Blagdon, Paignton


Blagdon historically in the parish of Paignton in Devon, England, is a historic Manor, the seat of the Kirkham family from the 13th to 17th centuries. The manor house known as Blagdon Manor survives as a grade II* listed building about two miles west of the historic centre of the town of Paignton, situated behind the "Blagdon Inn" public house, and almost surrounded by the "Devon Hills Holiday Park" of caravans and mobile homes, set-back at the end of a short driveway off the A385 Paignton to Totnes road. The settlements or farms of Higher Blagdon, Middle Blagdon and Lower Blagdon are situated to the north of the manor house.
In the ancient Church of St John, the parish church of Paignton, survives the Kirkham Chantry Chapel, occupying the south transept, "without a doubt the chief interest of the church", consisting of an elaborately sculpted stone screen erected by the Kirkham family of Blagdon, towards the end of the 15th century, with a further 17th century monument.

Descent

Dennis

The Dennis family had been seated at Pancras Week in the parish of Bradworthy, Devon, since before the reign of King Henry II. The holder during that reign was Raph Dennis, whose second son William Dennis founded the line of Dennis of Orleigh, in North Devon. The family was of Danish origin and at the start of the age of heraldry adopted for their arms: Azure, three Danish battle axes or. The name was created in Anglo-Norman French as le Daneis and was Latinized as Dacus, being the adjectival form of the noun Dacia, mediaeval Latin for "Denmark".

Sir Henry Dennis

Sir Henry Dennis of Pancras Week and Blagdon, left three children:
  • Sir Robert Dennis, son and heir, died without issue and bequeathed his estates to his two sisters:
  • Margaret Dennis, who married Sir Reginald Ferrers of Bere Ferrers in Devon, who inherited Pancras Week;
  • Agatha Dennis, who married Sir Nicholas Kirkham, who inherited Blagdon and Collaton Clavill.

Kirkham

Robert Kirkham (fl.1417)

The earliest descendant of Sir Nicholas Kirkham and Agatha Dennis recorded in the Heraldic Visitations of Devon is Robert Kirkham, who married Agnes, a daughter of Sir William Hankford of Annery in Devon, Chief Justice of the King's Bench.

Robert Kirkham (died 1443)

Robert Kirkham, son and heir, who married Elizabeth Scobhull, widow of Robert Trebell and daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Scobhull of Scobhull in the parish of South Pool near Kingsbridge, Devon. The arms of Scobhull were quartered by Kirkham.

Robert Kirkham

Robert Kirkham, eldest son and heir, aged 11 at his father's death. He died childless aged 19.

Nicholas Kirkham (1433/4 – 1516)

Nicholas Kirkham, younger brother, whose effigy survives in the Kirkham Chantry, which he is believed to have built. He married Jane Waye, daughter and heiress of Robert Waye of Marsh in the parish of Newton St Cyres, Devon. His daughter Margaret Kirkham married three times, into various prominent Devon families, firstly to John Cheney of Pinhoe, whose sister Cecily Cheney was the mother of Sir William Courtenay "The Great" of Manor of Powderham. His second son Nicholas Kirkham inherited his mother's manor of Marsh and married Katherine Bonville, a daughter of John Bonville, bastard son of the magnate William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville, of Chewton, Somerset.

Sir John Kirkham (1472–1529)

Sir John Kirkham, eldest son and heir, Sheriff of Devon in 1523/4. According to the Devonshire biographer [John John Prince (biographer)|Prince (biographer)|Prince], he was a "very free and liberal,... prudent and discreet" benefactor of the town of Honiton in Devon. He married four times:
  • Firstly to a daughter of the Moore family of Moor Hayes in the parish of Cullompton in Devon. The marriage was childless but is memorialised on one of the sculpted oak heraldic shields on the parclose screen of the Moorehayes Chapel of Cullompton Church, displaying Kirkham impaling Moore.
  • Secondly to a daughter of Sir Thomas Fulford of Great Fulford in the parish of Dunsford, Devon, by his wife Phillipa Courtenay, a daughter of Sir Philip Courtenay of Powderham. They had no children.
  • Thirdly to Luce Tremayle, a daughter of Sir Thomas Tremayle, by whom he had issues, including his son and heir Thomas Kirkham.
  • Fourthly to Jane Mathew, daughter and heiress of William Mathew of Milton, without issue.

