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A full list of occupants of Fairlynch can also be found in a booklet published by Fairlynch Museum (1) but I should record that the information in the Land Tax records at the Devon Record Office is quite difficult to interpret.  This is because the name Fairlynch or Primrose Cottage does not appear and the property is listed either as “Scarrs” or “Scars”, or in some years as “Crosses and Scarrs” (probably the earlier names for fields, which may have been adjacent to each other).  “Crosses” often appeared as a separate entry or entries.  There is the added confusion that from 1827 there appears to have been multiple occupancy of “Scarrs” because several people paid a tax “For part of Scarrs”.  Some of these people may have been in cottages on parts of the site or the house may at times have had multiple occupancy. 

Matthew Lee Yeates & Family (1811-1817)

Matthew was born in 1777 in Gulliford (north of Lympstone) the only son of Robert Yeates of Lympstone and Jane Lee of Ebford.  Matthew married a widow Francis Elizabeth Abbot in 1799 at East Budleigh Church and they had two daughters, Emily Jane born in 1801 who died young, and Emma Catherine who was born in 1807 (1).

Like many men during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, Yeates joined the militia and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Woodbury Volunteers serving under his uncle Captain Thomas Huckell Lee.  The Woodbury Volunteers was part of the First Devon Regiment of Militia commanded by Lord Rolle.  At a later date Lord Rolle raised a troop of cavalry at Bicton to be united to the Woodbury Troop and both were consolidated under the title of "The Bicton Yeomanry Cavalry" and were under the command of His Lordship as Major Commandant.  Matthew Yeates was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 2nd Troop of this unit. 

He became a ship owner and imported timber along with his partner William Good of Symondsbury in West Dorset.  He appears to have bought his first ship, the “St. Cecilia”, a brigantine of 116 tons, in 1801, and information gathered by Martin Benn suggests that altogether he owned at least ten ships at different times (1), but none larger than his first.  Yeates also was the proprietor of a lime kiln by the beach and was in partnership in the venture with Lord Rolle by 1806.  More details of this can be found in the Local History Room at Fairlynch Museum.

Yeates and Good opened the Exmouth and General Devon Bank in Exmouth in 1807 but this failed in 1812 when they refused to exchange their paper notes for gold and several individuals were ruined, and some businesses nearly so (1,2).  They were declared bankrupt in 1813.  In 1815 the creditors were due to receive a second and final dividend but many went unpaid.  In March of that year some boats owned by the partners were sold by auction to help clear the debts.

Matthew Yeates’s wife died in 1811 at the age of 36 and there is a memorial tablet to her in East Budleigh Church.  She left her estate to her daughter Emma.  It was around this time that Yeates and his daughter moved into Primrose Cottage (Fairlynch).  In the Land Tax record for 1812 he is recorded as living there with Mary French, who presumably was his house-keeper.  He paid the land tax for the property (Crosses & Scarrs) until 1817 when it appears he left to train for the Unitarian Ministry which he entered in 1820 in Sidmouth.  Matthew Yeates moved from Sidmouth to a Ministry in Cullompton from 1825 until 1847, and he died there in December of that year.  Emma married in 1830 but died the following year and the house was inherited by her three-month old daughter Emma Yeates Heineken. 

From 1817–1821, a man called Sims occupied the property and inherited Mary French as well.

John Hawkes & Family (1822-1828)

John Hawkes was a lawyer from Okehampton where he and his father Robert and other members of that town were trustees of several church charities that mainly seem to involve the renting or leasing of property and land.  In this context his name appears on several deeds at the Devon Record Office.  In one dated 1821 he is described as “now of Budleigh Salterton” (3).

While in Okehampton he got involved in a controversy over parliamentary elections (4).  Charles Luxmoore, connected by marriage to John Hawkes, conspired with a group of people who were against the owners of the borough, the Duke of Bedford and the Spencers, who always put their own nominees forward and rigged the voting by importing voters from other parts of the country.  The strategy was to revive the feudal office of portreeve because prior to 1623 the portreeve had been responsible for counting the votes at a parliamentary election and returning the names of the two elected members for the district to parliament.  From 1623 that function had been assumed and performed by the town mayor. 

Mr Hawkes, described in a House of Commons document as “an ingenious attorney”, had been chosen for the job of portreeve at the Michaelmas court leet in 1789.  He returned two names to parliament at the next election but the mayor chose to return two different names.  The argument of the “double return” was taken to the House of Commons in 1791 and Hawkes’s nominees were only narrowly rejected.

We also know that Hawkes suffered from gout for twenty years as he had correspondence in 1816 with a Dr Wilson in London who had produced a medicine to alleviate the condition (5).  Hawkes was very happy with the remedy and wrote “I have recommended the tincture to every gouty person that I have seen in London, Somersetshire, Exeter, Launceston, and particularly in this town and neighbourhood; and every person that has taken it speaks in the highest terms of it”.  In another letter he writes “my general health is much better, and I am getting corpulent”.

