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Batstone Lodge (which is now called Old Budley Court) is situated on Budleigh Hill about 100 yards uphill and on the opposite side of the road from the Rolle Arms Public House.  The origin of the fields/tenements called Batstones in East Budleigh is not clear.  Land Tax records for East Budleigh parish from 1781 onwards usually spell the name as “Bastones” before 1832 and the name appears several times in any one year and several owners are mentioned.  This suggests that there may originally have been more than one holding in different parts of the parish or that one property had been subdivided.  

Occupiers mentioned were John Waldrond, John Taylor, Dennis Rolle and Colmer Brand.  Gerald Millington informs me that in 1832 Lord Rolle owned four properties called Batstone and that Sarah French also occupied a property called Batstone which he says was originally part of John Waldrond’s property.  Audrey Walker, using deeds at the Devon Records Office, has undertaken a detailed, as yet unpublished, work encompassing the history of a group of properties collectively described as “three places in Salterton” originally owned by John Butson.  She also speculated that the names Bastone, Bastin, Butson etc that appear in the East Budleigh Registers might have a common origin. 

Audrey also transcribed the Will of John Cowde dated 1651 and a Batstone House is mentioned that was divided into east and west halves.  However it is not clear whether this property was in East Budleigh and is the Batstone Lodge in this article or whether it was in the hamlet of Salterton.  The fact that Thomas Cowde later inherited the western part of Batstone House and is described in 1663 as living in Salterton, rather suggests that this Batstone House was in (Budleigh) Salterton and is not the house that is the subject of this present article and was therefore one of the others recorded in the Land Tax records.  

By 1834 the term “Batstone Lodge” appears in records and in June of that year the Bristol Mercury newspaper records the birth of a daughter to Marian Tosswill at the Lodge which suggests the Tosswills were in residence that year.  Her husband Robert Tosswill bought a lease on the Lodge in 1836/38 (information from G. Millington) and the couple had a third daughter born there in 1837 (Western Times newspaper).  The Tosswills left Batstone before 1840 and moved to Dawlish (1841 census). 

Samuel & Elizabeth Wood 

The new occupier was Samuel Wood and his wife Elizabeth.  They lived together at the Lodge till he died in 1873 and she continued with the lease until her own death in 1875.  According to census information, Samuel was born in Upper Wallop in Hampshire around 1794/5.  He is described in the 1841 census as a “fund holder” so we can assume he was of private means, although I have been as yet unable to find out about his parents or how he became comfortably off financially.  

Before he came to East Budleigh he had been a member of “His Majesty’s Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms” often called “Gentlemen Pensioners”.  This group of men was originally established in 1509 as a bodyguard for the monarch but, as at the present time, had probably taken up a purely ceremonial role by the 19th century.  In 1835 he was rostered to wait on the King in the Lady Day and Michaelmas Quarters (1).  

Gentleman Pensioners were styled Esquires in their Warrants of Appointment.  They purchased their Commission and were considered to be on a par with Captains in the army; commissions could be transferred for a fee.  They wore a full dress uniform with two epaulettes and full dress laced cocked hats, and carried ceremonial battle-axes when in the presence of the King.  They received an annual honorarium of £25 in 1835 although the senior officers received much more.   

I am not sure whether he retained his post when Queen Victoria ascended the throne – as he had came to East Budleigh by 1840 he may not have done so; the function of the Gentlemen Pensioners was undoubtedly taken over by her ladies in waiting. The Gentleman Pensioners were in attendance at the funeral of William 1V so it is possible that Samuel was present. 

In the 1841 census Samuel was living at Batstone Lodge with his wife Eliza Bernier Wood who had been born around 1804 in Dunchideock.  They had no children living with them and they do not appear to have been blessed with any.  The 1843 tithe map shows that Samuel leased five plots from Lord Rolle – the house and garden (tithe number 1148) and an additional garden (1146) plus, a large orchard (1147), a horse paddock (1143) and an additional “plot” behind the house (1149).  In his own right he owned other property and land, namely:- land at Oakhill (tithe 1494), and buildings and gardens at the junction of Budleigh Hill and what is now Frogmore Road (tithe 1151, 1152, & 1153).