Thomas Kirkham (1504-1551/2)

Thomas Kirkham, eldest son and heir, who married twice:
  • Firstly to Margaret Ferrers, daughter and heiress of Richard Ferrers by his wife Jane Malherbe, daughter and heiress of Sir John Malherbe, whose arms were: Or, a chevron gules between three nettle leaves erect proper. The marriage is commemorated in the 5th and 6th quarters of the 16th c. shield of six quarters surviving in the Kirkham Chantry. By his first marriage he had children including George Kirkham, eldest son and heir.
  • Secondly he married Thomasine Carew, only daughter of Sir William Carew of Mohuns Ottery in Devon, by his wife Joane Courtenay, a daughter of Sir William Courtenay of Powderham, Sheriff of Devon in 1483, by his wife Margaret Bonville, daughter of William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville. His daughter from this marriage was Thomasine Kirkham, heiress of Mohuns Ottery, who married Thomas Southcott.

George Kirkham (1525-1581/2)

George Kirkham, eldest son and heir, who was the builder of the surviving Blagdon manor house, as is evidenced by a datestone inscribed "1567" on the external wall of the great hall. He married Margaret Dennis, a daughter of Sir Thomas Dennis of Holcombe Burnell, near Exeter in Devon, Sheriff of Devon nine times between 1507/8 to 1553/4 and a Member of Parliament for Devon. He died without surviving issue, having had a daughter Elizabeth, who died unmarried and was said by Prince to have been a dwarf. His heir was his nephew Sir William Kirkham.

Sir William Kirkham (died 1623)

Sir William Kirkham, nephew, son of Richard Kirkham of Pinhoe in Devon by his wife Agnes Cape of Somerset. He married Mary Tichbourne, a daughter of Peter Tichbourne of Hampshire and a sister of Chidiock Tichbourne, a conspirator and poet. By Mary he had 8 sons and 4 daughters, the second son being Francis Kirkham who married the heiress of Roope of Bidwell, Newton St Cyres, and founded the line of Kirkham of Bidwell. His kneeling effigy, dressed in armour with neck-ruff and bareheaded, survives in the Kirkham Chantry, facing that of his wife. Between the figures is a column on which is sculpted at top a sunburst inscribed with the letters "IHS" below which is inscribed "SPES ET", below which is a crown, the browband of which is inscribed "CORONA", below which is a pair of hearts overlapping. At the base of the central column is a heraldic shield sculpted with six quarters, apparently not in its original position. The two outermost columns are each decorated with four heraldic shields, seven of which have been chiselled flat and unintelligible. The only arms still visible are on the top left shield, showing Kirkham impaling a field vair, but with the chief chiselled flat. On top of all three columns is a putto, with wings folded over his chest, but with face features chiselled away. The monument was "covered with plaster" until 1753, when on its removal the following inscription was revealed :


Richard Kirkham (died 1631)

Richard Kirkham, eldest son and heir, who married "the heiress of Oldham" near Tilbury in Essex, and left a daughter and sole heiress Mary Kirkham, who married Sir George Blount, 2nd Baronet of Sodington in the parish of Mamble in Worcestershire, to whom the manor of Blagdon passed.

Blount

Sir George Blount, 2nd Baronet (died 1667)

Sir George Blount, 2nd Baronet of Sodington in the parish of Mamble in Worcestershire, married Mary Kirkham, heiress of Blagdon. His eldest son Sir Walter Kirkham Blount, 3rd Baronet, inherited his paternal estates, including Sodington. "The Blounts were notable for their faithful adherence to the Roman Catholic faith, and they gave the most zealous support to the Crown in the Civil War". Mary Kirkham bequeathed Blagdon to her third son Edward Blount.

