Bowden, Yealmpton


Bowden is a historic estate in the parish of Yealmpton in Devon, England. From the 15th century until 1748 the manor house was for eight generations the seat of a junior branch of the Copleston family of Copleston. The manor house was largely rebuilt in the 19th century and is now a farmhouse. A good group of outbuildings survives.

History

The earliest holder of the estate recorded by the Devonshire historian Sir William Pole, was John de Bowdon. It then passed via successive heiresses to the Lawtram and Stone families. Elizabeth Stone, daughter and heiress of Thomas Stone, married Walter Copleston, and Bowden descended for many generations as a seat of their Copleston descendants.
In 1753, after the death of Thomas Coplestone in 1748, his executors sold Bowden to William Bastard of nearby Kitley in the parish of Yealmpton, who was gazetted as a baronet in 1779 but as he took no steps towards passing the patent the title was not used by him or his descendants.