The Drewe family of Broadhembury were for many generations owners and inhabitants of The Grange, Broadhembury, Devon, in the west of England, from the 16th to 19th centuries.
Sir Thomas Drew, eldest son and heir, who served as Sheriff of Devon in 1612 under King James I, and was knighted at the coronation of King Charles I. He sold Killerton to Sir Arthur Acland , Knight, of Acland in the parish of Landkey, Devon, who used it as jointure for his wife Eleanor Mallet. Sir Arthur Acland's uncle Sir John Acland, MP and High Sheriff of Devon had shortly before purchased the adjoining manor of Columb John also in the parish of Broadclyst. Having sold Killerton, Sir Thomas Drew moved his family's residence from Killerton to Broadhembury, where in the words of the Devon historian Sir William Pole he "hath bwilded a fayre howse in this place & hath lardge demesnes & nowe dwelleth theire". This was The Grange, which remained long after the seat of the family. The portrait of Queen Elizabeth I attributed to George Gower, was kept at The Grange from Sir Thomas's time until 1903, but has since 2005 been owned by Chris Nightingale of Appleby Castle, Cumbria Historical Portraits Ltd. Sharpham was sold by the Drew family at some time before 1640 to the Giles family of Bowden, an adjoining estate. Sir Thomas Drew also purchased the estate of Kitton in the parish of Holcombe Rogus, Devon, from Richard Warr. He married Elizabeth More, one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Sir Edward More of Odiham in Hampshire, Member of Parliament for Midhurst in 1584 and for Hampshire in 1601. A mural monument with kneeling effigy of Elizabeth's father survives in Broadhembury Church, although he was buried at Odiham.
William Drew (1603–1654)
William Drew, eldest son and heir, who married five times but left no children.
Francis Drew (1604–1675)
Francis Drew, younger brother, baptised at Broadhembury. He married Mary Walrond, 2nd daughter of Richard Walrond of Ilbrewers, descended in a junior line from the Walronds of Sea, Ilminster, Somerset, themselves a junior branch of the Walronds of Bradfield, Uffculme in Devon. One of his daughters, Bridget Drew, in 1671 married Francis Fulford of Great Fulford, Devon. His mural monument survives in Broadhembury Church, inscribed as follows:
Francis Drew, younger brother, who owned the Grange for only three years until his death in 1710. He had married Martha Webb but left only female children and died and was buried in the parish of All Hallows in the City of Exeter.
Edward Drew (died 1714)
Edward Drew, younger brother, a Canon of Exeter Cathedral, who owned The Grange for only four years until his death in 1714. He did however leave male children, by his wife Joan Sparrow, a daughter and co-heiress of Anthony Sparrow, Bishop of Exeter.
Francis Drewe (c. 1674–1734)
Francis Drewe, son and heir, a Member of Parliament for the City of Exeter "in four successive parliaments", elected in 1713, 1715, 1722 and 1727, in which latter parliament he served until his death in 1734. He matriculated at Corpus Christi, Oxford on 2 August 1690, aged 16, and entered the Middle Temple in 1691 and was called to the bar in 1697 and was appointed a bencher in 1723. On 7 January 1695 he married Mary Bidgood, a daughter of Humphrey Bidgood of Rockbeare, near Exeter.
Francis Drewe (1712–1773)
Francis Drewe , Sheriff of Devon in 1738. He married twice:
Firstly in 1737 to Mary Rose, only child and sole heiress of Thomas Rose of Wootton House, Wootton Fitzpaine in Dorset, Sheriff of Dorset during the reign of King George I, by whom he had 7 sons, six of whom survived him, four of whom inherited Grange successively, but none of whom left surviving male progeny. His eldest son and heir was Francis Rose Drew of Grange, who died unmarried. In 1826 a large portrait was hanging on the wall of the staircase of Grange showing Francis Drewe, his wife Mary Rose and their seven sons.
