Great Fulford


Great Fulford is an historic estate in the parish of Dunsford, Devon. The grade I listed manor house, known as Great Fulford House, is about 9 miles west of Exeter. Its site was said in 1810 to be "probably the most ancient in the county". The present mansion house is Tudor with refurbishment from the late 17th century and further remodelling from about 1800. The prefix "Great" dates from the late 17th century and served to distinguish it from the mansion house known as "Little Fulford" in the parish of Shobrooke, Devon, about 8 miles to the north-east, also owned briefly by Col. Francis Fulford, as a result of his marriage to the heiress of the Tuckfield family. Great Fulford has been the residence of the Fulford family, which took its name from the estate, from the reign of King Richard I to the present day. There are thus few, if any, families in Devonshire of more ancient recorded origin still resident at their original seat. In 2004 the estate comprised 3,000 acres.

Descent

The descent of the estate was as follows:

Honour of Okehampton

In the Domesday Book of 1086, Foleford is listed as the 132nd of the 176 holdings of Baldwin FitzGilbert, Sheriff of Devon, an Anglo-Norman magnate and one of the 52 Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. He was the first feudal baron of Okehampton, which barony, known as the Honour of Okehampton, was later inherited by the Courtenay family, later Earls of Devon.

Modbert

Baldwin FitzGilbert's tenant in 1086 was Modbert, who also held from him the Devonshire manors of Kelly, Broadwood Kelly, Eggbeer and Uppacott.

Kelly

Modbert's heirs in all these five manors appear to have been the de Kelly family, which as recorded in the Book of Fees continued to hold from the Honour of Okehampton, and which survives today in 2014 as one of the most ancient of Devonshire families, still resident at Kelly House, the manor house of Kelly, Devon..

Fulford

Pre-15th century Fulfords

The de Fulford family is first recorded as resident at Fulford during the reign of King Richard I. According to Rev. John Prince, the name of this family was Latinized to de Turpi Vado. Records of Feudal Aids record John de Kelli had as his tenant of Fulford a certain William de Foleford. The descent of Fulford was as follows:
Sir Baldwin de Fulford , Sheriff of Devon in 1460, a Knight of the Sepulchre and Under-Admiral to John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, High Admiral of England. According to the Devonshire biographer John Prince :
In commemoration of this victory supporters to the arms of the family were granted of two Saracens, which they still retain, and which survive today sculpted in relief on the 16th century wooden panelling of the Great Hall of Great Fulford House, as Prince noted. The carved wooden figure of a Saracen tops the newel post at the base of the Great Staircase.
He may be the same Sir Baldwin Fulford who as is recorded by Stow was executed in Bristol Castle in 1461, in fulfilment of his bond to King Edward IV that he would either kill the Earl of Warwick, who was then plotting to dethrone the reigning sovereign, or lose his own head.
He married Elizabeth Bosome, daughter and heiress of John Bosome of Bosom's Hele, in the parish of Dittisham, near Dartmouth, Devon, by his wife Johane Fortescue. Elizabeth Bozom survived her husband and married secondly to Sir William Huddesfield, of Shillingford St. George, Devon, Attorney General to King Edward IV. Huddesfield married secondly to Katherine Courtenay, a daughter of Sir Philip Courtenay of Powderham, Devon. A monumental brass of Huddesfield and his second wife Katherine Courtenay survives in Shillingford St George Church, and the arms of Bosome survive in a stained glass window in the same church. By Jennet Bosome, heiress of Bozum's Hele, he had children two sons and two daughters, namely Thomasine Fulford, who married John Wise of Sydenham House, from whom was descended John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, the most powerful magnate in Devon, and another daughter Alice Fulford, who married Sir William Cary of Cockington, from whom was descended Lord Hunsdon and the Earls of Monmouth and Dover. His younger son was John Fulford, a Canon of Exeter Cathedral and Archdeacon successively of Totnes, Cornwall and Exeter, whose large black marble ledger stone survives in Exeter Cathedral, behind the high altar, inscribed as follows in Gothic letters: Hic jacet magist Joannes Fulford filius Baldwini Fulford milit, hui eccle Resid. pr. Archid. Tottn. deinde Cornub' ult. Exon, q obiit xix die Januarii A D xv.xviii cui aie ppitietur Deus.
The manor of Bosom's Hele was inherited by the Fulford family and the arms of Bozom appear in the 5th quarter of the 16th century relief sculpted escutcheon over the main entrance to Great Fulford House.