John Hawkes had married Mary Clifton in Holsworthy in 1785 and they had ten children at least three of whom died young.  Two of the youngest sons, Thomas Tyrwhitt (born 1806), Philip Cory (born 1808) and the youngest daughter Mary (born 1812) may well have lived at Fairlynch.  There is a record at Fairlynch Museum of Lord Rolle giving a 99 year lease on number 3 East Terrace (now number 4) in 1819 to John Hawkes, and John apparently later bequeathed this to his daughter Caroline (the wife of Rev. Thomas Turner). We can infer therefore that the family most probably moved to Budleigh in 1819. 

After John died in July 1822 at the age of 65, his wife stayed at Fairlynch till 1828.  Another record at the museum shows that the family paid annual rent to Lord Rolle for Fairlynch between 1822 and 1827, the latter payment carrying over into 1828 when Mary Hawkes died of typhus in March and was buried back in Okehampton with her husband.  Her daughter Mary had died at the age of nine in January of the same year. It is around this time that several names become associated with land tax at “Scarrs”.

Occupiers 1828-1850

It is instructive that Mr Yeates paid 6/11d land tax at an earlier date but in 1829 John Webber paid 3/6d as owner and occupier while Mr Yeates paid 3/5½d and Mr Crouch was the occupier, both for “part of Scarrs”.  Does this suggest two separate occupants paying half the old rate?

Other names associated with “Scarrs” during this period were, Jonas Stone, Miss Snell, Mr Paine, Richard Webber, Mr Smarkes (?), and Mr Jackson.  From 1830–1832 Mrs Simcoe is mentioned (presumably the wife of General Simcoe) but the occupiers were Mr Blake then Mr Chadwick.  This was presumably a speculation on her part as she had a house just round the corner from Fairlynch.  In 1830 Miss (Emma) Yeates is mentioned as owner and occupier of part of Scarrs but her widower, Rev. Heineken, is owner of her part in 1832 and Mr Miner was the occupier.

At the time that the tithe map was produced in 1842 the owner of the land was listed as Robert Hannicombe and it consisted of, a House and Shrubbery, a Linhay and Court, and an Orchard; George Bence was the occupier.  George Bence was also occupying the house in 1856 (White’s Directory) and at that time he was described as a carpenter and lodging house keeper.  In addition Robert Hannicombe owned a house and garden at the south west corner of the plot where the buildings on the corner of Fore Street Hill now stand and this was occupied by James Slater.

Francis Dermot Daly

We know from the 1851 census that the occupier at that time was Francis Daly, with his second wife Sarah and three-year old daughter Alice.  Sarah (née Bidgood) was from Rockbeare and Alice was born in Rockbeare.

Francis Dermot Daly was one of many ex-military men who settled for a while in Budleigh Salterton.  He came from an Irish landed family and was born in Connaught (6).  He entered the 84th Regiment of Foot as an Ensign in November 1813 and was immediately involved in the Peninsular War Campaign. Francis served in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, being wounded in the action near Bayonne on the 13th December 1813.  In June 1814, he was transferred to the 76th Foot, with whom he served in the American War, and was present at the siege and battle of Plattsburgh in New York State in September of that year.  After a short period on half-pay he was posted in 1818 to the 4th Light Dragoons, with whom he travelled to India at the end of 1821.  Before going to India he had married Mary Ann McIntosh the only daughter of Captain Hugh McIntosh and they had a son, Francis Hugh, born around 1819/20 at Carisbrooke on the Isle of Wight, who became a barrister. 

The Regiment was stationed at Kaira (Kheda) in Gujerat and the couple had a daughter Mary Elizabeth in 1823, but she only lived forty-two days.  Shortly thereafter they had a surviving son Henry Dermot Daly who went on to have an extremely successful career in India and was created KCB (Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath) Military, on 29th May 1875, and a GCB (Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath) Military, on 25th May 1889, retiring as General Sir Henry D. Daly, G.C.B., C.I.E. (6,7).  His mother Mary died in India when he was young and is buried in Kaira.    

Francis Daly commanded a wing of his regiment during Sir John Keane's operations in Afghanistan, including the siege and capture of Ghazni in 1839, and his services were rewarded with a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy. He subsequently held command of the regiment, with which he returned to England in 1842.  He had however started his son Henry on the first steps of his successful career when in 1840 he arranged for him to be attached to a corps at Poona to learn Hindustani for the Presidential Examination.  Henry subsequently taught himself Marathi and his linguistic abilities were essential as he became the Governor General’s Agent for Central India between 1869 and 1881.  Prior to this, Henry Daly had been in command of “The Guides” during the Indian Mutiny of 1857-8 (7).

Francis Daly sold his commission in January 1846 and at some stage moved to Budleigh.  In late 1844 he had remarried to Sarah Anne Bidgood whose father owned Rockbeare Court near Exeter.  This association with Rockbeare is of interest when we consider the Porter Family who were later occupiers of Fairlynch (see below).  The Dalys had a daughter Alice aged three by 1851.  They must have moved out of the house before 1856.  He died on the Isle of Wight in 1857.

