The Owning Families of Clovelly

Each year in this country, about one in seven households move house.  Clovelly provides a vivid contrast, having been associated with only three families since the middle of the 13^th century, nearly 800 years.

Earlier, at the time of its inclusion in the Domesday Book, it was owned by the King and it enjoyed many royal associations from the 9^th century up to 1242 when it was acquired by the Giffard family.  The Giffards were of Norman origin and Walter Giffard came to England as one of Duke William’s closest advisors.  Sir Roger Giffard then “subinfeuded” (sublet) the Manor of Clovelly from Walter and the first recorded rector of Clovelly in 1262 was also a Giffard.

The names, Staunton and Mandeville, appear between 1338 and 1362 thanks to marriage to the Giffard daughters, but by 1370, marriage and purchase brought the ownership to one, William Cary.

The Carys were one of the great Devon families and cousins of the Grenvilles.  Sir William is perhaps best remembered as, reputedly, the builder of the original pier or breakwater, which is based still on massive boulders slotted together rather than mortared or cemented.

His elder brother, Sir John, was a judge and Baron of the Exchequer in 1370, but owing to dynastic intrigues was banished to Ireland and his lands confiscated.

His son, Robert, was brought up in William’s household and his fortunes turned when, at a Royal Tournament in 1413, he defeated the Knight Errant of Aragon who had thereto been unconquered throughout Europe.  Robert was immediately knighted by Henry V and his father’s lands restored to him.  The Cary arms to this day include the “three roses argent” of the Aragon Knight.

The Carys lived in Clovelly for the next eleven generations and the most remarkable of these are:

- William, grandson of Robert, who was captured and beheaded after the Battle of Tewkesbury.  There is a head in an unnamed stone coffin under the North aisle of the parish church, so perhaps …..

- William’s son, Robert, is commemorated by a torso of him in the sanctuary of Clovelly Church, in full armour.

- Robert’s grandson, George Cary, completed the quay as we see it today.  It cost £2,000, a massive sum in the late 16^th century, but this included “divers cellars and warehouses”.

- George’s son, William, is the “Will Cary of Clovelly”, made famous in “Westward Ho!” by Charles Kingsley.

- One of William’s sons, George, became Dean of Exeter and the family’s continuing connections with royalty is evidenced by the entertainment of the royal family in his deanery.

- Although George had seven children, his grandchildren proved childless, the sons not marrying and the daughters being without child.

So in 1738, Robert Barber, the widower of Elizabeth Cary, sold Clovelly to one Zachary Hamlyn.  It is the Hamlyns and their descendants that still own the village and much of the surrounding land.

Family History of the present owner of Clovelly, The Hon. John Rous

Zachary Hamlyn, who was born at Kennerland Farm in Higher Clovelly, made his fortune as a lawyer at Lincolns Inn and purchased the estate for £9,438 in 1738.  He died unmarried and left the estate to his nephew, James, on condition he changed his name from Hammett to Hamlyn.  James married Arabella Williams, heiress of the Edwinsford Estate, Carmarthenshire in Wales.  He was created a baronet for public services.

Their son James (2nd Baronet) married Diana (née Whittaker) whose share of her father's fortune was used to improve the estate including the construction of the Hobby Drive.  Work started during the Napoleonic wars assisted, it is said, by French prisoners of war.  It and other coast path carriageways were completed in the period of high unemployment after 1815. 

The 3rd Baronet, also a James Hamlyn, married Mary, daughter of the 1st Earl Fortescue, another distinguished neighbouring West Country family.  They had three daughters.  The eldest, Susan Hester, married Henry Fane of Fulbeck, Lincolnshire.  The family assumed the surname Hamlyn Fane.  Their son, Neville Hamlyn Fane, died in 1884, aged 26.  Constance Hamlyn Fane inherited land at Ringwood, the Avon Tyrrell estate and Christine Hamlyn Fane was given the Clovelly Estate.

In 1889 she married Frederick Gosling.  She requested him firstly to change his name from Gosling to Hamlyn because of the long association of the name Hamlyn with Clovelly and secondly to devote his not inconsiderable fortune to the restoration of all properties on the estate.  As you walk down the village street you will see many with references to C and FH and a date in the 1930's.  This marks the renovation of the building to meet modern day expectations.  The foundations and outer walls are much older.  Christine and Frederick had no children and the estate was left in 1936 to Christine's niece, Betty Asquith.

Betty Asquith was the daughter of Constance Manners (née Hamlyn Fane) and Lord Manners.  Amongst his claims to fame was that he had won a bet that he could in 6 months buy and train and ride a Grand National winner.  This he achieved on Seaman and to this day remains the only peer to have won the Grand National.  Betty's husband, Arthur (son of Prime Minister Asquith) was a distinguished and brave volunteer soldier in the First World War.  He reached the rank of Brigadier General and was awarded the DSO and 2 Bars.  He returned to a business career after the War, but died prematurely in 1939.

Betty and Arthur had four daughters of whom Mary, the eldest, married Keith Rous from the Henham Estate in Suffolk in 1943.  She inherited the estate on Betty's death in 1962.  Her son, John Rous, took over the running of the estate in 1983.