Kingston, Staverton

John Rowe (1509-1592), son and heir, whose monumental brass survives at Staverton Church, positioned unusually on an exterior wall.

[12] He married twice, firstly to Philippa Blewett, a daughter of Richard Bluett (lord of the manor of Holcombe Rogus, Devon, and of Cothay (which he rebuilt) in Kittisford, Somerset, whose monumental brass exists in Kittisford Church) by his wife Mary Grenville, a daughter of Sir Thomas Grenville (d.1513) lord of the manor of Bideford in Devon and of Stowe in the parish of Kilkhampton in Cornwall.

[23] John Rowe (born 1704), 3rd but eldest surviving son and heir, who rebuilt Kingston House in 1743, after a fire had destroyed the previous building.

[2] He was described as a Papist by the Devon historian Polwhele[24] (d.1838), who described his new house as: The new house contained a Roman Catholic chapel, which room survives as the first floor east room, with a plasterwork overmantel showing the Flight into Egypt in a pedimented frame decorated with putti, with busts supposedly representing Saints Peter and Paul.

In 1787 Thomas[26] Bradbridge (d.1815) purchased the estate from the Exeter Bank (which had foreclosed on the previous mortgagee) for £5,500 but it was sold two years after his death.

[12] By his will dated 14 September 1805 he founded Bradbridge's Gift, a charitable bequest which directed that immediately after his decease, such sum of money should be invested in the three per cent consols, in the names of his trustees, as would produce, yearly, a sum not less than 32 shillings, to be applied at the discretion of his trustees, during their lives, and afterwards by the major part of the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of Staverton, for the time being, with power for the proprietor of Kingston to determine any question on which they might be equally divided in opinion, for the purpose of instructing poor children of the parish of Staverton in reading; and he also directed that a tablet, with a proper inscription, to specify his donation, might be engraved on marble, and erected in the Kingston aisle of Staverton church; and when all but one of his trustees should be dead, he directed that the stock so to be purchased should be transferred into the names of two respectable inhabitants of Staverton, jointly with him and to be named by him, and so from time to time for ever; By a codicil to his will, dated 9 April 1815, he increased the sum to be invested in the funds to such sum as would produce an annual income of 40 shillings.

The stock arising from this gift is £66 13 shillings 4 pence of three per cent consols, standing in the name of Henry Studdy, esq.

[27] In 1985 Michael Corfield, a proprietor of a building materials supply group, with his wife Elizabeth, purchased the house in a dilapidated state and 10 acres of grounds for £150,000.