Drewe family of Broadhembury
Edward Drew (c. 1542–1598)[2] 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.
Sir Thomas Drew also purchased the estate of Kitton in the parish of Holcombe Rogus, Devon, from Richard Warr.
[13] His mural monument (called by Pevsner "not yet classical in its forms"[14]) survives in Broadhembury Church, inscribed as follows: If flouds of teares and universal love Against the Fates a remora[15] could prove If vertue could the just and loyal save From ye dishonours of ye darkesome grave Then had'st not thou most happy soul so soon Left us in teares and to the angels gone But walls of flesh we see can't long confine Souls truly noble and like thine divine Impatient of their earth they still aspire And what thou dost enjoy they most desire.
[5] Edward Drew (died 1714), younger brother, a Canon of Exeter Cathedral, who owned The Grange for only four years until his death in 1714.
[22] He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, 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.
It is inscribed as follows (before much biographical details of some of his progeny): Francis Rose Drew (1738–1801), eldest son and heir by his father's first wife.
Individual oval portraits of Thomas and his wife painted by Lewis Vaslet (1742–1808) survive in the collection of Dunster Castle in Somerset.
His monument,[37] erected by his widow, survives on the west wall of the south chapel of Wooton FitzPaine Church ("white and grey marble with swags, cornice, acroteria and pediment-shaped top with shield-of-arms")[38] inscribed as follows: William Drewe (1745–1821),[39] younger brother, of New Street, Spring Gardens in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields,[40] Westminster, a lawyer of New Inn, London, who died unmarried.
of New Inn, sent as an apology for a breach of promise in not having met him and a party consisting of the Portals of Hampshire and Slades of Hammersmith, at Windsor".
An engraving of Grange in 1826, whilst he was the owner, was published by John Preston Neale in his Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen, etc.
[27] 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.
