Weycroft is an historic manor in the parish of Axminster in Devon, England. The surviving manor house known as "Weycroft Hall" is a Grade I listed building which includes elements from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, with a great hall of circa 1400, and was restored in the 19th century.
Descent
Pomeroy
The manor of Wigegroste is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the 52nd of the 58 Devonshire landholdings of Ralph de la Pomeroy,, 1st feudal baron of Berry Pomeroy in Devon, one of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. He was lord of the manor of La Pommeraye, Calvados in Normandy and was one of the two commissioners appointed to carry to the royal treasury at Winchester the tax collected in Devon resulting from the assessment made based upon the Domesday Book survey. Ralph's tenant at Wyecroft was a certain Roger, possibly Roger of Courseulles. The pre-Norman Conquest holder was a Saxon named "Viking", whose large Devonshire landholdings lay entirely within Ralph's future barony and within that of his brother William Cheever, feudal baron of Bradninch, Devon. Viking's holdings within Ralph's future barony were: Peamore, Huxham, Clyst St George, Heavitree and within William Cheever's future barony he held: Exminster, Matford, Hewise, Awliscombe, Whipton and Axminster.
de Wigoft
The next recorded holder was the de Wigoft family, formerly surnamed Gelond. John de Wigoft was the last in the male line and married Jone Chiderlegh, daughter and heiress of Richard Chiderlegh, by whom he had a daughter and heiress Jone de Wigoft, who married John Gobodislegh.
Gobodislegh
John Gobodislegh married Jone de Wigoft, heiress of Weycroft, and thus acquired the manor. However he died without male issue, leaving a daughter and sole heiress Thomazine Gobodislegh, who married John Cristenstow. However, in the Book of Fees, a certain Henry Gobaud' held land in "Wicrofte" from the feudal barony of Berry Pomeroy.
Cristenstow
John Cristenstow married Thomazine Gobodislegh, heiress of Weycroft, by whom he had issue William Cristenstow, who purported to grant the manor to Sir Thomas II Brooke , of nearby Holditch Castle in the parish of Thorncombe, Devon, "by far the largest landowner in Somerset" and 13 times a Member of Parliament for Somerset, whose monumental brass survives in Thorncombe Church. However the grant was later deemed legally imperfect. William Cristenstow died without issue, leaving as his heiress his sister Alis Cristenstow, wife of Richard Dennis of Giddicott in the parish of Bradford in Devon.
Dennis
Richard Dennis married Alis Cristenstow, heiress of Weycroft. He was the son and heir of Walter Dennis of Giddicott, by his wife Maude Buckerell, daughter and heiress of Henry Buckerell of Buckerell, apparently in the parish of Heavitree near Exeter. Walter Dennis was the son of John Dennis by his wife Jane Dabernon, daughter and heiress of John Dabernon of Bradford, Devon. The descent of Weycroft from Richard Dennis and Alis Cristenstow was as follows:
Walter Dennis of Giddicott, son and heir, who married Isotte Durnford, a daughter of Stephen Durnford of Stonehouse, Plymouth.
Thomas Dennis, son and heir, who in 1430 reached a settlement regarding Weycroft with Sir Thomas III Brooke of Holditch. The settlement resulted in Thomas Dennis swapping the manor of Weycroft for the Brooke manor of Holcombe Burnell, near Exeter, which thenceforth became the seat of the Dennis family, which went on to great prominence in Devon and whose eventual heir was Denys Rolle of Stevenstone in Devon, Sheriff of Devon in 1636, who inherited the large Dennis landholdings centred on Bicton, Devon. By the 19th century the Rolle family had become the largest landowner in Devon, as revealed by the Return of Owners of Land, 1873. Thomas Dennis married twice: firstly to Alice Bampfield, a daughter of Sir Thomas Bampfield, lord of the manor of Poltimore in Devon, the descendants of which marriage inherited Bradford as their seat and secondly to Elizabeth Hatch, a daughter of Haukyn Hatch of Woolleigh, Beaford in Devon, the descendants of which marriage inherited Holcombe Burnell.
Brooke
Sir Thomas III Brooke was a Member of Parliament for Dorset and Somerset, and was the husband of the heiress Joan Braybrooke, suo jure5th Baroness Cobham, via her mother Joan de la Pole. After his marriage he moved to his wife's home at the manor of Cobham in Kent, where his descendants attained much prominence as Barons Cobham and rebuilt that manor house into one of the largest and most important in Kent. They flourished there until 1603 when Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham was attainted for his part in a plot to overthrow King James I, when the peerage became abeyant and his lands were forfeited to the crown. The Brooke family originated at the estate of "la Brook" near Ilchester in Somerset. Thomas II Brooke, the first prominent member of that family, made Weycroft his seat "with newe building castlewise" ; Risdon states that he "built here, on the rising of an hill, a fair new house, castle-like, and enclosed a large and spacious park, being a very pleasant scite over the river and hath a good prospect". This refers to a royal licence to crenellate and empark dated 1427, granted to Sir Thomas III Brooke and his probable feoffees Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, Sir Giles Daubeney and others:
Sir Thomas III Brooke's son was Edward Brooke, 6th Baron Cobham. On the attainder in 1603 of Henry Brooke, 11th Baron Cobham, the family's lands were forfeited to the crown.
The manor of Weycroft was later split into two parts, one of which became the property of the Mallock family of Cockington Court, Tor Mohun, Devon and descended by marriage to Mr Bilk of Axminster, the owner in 1810. The other part in 1810 was owned by Rev. M. Tucker. In February 1795 the antiquary Rev. John Swete of Oxton House, Kenton in Devon, visited Weycroft as part of his ongoing "Picturesque Tour of Devon" and painted a watercolour image of it, and recorded the event as follows in his Travel Journal:
Present ownership
In 2016 at the end of a tenancy and having been owned by the same family for several generations, the seven-bedroom main house, three-bed annexe, one-bed cottage and three-bedroom lodge and 80 acres of land was offered for sale via estate agents Strutt & Parker in Exeter for £1.5 million. In 2019 Weycroft Hall was in the occupation of "Weycroft Hall Ministries", a charity which "seeks to use the Hall as a centre for vibrant Christianity. It acts as a retreat centre, teaching base, church, and place of healing, restoration & prophecy".
