The Friends are fortunate in having the support of the immediate descendants of the Bampfylde family including the current Lord and Lady Poltimore and Sir Hugh Stucley but there are many other Friends who can claim some Bampfylde ancestry. Among these is one of our newest members who can not only claim Bampfylde descent but was also our first member to join over the internet - from Australia too! Her connection is interesting, particularly as this year the Friends will be concentrating on Poltimore's links with the Civil War.

Virginia Stokes' 9th times great grandfather was the Rev James Bampfylde 1602-1663, he was the sixth son of Sir Amias Bampfylde and Elizabeth Clifton of Barington, Somerset. Those of you who have a copy of the book 'A Devon House the story of Poltimore' by Jocelyn Hemming will know, or be able to check, that Sir Amias was the son of Sir Richard Bampfylde who built the original house - so Virginia has some illustrious ancestry! Being a younger son, Sir Amias had 12 sons and 5 daughters, James would have had to make his own way in the world. He entered Oxford university in 1620 aged 18 receiving his BA on 9 May 1621 and his MA on 4 February 1623/4 becoming vicar of Black Torrington in Devon in 1627. He married Wilmot Savery, a descendant of the Cary family of Clovelly in 1634. From 1634-1650 and again from 1660-1663 he was the vicar of Rattery.

The gaps in those dates are interesting, 1649 -1660 was the period of the Commonwealth, formed after Charles I was beheaded. From research that a cousin of Virginia's has done from a near contemporary book, Walker's 'Sufferings of the Clergy', it appears that James fell foul of Cromwell's Protectorate, in particular the Ordinance Against Pluralities and "was Dispossessed of his Living (Rattery)...being also Rector of Black-Torrington in this County". He was however permitted to keep Black Torrington "by the Stratagem of setting up a Godly Lecture in his Parish". He was likely to have had royalist sympathies and been a bit of a thorn in the flesh of Parliament as he "was also several Times Plunder'd and once carried away Prisoner to Dartmouth" however he "purchased his Liberty again at the Expence of 50/-". His successor at Rattery was a John Searle "who lived to deliver it up again (to James) immediately after the Restoration".

We can only wonder how Sir John Bampfylde of Poltimore, a Parliamentarian viewed his relative but it is one example of how families were divided during these difficult times.

A portrait of Sir Richard Bampfylde