Harris of Hayne allegiance to the Stuart Dynasty

 

 

The Harris of Hayne Branch has a well documented history of their allegiance to the Stuart dynasty.

 

Baron Walter de Haine was not blessed with a son. He had only one child, a daughter Thomasine de Haine. At that time in the South of Devonshire, near Plymouth resided the old family of Harris. The seat was Radford. A younger son of this family recommended himself to a lady heiress to an estate near Lifton called Stone and became Harris of Stone.

 

The eldest son of this union, William, in a like manner, having become a neighbour of the family of De Haine, so recommended himself to Thomasine, the heiress, that she married him, and thus he became Harris of Haine. The name changed to Hayne.

 

The years rolled on and the name of Harris of Hayne became on of the marked names of the County of Devon. When the great civil war broke out between the king and his Parliament the Master of Hayne took the side of Charles and gave him loyal support. The record of these events continues – When the king put himself at the head of his adherents in the west, William Harris had, by his union with the Lady Cordelia, the heiress of Lord Mohun of Okehampton, acquired a right to share the large possessions of that family with Lord Courtenay, and he now hastened firmly and freely to peril all in the royal service.

 

He got together a gallant troop of a hundred horse, whom he mounted and equipped at his own expense, his cousin Sir Bevil Grenville, did the same, and the two marching out together joined the king on the confines of Okehampton park whence the escorted him to Hayne and entertained him there for three days.

 

The following is recorded of this same William Harris – one occasion it was his fortune to capture a ringleader of the rebels, as he of course designated all opponents to the royal cause, for whose benefit he immediately determined to revive a dormant privilege belonging to him as the Lord and custodian of Lydford Castle.

 

 By virtue of this office, in times gone by, the several owners of the castle had possessed a jurisdiction separated and distinct from the common law of the realm, though it had long ceased to be exercised, at least in its full extent. Availing himself however of the privilege, he summoned the local and feudal court of Lydford, who sat in judgment upon the prison and found him guilty of high treason and condemned him to death – a sentence that was carried into effect upon the castle mound with as little ceremony as it had been pronounced.

 

This it seems was taken exceedingly ill by the defunct Roundhead. He could not rest quietly in his grave, but ever since, as the people say and  believe, when any chief of the Hayne family is about to die, he shows his joy at the event y perambulating the Park Terrace at night with his head under his arm.

 

On the walls of the great hall at Stowford, and other apartments of the old house hung many valuable pictures. Many of these were a testimony of the loyalism of the stout hearted cavalier he was called by his contemporaries, for they had come from Windsor.

 

 When Cromwell had ordered the sale of the collection of the pictures in the Castle at Windsor, the Master of Hayne had bought many of them and transferred them to the old home. It is on record that the manor of Stowford was formerly held by the tenure and condition that the owner should present the king with a gold ewer and napkin at Polstone Bridge on the Tamar, whenever he visited that part of his dominion. This office was performed for the last time –and for the first time on record – by William Harris and Sir Bevil Grenville when King Charles entered Cornwall after having reviewed the troops encamped upon Lifton Down. When the king left Hayne after his three days there, William Harris and Sir Beville accompanied him.

 

After reviewing the troops he went on to the Tamar, about six miles from Hayne where Polstone Bridge crosses the river. Here the ceremony took place, the king dipping his fingers in the water and touching the napkin.

 

There is also the story of Hayne, connected with Charles the 2nd. After the death of the King, Prince Charles passed over from Holland into Scotland and was crowned King of England at Scone. He then with a small army advanced into England but was stopped in his daring adventure by Cromwell who defeated him at the battle of Worcester. Charles then fled into the west.

 

 One night a servant came to inform William Harris at Hayne that three horse-men were in the courtyard who desired to speak to him He went out and found the King with two attendants. The staunch royalist received the fallen monarch readily. There was a concealed room in the middle of the old house and here the King was loyally cared for during some days while preparations were made for his escape. The concealment was successful and Charles escaped to France. Subsequently Charles had a large gold medal struck off in commemoration of his enterprise. One of these he sent to William Harris at Hayne. In commemoration of his loyalty Mr Harris was created a Baronet by Charles.

