Bishops of Exeter The site of Lindridge House is situated 1/2 mile NW of the church in the parish of Bishopsteignton.
Dudley After the
Dissolution of the Monasteries, in 1549 the estate was acquired by Sir
Andrew Dudley,
KG (c. 1507 – 1559), a soldier, courtier (Groom of the Bedchamber) and diplomat, and a younger brother of
John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland. He held it only for a short period.
Duke In 1550 Dudley sold "Lyndrygge" to
Richard Duke of London and
Otterton, Devon, together with the "lordships and Manors of Bishops Teignton, Radway and West "Teyngmouth" and the rectories and church of Bishops Teignton and Radway". A chief rent of £20 was payable to Dudley after the death of "John, Bishop of Exeter", presumably Bishop
John Vesey (died 1554). Richard Duke was MP for Weymouth in 1545, for Dartmouth in 1547 and
Sheriff of Devon in 1563–1564. His position as Clerk of the
Court of Augmentations from its inception in 1536 to 1554 gave him the opportunity of buying many lands of
dissolved monasteries. In 1540 he purchased the large manors of
East Budleigh and
Otterton, where his family had lived for many generations. From Duke it reverted to the crown in 1572.
Martin ,
feudal barons of
Barnstaple, Devon In 1614, the estate was purchased for £2,900 by the lawyer Richard Martin (1570–1618), born in nearby
Otterton, a member of the
Middle Temple and MP for Barnstaple in 1601 and twice for Christchurch, in 1604 and 1614. He started to rebuild the house in 1617, which was completed by his brother and heir Thomas Martin (died 1620), mayor of Exeter. He started a major remodelling of the house, completed in 1673 as evidenced by a datestone on the chimney, which resulted in the demolition of the two wings of the former building leaving the central section 9-bays wide by 6 deep. He created a particularly ornate interior with exceptionally fine wainscotting, doors and fireplaces. The ornamental ceilings in the ballroom, measuring 50 ft × 30 ft, and morning room were particularly noted and the panels of burnished gold, are highly ornamental".
Comyns Mary Lear, the sole daughter and after 1736 the heiress of the 2nd baronet, married in about 1724 to
Sir Thomas Tipping, 2nd Baronet, who died the next year aged 25, without children. She remarried in about 1726 to Thomas Comyns. Mary seems to have died before 1732, four years before the death of her father, as Thomas Comyns, who was described as "of Lindridge", was a party in the settlement made upon his marriage to Dame Mary Wolston of Staverton, dated 20 October 1732. Comyns thus appears to have inherited Lindridge from his father-in-law who died in 1736. Comyns still held Lindridge in 1738 but had sold part of the estate, under an Act of Parliament, to "Dr Finney" apparently Protodorus Finney Esq., (died 1734), of
Blagdon, a lawyer of
Lyon's Inn, Middlesex.
Baring In 1747 Lindridge was purchased for £8,000 by
John Baring I. Baring was one of the wealthiest cloth merchants of Exeter. His heir was his son
John Baring II, who founded with his younger brother
Francis Baring (1740–1810), created the 1st
Baring baronet "of Larkbeer" in 1793, the company which became
Barings Bank. In 1755 he purchased
Mount Radford House, Exeter, which became his home and where he died, and served as MP for
Exeter in 1776, and was
Sheriff of Devon in 1776. In 1765 he sold Lindridge to John Line (died 1777).
Line John Line (died 1777) was a wealthy self made building contractor who with his partners Thomas Parlby and
James I Templer constructed new Royal Navy dockyards at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth. All three appear to have originated in Kent, near
Rotherhithe, but moved to Devon following their acquisition of the government contract to reconstruct and expand Plymouth dockyard, to meet the increased space needed by the Royal Navy which had been expanded due to the French invasion threat. Templer had purchased in the same year of 1765 the manor of
Teigngrace where in 1780 he built the grand late-Palladian
Stover House.
Templer dated July 1795. View of west front. Devon Record Office DRO 564M/F8/133 John Line's heir was his godson Lt-Col. Henry Line Templer (1765–1818), whose monument exists in Teigngrace Church, the youngest son of his partner James Templer. Henry married Mary Rogers, daughter of
Sir Frederick Leman Rogers, 7th Baronet (1782–1851). He had four sons and 5 daughters. remarried to Rev. John Templer (1751–1832), the second son of her first husband's partner James Templer and the elder brother of her first husband's heir, Henry Line Templer, after whose early death in 1818 Lindridge was purchased from his heirs by his brother Rev. John Templer. Whilst credible accounts, including that quoted above of Lysons, state that John Line bequeathed Lindridge to his godson Henry Line Templer, (born 1765) the youngest son of his partner James Templer (died 1782), but its descent was certainly described by Rev.
