Great Fulford

[15] According to the Devonshire biographer John Prince (1643–1723): In commemoration of this victory supporters to the arms of the family were granted (generally reserved as a privilege of the nobility alone) of two Saracens, which they still retain,[32] and which survive today sculpted in relief on the 16th century wooden panelling of the Great Hall of Great Fulford House, as Prince noted.

He may be the same Sir Baldwin Fulford who as is recorded by Stow (d.1605) was executed in Bristol Castle in 1461, in fulfilment of his bond to King Edward IV that he would either kill the Earl of Warwick, who was then plotting to dethrone the reigning sovereign, or lose his own head.

of Bosom's Hele (alias Bozunsele, etc., modern: "Bozomzeal"[36]), in the parish of Dittisham, near Dartmouth, Devon,[35] by his wife Johane Fortescue.

[34] Elizabeth Bozom survived her husband and married secondly to Sir William Huddesfield (died 1499), of Shillingford St. George, Devon, Attorney General to King Edward IV (1461–1483).

[38] By Jennet Bosome, heiress of Bozum's Hele,[39] he had children two sons and two daughters, namely Thomasine Fulford, who married John Wise of Sydenham House, from whom was descended John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (c. 1485 – 1555), the most powerful magnate in Devon, and another daughter Alice Fulford, who married Sir William Cary of Cockington, from whom was descended Lord Hunsdon and the Earls of Monmouth and Dover.

Exon, q(ui) obiit xix die Januarii A(nno) D(omini) xv.xviii cui(us) a(n)i(ma)e p(ro)pitietur Deus ("Here lies Master John Fulford, son of Sir Baldwin Fulford, Knight, residentiary of this church, first Archdeacon of Totnes, then of Cornwall, and lastly of Exeter, who died on the ninth day of January in the year of our Lord 1518, on whose soul may God look with favour").

[45] His second son appears to have been Sir Thomas Fulford who in 1497 was with Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon (died 1509) at the relief of the City of Exeter following the siege by Perkin Warbeck.

[52] The arms of Dennis of Glamorgan (not to be confused with the Denys families of Holcombe Burnell and Orleigh in Devon), St Aubyn and Chalons form the last three quarters (7th, 8th & 9th) on the 16th century stone escutcheon over the entrance archway into the courtyard of Great Fulford House.

[54] His daughter Elizabeth Fulford married Humphrey Arundell (c. 1513 – 1550) of Helland in Cornwall, the leader of Cornish forces in the Prayer Book Rebellion who was executed at Tyburn.

His monument survives in Dunsford Church, showing recumbent effigies of himself dressed in full armour and his wife with kneeling figures of his children above, 3 sons and 4 daughters, with profuse heraldry on the cornice of Fulford impaling the arms of various wives, including Bampfield: Or, on a bend gules three mullets argent.

Col. Sir Francis Fulford (c. 1583 – 1664) (eldest son), a Royalist commander during the Civil War, captured and briefly imprisoned in Devon in early 1643.

[65] Col. Francis Fulford (1666–1700) (son), twice MP for Callington in Cornwall in 1690-5 and 1698–1700, presumably upon the interest of the influential Rolle family of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe,[66] Devon.

[68] According to the Devon topographer John Swete (died 1821), it was at this time "When the two Fulfords were the possession of one lord" that the epithets "Great" and "Little" were assigned to each property.

[77] In the 1760s he spent lavishly on furnishing and landscaping Great Fulford, which included the creation of the lake and carriage drives through the park.

In 1805 he employed the architect James Wyatt to remodel the house, which resulted in the removal of the gables and the addition of battlements to the parapets and bay windows at the corners, as presently exists.

[76] In 1838 he owned the additional estates of Melhuish, Hackworthy and Eggbeer,[79] and in 1810 Lampford (in the parish of Cheriton Bishop),[80] all adjacent to Great Fulford.

John Allen Giles (1808–1884), Doctor of Civil Law, Rector of Sutton in Surrey, but died three years later without children.

As was the case with his great uncle Squire John, he was extravagant with his finances and by 1861 had accumulated over £60,000 of debts, which he fled the country to escape.

[76] His monumental brass survives in Dunsford Church[77] inscribed in Latin as follows: At the left side of the monumental brass is an heraldic achievement showing the arms of Fulford impaling Giles (Azure, a cross between four cups uncovered or on a chief argent three pelicans vulning themselves proper)[82] with supporters two Saracens and crest of Fulford: A bear's head and neck erased.

Francis Fulford (born 1952) (son and heir), the current owner, a former stockbroker and insurance broker who has appeared on reality television shows featuring his house and family.

He has undertaken fund-raising activities, including opening the house on occasion to the public, in order to raise funds to make on-going restorations.

He is the author of Bearing Up: The Long View (London, 2004), a work on estate management, agricultural economics, and the history of land ownership, one of the aims of which was "to give advice to owners (of big houses) and their heirs about how to survive and thrive"[85] He is married to (Diana) Kishanda Tulloch (born 1960 in Tanzania),[86] by whom he has four children, whose father William Tulloch was a colonial administrator in Tanzania,[87] and was author of Nicholas and Kishanda: The Story of an Elephant (1966), a true story about an orphaned elephant calf found in the Kishanda Valley, now a national reserve for elephants in Tanzania.