Speccot, Merton

[6] The present farmhouse known as "Speccot Barton" is Victorian and although no obvious traces of an earlier house survive, is marked "On Site of a Mansion" on the First Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch map of 1880-99.

1086), (Anglicised to "Theobald son of Berner",[9] Latinized to Tetbaldus Filius Bernerius[10]) an Anglo-Norman warrior and magnate, one of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror.

[16] The earliest member of this family identified by Pole was Nicholas Speccot, at the beginning of the reign of King Henry III (1216-1272).

[17] He abandoned Speccot and moved his primary residence to Thornbury, where his descendants remained until the family expired in the senior male line in 1655.

A "beautifully drawn map" was made of Speccot in 1765 by Malachy Hitchins (1741–1809) for its then owner Richard Stevens of Winscott, Peters Marland.

His daughter Elizabeth Stevens (1727-1792) married firstly Robert Awse of Horwood House in the parish of Frithelstock, and secondly John II Clevland (1734-1817), seven times MP for Barnstaple, of Tapeley near Bideford.

Speccot Barton , front view, in 2014
Speccot Barton , rear view, in 2014, showing 19th. c. rebuilding [ 1 ]
Speccot Barton in 1765, detail from map by Malachy Hitchins
Domesday Book entry for Spececote
Arms of Speccot of Speccot: Or, on a bend gules three millrinds argent [ 14 ]
Detail from mural monument in Weare Giffard Church, Devon, to John Fortescue (d.1605) lord of the manors of Filleigh and of Weare Giffard , and his wife Mary Speccot (d.1637), a daughter of Humphry Speccot (1532-1598) of Thornbury and Speccot, MP. [ 15 ] It displays the arms of Fortescue and Speccot. Their great-great-grandson was Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Clinton, 14th Baron Clinton (1696–1751), who built the surviving stately home of Castle Hill, Filleigh
Christiana Maria Rolle (1710-1780), wife of Henry Stevens (1689-1748) of Cross and Smythacott. Portrait by Thomas Hudson , Great Torrington townhall
1765 map of Speccot, by Malachy Hitchins (1741–1809) for its then owner Richard Stevens of Winscott, Peters Marland [ 25 ]