Arlington Court - Chichester Family

Chichester Family

The Chichester family, which in 2012 still exists in several branches and survives in North Devon at Hall House, two miles SE of Bishops Tawton, was historically one of the leading ancient gentry families of Devon, having been established in 1384 at the manor of Raleigh, in the parish of Pilton near Barnstaple, upon the marriage of John Chichester of Somerset to Thomasine de Ralegh, daughter and heiress of Sir John de Ralegh. The site of the great manor house of Raleigh, which was sold by Sir Arthur Chichester, 3rd Baronet (c.1662-1718) to Arthur Champneys, MP, a Barnstaple merchant, is now occupied by a disused 1960's concrete building, part of the complex of North Devon District Hospital. The present Georgian mansion called Raleigh House was built on a site directly above the old mansion by Nicholas Hooper, whose father Sir Nicholas Hooper, MP, had purchased the manor from Champneys in 1703. The Chichester family thenceforth lived at Youlston. According to the hearth tax returns of 1664, which showed Raleigh still to have been owned by Sir John Chichester, 1st Baronet, of Raleigh (1623-1667) it had 24 hearths, making it one of the largest houses in North Devon, possibly second largest after Tawstock Court. The manor of Arlington was also inherited from the de Ralegh family, and was thus one of the family's most ancient Devon possessions. It was later given by the Chichesters to a younger son from a second marriage, Amyas Chichester (d.1577), who married Jane Giffard, daughter of Sir Roger Giffard of Brightley in the parish of Chittlehampton, and by her produced a family of nineteen sons and four daughters, thus establishing there his own branch of the family. The large family of Amyas is referred to by Charles Kingsley in Westward Ho! Hall in the parish of Bishops Tawton was inherited in 1461 by Richard Chichester on his marriage to Thomasine de Halle, daughter and heiress of Simon de Halle. The manor of Shirwell, in which is situated Youlston House, was inherited by the Chichester family temp. Henry VII (1485-1509) by marriage to Margaret Beaumont, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Beaumont, whose family had resided at Youlston since the reign of Henry I (1100-1135). Shirwell is adjacent to the south of Arlington. Margaret Beaumont's sister and co-heiress Joan Beaumont married into the Basset family of Whitechapel and Tehidy, to which family she brought the other Beaumont lands of Umberleigh and Heanton Punchardon. The pioneering yachtsman Sir Francis Chichester (1901-1972) was the son of Rev. Charles Chichester, appointed by the family as parson of Shirwell, seventh son of Sir Arthur Chichester, 8th Baronet (1822-1898), of Youlston. He was buried at Shirwell Church, where two monuments to him exist. His younger son is Giles Chichester (b.1946), Conservative Member of the European Parliament for South West England and Gibraltar, who thus retains his family's ancient connection to Devon. (For the history of the wider family see Marquess of Donegall and Chichester baronets).