Mount Radford, Exeter


Mount Radford is an historic estate in the parish of St Leonards, adjacent to the east side of the City of Exeter in Devon.

Descent

Radford

Edward Hancock (c.1560–1603)

Edward Hancock was the son and heir of William Hancock of Combe Martin. He was MP for Plympton Erle, Barnstaple and Aldborough. He matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1578 and entered the Inner Temple c.1580 and was called to the bar in 1590. He was Clerk of Assize on the western circuit in 1590. He married Dorothy Bampfield, daughter of Sir Amyas Bampfylde, MP, of Poltimore near Exeter and North Molton in North Devon. Edward Hancock committed suicide on 6 September 1603. He left a one-year-old son and heir William II Hancock. Dorothy survived her husband and received Mount Radford as her dower house, where she lived with her second husband. She remarried to the highly influential Sir John Doddridge, a Justice of the King's Bench, and contemporary of her father, who had purchased as his seat the North Devon estate of Bremridge, near Dorothy's father's seat of North Molton. She was a Maid of Honour to Queen Elizabeth I and has a sumptuous monument to her memory in the Lady chapel of Exeter Cathedral, next to that of Dodderidge.

William II Hancock (d.1625)

The father of William II Hancock committed suicide when William was an infant aged one year. His mother Dorothy Bampfield then remarried, as his 2nd wife, the highly influential Sir John Doddridge, a Justice of the King's Bench, and contemporary of her father, who had purchased as his seat the estate of Bremridge, near Dorothy's father's seat of North Molton. They had no children. His mother then Lady
Dodderidge died in 1617 when William was aged 15 and he appears to have remained in the care of his step-father Dodderidge, who remarried to Anne Culme, the granddaughter of Hugh II Culme of Molland-Champson, a manor adjoining North Molton. Anne thus effectively became William's step-mother. She had previously been married to Gabriel Newman, a member of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in the City of London, to whom she had borne a daughter Judith Newman, who was 6 years william's junior. The Newman family later were seated at Baconsthorpe in Norfolk, in the parish church of which are some grave-slabs sculpted with the family's arms. At or before her 17th birthday she and the 23-year-old William were married and had two children:
At the time of her 1st husband's death in 1625 Sir John Dodderidge and his wife Anne Culme were then still living and presumably had some part in the care of the now fatherless infant. Judith soon remarried to Thomas II Ivatt, but died aged 26 having given birth to a son and heir Thomas III Ivatt, who later resided at Shobrooke near Crediton. Thomas II Ivatt was the eldest son of
Thomas I Ivatt, who had purchased in 1624 for the sum of £3,000 a lease of the profitable office of "Searcher of the Port of London" the reversion of which he bequeathed in his will to his son Thomas II Ivatt together with the sum of £400 to cover the cost of acquiring a new royal patent. Philipa, The widow of Thomas I Ivatt, of unknown family, was a lunatic, and her wardship was sold by the king in 1629 to the poet Aurelian Townsend
They had the following progeny:
Judith's second husband Thomas II Ivatt erected a monument with a bust in white marble of his wife in Combe Martin church, positioned on the north wall of the north aisle chapel above the vestry door. This is similar in design to the contemporary monument to Penelope Noel in Chipping Campden Church, Gloucestershire. It is inscribed thus:
"Memoriae Amoris Sacrum. Here lyeth the body of Judith first the wyfe of William Hancock Lord of this mannor by whome she had issue John & Ann, after the wyfe of Thomas Ivatt Es some tymes His Mat's printcipail sercher in the Port of London at whose cost this monument was erected. Shee had issue by him Thomas & Judith Ivatt. Shee departed this life 28 May 1634 Ao Aetatis 26. Solus Christus mihi salus".
"Grace meekenes love religion modistye
Seem'd in this mirrour of her sex to dye
For hir soule's lover in hir lyfe did give
To hir as many vertues as could live
And thus full beutifyed by heavenly arte
Earth claim'd hir body Heaven hir better parte"
Judith was buried in the middle of the aisle of this chapel, in the floor of which exists a large sandstone ledger slab inscribed thus:
"Fuimus Here lyeth the body of Judith Ivatt wife of Thomas Ivatt Es. for whome he lay'd this stone & erected the monument in the north isle of this chancel. Erimus".

John Hancock (1625–1661)

John Hancock, eldest son and heir, who was an infant aged 1 year at his father's death. He became a ward of the king. He married Mary Sainthill, daughter of Peter Sainthill of Bradninch, by whom he had 3 children:
John Colesworthy was the owner of the estate in 1755 when he was declared bankrupt and sold the house with 17 acres of land to John Baring for 2,000 guineas.

Baring

Mount Radford was next acquired by the Baring family, substantial local merchants and bankers who founded the international banking house of Baring Brothers.
In 1826 the house became a school, known variously as "Mount Radford School", "The Exeter Public School" or "Mount Radford College". The school remained extant in nearby buildings after Mount Radford House was demolished in 1902. A famous Old Radfordian pupil was the comedian Tommy Cooper.

Sale of land

In 1832 the horticulturalist James Veitch, who worked for the Aclands of Killerton, purchased 25 acres of land on the estate.

Demolition and development

In 1902 the house was demolished and the grounds were used for housing development now forming part of the eastern suburbs of Exeter. The area is now covered by Barnardo Road and Cedars Road.