Humphrey Sydenham (1694–1757)


Humphrey Sydenham, "The Learned", of Combe, Dulverton in Somerset, and of Nutcombe in Devon, was a Tory MP for Exeter, in Devon, between 1741 and 1754.

Origins

Humphrey Sydenham was the eldest son and heir of Humphrey Sydenham of Combe, which family had long been seated at that place, by his first wife Eliza Peppin, daughter of George Peppin of Old Shute, Dulverton, which family after 1858 developed the Peppin Merino breed of sheep in Australia.

Career

He was a lawyer trained at the Inner Temple. Horace Walpole called him "a mad High Church zealot" though on another occasion he wrote that Sydenham was "an honest devout gentleman, who always talked out of the Common Prayer Book". He was temporarily ruined by the South Sea Bubble of 1720, in which he lost £20,000.

St Barbe inheritance

His financial situation was restored by a large inheritance from his great-great-uncle Sir John St Barbe, 1st Baronet, MP, of Broadlands in Hampshire. As his heir and executor, Sydenham erected a marble monument in Barbe's memory in the chancel of Ashington Church, Somerset.
In 1736, Sydenham sold Broadlands to Henry Temple, 1st Viscount Palmerston.

Marriage and children

He married Grace Hill, daughter and heiress of Richard Hill of the Priory, near Exeter, by whom he had one son and three daughters including:
His mural monument in Dulverton church is inscribed as follows:
Underneath are displayed on an escutcheon quarterly of four: 1st: Argent, three rams passant guardant sable ; 2nd: Argent, a bend of fusils sable ; 3rd: Chequy argent and sable ; 4th: Gules, a bend between six cross crosslets or. Overall is an inescutcheon of pretence: Ermine, on a fesse sable a castle argent.