Gittisham is an historic manor largely co-terminous with the parish of Gittisham in Devon, England, within which is situated the village of Gittisham. The capital estate is Combe, on which is situated Combe House, the manor house of Gittisham, a grade I listed ElizabethanPevsner, p.282: "of Elizabethan appearance", listed building text: "Medieval origins, remodelled in the C17, C18 and C19" building situated 2 1/4 miles south-west of the historic centre of Honiton and 3 1/4 miles north-east of the historic centre of Ottery St Mary.
Descent
Gotshelm The manor of Gidesha(m)In the Domesday Book the last letter is omitted as indicated by a tilde is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the 15th of the 28 holdings of Gotshelm, held in chief of King William the Conqueror. No tenant is listed, suggesting he held it in demesne. His 17th holding was a certain Come, which however is supposed by Thorne (1985) to represent Coombe in the parish of Uplowman,Thorne, part 2 (notes), 25,17 not Combe in Gittisham. Gotshelm was the brother of Walter de Claville, another of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief and the lands of both brothers later formed part of the Feudal barony of Gloucester.Thorn, part 2, Chapters 24 & 25
Feudal barony of Gloucester
Willington/de Lomen The manor of Gittisham descended with most of Gotshelm's other holdings to the Feudal barony of Gloucester. Combe was held from the barony by the Willington family. In the Book of Fees lands in Gittisham are recorded as held from "Ralph de Wylingthon" by "Richard de Lumene".Thorn, part 2 (notes), 25,15
Willington
The de Willington family originated at the manor of Willington near Repton in Derbyshireand later lived at Yate, Gloucestershire.Robinson, W.J., West Country Manors, Bristol, 1930, pp. 203–206, Yate Court Ralph de Willington (died pre-1242) married Olympia (died post 1242), heiress of Sandhurst, in Gloucestershire, granddaughter of a certain Wymark, and widow of John Frenchevaler. In about 1200 Wymark had granted to St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, (now Gloucester Cathedral) 6 acres of land in Longford, within the manor of Sandhurst, for the purpose of mending the "ironwork of horses" belonging to visiting monks. The grant was later confirmed by Ralph Willington, husband of Olympia.N. M. Herbert, 1988, "Gloucester: Outlying hamlets", A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 4: The City of Gloucester. Available from British History Online. (17 September 2014) pp. 382–410 Between 1224 and 1228 Ralph Willington and his wife Olympia built the Lady Chapel in St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester.N. M. Herbert, 1988, "Gloucester: The cathedral and close", A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 4: The City of Gloucester. Available from British History Online. (17 September 2014) pp. 275–288. Ralph also held (from Thomas de Beaumont, 6th Earl of Warwick (1208–1242) as overlord) the manor of Poulton in Awre, Gloucestershire.From: 'Awre', A History of the County of Gloucester (VCH): Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 14–46 . "Pulton" in the 1242 inquisition post mortem of Thomas de Beaumont, 6th Earl of Warwick (1208–1242) was shown as held from him by the widow "Olimpia de Wilinton" (J. E. E. S. Sharp (ed.), 1904, "Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry III, File 1,Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Volume 1: Henry III, Available from British History Online. (17 September 2014) pp. 1–6). Ralph de Willington married Joan de Champernon, heiress of Umberleigh in Devon, during the reign of Edward I (1272–1307). The Willington family appear thenceforth to have adopted Umberleigh as their seat in Devonshire. The descendants of Ralph de Willington and Joan de Champernon were as follows: Ralph de Willington (eldest son), called by Risdon "a worthy warrior",Risdon, p.317 was governor of Exeter Castle in 1253 and Sheriff of Devon in 1254 or 1257.Ralph de Willington Sheriff in 39 Henry III (1254) per Risdon, List of Sheriffs, p.9; 42 Henry III(1257) per Burke's A genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain, 1838, vol.4, Willington of Hurley, p.526 (The seat of the Sheriff of Devon was the royal castle of Exeter). He married Juliana de Lomene, daughter and heiress of Sir Richard de Lomene of "Lomen" (modern Uplowman,Pole, p.212 near Tiverton) and Gittisham.Pole, p.166 John de Willington (died 1338/9), eldest son and heir, who on 8 August 1299 obtained a royal licence to crenellate his mansion at Yate.
