Clinton Devon Estates

Clinton Devon Estates is a land management and property development company which manages the Devonshire estates belonging to Baron Clinton, the largest private landowner in Devon. Lord Clinton is of the Fane-Trefusis family, and is seated at Heanton Satchville in the parish of Huish, in Devon. The organisation's headquarters are situated on part of the estate at the "Rolle Estate Office" in the Bicton Arena at East Budleigh, near Budleigh Salterton, East Devon.

The estates of Lord Clinton today derive almost entirely from two inheritances, in 1791 and 1842, by the Trefusis family, originally lords of the manor of Trefusis in Cornwall, both from different branches of the Rolle family of Devon: the Rolles of Stevenstone and Bicton (the senior line) and the Rolles of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, a junior branch, also very wealthy. The Devon estates of the Rolle family were founded by the Tudor lawyer George Rolle (d.1552), whose family was of obscure origins in Dorset. He purchased the manor of Stevenstone near Great Torrington as his seat, and during the reign of King Henry VIII and of his son King Edward VI, acquired numerous other properties, many former monastic properties released following the Dissolution of the Monasteries onto the property market by the king at often very favourable terms.

The partiarch George Rolle purchased for his third son, Henry Rolle (d.1620), the marriage of a great heiress Margaret Yeo, daughter and heiress of Robert Yeo of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe. At that seat a junior line of the Rolle family lived for many generations, exploiting as their political power-base the pocket borough of Callington in Cornwall, purchased in 1601 by Robert Rolle (died 1633), grandson of George Rolle the Patriarch. This brought a seat and career in Parliament to many members of the Rolle family. The Rolle family of Heanton and its descendants continued until 1791, when the estates were inherited by the Trefusis family, and now form the northern centre of Devon Clinton Estates. This was due to the eventual heir of Margaret Rolle, suo jure 15th Baroness Clinton (1709-1781) having been her cousin Robert George William Trefusis (1764–1797), lord of the manor of Trefusis in Cornwall, who in 1794 successfully claimed the title 17th Baron Clinton. Trefusis and Margaret Rolle were both descended from the marriage of Robert Rolle (c.1622-1660) of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe and Lady Arabella Clinton, the younger daughter of Theophilus Clinton, 4th Earl of Lincoln, 12th Baron Clinton (d.1667). A later Trefusis Lord Clinton, having been forced by fire damage to abandon the ancient mansion house of Heanton Satchville in the parish of Petrockstowe, purchased a mansion in the adjoining parish of Huish and renamed the house Heanton Satchville, Huish, still the seat of Lord Clinton today.

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