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Stevenstone is a former Manorialism within the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington, North Devon. It was the chief seat of the Rolle family, one of the most influential and wealthy of Devon families, from c. 1524 until 1907. The Rolle estates as disclosed by the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 (corrected by Bateman, 1883) comprised 55,592 acres producing an annual gross income of £47,170, and formed the largest estate in Devon, followed by the Duke of Bedford's estate centred on Tavistock comprising 22,607 with an annual gross value of nearly £46,000.Hoskins, p.88. 3rd was the Earl of Devon with 20,589 acres worth £31,000, 4th was the Fortescue family of Castle Hill with 20,171 acres, worth over £17,000 p/a, 5th was the Duchy of Cornwall with 48,457 acres, much of it moorland, with an annual value of under £5,000
From the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the Reform Act 1832 the county parliamentary representatives were chosen effectively from only ten great families, mostly territorial magnates. The three most dominant of these were the Baron Poltimore of Poltimore House and North Molton, the Courtenays of Powderham Castle, and the Rolles of Stevenstone and Bicton.Hoskins, p.183 The Rolles were not from the mediaeval aristocracy as were the Courtenays, but were descended from an able lawyer and administrator of the Tudor era, as were the Russells, later Earls and Dukes of Bedford. Both Russells and Rolles acquired much former monastic land in Devon following the dissolution of the monasteries. Indeed, the Rolles were in the opinion of Hoskins (1954) "second only to the Russells in the extent of their monastic and other lands and in time were to surpass them".Hoskins, p.84
In 1669 Sir John Rolle (died 1706), KB of Stevenstone had an annual income of £6,000 making him "one of the richest gentlemen in the country".Quoted from "Tour of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1669", quoted in Hoskins, p.86 He died in 1706 seized of more than 40 manors in Devon.Hoskins, p.87, Quoting Lysons, Magna Britannia, 82,b
The family built several different houses on the same site known as Stevenstone House, the last Victorian house version of which was built between 1868 and 1872. It was significantly reduced in size soon after 1912 and then after 1931 it was gradually demolished piecemeal for building materials.
He was followed by another John, Walter and John de Stephenston. The latter left a daughter Elizabeth de Stephenston his sole heiress, who brought the manor by marriage to her husband Grant of Westlegh, near Bideford. Grant was himself also lacking in male progeny and left two daughters joint heiresses, one of whom married Monk of Potheridge, whilst the other married a member of the Moyle family, who received Stevenstone as his wife's share of the inheritance. He made it his chief residence, and Prince suggests, on the basis of Tristram Risdon's assertion, that his descendant Sir Walter Moyle, a Justice of the King's Bench in 1454, was born here.
The male descendants up to 1842 of George Rolle included about twenty members of parliament. In 1842 died the last of the male line, John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1750–1842), descended from George Rolle's second son George Rolle (died 1573) of the manor of Marrais in the parish of Week St Mary in Cornwall, which manor had been procured for him by his father who had obtained the wardship of Margaret of Marrais and bequeathed the same in his will to his son George, who became her husband.
The descendants of George Rolle the patriarch's eldest son John Rolle (died 1570) failed in the male line in 1642 on the death of the infant John Rolle (1638–1642). Stevenstone and several other manors which had by then been accumulated by purchase and inheritance from heiresses, passed eventually to Sir John Rolle (1626–1706), the grandson of George Rolle (died 1573) of Marrais. Some of the estates of the patriarch's fourth son Henry Rolle of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, also reverted to the line of George Rolle of Marais on the failure in the male line in 1747 on the death of Samuel Rolle of Hudscott, Chittlehampton.
Two Palladian outbuildings serving as Orangery and "Library Room"Library Room, term used in will of Baron Rolle (died 1842), referring to the bequest of his books were built next to the house by John Rolle (1679–1730), MP, and the Library shows above the keystone of its central arch the arms of Rolle impaling the arms of the Walter Baronets of Sarsden, Oxfordshire, the family of his wife Isabella Walter (died 1734). Hoskins states that the manor house itself was rebuilt or remodelled sometime in the 18th century, Pevsner states c. 1709,Pevsner, p.760 perhaps therefore at the same time as the building of the outbuildings. An engraving of this Georgian house survives, by James Bingley, published in 1831.
