The Grange, Broadhembury

The Grange is an historic estate in the parish of Broadhembury in Devon, England. The surviving 16th century mansion house (known as The Grange) is a grade I listed building.^[1]

The estate served originally as the grange of nearby Dunkeswell Abbey, the lands of which were sold off by the crown following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The manor of Broadhembury was amongst these possessions and was acquired from the crown by Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton (1505-1550), whose grandson sold it to Edward Drew (c.1542–1598).^[2]

Edward Drew (c.1542–1598)^[5] of Killerton in the parish of Broadclyst, Devon (where he built a new mansion house), purchased the manor of Broadhembury including the lands and buildings of the grange of Dunkeswell Abbey. He was a Serjeant-at-Law to Queen Elizabeth I, and served as a Member of Parliament for Lyme Regis in 1584, twice for Exeter in 1586 and 1588 and in 1592 for the prestigious seat of City of London. He occupied the honourable position of Recorder of the City of London.^[6] He was the eldest son of Thomas Drew (b. 1519) of Sharpham, in the parish of Ashprington, near Totnes, Devon, by his wife Eleanora Huckmore, a daughter and co-heiress of William Huckmore of Devon. He married Bridget FitzWilliam of Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire.

Sir Thomas Drew (d.1651), eldest son and heir, who served as Sheriff of Devon in 1612 under King James I, and was knighted at the coronation of King Charles I.^[7] He sold Killerton to Sir Arthur Acland (d.1610), Knight,^[8] of Acland in the parish of Landkey, Devon, who used it as jointure for his wife Eleanor Mallet.^[9] Sir Arthur Acland's uncle Sir John Acland (d.1620), MP and High Sheriff of Devon had shortly before purchased the adjoining manor of Columb John also in the parish of Broadclyst. Having sold Killerton, Sir Thomas Drew moved his family's residence from Killerton to Broadhembury, where in the words of the Devon historian Sir William Pole (d.1635) he "hath bwilded a fayre howse in this place & hath lardge demesnes & nowe dwelleth theire".^[10] This was The Grange, which remained long after the seat of the family. Here he entertained Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), who subsequently sent him her portrait,^[11] attributed to George Gower (c.1540–1596),^[12] long kept at The Grange,^[13] since 2005 owned by Chris Nightingale of Appleby Castle, Cumbria Historical Portraits Ltd.^[14] Sharpham was sold by the Drew family at some time before 1640^[15] to the Giles family of Bowden, an adjoining estate. Sir Thomas Drew also purchased the estate of Kitton in the parish of Holcombe Rogus, Devon, from Richard Warr.^[16] He married Elizabeth More (d.1635), daughter of Sir Edward More (c.1555-1623) of Odiham in Hampshire,^[17] Member of Parliament for Midhurst in 1584 and for Hampshire in 1601.^[18]

William Drew (1603-1654), eldest son and heir, who married five times but left no progeny.^[19]

Francis Drew (1604-1675), younger brother, baptised at Broadhembury. He married Mary Walrond (d.1699), 2nd daughter of Richard Walrond of Ilbrewers,^[20] descended in a junior line from the Walronds of Sea, Ilminster, Somerset, themselves a junior branch of the Walronds of Bradfield, Uffculme in Devon.^[21] One of his daughters, Bridget Drew, in 1671 married (as his second wife) Francis Fulford (1632-1675) of Great Fulford, Devon.^[22]

Thomas Drewe (1635-1707), eldest son and heir, Sheriff of Devon 1688–9 under King James II and Tory MP for Devon 16 May 1699 to 1700.^[23] He matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford in 1652 and entered Lincoln's Inn in 1655.^[24] In 1661 he married Margaret Prideaux (1631-1695), daughter of Sir Peter Prideaux, 2nd Baronet (1596–1682), of Netherton, Farway, Devon, MP for Honiton in 1661, Sheriff of Devon in 1662^[25] and a poet.^[26] He left no surviving male progeny, only two daughters, the eldest of whom was Elizabeth Drew, wife of Sir Arthur Chichester, 3rd Baronet (d.1717), Member of Parliament for Barnstaple, Devon, formerly of Raleigh, Pilton who built the surviving grand mansion of Youlston Park.^[27] The Drew estates passed, presumably under a tail male, to his younger brother.

