page_title: Sydenham House, Devon
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Sydenham House, Devon / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Arms of Tremayne of Collacombe in the parish of Lamerton, Devon: Gules, three dexter arms conjoined at the shoulders and flexed in triangle or the fists clenched argent. Canting arms from French trois mains ("three hands")
context_page_description: Sydenham House in the parish of Marystow in Devon, England, is a seventeenth-century manor house. The Grade I listed building is situated about thirteen miles south-west of Okehampton, on a 1,200 acres estate. It was built by Sir Thomas Wise between 1600 and 1612, incorporating an older structure. It was partially destroyed by fire in 2012. The gardens are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
context_section_description: According to the Domesday Book of 1086, immediately before the Norman Conquest of 1066 the manor of SIDREHA~ was held by the Saxon magnate Brictric, a great landholder in Devon and more widely in England. Following the Norman Conquest, it was one of the 107 Devonshire landholdings of Juhel de Totnes (died 1123/30), the first Anglo-Norman feudal baron of Totnes and feudal baron of Barnstaple, both in Devon. Juhel's tenant was a certain William. On his banishment by King William Rufus, Juhel's property was confiscated, and Sydenham later became the seat of the de Sydenham family, which as was usual took its name from its seat, whose overlords were the subsequent feudal barons of Totnes. In the 13th century Book of Fees Maurice de Sideham is listed as holding lands in Parva Sideham ("Little Sydenham") (which adjective was used to distinguish it from Sydenham Damerel, also in Lifton Hundred) from Reginald de Vautortes, feudal baron of Totnes, and is recorded by Pole (d.1635) as holding North Sidenham, this manor, in 1242. The de Sydenham family was succeeded by that of de Mauris, from which it passed by marriage to Trevage, and thence to the Wise family, which later was also seated at Mount Wise, Plymouth.
  Part of the house dates from the fourteenth century, and is said to have originally formed a quadrangle or "H", but in the reign of Elizabeth it was built into the shape of an "E", and is a very perfect example of Tudor domestic architecture. Sir Thomas Wise (c.1576–1630), Knight of the Bath, of Sydenham, was Sheriff of Devon in 1612 and in 1621 served as a member of parliament for Bere Alston in Devon. He much beautified the house, and added such height and such a great amount of granite to it that his contemporary Risdon (d.1640) Risdon remarked: "as the  very foundation is ready to reel under the burthen". A story is repeated in many histories of Devon, including Lysons (1822), that during the Civil War this Sydenham was captured in 1644 by Colonel Holborne. However it appears that the house which was in fact garrisoned and taken was Combe Sydenham, in the parish of Stogumber in Somerset. However, within the last forty years a sword and other weapons, also seventeenth century horseshoes, have been found may be taken as a proof that fighting of some sort did take place at the Wise seat. It is quite likely that King Charles II, when Prince of Wales, did come here, as he is known to have spent many weeks in the vicinity.
  His son was Thomas Wise (c.1605–1641), of Sydenham, Sheriff of Devon in 1638 and in 1625 a member of parliament for Callington in Cornwall and for Bere Alston in the parliaments of King Charles of 1625, 1626 and 1628 to 1629, and for Devon twice in 1640. The son of the latter was Edward Wise (1632–1675) of Sydenham, thrice MP for Okehampton, who was predeceased by both his childless sons, and whose sole heiress became his only daughter Arabella Wise, who married Edmund Tremayne (1649–1698) of Collacombe in the parish of Lamerton on Devon, to which family passed Sydenham.
caption: Canting arms[3] of Tremayne of Sydenham: Gules, three dexter arms conjoined at the shoulders and flexed in triangle or the fists clenched proper[4]
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