of Downes
  13. ↑ Pevsner & Cherry, Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.522
  14. ↑ Pevsner, p.523
  15. ↑ Pevsner, p.523
  16. ↑ Burke's, p.277
  17. ↑ Gray, Todd & Rowe, Margery (Eds.), Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of The Reverend John Swete, 1789-1800, Vol.3, Tiverton, 1999, p.125

External links

Coordinates: 50°47′10″N 3°37′50″W / 50.7860°N 3.6306°W