Francis Drew (d.1710), younger brother, who owned the Grange for only 3 years until his death in 1710. He hjad married Martha Webb (d.1729) but left only female progeny and died and was buried in the parish of All Hallows in the City of Exeter.^[28]

Edward Drew (d.1714), younger brother, a Canon of Exeter Cathedral, who owned The Grange for only 4 years until his death in 1714. He did however leave male progeny, by his wife Joan Sparrow (d.1703), a daughter and co-heiress of Anthony Sparrow (1612-1685), Bishop of Exeter.^[29]

Francis Drewe (c.1674-1734), son and heir, Member of Parliament for Exeter 1713-1734.^[30] He matriculated at Corpus Christi, Oxford on 2 August 1690, aged 16, and entered the Middle Temple in 1691 and was called to the bar in 1697 and was appointed a bencher in 1723. On 7 January 1695 he married Mary Bidgood (d.1729/30),^[31] a daughter of Humphrey Bidgood of Rockbeare, near Exeter.^[32]

File:Inn sign, Luttrell Arms Hotel - geograph.org.uk - 103648.jpg

Francis Drewe (1712-1773) (son), Sheriff of Devon in 1738, who married twice:

• Firstly in 1737 to Mary Rose (died pre-1753), daughter of Thomas Rose of Wooton FitzPaine of Dorset, by whom he had progeny including Francis Rose Drew (1738-1801), eldest son and heir.
• Secondly in 1753 to Mary Johnson, daughter of Thomas Johnson of London.^[34] Mary Johnson's portrait dated 1754 survives showing her dressed as a shepherdess, in a gold dress, with flowers in her hair, holding a crook in her left hand.^[35] By his second wife he had a daughter Mary Drewe (d.1830) who in 1782 married John I Fownes Luttrell (1752–1816), feudal baron of Dunster of Dunster Castle in Somerset, MP for Minehead (1776–1816). ^[36]

Francis Rose Drew (1738-1801), eldest son and heir by his father's first wife. He purchased the estate of Leyhill in the parish of Payhembury, formerly the seat of the Willoughby family, also of Molland Champson, Devon. There survives of him a portrait silhouette painted on laid card c.1777, probably by Francis Torond.^[37] He died without progeny. In June 1800 he was visited at The Grange by the landowner and landscaping connoisseur Rev. John Swete (d.1821) of Oxton House near Exeter, who made a watercolour painting of the house and recorded the event in his Travel Journal as follows:^[38]

"At this spot I enjoyed for a while the cooling breeze, not undelighted at the same time, nor unemployed, in making a drawing of the house of Grange, a venerable mansion which for the space of two centuries had been the seat of the family of Drewe. The front that offer'd itself to my view, though irregular, did not carry with it an antique look and was by no means to be referr'd to the period of the original erection of the building by Mr Drewe's ancestor, who the first of his family here took up his residence. The cast however of this western front was perhaps of a more picturesque nature than if it had been raised according to the uniform principles of modern architecture^[39] and the varied accomanyments which the prospect from this spot brought together harmonized as well with the mansion as to form a landscape of more than common beauty.

Finding Mr Drewe at home, I was easily prevailed on to stay (to) dinner and as we had yet an hour or two before us, he was so good as to satisfy my curiosity by shewing me his house and the immediate environs. In these latter there was not much to gratify the taste of an amateur of the present style of laying out grounds. Nature had been here divested of her freedom and artless simplicity. Her every look and production was under constraint; the ponds were scooped into parallelograms, the walks were raised on terraces and the trees were planted in military files secundum artem.^[40] Still however as the general tenor of the edifice was Gothic, or at least nothing that approximated to the Grecian style, so I was not displeased in seeing there its appendages associating with it. There was a consistency not only in the general outline, but also in the several inferior and subordinate parts. I saw before me the villa of a country gentleman of family and fortune, such as it might be supposed to have been at the beginning of the 17th century, and as it was a specimen of an antient mode now become obsolete, I had no inconsiderable gratification in tracing it through all its departments...

Whilst escorted around the premises by Mr Drewe, who at the pond fed his carp and in the poultry yard his pheasants (which later followed him as far as their range allowed, eagerly pecking the grain which he drew from the pockets of an old great coat that he wore) whilst he shewed to me his high-bred mares, his cocks that were staunch game, his sheeted cows and the gable end of his barn overspread by the exuviae^[41] of vermin which had been destroyed by the squire: kites, hawks, herons, fitchets, weasils, polecats, otters and innumerate brushes of foxes which he had hunted down with his own dogs; and at the same time whilst I beheld a thin meagre form with a keen eye and animated countenance, lovely fitted to the shell of an old tye perriwig and a surtout somewhat the worse for wear, I could not persuade myself that the proprietor was of a different cast of character with his mansion and his grounds, nor look upon him in any other light than as a curious original of a date not less antique...

Having experienced at the table of Francis Rose Drewe Esqr. all the entertainment which could be derived from the originality of the character of my host and from his hospitable fare, I took my leave soon after six..."

Thomas Rose Drew (1740-1815), younger brother, of Wooton FitzPaine, who inherited The Grange on the death of his elder brother. In 1782 he married Betty Incledon (1738-), daughter of the antiquarian Benjamin Incledon (1730-1796)^[42] of Pilton House, Pilton, Devon. Individual oval portraits of Thomas and his wife painted by Lewis Vaslet (1742-1808) survive in the collection of Dunster Castle in Somerset.^[43] He died without progeny.