John Swete (died 1821) who passed by it in July 1795, and painted it in watercolour, as "by the decease of the last proprietor Mr Line it was by his widow convey'd by marriage to the Rev'd John Templar". Swete described Lindridge in July 1795 as follows: There is wanting only water at Lindridge to render it one of the finest spots in the county, but it lies too near
Haldown to have a stream of any size, and perhaps amid scenery which is indebted to nature for all its charms it were better to be as it is without a sheet of water altogether, than to have it introduced by art which could not be wholly concealed. The house is a handsome pile and of considerable size though in no wise so large as the antient one which (it is said) covered over no less than an acre of ground. This magnificent building was a possession of the Martyns, whose seats at successive periods ( among others) I have already noticed at Cockington, Dartington and
Oxton. (Swete's own home, inherited from his paternal grandmother, a Martyn) A daughter of the last Martyn of Lindridge, a co-heiress, was married to the Lord Treasurer Clifford, the first of the family that was ennobled, about the middle of the last century, which connection between the two families seems to have been kept up to the time of my relative and predecessor at Oxton, whose name was Wm. Clifford Martyn. From the Martyns it past to the Lears and others, till by the decease of the last proprietor Mr Line it was by his widow convey'd by marriage to the Rev'd John Templar. Of the old house there is one room yet retained and which has undergone but little alteration, its dimensions are 50 × 30 and by its size and costly decorations we may collect no inadequate idea of the opulence of the family. Of the ornamental part tho' the room was fitted up in 1673 there are yet in being some rich carved work and highly burnished gilding, the of which latter article (according to the disbursements in the steward's book) amounted to no less a sum than 500 pounds. I past from this charming spot, through an avenue at the back of the house, into the public road... Swete's own eldest son and heir John Beaumont Swete (1788–1867) married Mary Templer (1794–1886), a daughter of Henry Line Templer and Mary Rogers. The young James' father was George Templer (1755–1819), of
Shapwick, Somerset, which manor he had purchased from Dennis Rolle of
Stevenstone. George Templer, the brother of Rev. John Templer and of Lady Anne de la Pole, was an officer of the
Honourable East India Company and had married in 1781 Jane Paul, the eldest daughter of Henry Paul, of West Monkton, Somerset, a wealthy officer also in the service of the HEIC. James George John Templer (died 1883) married Frances Mortimer and had four sons and four daughters. His eldest son and heir was John George Edmund Templer (1855–1924), JP, Captain in the Highland Light Infantry and Captain and honorary Major in the Royal 1st Devon Imperial Yeomanry.
Cable Sometime before 1910 John Templer (died 1924) let Lindridge to Sir
Ernest Cable (1859–1927), later created 1st
Baron Cable of
Ideford in 1921, at an annual rent of £380. Cable was an Indian-born British merchant and financier. He served as Sheriff of
Calcutta in 1905 and was knighted when
George, Prince of Wales and his wife
Mary of Teck visited the city in the following year. He returned to England by 1913 and in 1916 was appointed
High Sheriff of Devon. The lease was increased to 40 years in 1915 at a rent of £643 per annum, whereupon Cable started making major alterations. In 1920 John Templar sold the freehold of Lindridge to Cable for £75,000, and died four years later leaving his next younger brother James Mortimer Templer (1858–1934), of Brampford House, Brampford Speke, Exeter, the senior representative of the Templer family. Lord and Lady Cable established a hospital for wounded soldiers at Lindridge, with their eldest daughter Noorouz, Lady Alexander, acting as matron. Lady Cable died in 1924 and Cable survived her for three years, dying in
London in 1927.
Benthall On the death of Lord Cable in 1927 the estate was inherited by his daughter Ruth, the wife of Sir Edward Benthall (died 1961), of
Benthall Hall, Shropshire. In Kellys Directory of 1939 Lindridge was described as "the property and residence of Sir Edward Charles Benthall, the house is of stone, standing in a park of 145 acres, approached from Chudleigh by a double avenue of elms, and from
Newton Abbot by a drive through a wood a mile in extent". The Benthall's wealth had been located in India and was lost following nationalisation after Indian Independence in 1947. Sir Edward Benthall remained at Lindridge, but unable to afford the large staff needed to maintain the house, several rooms were closed-up. His wife spent most of her time in the South of France. On sir Edward's death in 1961 his son
Michael Benthall inherited. In June 1962, Lady Benthall sold at auction most of the contents and fittings, including the 5 ft 6in × 3 ft 9in ballroom chandelier, which sold for £4,200.
Brady Michael Benthall was based in London as director of the
Old Vic theatre, and had little use for his Devon property which he sold to timber merchants, with two farms, for £60,000. The ancient trees in the park were cut down and sold. The house with 60 acres of land was then re-sold to Mr Brady of
Brixham for £15,750. Brady at first stated his intention to be the restoration of the house and its use as his family home, but later announced plans for a development of 100 holiday chalets in the grounds, which scheme was rejected by the parish council. The house was destroyed by a fire in the early morning of 25 April 1962. ==Destruction by fire==