Tetton, Kingston St Mary

History

Dyke

• Thomas Dyke of Tetton, who married a certain Anna. His monumental brass survives on the wall of the Tetton Pew of Kingston St Mary Church, inscribed as follows:

• Thomas Dyke, Doctor of Medicine, son, whose monumental brass also survives on the wall of the Tetton Pew of Kingston St Mary Church. He proved his father's will dated 10 March 1671 at the Archdeaconry Court of Taunton on 24 June 1672. He married twice, firstly to Elizabeth Pepys, a daughter of John Pepys of Ashtead and sister and eventual co-heiress of Edward Pepys. Without progeny. Secondly to Joanna Deane, possibly his servant, by whom he had an illegitimate son called Thomas Deane, of the Inner Temple, who later adopted his father's surname of Dyke, and died without progeny.
• Thomas Dyke of Tetton. He was one of the sons of Edward I Dyke of Pixton, Somerset, by his wife Elizabeth Blackford, a daughter of Richard Blackford of Dunster, Master in Chancery, and heiress of her cousin Henrietta Blackford, heiress of Holnicote.
• Elizabeth Dyke, daughter and sole heiress. She married Sir Thomas Acland, 7th Baronet of Killerton in Devon and Petherton Park in Somerset. She was also the heiress of her childless uncle Edward II Dyke of Pixton, the husband of Margaret Trevelyan, a daughter of Sir John Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, of Nettlecombe in Somerset, and widow of Alexander Luttrell of Dunster Castle. Edward's portrait survives in Dunster Castle. Elizabeth Dyke thus brought to her husband the estates of Tetton, Holnicote and Pixton, "a splendid dowry" worth about £30,000, and extending into 24 parishes. According to the marriage settlement Elizabeth and her husband were obliged to adopt the additional surname of Dyke.

  Acland

• Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 7th Baronet, who in 1745 married Elizabeth Dyke, the heiress of Holnicote, Pixton and Tetton. He was the eldest son and heir of Sir Hugh Acland, 6th Baronet of Killerton in Devon, by his wife Cicely Wroth, eldest daughter and eventual sole heiress of Sir Thomas Wroth, 3rd Baronet, MP, of Petherton Park, Somerset. He served as Member of Parliament for Devon, 1746–1747, for Somerset, 1767–1768, and was High Sheriff of Somerset in 1751. He was a prominent member of the Westcountry gentry, and a famous staghunter who used as his hunting seats his wife's Exmoor estates of Pixton and Holnicote. He kept his own pack of hounds, which had formerly been kept by the Dykes. He became forester or ranger of Exmoor under grant from the Crown and "hunted the country in almost princely style. Respected and beloved by all the countryside, he was solicited at the same time to allow himself to be returned as member of Parliament for the counties of Devon and Somerset. He preferred, however, the duties and pleasures of life in the country, where he bore without abuse the grand old name of gentleman".

  Herbert

• Henry George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon, who inherited Tetton and Pixton as part of the marriage settlement on his marriage in 1796 to Elizabeth "Kitty" Acland, daughter of John Dyke Acland by his wife Lady Harriet Fox-Strangways , a daughter of Stephen Fox-Strangways, 1st Earl of Ilchester. John Dyke Acland was the son and heir apparent of the 7th Baronet by his marriage to Elizabeth Dyke, and was the father of Sir John Dyke Acland, 8th Baronet, who died aged 7. Lady Harriet died at Tetton in 1815.
• Edward Charles Hugh Herbert of Tetton, MP for Callington, second son of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon by his wife Kitty Acland. In 1851 the occupant of Tetton was Thomas Acland, the future 11th Baronet. His whole household was struck down by scarlet fever, probably caused by bad drains and water supply, and his first wife and one of his daughters, 3 year-old Cecily, died there in May 1851, after which the family moved to Holnicote, which then burnt down, then to Sprydon, purchased by his father the 10th Baronet.
• Edward Henry Charles Herbert, only surviving son, of Tetton, was murdered by brigands in Greece.
• Dr. The Hon. Alan Percy Harty Molyneux Howard Herbert, of Tetton, first cousin, second son of the 3rd Earl, a doctor of medicine who was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government in 1871 for his service as a doctor during the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War, and remained there as the physician in charge of the Hertford Hospital until 1901. He inherited the estate of Tetton from his first cousin Edward Henry Charles Herbert.
• Hon. Mervyn Robert Howard Molyneux Herbert, of Tetton, nephew, third son of Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, of Highclere Castle in Hampshire and of Pixton in Somerset. The eldest son of the 4th Earl, by his first wife, inherited Highclere and the earldom, whilst he bequeathed Pixton to Aubrey Herbert, his eldest son by his second wife. Mervyn Herbert, younger brother of Aubrey Herbert, was a diplomat and cricketer who enlarged and rebuilt Tetton House between 1924-26, to the design of the architect H.S. Goodhart-Rendel. His inscribed brass memorial tablet survives in the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Kingston St Mary. In 1921 he married Mary Elizabeth Willard, a daughter of Joseph E. Willard.
• Edward Alan Mervyn Henry Molyneux Herbert, son. Captain, Coldstream Guards, a lawyer at the Middle Temple and an Associate of the Royal institute of British Architects. In 1966 he married Bridget Anne Hibbert, daughter of Major Hugh Washington Hibbert. In 1994 the Tetton estate comprised 2,000 acres, but had originally been only 700.
• Alan Mervyn Edward Hugh Herbert, son, residing at Tetton House in 2015.