Cothelstone Manor was given to Sir Adam de Coveston by William the Conqueror, and there has been a house on the site since, during which time it has been in the hands of only two families.

[3] During the Civil War, John Stawell the lord of the manor fought on the side of the royalists and in 1646 went to London with a copy of his terms of surrender from Sir Thomas Fairfax.

After Charles II was crowned King of England and Ireland at Westminster Abbey in 1661, Sir John Stawell regained his place in parliament as Knight for Somerset however he died the following year.

[4] His son, another John Stawell, was also a royalist, but during the Bloody Assizes following the Monmouth Rebellion he objected to the harsh treatment handed out by Judge Jeffreys.

Stawell refused to provide accommodation for Jeffreys who then ordered two prisoners, Colonel Bovett and Thomas Blackmore to be hanged on the gateway of the manor.

It was passed down through his family to his grandson, Edward Jeffries Esdaile (died 1867), who married the daughter of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

[17] Also within the estate is a wellhouse with a cut stone head dating from around 1500,[18] inspired by an Agnes Cheyney, who married the local squire, Edward Stowel.