Membland is an historic estate in the parish of Newton and Noss, Devon, situated about 8 miles south-east of the centre of Plymouth. The estate was purchased in about 1877 by Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke (1828–1897), senior partner of Barings Bank, who rebuilt the mansion house known as Membland Hall. He suffered financial troubles and in 1899 the estate and Hall were sold to property developer John Headon Stanbury. A year later Membland was sold to ship builder William Cresswell Gray. The house became derelict after World War I and was demolished in 1927. Several of the estate's service buildings survive, including the Bull and Bear gatekeeper's lodge, stables, gasworks, forge and laundry. On the site of the house a smaller dwelling was built between 1966 and 1968.
History
Anciently called Mimiland, it was successively the seat of the families of de Mimiland, Hillersdon, Champernowne, Stert, Bulteel, Perring and Baring.
Hillersdon
The Hillersdon family originated at the estate of Hillersdon in the parish of Cullompton, Devon, before the 14th century. By the 16th century they had become seated at Membland. Richard Hillersdon (c.1639 – 1703), of Membland, was an MP for Plympton Erle in 1679. He had one son and two daughters, but the son died in or before 1693, after which he appears to have conveyed Membland to his son-in-law Arthur Champernowne (1671/2-pre 1717) lord of the manor of Modbury in Devon, who died childless. His other daughter married Courtenay Croker (died 1740), of Lyneham, Yealmpton, MP for Plympton as a Whig from 1695 to 1702.
On 30 August 1693 Richard Hillersdon of Membland signed a deed of release to Arthur Champernowne of Modbury, relating to the "Mannor of Lambside, messuage and barton of Membland, Pool Mills, Holbeton".
Champernowne
Letters survive from Arthur Champernowne (1671 – before 1717) of Membland to Courtenay Croker of Lyneham, Yealmpton. Champernowne died childless at some time before 1717, the last of the Champernownes of Modbury.
Stert
After 1723 the mansion house was occupied by Arthur Stert (died 1755), MP for Plymouth 1727–54, who rebuilt it with detached wings. He married but was predeceased by his only son, leaving two daughters. His family had lived in the area around Plymouth since the early sixteenth century. In 1723 he purchased Membland from the Champernowne family. He received a grant of arms in 1745 as follows: Argent, a saltire gules between four crosses formee sable, with crest: A cross formee sable between a pair of wings elevated argent. One of his parliamentary colleagues wrote of him: "They say he is an able man, but he has not the gift of utterance; he did not answer the questions put to him with readiness or clearness, but yet, I think, did give answers which might satisfy those who were not resolved not to be satisfied".
Bulteel
Membland was purchased for his residence in 1757 by John Bulteel (1733–1801), a younger son of James Bulteel (1676–1757) of Tavistock and of Flete (adjacent to Membland), MP for Tavistock 1703–8 and 1711–15, by his wife Mary Crocker, daughter and heiress of Courtenay Crocker (died 1740), of Lyneham, Yealmpton. John Bulteel married Diana Bellenden, a daughter of the Scottish Lord of Parliament John Bellenden, 2nd Lord Bellenden (died 1707). A mural monument to John Bulteel survives in Holbeton Church showing two oval escutcheons the one at dexter showing the arms of Bulteel: Argent semée of billets gules, a bend of the last with inescutcheon of pretence of Croker of Lyneham (Argent, a chevron engrailed gules between three crows proper), the one at sinister showing Bulteel quartering Croker, impaling: Gules, a stag's head and neck couped between three cross crosslets fitchy within a double tressure flory counter-flory or (Bellenden). Above both shields is the crest of Bulteel: Out of a crown gules two wings argent bilettée of the first.
Having inherited his paternal estate of Flete from his young nephew Courtenay Croker Bulteel of Flete and Lyneham, Yealmpton, Bulteel had no further use for Membland, and sold it to Peter Perring.
Perring
Peter Perring (1743–1796) of the City of London was the uncle of John Bulteel's daughter-in-law Elizabeth Perring (1766–1835) (daughter and sole heiress of Thomas Perring, a merchant in the City of London), who had married his son John Bulteel (died 1837) of Flete and Lyneham.