Cross, Little Torrington

Cross is an historic estate in the parish and former manor of Little Torrington, Devon. The Georgian red-brick mansion house at Cross, re-built between 1744 and 1748 and classified as Grade II* listed in 1960, is a conspicuous sight from Castle Hill, Great Torrington, across the River Torridge valley. Cross House is especially notable as containing an ornate staircase salvaged in about 1720 from the demolished Stowe House, Kilkhampton in Cornwall, built circa 1680-5.

In the early 18th century the estate of Cross was owned by Anthony Welsh, whose daughter Grace Welsh (1689–1770) married Joseph Coplestone (1667–1746), of Woodland, Little Torrington in 1713 at the Church in Little Torrington.

The Coplestone family of Woodland was founded by Richard Coplestone, living in 1550, the third son of John Coplestone (1475–1550) of Copleston in the parish of Colebrooke, Devon. One of the younger sons of Joseph Coplestone (1667–1746) by his wife Grace Welsh (1689–1770) was John Coplestone (1727–1801), Mayor of Great Torrington in 1760. Joseph Coplestone's eldest son and heir, Joseph Coplestone (1718–1759), of Woodland, sold Woodland to Henry Stevens (1689–1748), who re-built Cross House.

Henry Stevens (1689-1748), described in his will as "of Smithcott" in the parish of , but who built the existing mansion of Cross between 1744 and 1748, married Christiana Maria Rolle (1710-1780), a daughter of John Rolle (1679-1730), MP, of Stevenstone, in the nearby parish of St Giles in the Wood, and sister of Henry Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1708-1750). Portraits of Christiana and of her brothers John Rolle Walter (1712-1779), and Denys Rolle (d.1797), successively owners of the Stevenstone estates, were painted by Thomas Hudson and were given in the early 1900s by Lord Clinton to the Great Torrington Town Lands and Poors Charity. They are on public display in Great Torrington townhall.

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