Sir James Hamlyn, 1st Baronet

Sir James Hamlyn, 1st Baronet (1735–1811) (born James Hammet) of Clovelly Court in Devon, and of Edwinsford, Carmarthenshire, Wales, was Member of Parliament for Carmarthen 1793-1802. He served as Sheriff of Devon 1767-8. He was created a baronet in 1795. He not only inherited a large estate in Devon from his wealthy childless great-uncle, but also married a wealthy Welsh heiress.

James Hammett was born in October 1735, the eldest son of Richard Hammett (1707–1766) of Kennerland, in the parish of Clovelly, Devon, by his wife Elizabeth Risdon (1710–1787), daughter and sole heiress of Philip Risdon, Gentleman. The mural monument to his parents survives in Holy Trinity Church, Woolfardisworthy, near Clovelly, inscribed as follows:

It shows the arms of Hammett (Or, a falcon sable belled gules between three roses gules leaved vert) with inescutcheon of pretence of Risdon of Bableigh: (Argent, three birding bolts sable), with crest of Hammett above: A swan with wings endorsed argent collared gules winged beaked and legged or holding in his beak a bolt sable. The Risdons were an ancient Devonshire family seated at Bableigh in the parish of Parkham (near Clovelly), with a junior branch at Winscott in the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington, of which latter family was the Devon historian Tristram Risdon (died 1640).

In 1759 he became heir to the manor of Clovelly, following the death of his unmarried great-uncleZachary Hamlyn (1677–1759), of Woolfardisworthy, three miles south-east of Clovelly, a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn and a Clerk of the Journals of the House of Commons, who in 1738 had purchased the manor of Clovelly from the last of the Cary family, longtime lords of the manor, and had made Clovelly Court his residence.

...
Wikipedia