Beaumont
The Beaumont family, seated at Youlston within their Manor of Shirwell in North Devon, was the heir of the Willingtons. William Beaumont was Sheriff of Devon in 1399,Pole, Sir William, Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon and held the Castle and Borough of Barnstaple. He further increased the family's estates by marrying Isabel Willington, daughter of Sir John Willington of Umberleigh, and co-heiress of her brother John Willington (died 1396). The effigies of a Willington knight beside his Lady existed in Umberleigh Chapel prior to their removal to Atherington Church in about 1820, where they are visible today. Sir Thomas Beaumont (1401–1450), son and heir, born at the Willington manor of Yate in Gloucestershire. He married twice, the offspring of which two marriages became successively heirs to his estates, in a complex series of inheritances. Firstly he married Phillipa Dynham, daughter of Sir John Dynham and aunt to John Dynham, 1st Baron Dynham (died 1501),Vivian, Heralds' Visitations of Devon, 1895, p.46 by whom he had 3 sons and 2 daughters. From these children descended two important parallel lines: Firstly an adulterous line of the Bodrugan family which adopted the name Beaumont and which inherited the Beaumont manor of Gittisham, and secondly the later very influential Basset family which inherited the Beaumont former Willington manor of Umberleigh, (which became their early seat) and the Beaumont former Pont-de-Chardon manor of Heanton Punchardon, which became their later seat. Secondly Sir Thomas Beaumont married Alice Stukeley, daughter of Hugh Stukeley of Affeton, Devon, by whom he had a further 3 sons, from one of whom was descended the Chichester family of Raleigh, which inherited the Domesday Book Beaumont manors of Shirwell and Loxhore and which moved its seat from Raleigh to Youlston in the late 17th century. William Beaumont (1427–1453). Philip Beaumont (1432–1473), of Shirwell in North Devon and of Gittisham in East Devon, Member of Parliament for a constituency in Devon and Sheriff of Devon in 1469.Beaumont, T, p.64, exact constituency not stated. No entry as yet for him in History of Parliament on-line. Quoting: "Transactions of the Devonshire Society, Vol.50, p.445" He was the rightful heir of his elder brother William Beaumont (1427–1453), a substantial landholder, but faced claims to his inheritance from his bastard nephew, John Bodrugan, "The Beaumont Bastard", the illegitimate son of Joan Courtenay,Pole, Sir William (died 1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.408, Shirwell; also p.167, Gittesham, with omission of "of Powderham" (Neither "Sir William Courtenay" nor a daughter Joan are mentioned in Vivian's Heraldic Visitation of Devon (1895), p.246, pedigree of Courtenay of Powderham) William's wife.
Bodrugan (Beaumont)
Beaumont of Leicestershire
Putt
The descent of Combe in the Putt family was as follows: Nicholas Putt, Sheriff of Devon in 1644, who purchased Combe in 1614. His father and grandfather had lived at Berry Pomeroy. During the Civil War he was a Royalist and in 1644 he was arrested at Combe by Parliamentarian forces, at which time the house was ransacked and set on fire. On the way to imprisonment and trial in London, he died at Axminster in Devon. William Putt (died 1663), son and heir, married Jane Every, daughter of William Every of Cothays, Somerset.
Sir Thomas Putt, 1st Baronet (1644–1686), eldest son and heir, created a baronet in 1666. He served as Member of Parliament for Honiton, Devon, March 1679, October 1679, 1681, 16 April - 15 June 1685 and 3 October 1685 - 25 June 1686. He was Mayor of Honiton in 1685. He married Ursula Cholmondeley (died 1674), daughter of Col. Richard Cholmondeley (1620–1644), of Grosmont, county York, Knight,Courthope, William John, Synopsis of the extinct baronetage of England : containing the date of the creation, with the succession of baronets, and their respective marriages and the time of death; "Daughter of Sir Richard Cholmondeley, Baronet" (non-existent person), per Prince, John, (1643–1723) The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, London, p.67 a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Braganza, wife of King Charles II (1660–1685). Richard Cholmondeley was a Royalist commander during the Civil War, and had served as Governor of Axminster and was a son-in-law to John Poulett, 1st Baron Poulett, (1585–1649) of Hinton St George, Somerset. He was killed at Lyme Regis in Dorset in October 1644 and was buried at Brixton, Devon.Roberts, George, The History and Antiquities of the Borough of Lyme Regis and Charmouth, London, 1834, p.103 He was the son of Sir Richard Cholmondeley (Cholmley, Cholmely, 1580–1631), of Whitby, Yorkshire, MP for Scarborough 1620-1, member of a junior branch of the Cholmondley family of Cholmondley in Cheshire, later Earl of Leinster and Marquess of Cholmondley. Sir Thomas Putt's monument survives in Gittisham Church, described by Pevsner (2004) as:Pevsner, Nikolaus & Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p.457 "A spectacular affairwith a big tomb-chest in an arched recess of black marble. On the chest two oversized garlanded white marble urns. The back wall of the recess with blank architecture of pediment on brackets. The whole cold, competent, expensive and metropolitan". The maker was possibly William Stanton or William Kidwell, with urns possibly by Edward Pierce.Pevsner, p.457 On the back wall are shown the arms of Putt: Argent, a lion rampant within a mascle sable, with a canton of the Red Hand of Ulster for a baronet, impaling Cholmondeley: Gules, in chief two esquire's helmets argent in base a garb or.Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p.250, Marquess of Cholmondeley Sir Thomas Putt, 2nd Baronet (c. 1675 – 1721). He married twice, firstly to Margaret Trevelyan, daughter of Sir George Trevelyan, 1st Baronet (c. 1635 – 1671) of Nettlecombe in Somerset, and secondly to .... Prestwood. He died without male children when the baronetcy became extinct. His funeral hatchment survives in Gittisham Church.Summers, Peter & Titterton, John, (eds.), Hatchments in Britain, Vol.7: Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Somerset; Phillimore Press, Chichester, Sussex, 1988, p.24 William Thomas Putt (1725–1797), 18th century clergyman and squire of the Combe estate He obtained a BCL in 1751. Thomas Putt (1757–1787), "Black Tom", descendant. He was educated at Queens College, Oxford, and later trained as a lawyer in the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar. He was a keen gardener and planted Beech Walk, Bellevue and the terraced gardens at Combe. He was probably the creator of the "Tom Putt" variety of apple tree, as is suggested by his having won prizes at the Honiton Horticultural Shows for his fruit trees.* He made considerable additions to Combe House, including the surviving "Georgian Kitchen" and the Orangery, intended to have been three times the size of the completed building. His epithet "Black Tom" derives from his notoriously bad temper. It is said by residents of the village of Gittisham that when the church bells rang they were repeating "Hang Tom Putt". William Putt, brother and heir, who completed "Black Tom"'s building works on a reduced scale.