Secondly in 1753 he married Mary Johnson, daughter of Thomas Johnson of London. Mary Johnson's portrait dated 1754 survives showing her dressed as a shepherdess, in a gold dress, with flowers in her hair, holding a crook in her left hand. By his second wife he had two further sons, the eldest of whom was Rev. Edward Drewe, Rector of Willand, whose son Edward Simcoe Drewe of Grange, Sheriff of Devon in 1845, succeeded his youngest half-uncle John Rose Drewe in the Drewe estates including Grange and Leyhill, Peyhembury. The second son was Samuel Drewe of Kensington in Middlesex, Governor of the Bank of England from 1828 to 1830. By Mary Johnson Francis Drewe left three daughters, who all survived him, one of whom was Mary Drewe who in 1782 married John Fownes Luttrell, feudal baron of Dunster of Dunster Castle in Somerset, MP for Minehead. A portrait of her grandfather Francis Drewe of Grange survives at Dunster Castle.
His mural monument survives in Broadhembury Church, erected after 1801 as requested in the will of his eldest son and heir Francis Rose Drew, and displays a triple impalement: centre: Drew; dexter: Rose; sinister: Johnson. It is inscribed as follows :
Francis Rose Drew (1738–1801)
Francis Rose Drew, eldest son and heir by his father's first wife. He purchased the estate of Leyhill in the parish of Payhembury, formerly the seat of the Willoughby family, also of Molland Champson, Devon. There survives of him a portrait silhouette painted on laid card c. 1777, probably by Francis Torond. He died without children. In June 1800 he was visited at The Grange by the landowner and landscaping connoisseur Rev. John Swete of Oxton House near Exeter, who made a watercolour paintingof the house and recorded the event in his Travel Journal.
Thomas Rose-Drew (1740–1815)
Thomas Rose-Drew, younger brother, of Wootton House in the parish of Wootton FitzPaine, Dorset who inherited The Grange on the death of his elder brother. He served as Sheriff of Dorset in 1801. In 1782 he married Betty Incledon, daughter of the antiquarianBenjamin Incledon of Pilton House, Pilton, Devon. Individual oval portraits of Thomas and his wife painted by Lewis Vaslet survive in the collection of Dunster Castle in Somerset. He died without progeny. His monument, erected by his widow, survives on the west wall of the south chapel of Wooton FitzPaine Church inscribed as follows:
William Drewe (1745–1821)
William Drewe, younger brother, of New Street, Spring Gardens in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, a lawyer of New Inn, London, who died unmarried. He was the subject of a poem written in 1783 by Richard Cooksey entitled "To William Drewe Esqr. of New Inn, sent as an apology for a breach of promise in not having met him and a party consisting of the Portals of Hampshire and Slades of Hammersmith, at Windsor".
John Rose Drewe (1747–1830)
John Rose Drewe, younger brother, who married Dorothy Bidgood, daughter of Charles Bidgood of Rockbeare. He left no surviving male children. An engraving of Grange in 1826, whilst he was the owner, was published by John Preston Neale in his Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen, etc. Neale described in great detail the "Oak drawing Room", which he described as "the chief ornament of this seat".
Edward Simcoe Drewe (1805–1879)
Edward Simcoe Drewe, half-nephew, only son of Edward Drewe, Rector of Willand, Devon, 7th son of Francis Drewe of The Grange, by his second wife Mary Johnson. He was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Devon and in 1845 served as High Sheriff of Devon. He married Jane Susan Adele Prevost, daughter and heiress of Jean Gaspard Prevost, Conseiler d'Etat of the Canton of Geneva.
Major-General Francis Edward Drewe (1830–1891)
Major-General Francis Edward Drewe, 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers, eldest son and heir, of The Grange and Leyhill, a Justice of the Peace for Devon. He was a Knight of the Legion of Honour. While a BrevetMajor on half-pay from the 23rd Fusiliers he also served as Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the 1st Devon Militia from 1856 to 1858. He married twice: firstly to Louisa Anne Vincent, eldest daughter of Sir Frederick Vincent, 11th Baronet, Rector of Slinford, Sussex. Secondly in 1885 he married Katherine Shelley, only daughter of Adolphus Shelley and widow of James Boutein. On his death in 1891 without children his heir was his sister Adèle Caroline Drewe, the widow of John Arthur Locke of Northmoor, near Dulverton in Somerset, a partner in the lead manufacturing firm of Locke and Blackett of Newcastle upon Tyne.