 

The record of events at the time state that the descendants of this un-comprising royalist continued to tread in his steps and maintained their fidelity to the Stuarts unshaken till the time of John Harris, a younger son, whose step daughter, Miss Rolle, of Heanton, had married the eldest son of Sir Robert Walpole.

 

By ministerial influence John Harris was then made Master of the Household to George the first, and afterwards to George the 2nd. He sat in parliament first for Okehampton and afterwards for Ashburton, but always voting in favour of the Minister. His elder brother, Christopher, the Master of Hayne, remained more faithful to the family principles. Rejecting every overture made to him by Robert Walpole to win him over to the interest of Hanover, he adhered to the Stuarts to the very last.

 

The circumstances were these. The Master of Hayne, Christopher Harris, did not marry, and stood firm to his Stuart loyalty. In the meantime his younger brother, John, had gone to London and mingled with the adherents of the new family. He married the widow of Mr Rolle of Heaston, whose daughter Miss Rolle married the eldest son of Sir Robert Walpole. This threw him with the Walpole party, and Sir Robert, though unable to influence the older brother at Hayne, was successful in binding the younger brother, John, who was the heir to Hayne, to his purposed.

 

To secure his conversion the Minister induced John Harris to form one of the deputation from England to Hanover and John Harris went over to accompany the new King George the First to his new kingdom. From this time he was called Hanover Jack by his friends. He then was appointed master of the Household the new King. But the Baroncey had come to and end.

 

John had quarreled with his younger brother Christopher. When he died in 1757 it was found that he had made a will by which he had cut off a large portion of the Hayne estate from his brother and his descendants if female, and had made it over in that case to a sister and her descendants if male. The brother had married and had a son who married and had two daughters. The sister had married and had a son, so John Harris divided the estate, leaving a large portion of it away from his nephew and his two daughters to his own sister and a son. Years after, when too late to remedy the wrong, it was discovered that John Harris had no power to make such a will.

 

This was a great blow to the greatness of Hayne. The nephew, Christopher did not live long but died in 1775, leaving two your daughters, the eldest Penelope aged three years and Elizabeth only two. After the death of Christopher Harris at Hayne his widow, with her two young children continued to occupy the old house but in a few years she married Mr Wellington, a gentleman residing at Hay Castle in Herefordshire. The two children grew up partly at Hayne and Hay until the eldest was 15 years of age, when the mother died and the two young ladies went to reside at Hayne with an old governess. Thus these orphans represented the old family at Hayne and they were destined for very many years to rule its fortunes.

 

The sisters were stout supporters of the village and its people, and the institutions of Stowford and Barton. Their chief and principal guardian and trustee was a Mr Tremayne, an early neighbour who took a warm interest in his wards.

 

He arranged for the two daughters to be introduced to the gentry at London, where by virtue of their last estate and connections with many of the highest families in Devonshire, such as the Courtenays, the Mohuns, the Trelawneys and others they were readily accepted, and became close friends of the Duchess of Gordon and Lady Orford.

 

During the better months of the year they stayed at a home for refined young ladies run by a Mrs Beavor. Owing to their friendship with Lady Orford they were introduced to the Walpole family.

 

The first Baronet created by Charles the second, was Sir Arthur Harris, the stout hearted cavalier, of the civil war, who had entertained Charles for three days at Hayne.  He unhappily died in 1680 without issue and the honor conferred on the family by the restored and grateful king was but short lived. The fine estate passed to a collateral heir, but the title ceased.

 

John Harris, Hanover Jack, marred as his first wide the widow of Mr Rolle of Heanton, after her death he married Anne daughter of Lord Conway.

 

 

 

Details extracted from:

 

 

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