Sir Thomas Fulford (died 1489)

Sir Thomas Fulford , who married his step-father's sister-in-law, Phillipa Courtenay, a daughter of Sir Philip Courtenay of Powderham, and sister of Katherine Courtenay, second wife of Sir William Huddesfield. Vivian states him to have died on 20 February 1489 with an inquisition post mortem having been held in 1490, but Burke states him to have been beheaded in 1461 after fighting for the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton. His second son appears to have been Sir Thomas Fulford who in 1497 was with Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon at the relief of the City of Exeter following the siege by Perkin Warbeck.

Sir Humphrey Fulford (1467–1508)

Sir Humphrey Fulford , who married Florence Bonville, a daughter and co-heiress of John Bonville of Shute, Devon, nephew of the Devon magnate William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville, the latter who during the Wars of the Roses was an enemy of the Courtenay Earls of Devon and an ally of their cousins the Courtenays of Powderham. The marriage was without children.

William Fulford (1476–1517)

William Fulford, younger brother, married Jane Bonville, one of the six daughters and co-heiresses of John Bonville of Combe Raleigh, illegitimate son of the Devon magnate William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville, of Shute, by his mistress, Elizabeth Kirkby. John's wife was Alice Dennis, daughter and sole heiress of William Dennis, by his wife Joan St Aubyn, heiress of Combe Raleigh. Joan was one of two daughters and co-heiresses of Sir John St Aubyn of Combe Raleigh and his wife Catherine Chalons, daughter and heiress of Sir Robert Chalons. The arms of Dennis of Glamorgan, St Aubyn and Chalons form the last three quarters on the 16th century stone escutcheon over the entrance archway into the courtyard of Great Fulford House.

Sir John Fulford (1503–1544)

Sir John Fulford , twice Sheriff of Devon in 1534 and 1540. He married Dorothy Bourchier, a daughter of John Bourchier, 1st Earl of Bath, of Tawstock, Devon. She survived him and remarried to Walter Denys of Holcombe Burnell, Devon. His daughter Elizabeth Fulford married Humphrey Arundell of Helland in Cornwall, the leader of Cornish forces in the Prayer Book Rebellion who was executed at Tyburn.

Sir John Fulford (1524–1580)

Sir John Fulford , twice Sheriff of Devon in 1557 and 1576. He married firstly Anna Denys, a daughter of Sir Thomas Denys of Holcombe Burnell, Devon, six times Sheriff of Devon during the reign of King Henry VIII.

Sir Thomas Fulford (1553–1610)

Sir Thomas Fulford , who in 1580 married Ursula Bampfield, a daughter of Richard Bampfield of Poltimore, Devon, Sheriff of Devon in 1576, ancestor of the Bampfield Baronets and Barons Poltimore. His monument survives in Dunsford Church, showing recumbent effigies of himself dressed in full armour and his wife with kneeling figures of his children above, 3 sons and 4 daughters, with profuse heraldry on the cornice of Fulford impaling the arms of various wives, including Bampfield: Or, on a bend gules three mullets argent. It is inscribed on two painted wooden panels:
The monument was restored in 1845 by Col. Baldwin Fulford. "The original inscription apparently spoke poisonously of the Roman Catholic Church...at the instigation of a Roman Catholic friend, Dr. Oliver, Col. Baldwin Fulford had the monument restored in 1845, so a new inscription was supplied". The name of Mary, the 4th daughter whose effigy appears on the monument, is omitted. She was the 2nd wife of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, founder of the Province of Maine, known as the "Father of English Colonization in North America".