William Drewe (1745-), younger brother, a lawyer of New Inn, London, who died unmarried.

John Rose Drewe (1747-1830), younger brother, who married Dorothy Bidgood (d.1834), daughter of Charles Bidgood of Rockbeare. He left no surviving male progeny.

Edward Simcoe Drewe (1805-1879), half-nephew, only son of Edward Drewe (1756-1810), Rector of Willand, Devon, 7th son of Francis Drewe (1712-1773) of The Grange, by his second wife Mary Johnson. He was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Devon and in 1845 served as High Sheriff of Devon. He married Jane Susan Adele Prevost, daughter and heiress of Jean Gaspard Prevost, Conseiler d'Etat of the Canton of Geneva.^[44]

Major-General Francis Edward Drewe (born 1830), 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers, eldest son and heir, of The Grange and Leyhill, a Justice of the Peace for Devon. He was a Knight of the Legion of Honour. He married twice: firstly to Louisa Anne Vincent (d.1883), eldest daughter of Sir Frederick Vincent, 11th Baronet (1798–1883), Rector of Slinford, Sussex. Secondly in 1885 he married Katherine Shelley, only daughter of Adolphus Shelley and widow of James Boutein.^[45] On his death in 1891 without progeny his heir was his sister Adèle Caroline Drewe (d.1895), the widow of John Arthur Locke (d.1888) of Northmoor, near Dulverton in Somerset,^[46] a partner in the lead manufacturing firm of Locke and Blackett of Newcastle upon Tyne.

• Arthur Charles Edward Locke, of Northmoor, eldest son and heir of his mother Adèle Caroline Drewe (d.1895) (Mrs Locke). He sold Grange^[47] which thus in 1903 passed from the ownership of the Drewe family and its descendants.

In 1903 Grange was sold^[48] and passed from the ownership of the Drewe family. At some time before 1927^[49] the 17th century carved and highly decorative oak panelling of the room in the south crosswing was purchased by the art dealer "Charles of London" (Charles Duveen, younger brother of Joseph Duveen) and was shipped to its New York showroom where it was purchased by the tycoon William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) who placed it into permanent storage together with many other such purchases. According to Larkin:^[50]

"Hearst developed a reputation as a magpie lacking self-discipline and discretion in the acquisition of works of art...During the 1920s and 1930s, he continued to acquire art through auction houses and dealers in the United States and throughout Europe. As the items accrued, Hearst soon outgrew rented storage and purchased a five story building on Southern Boulevard in the Bronx, New York, to secure his growing collection. There he hired a full-time staff to photograph and record each item purchased and a squad of ex-marines to protect it all. Hearst’s collecting had become so extensive that by the early 1920s he formed his own company, The International Studio Arts Corporation (ISAC), as a wholly owned subsidiary of his holdings. Hearst used ISAC to purchase art and when necessary to clear customs. Approximately one half of Hearst’s collection stored at the Bronx warehouse was sold in the late 1930s and early 1940s, most of it through Gimbel Brothers. Hearst’s style of collecting was ostentatious and cavalier. He was known to spend countless hours examining sales catalogues and frequenting New York galleries, choosing additional objects for purchase. Mary Levkoff described Hearst as a collector with a need for quality and a desire for quantity. “He loved to collect objects used to furnish his six main residences; filling them with art was his joy,” These residences included the Clarendon in New York City, Hearst Castle, San Simeon California, the Beach House, home of his mistress, Marion Davies, in Santa Monica, California, St. Donat’s in Wales, Saint Joan’s Castle, Sands Point, Long Island New York and Wyntoon, near Mount Shasta in California".

Reference to these warehouses is made in the famous 1941 film Citizen Kane:^[51]

"Contents of Kane's palace: paintings, pictures, statues, the very stones of many another palace, shipped to Florida from every corner of the earth, from other Kane houses, warehouses, where they mouldered for years. Enough for ten museums - the loot of the world."

In 1943/4 it was purchased by Dr Preston Pope Satterwhite of Louisville, Kentucky (a friend of Mrs J.B. Speed)^[52] who donated it to the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.^[53][54] In 1943 it was reassembled in the museum as a slightly longer room, called "The English Renaissance Room", but reopened in March 2016 after substantial refurbishment in its original proportions.^[55]

In 2009 The Grange was owned by the television personality and property consultant Kirstie Allsopp (born 1971), the daughter of Charles Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip, a former chairman of Christie's auctioneers.^[56]

• Country Life magazine, Vol.16, 1904, p. 162
• Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries, Vol.3, 1904-5, pp. 41–4, 73