MARY BYNE
Mary is a fascinating and somewhat enigmatic figure in the history of Kingsnympton! When compiling the 2023 edition of The Changing Face of Kingsnympton and looking up the ownership of several properties in the village, I was surprised to find they were owned by Mary Frances Byne. So I started to wonder what else she owned, and was amazed to find that this one woman owned about a third of the properties in the village, and 8 outlying farms.
So what do we know about her??
She was the daughter of a prominent Somerset family, the Thomas’s of Drake’s Place, Wellington. Her father was called Prockter Thomas. She was married to Henry Byne, a member of the landed gentry living in Satterleigh. Henry died in 1821, but it’s believed Mary was independently wealthy and she was one of the biggest land-holders in the parish, owning (along with many buildings in the village) the following farms - Meeth, Huxford, Beara, Graddons (site of Mole Cottage), Skibbows, Slashcott (Sletchcott) Kingsnympton Moor and Horsley Park (between Beara and Hummacott - no longer existing). To add to the intrigue, a William Prockter Thomas, almost certainly a relation (her brother?), is listed as owning land at Cleave, in Alswear.
We were able to glean some further information from the Somerset and Devon Archive, as follows :
It looks like it started with Mary Byne’s relative, Mary Melhuish of Salterleigh (as Satterleigh was then known). In 1791 she purchased the manor of Kings Nympton from the devisees of the will of Horatio Hele of Great Torrington. Mary Melhuish died in 1794.
In 1801 Mary drew up a pre-nuptial settlement in preparation for her marriage to Henry Byne of Carshalton - which took place on 23 September 1801, in Wellington parish church. Her property included a third of the estates inherited from Mary Melhuish of Salterleigh.
By 1822 Mary Byne was a widow. In 1822 she released the third of the property left to her in Mary Melhuish's will (which included lands in Kings Nympton, Frithelstock, Satterleigh, Atherington, High Bickington, Burrington, Chittlehampton, Fremington, Langtree, Buckland Brewer, Woolfardisworthy, Bulkworthy, Hartland and Woolcombe) to the Revd William Procktor Thomas. In 1829 Mary and William released the same land to Francis Freke Gunston of Bishops Hull. Also in 1822 she released lands in Devon to John Parson of London, gentleman.
Mary Byne's holdings in the village with (circled) the two properties (Huxley and Molehayes) that prompted our investigation.
Mary Byne's holdings in the parish
Mary died in 1854, and by looking at census records, we find that her holdings had passed by the early 1900s to The Rev Mordaunt Henry Byne - her grandson (presumable via her son, who confusingly was called Henry Mordaunt Byne!). But records show that the estate was dispersed in around 1920, when ownership of all their properties in the village changed. So what led them to sell up?? Was there some financial calamity that meant they needed the money? Again, the trail goes cold. But it would be fascinating to try and find out more about the woman who at one point owned a significant part of the parish, and whose memory has almost completely vanished!