Col. Sir Francis Fulford (c. 1583 – 1664)

Col. Sir Francis Fulford , a Royalist commander during the Civil War, captured and briefly imprisoned in Devon in early 1643. He maintained a garrison at Great Fulford until December 1645, when he surrendered to Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron. He was pre-deceased by eldest son Thomas Fulford, who was killed at the Siege of Exeter in 1643 during the Civil War. He served as Member of Parliament for Devon in 1625, as a Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset by 1640 and was Sheriff of Dorset for 1642–43. He was fined during the Commonwealth by the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents, but not heavily enough to destroy the family's fortune. He married Elizabeth Samways, a daughter and co-heiress of Bernard Samways of Toller Fratrum and Winsborne in Dorset. He left his wife's Dorset estates, including Toller Fratrum to his 5th, but 2nd surviving, son George Fulford, twice MP for Christchurch in Dorset, in 1679 and 1681, whose son would eventually inherit Fulford on the failure of the senior male line in 1700.

Francis Fulford (1632–1675)

Francis Fulford , who married Susanna Kellond, daughter of John Kellond of Painsford House, Ashprington, Devon, Sheriff of Devon in 1666, whose monument survives in Ashprington Church.

Col. Francis Fulford (1666–1700)

Col. Francis Fulford , twice MP for Callington in Cornwall in 1690-5 and 1698-1700, presumably upon the interest of the influential Rolle family of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, Devon. Samuel Rolle married in 1704 as his second wife Margaret Tuckfield, daughter of Roger Tuckfield, of Raddon, by whom he had a daughter and sole heiress Margaret Rolle, 15th Baroness Clinton. He was also Sheriff of Devon 1689–90 and Mayor of Exeter 1689–90. Col. Francis Fulford married twice, firstly to Margaret Poulett, daughter either of John Poulett, 3rd Baron Poulett , or of John Poulett, 2nd Baron Poulett , both of Hinton St. George, Somerset. A portrait of the 2nd Baron hangs in Great Fulford House. The marriage was without children. Secondly he married Mary Tuckfield, one of the two surviving daughters and co-heiress of John Tuckfield, of Fulford House, in the parish of Shobrooke, by his wife Mary Pincombe, a daughter of John Pincombe, a barrister of the Middle Temple, of South Molton, Devon. According to the Devon topographer John Swete, it was at this time "When the two Fulfords were the possession of one lord" that the epithets "Great" and "Little" were assigned to each property. According to Swete, Col. Fulford:
By his second wife Mary Tuckfield he had one son John Fulford who died an infant. Mary married secondly in 1704 to Henry Trenchard. Col. Francis Fulford repaired Great Fulford House after the extensive damage it suffered during the Civil War. He died without surviving children. His mural monument survives in the Fulford Chapel of Dunsford Church. Inscribed:
Above are shown the arms of Fulford impaling in chief Poulett and in base Tuckfield with the crest of Fulford above: A bear's head and neck erased sable muzzled or

Francis Fulford

Francis Fulford of Toller Fratrum, Dorset, who married a certain Mary.

Francis Fulford (died 1730)

Francis Fulford , who married Catherine Swete, daughter of William Swete.