By 1851 his 59 year old sister in law Mary Ann Jenkins Luke was staying with them. 

Samuel appears to have had some connection with Ashburton because his executor when he died was Robert Tucker of that town.  Samuel’s name also appears on a deed at the Devon County Record Office in connection with the advowson of North Huish Church in 1870 claimed by Revd. John Comins and this also mentions the Misses Elizabeth Ann Winsor of Staverton and Susan Phillips Winsor of Ashburton.  John Comins appears with his family in the 1851 East Budleigh Census and was therefore presumably a friend of Samuel Wood. Comins was described as an assistant curate (of an indecipherable place). 

1873 was a bad year for Batstone Lodge because a long serving servant, the groom John Michelmore, died in March, and Samuel himself at the end of that summer. His wife Eliza took over the lease but she died in the late summer in 1875 at the age of 73. A local auctioneer, Mr Crudge, carried out a house sale on Tuesday 16th November 1875 that records details of the house and surrounding land, a field and an orchard of which was sublet to a Mr Thomas Day (3). Lord Rolle then sold a lease to Frederick De Guerin. 

Frederick Charles De Guerin and family 

Frederick was born in January 1840 the third son of Thomas de Guerin and Eliza Read and he spent his early years in St. Peter Port, Guernsey.  He went to school at Elizabeth College leaving in 1857 to go sheep farming in New Zealand and was subsequently a schoolmaster at Bishop Hobhouses’ School in Nelson (4).  He returned to England in about 1872 and settled in Devon.  He married Maria Frances Wallis in 1875 in the St Thomas Registration District (her family were probably living at that time at No. 6 The Beacon in Exmouth). She was born in 1853 and in censuses her place of birth is given as Budleigh Salterton; her father George Wallis was from Bristol and was living on “income from lands”.  Frederick (De) Guerin purchased a lease on Batstone Lodge from Lord Rolle in 1875 after Mrs Wood’s death, and the lease continued until 1889 (5).  The family then moved to Exe View Terrace in Exmouth (1891 census), finally moving to Clare House, Upton in Torquay where he died in 1900 (6) and his wife in 1902. 

Ebenezer Le Mare 

The Le Mares initially leased the property in 1889 and later bought the freehold.  Ebenezer was born in Hackney, Middlesex in 1838 the son of Isaac Le Mare, a silk ribbon manufacturer, and his wife Susan (nee Raby) who was Cornish.  Ebenezer married Mary Ann Eleanor Merry in 1860 and they had ten children all born in North London. In censuses he was described as being a commercial traveller.  By 1881 he had obviously earned or inherited sufficient money to be described as “retired” at the age of 44.  He died at Batstone Lodge in March 1894.  

His wife retained Batstone until her death but did not live there for the whole of that period.  When she died in January 1909 she was described (6) as being “of Dysart, Budleigh Salterton”, a house that I haven’t been able to identify. Her Executors still had not disposed of Batstone by 1910 as it was unoccupied and owned by “the representatives of Mrs Le Mare” (5).  The couple were buried in East Budleigh along with two of their children (Arthur who had died in 1889 and Kathleen who died in 1894). 

Biographical details of 20th century inhabitants of the house will be described in a second article. 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon © 2012

References 

(1)The Royal kalander, and court and city register for England, Scotland.. etc (1835)

(2)Regia Insignia or an Account of the King’s Honorable Band of Gentlemen Pensioners or Gentlemen at Arms.  By W.M. Thiselton

(3)Wednesday 10 November 1875, Exeter Flying Post.

(4)Elizabeth College Register 1824 - 1873 published in 1898.

(5)Information from Gerald Millington

(6)National Probate Records

EB-B-00007 Biography any