Huish, Devon

Huish is a small village, civil parish and former manor in the Torridge District of Devon, England. The eastern boundary of the parish is formed by the River Torridge and the western by the Rivers Mere and Little Mere, and it is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Merton, Dolton, Meeth and Petrockstowe. In 2001 the population of the parish was 49, down from 76 in 1901.

The village lies just off the A386 road, about five and a half miles north of Hatherleigh, and about seven miles south of Great Torrington. It was a member of the historic hundred of Shebbear and was in the deanery of Torrington.

The majority of the parish consists of parkland belonging to Heanton Satchville, the seat of Baron Clinton; the mansion-house is a few hundred yards to the north of the church.

Parish church
The church, dedicated to St James the Less, was heavily restored in 1873 by the 20th Baron Clinton to the designs of George Edmund Street, work described by Pevsner as "not of his best". The 15th-century tower is the only part that remains unaltered. The church contains a monument to John Cunningham Saunders, the noted eye surgeon who was born in the parish in 1773.

Descent of the manor
According to Magna Britannia (1822): Huish, or Hewish, anciently Hiwis, gave name to the equestrian family of Hiwis, whose heiress married Chief Justice Tresilian, in the reign of Richard II; and afterwards Sir John Colshill. The manor of Huish passed afterwards, by purchase, to a branch of the Yeo family, who resided at this place for many generations. It was sold by Edward Rooe Yeo, Esq., M.P., the last of this branch of the family, to Mr. John Dufty, of whom it was purchased, 1782, by Sir James Norcliffe Innes, Bart., now Duke of Roxburgh; who when Sir James Innes built a new house on the estate for his own residence, called Innes House. Huish was sold by the Duke to Richard Eales, Esq., of whom it was purchased, about 1812, by Lord Clinton, whose property and seat it now is.

In 1812 following its purchase by Lord Clinton it was renamed "Heanton Satchville", after his former seat in Petrockstowe parish which burned down in 1795. This building also burned down on 18 December 1932, and was rebuilt in 1937-8 by Lord Clinton to the design of Sir Walter and Michael Tapper, in the late 17th-century style, in an H-shape, with modillion cornice and sash-windows. Bicton House, inherited from Mark Rolle (d.1907) had nevertheless remained Lord Clinton's principal seat until his death in 1957.

Yeo family
The last in the line of Yeo of Huish was Edward Roe Yeo (1742–1782), MP for Coventry twice, 1774–1780 and 27 Feb. 1781-23 Dec. 1782. He was the son of George Yeo of Huish by his wife Ann Beresford, daughter of Edward Beresford (d.1736) of Sudbrooke Holme, Sudbrooke, West Lindsey, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Eton College 1758-60, and at Exeter College, Oxford 1761. He trained as a lawyer in the Middle Temple, 1751. He died unmarried on 23 December 1782. According to Tristram Risdon writing in about 1630 the first of the family to purchase Huish was Leonard Yeo "a flourishing branch of the Heanton house", who married Arminell Beresford, the daughter of Christopher Beresford of London. His descendant Leonard Yeo, whose mother was a co-heiress of "Smith" (Risdon is not more precise), owned the manor in Risdon's time (c. 1630) and married a daughter of the Fortescue family of Weare Giffard. His son married the daughter of Sir Robert Bassett, knight.