In 1891 aged 8 he was living with his widowed mother at Brookfield House, Bury Old Road, Broughton, Salford. He attended Windermere College Preparatory School, in the parish of St Mary's Church Applethwaite, Windermere, in which church his name appears on a memorial tablet "Boys of the Old College who fell in the Great War". He later attended Sedbergh School between 1897 and July 1900. In the 1901 census he was residing at Red House, Windermere, as a boarder in a preparatory school with three other pupils. He matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford in 1901. He described himself in about 1909 as a "Gentleman farmer of Peagham (Barton), Torrington", which was one of the farms of the Stevenstone estate, about 3/4 mile north of Stevenstone House. On 10 July 1909 he applied for a commission in the Royal North Devon Hussars, and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant on 17 July 1909.
In 1911, unmarried and aged 28, he was staying at Bydown House, Swimbridge, near Barnstaple, as a guest of Robert Jameson and his wife Margaret (née McKinnon), who was the brother-in-law of Mary McKinnon, also then residing in the house, aged 28 and born in Calcutta, Clemson's future wife. Includes information from the 1911 census. In 1912 at Paddington, London, he married Mary McKinnon, 3rd daughter of the late John McKinnon of 10 Hyde Park Gardens, London. They had one daughter. The new owners demolished about half of the east front of the house including the main tower and one corner tower, to make it more manageable, presumably due to the war-time lack of domestic staff. He was Master of the Stevenstone Foxhounds.
Captain Clemson was mobilised on 4 August 1914 and sailed for Gallipoli on 24 September 1914, as part of the South Western Mounted Brigade, during which campaign he died from wounds on 9 December 1915. He is remembered by a monument in St Giles' Church inscribed as follows: "In Loving Memory of John Oliver Clemson, of Stevenstone, Captain Royal North Devon Hussars, who was killed in action in Gallipoli 9th December 1915, aged 33. A great and glorious thing it is to die for one's country". He is recorded on the Exeter College, Oxford Roll of Honour, and also on the Altrincham & District Roll of Honour.
His widow Mary erected a bronze memorial tablet in the church naming the twelve men of the parish who had lost their lives in World War I, reported on in the local press thus: "Following the unveiling by Mrs. Clemson, and the dedication by the Vicar (Rev. C. Walker), the "Last Post" and Reveille were sounded on cornets, and the effect was grand in its solemnity. Special hymns and psalms were sung by the choir, and the Vicar based his address on the significance of the memorial". His grave is in the Lala Baba Cemetery in Turkey. Mrs Clemson remarried to Col. B.C. James, 8th Devon Regiment, awarded the DSO on 1 January 1917, and remained at Stevenstone.
In the summer of 1931 the house and some of the parkland was purchased by Mr George Millman, the tenant of Winscott Barton (the ancient home of Tristram Risdon), by then part of the Stevenstone estate, within the parish of St Giles.The Millman family purchased the freehold of Winscott at the dispersal sale of the Rolle Estate He immediately offered it for sale as building materials prior to complete demolition, split into 609 lots. Lot 609 was the residual shell of the house itself after all else had been sold in the previous lots. Mr Millman however changed his intention against selling, but by then the auction could not be stopped. He bought-in as many lots as he could, and the house continued for a few more years, reduced in size again by the demolition of the servants' wing which connected the house to the stable block.
The house was still habitable during World War II as troops were stationed there, namely the Warwickshire Regiment and later American troops. After the war Mr Millman finally sold the house to Mr Melville, who contrary to his stated intention at the time of purchase, proceeded to demolish it. He used much of the stone to convert the stable block into terraced housing and built several smaller houses and bungalows around it and in the former walled kitchen garden.
In 1970 the vestigial ruins of Stevenstone House were purchased by Mr Parnell, who had purchased the Deer Park in the 1931 sale and had built a bungalow next to the ruins. Although the adjacent detached Library Room and the Orangery were granted Listed building on 4 October 1960, the ruins of Stevenstone House received much later on 16 February 1989 a Listed building, offering them protection from demolition, but they have continued to deteriorate from adverse weather and are as at 2012 totally covered in ivy.
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