Roborough, Torridge

The estate of OLECU(M)BE is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the 7th of the 27 Devonshire holdings of Theobald FitzBerner (fl.1086),[1] an Anglo-Norman warrior and magnate, one of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. His tenant was Gotshelm. The mansion house survives today as "Owlacombe", south-west of the village of Roborough.

Much confusion exists in historical sources concerning the estates of Over Wollocombe and Combe, which appear to refer to the same place. Over Wollocombe, a seat of the Wollocombe family, was stated by Pole (d.1635) to have been situated in the parish of Roborough:[2]

"Over Wollacombe, in the parish of Rowburgh, hath had of the name of Wollacomb his owner many generacions & doth contynewe it unto this day".

Certainly in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries many members of the Wollocombe family "of Combe" were baptised, married and buried at Roborough.[3] The family became extinct in the male line on the death of Roger Wollocombe (1632-1704), buried at Roborough, who left two or three surviving daughters as his co-heiresses. The 5th-born daughter Mary Wollocombe (1666-1701) married John Stafford (1674-1721) of Stafford Barton in the nearby parish of Dolton, whose eldest son Roger Stafford (1696-1732) assumed the surname Wollocombe in lieu of his patronymic, following the death of his uncle Roger Wollocombe (1632-1704). He died without surviving male progeny, when his heir became his younger brother Thomas Stafford (1697-1756), who likewise assumed the surname Wollocombe and was buried at Roborough. He married a daughter of the prominent Rolle family. His sons adopted the surname Stafford-Wollocombe. His daughter Henrietta Stafford (born 1732) married Henry Hole of Ebberly, in the parish of Roborough. Her son Thomas Hole in 1819 was resident at Stafford Barton.[4] The Stafford-Wollocombe family later moved to Bidlake in the parish of Bridestowe, having inherited that estate by marriage.[5] "Combe Barton" in Roborough survives today as a Tudor house, which contains in the hall a "large heraldic late Tudor (or early c.17) plaster overmantel"[6] displaying within a strapwork cartouche the arms of Wollocombe "with two figures and two fronds" below.[7]

Risdon (d.1640) however stated Over Wollocombe to have been in the parish of Mortehoe,[8] about 18 miles north-west of Roborough, the modern beach-resort of Woolacombe. According to Risdon this estate in the parish of Mortehoe was the original home of the Wollocombe family, which later moved to "Combe"[9] in the parish of Roborough, which it inherited following the marriage of Thomas Wollocombe to Elizabeth Barry, daughter and heiress of Henry At-Combe (alias Barry, a younger son of the Barry family, lords of the manor of Roborough, who "was called after the name of this house"[10])[11] Risdon calls the Wollocombe seat in the parish of Roborough simply "Combe".[12]

Ebberly House, viewed from south

Ebberly is a hamlet within Roborough parish. The hamlet has several prominent white houses by the roadside, including Ebberley Hill Barton (formerly a coaching inn called Ebberley Arms and now operating as Ebberley Escapes Bed and Breakfast), a mansion house known as Ebberly House and a Methodist chapel.

The estate of Ebberley is first recorded, as Emberlegh, in the 13th century Book of Fees.[13] In the mediaeval era it was the seat of the de Ebberleigh[14] family which had taken its surname from its seat. During the reign of King Henry VI (1422-1461) following the death of Walter de Ebberleigh with no surviving son, the estate passed to Roger Davy (alias Dewy) who had married Walter's daughter and heiress Thomasine de Ebberleigh.[15] The Davy family remained seated at Ebberly until after 1620.[16]

William Davie of Ebberleigh was a Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1446.[17] His son Richard Davie had two sons, William the elder, who continued at Ebberleigh, and Robert Davie, who settled at Crediton and became a wealthy clothier and was the ancestor of the Davie family of Creedy.[18]

The estate was inherited by Henry Hole from his uncle (the Hole family resided at Combe, Roborough). Henry Hole was a builder and wood-engraver from Liverpool[19] who in about 1816 rebuilt the mansion house, possibly incorporating some elements of the former building; the architect may have been Thomas Lee.[20] Ebberly House was classified as a grade II* listed building in 1952.[21] In 2010 the estate comprising six cottages, farmland and farm buildings, produced an annual income of £50,000.[22]