Frances and Julie Davies (circa 1860 - 1878)

Frances Knight married William Davies on the 6th April 1811 in Llanishen just north of Cardiff (8).  William seems to have come from a landed family in Pontypandy and their three children were born there, Edward William Lewis in 1812, Blanche c.1819, and Julie c.1825.  By 1851 Frances Davies was a widow living with her unmarried son Edward who was curate of the church in Maids Moreton in Buckinghamshire. 

Edward married the following year but his first wife Letitia died; he remarried in 1859 needing a mother for his two daughters Frances and Blanche (named after his sisters). His mother had by 1861 moved to Fairlynch and is recorded as a 78 year old widow born in Braunton, North Devon. Her daughters Blanche Butterworth (a 40 year old widow) and Julie Knight Davies aged 35, both born in Glamorgan, and grandson Reginald Butterworth, were also in the house along with two servants. 

All three family members were still living at Fairlynch in 1871 and Mrs Davies is recorded in Kelly’s Directory in the intervening years.  Frances died in 1875 and Blanche and Julie stayed at Fairlynch till at least 1878 (9).  They then moved to Bath where their brother Edward was living, and all three were buried there in Locksbrook Cemetery.

The 1880s

In 1882 the house was occupied by a Mrs Halstead (10) who I believe was Emma Elizabeth Halstead.  She was the widow of Herbert Halstead.  She was born Emma Turner in 1829 in Manchester and married Herbert at Manchester Cathedral in January 1864.  He was the son of a Manchester solicitor and landowner. They had three children and were living at Quatford in Shropshire in 1871.  They subsequently moved to live in Belgrave House in Budleigh Salterton (11). 

Herbert died in November 1877 at the age of 43 and in 1881 Emma was living in Westbourne Terrace with her unmarried sister Kate and her unmarried daughter Anna Mary.  She and her daughter shortly afterwards moved into Fairlynch but didn’t live there very long.  Her sister was living in Withycombe Raleigh in 1891 but there is no sign of Emma.  Her eldest son had emigrated to New South Wales, where he died in 1940, so possibly his mother and sister went to Australia.

Fairlynch was sold to Mr John Walters in 1889 but was still occupied by Mrs Georgina Porter (1). 

Georgina Porter & Family circa 1883-1905

In the 1891 census for Fairlynch we find Georgina Porter (nee Jackson) a 56 year old widow, living on her own means; with her were her 27 year old son Frederick who was in the army, and her daughter Mary who was 24 and had been born in Budleigh Salterton, plus a local girl Emily Godfrey who was their domestic servant.  They had been living in Fairlynch since 1883 (12).  In 1871 the family had been living in Cliff Terrace and by 1881 they were in Marine Parade.  In both of the latter years Georgina is described as married so I assume her husband was possibly abroad and that he died before 1891.  In the 1881 census Georgina gives her birthplace precisely as Ellichpur in India, which was one time capital of the Deccan. The military cantonment of Paratwada was two miles from the town which probably gives a clue to her father’s occupation. 

It would appear that Georgina’s husband was Henry Porter and that they married in the St. Thomas Registration District in late 1859 (13).  In 1861 they were living in Pinhoe village and he is described as a “fund holder” so he must have had a private income.  He was recorded as being born in Rockbeare in 1819; his grandfather was probably Thomas Porter who owned Rockbeare House or a relative of his.  The Porter Family had plantations in British Guiana and it is possible that Henry was abroad there for the 1871 and 1881 censuses. Close neighbours of the Porters in Rockbeare were the Daly family (see above) and it interesting that both families should have had members who lived in Fairlynch.

Henry and Georgina’s son Frederick was born in Pinhoe in January 1864 and would have had most of his education in Budleigh.  He initially joined the Militia and then entered the 2nd Battalion of the Derbyshire Regiment in November 1885 as a Lieutenant (14).  In 1888 his battalion was in Bengal and took part in the Sikkim Expedition which was undertaken to remove a Tibetan force that had occupied a strategic hill in Sikkim next to an important trade route between Darjeeling and Tibet. 

Georgina’s daughter Mary married Arthur Backhouse in 1896 and they were living in Torquay in 1901 and Georgina was visiting at the time of the census.

The Porters were the last family to live in the house in the 19th century.  There is a companion article on the inhabitants of Fairlynch during the 20th century. 

Complied & Researched by Roger Lendon, © 2010

References:

(1)Fairlynch 1811-2007 Published by Fairlynch Museum and Arts Centre £1-50.

(2)Article by Christopher Long in the Budleigh Journal 12th November 2009.

(3)Devon Record Office  3248A-0/11/266  21 and 22 Dec. 1821

(4)The House of Commons, 1790-1820, Volume 4 By R. G. Thorne 1986 Secker & Warburg

(5)Observations on gout and rheumatism, Charles Wilson 1823 T & G Underwood, London

(6)Memoir of General Sir Henry Dermot Daly, Hugh Daly,Murray,London 1905

(7)The Baldwin Project: Heroes of the Indian Mutiny by Edward Gilliat

(8)FamilySearch.com

(9)White’s Directory

(10)Deacon’s Court Guide

(11)History, Gazetteer & Directory of Devon 1878-79

(12)Kelly’s Directory

(13)FreeBMD.com

(14)Hart’s Army List 1888

82 BS-B-00019 Biography any