page_title: Holnicote Estate
section_title: Martyn and Blackford families
hierarchical_section_title: Holnicote Estate / History / Martyn and Blackford families
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 7th Baronet (1723-1785).
context_page_description: Holnicote in the parish of Selworthy, West Somerset, England, is a historic estate consisting of 12,420 acres of land, much situated within the Exmoor National Park.
  There have been several houses on the estate over the last 500 years. In 1705 a new mansion was built which was burned down in 1779. It was rebuilt as a hunting lodge and survived until another fire in 1851 and replaced ten years later. It became one of the centres for the Devon and Somerset Staghounds. The main building was damaged by another fire in 1941. The house and surrounding estate were given to the National Trust in 1944 by Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet. The house is now operated as an hotel. The surrounding land which includes Dunkery and Selworthy Beacons, and the villages and hamlets of Selworthy, Allerford, Bossington, Horner and Luccombe as well as the Dunkery and Horner Woods National Nature Reserve contains more than 240 kilometres of footpaths and bridleways.
  In the 13th and 14th centuries the estate was held by the de Holne family. During the 17th century the Staynings were lords of the manor and in the 18th descendants of FitzMartin by then known as the Martyn family had taken over.
context_section_description: The Steynings family owned Holnicote until the direct male line became extinct with the death of Charles Staynings (1622–1700). His wife, Susanna (died 1685), was a daughter of Sir Nicholas Martyn of Oxton and Steynings's heir was their nephew, William Martyn. According to records of the Heralds' Visitations of Devon and research by the Victorian historian J. L. Vivian, this William Martyn lived in Oxton in the parish of Kenton, Devon; he was Susanna Martyn's great-nephew and died in 1710, aged 30. He sold the estate to William Blackford, a Master in Chancery. Blackford then bought the manors of Bossington and Avill, the latter from Anthony Stocker and his wife, Sarah; this estate extended from the ridge of Grabbist nearly to the sea-shore and also included land in the parishes of Dunster, Carhampton, Crowcombe, Stogumber, Timberscombe and St. Decumans. He married Elizabeth, a daughter of John Dyke of Pixton, and died in 1728. His son, William, succeeded him and married Henrietta Collet (died 1727), a daughter and co-heiress of Joseph Collet of Hertford Castle in Hertfordshire. However, he died only three years after his father. Their only daughter and heiress, Henrietta Blackford, inherited the estate as an infant, but died aged 7 in 1733. The estates were divisible upon a great-aunt, Elizabeth Dyke (died 1737), and a second cousin, Elizabeth, a daughter of Thomas Dyke of Tetton and Mary, a daughter of Elizabeth Dyke (died 1737). Later in 1733, Elizabeth Dyke (died 1737) conveyed her share in the estate to her only surviving son, Edward Dyke (died 1746) who in turn conveyed his portion to his niece in 1744, making her the sole owner of the entire estate.
caption: Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 7th Baronet (1723–1785). Portrait, 1767, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, on display at Killerton House.[18] A similar painting, which is also owned by the National Trust can be seen at Saltram House.[19]
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