Edward Blount (died 1726)

Edward Blount of Blagdon, third son, who inherited his maternal estates. As a Roman Catholic he was associated with the Howard family, Dukes of Norfolk, the leading Catholic family in England. On 6 June 1716, together with Lord George Howard,, the eldest half-brother of Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk, he "successfully petitioned the House of Lords for counsel to argue against provisions in the Papists' Estates Bill, read 18th May 1716, which threatened to ruin their credit". Shortly thereafter Edward Blount went into exile with his family in Bruges, but had returned to England by 1721. In 1708 Edward Blount married Anne Guise, a daughter of Sir John Guise, 2nd Baronet of Elmore in Gloucestershire, which marriage was commemorated by the surviving heraldic overmantel above the fireplace of the great hall of Blagdon manor house. This shows the initials "EB" and displays the arms of Blount impaling Gules, seven mascles vair 3,3,1 above a scroll inscribed with a Latin motto Lux Tua Via Mea with the date "1708". In 1717 "Edward Blount of Blagdon" registered his landholdings under the Registration of Papists' Estates, legislation passed following the Jacobite uprising of 1715. Edward Blount was a friend and patron of the poet Alexander Pope, and much correspondence between the two men during the years 1714-25 survives. Both were Roman Catholics.
Edward Blount left three daughters as his co-heiresses:

Parker

Francis Parker (1701-post 1757)

Blagdon remained a seat of the Blount family until it was acquired as his residence by Francis Parker, the fourth son of George Parker of Boringdon Hall, Plympton, and of North Molton, Devon, who purchased Saltram near Plymouth, later the principal seat of his descendants. Francis Parker of Blagdon left three daughters including:
  • Anne Parker, who married the banker John Baring, MP, of Mount Radford near Exeter, eldest brother of Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet. In 1757 her father entered into a marriage settlement on her behalf.
  • Elizabeth Parker, who married firstly to Thomas Baring of Larkbear, near Exeter, a younger brother of her sister's husband John Baring ; secondly to William Spicer of Wear, thirdly to John Fryer of Exeter.

John Parker (1703-1768)

Francis's heir was his elder brother John Parker of Boringdon Hall, Plympton, and Saltram House, who in 1725 married Catherine Poulett, a daughter of John Poulett, 1st Earl Poulett, by his wife Bridget Bertie a granddaughter of Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey. In 1763 John Parker leased Blagdon and other lands to his wife's relatives as is recorded on a deed in the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office summarised as follows:

Montagu Edmund Parker (1737–1813)

As John Parker's eldest son John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon inherited his paternal estates, Blagdon and Collaton Kirkham descended to John Parker's second son Montagu Edmund Parker. A Funerary hatchment to him survives in St John's Church, Paignton.
The public house in Collaton St Mary is called the "Parkers Arms" after the tenure of the Parker family.

Hogg

In 1864 Rev. John Roughton Hogg, of Blagdon, Vicar of Torwood, a Justice of the Peace for Devon,, commenced building the "evocative Victorian group" of church, school and vicarage at the adjoining manor of Collaton, to the design of J.W.Rowell, to commemorate his daughter Mary Maxwell Hogg, who died aged 17 and was buried at Brixham and re-interred in his new church in 1867. His diary between 1859 and 1862 survives in the Devon Archives. Hogg's wife was Anna Maria Maxwell Lyte, only daughter of Rev. Henry Francis Lyte, of nearby Berry Head, Brixham, who composed the well-known hymns "Abide with me", "Praise my soul the King of Heaven" and "Pleasant are thy courts above". The inscribed Hogg Memorial erected by him in 1867 and situated 6 metres south of the chancel wall, is a grade II listed structure made of white Italian marble on red breccia base with a marble cross on a 3-tier plinth with breccia base with red breccia kerbs.
Until that time the parish church of Blagdon had been St John's Church in Paignton, the mediaeval parish church in which is situated the Kirkham Chantry Chapel. Other new churches were built at that time in and around Paignton and Torquay to cater for the greatly expanded populations due to the development of the Torbay area as a seaside resort.