Francis Fulford (1704–1749)

Francis Fulford, Sheriff of Devon in 1744. He married Ann Chichester, a daughter of Sir Arthur Chichester, 3rd Baronet, MP for Barnstaple of Youlston Park, Shirwell, from one of the most ancient and prominent families of North Devon, formerly of Raleigh, Pilton, near Barnstaple, which seat he sold in 1689 and moved to Youlston. He had 11 children, 8 sons and 3 daughters, including:
John Fulford , known as "Squire John" and "Red Ruin". He married Elizabeth Laroche, daughter of John Laroche. The marriage was without children. In the 1760s he spent lavishly on furnishing and landscaping Great Fulford, which included the creation of the lake and carriage drives through the park. He was one of the last in England to employ a full-time fool "dressed in the motley". In this unusual respect he resembled his contemporary Devonian John Arscott of Tetcott, who kept as a member of his household a dwarf jester named Black John, whose eccentric ways were described in Footprints of Former Men in Cornwall by Robert Stephen Hawker, and also in Devonshire Characters and Strange Events by Sabine Baring-Gould. His portrait showing him dressed as a cavalier in a crimson costume survives at Great Fulford. He overspent and was forced to sell several of his unentailed estates, and moved with his wife to Italy to live more cheaply.

Col. Baldwin Fulford (1775–1847)

Col. Baldwin Fulford . He was an officer in the Inniskillen Dragoons and was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Devon Militia. He married Anna Maria Adams, eldest daughter of William Adams, MP for Totnes, of Bowden House, Ashprington, near Totnes. He had 14 children, among whom was his second son Bishop Francis Fulford, Anglican Bishop of Montreal, Canada, whose son eventually inherited Great Fulford. In 1805 he employed the architect James Wyatt to remodel the house, which resulted in the removal of the gables and the addition of battlements to the parapets and bay windows at the corners, as presently exists. In 1838 he owned the additional estates of Melhuish, Hackworthy and Eggbeer, and in 1810 Lampford, all adjacent to Great Fulford. His monument survives in Dunsford Church.

Col. Baldwin Fulford (1801–1871)

Col. Baldwin Fulford , known as "Baldwin the Bad", a Justice of the Peace for Devon, Chairman of Quarter Sessions and Colonel of the 1st Royal Devon Yeomanry. In 1868 at the age of 67 he married Anna Isabella Giles, eldest daughter of the historian Rev. John Allen Giles, Doctor of Civil Law, Rector of Sutton in Surrey, but died three years later without children. As was the case with his great uncle Squire John, he was extravagant with his finances and by 1861 had accumulated over £60,000 of debts, which he fled the country to escape. The family's fortunes suffered from his legacy for the next century. His monumental brass survives in Dunsford Church inscribed in Latin as follows:
At the left side of the monumental brass is an heraldic achievement showing the arms of Fulford impaling Giles with supporters two Saracens and crest of Fulford: A bear's head and neck erased. The window, depicting Biblical scenes, is on the north side of the Fulford Chapel.

Francis Fulford (1831–1907)

Francis Drummond Fulford . He was the son and heir of Bishop Francis Fulford, Anglican Bishop of Montreal, Canada, by his wife Mary Drummond, eldest daughter of Andrew Berkeley Drummond of Cadlands, Hampshire by his wife Mary Perceval a daughter of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont . He married Mary Anne Holland, daughter of Philip Holland of Cholderton Lodge, Montreal.

Francis Fulford (1861–1926)

Francis Algernon Fulford . Born in Montreal, in 1897 he married Constance Drummond.

Lt.Col. Francis Fulford (1898 – c. 1968)

Lt.Col. Francis Edgar Fulford , who married Joan Blackman, daughter of Rear-Admiral C. Maurice Blackman.

Francis Fulford (born 1952)

, the current owner in 2018, a former stockbroker and insurance broker who has appeared on many reality television shows featuring his house and family. He has undertaken several fund-raising activities, including opening the house on occasion to the public, in order to raise funds to make on-going restorations. He is the author of Bearing Up: The Long View, a work on estate management, agricultural economics and the history of land ownership, one of the aims of which was "to give advice to owners and their heirs about how to survive and thrive" He is married to Kishanda Tulloch, by whom he has four children, whose father William Tulloch was a colonial administrator in Tanzania, Africa, and was author of Nicholas and Kishanda: The Story of an Elephant, a true story about an orphaned elephant calf found in the Kishanda Valley, now a national reserve for elephants in Tanzania.