Combe Sydenham is an historic manor in Somerset, England. The 15th-century manor house, called Combe Sydenham House is in the parish of Stogumber, Somerset and is situated just within the boundary of Exmoor National Park. It is a Grade I listed building.
Description of house
The porch was added in 1580 to the south front of the building. The west front was re-fenestrated, and at least two stair turrets were added in about 1600. The south front has been re-fenestrated and buildings to the north and east were demolished.
Description of estate
The house is set in a estate which contains a deer park and a variety of walks.
Descent
de Moyon/Mohun
Combe Sydenham is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as one of the many manors held by William de Moyon, 1st feudal baron of Dunster, seated at nearby Dunster Castle, Somerset.
Sydenham
Combe Sydenham Hall was the home of a junior branch of the Sydenham family of Sydenham, Bridgwater, from the 15th century to 1693. In 1585 Admiral Sir Francis Drake (c.1540-1596) married Elizabeth Sydenham (born c.1562), the only child and sole heiress of Sir George Sydenham (d.1597), of Combe Sydenham, Sheriff of Somerset, whose monument with effigy survives in the Sydenham Chapel of Stogumber Church. Before the marriage however Drake left on a long voyage and her father arranged for her to be married instead to a son of the Wyndham family of nearby Orchard Wyndham. Tradition states that on the wedding day as the couple approached the Church of St Mary at Stogumber a loud clap of thunder was heard and a large meteorite crashed through the roof. This was seen as a bad omen and the wedding was cancelled. Drake had arrived back in Plymouth on that same day and they were later married at the Church of All Saints in Monksilver. The diameteriron meteorite, known as "Drake's cannon ball", has remained at the house ever since and has become smooth from being rolled on the ground. After Drake's death in 1596, Elizabeth Sydenham remarried (as his 2nd wife) to Sir William V Courtenay (1553-1630) of Powderham, Devon.
Sir John Sydenham, 1st Baronet (c. 1620–1643) married a certain Alice, but died before the birth of his posthumous son and heir Sir John Posthumous Sydenham, 2nd Baronet (1643-1696). His widow remarried to Sir Francis Dodington, who resided at Combe Sydenham during the Civil War, as a Royalist, and in 1651 during his tenure Combe Sydenham was confiscated by the Parliamentarians. Parliament purported to sell Combe Sydenham to John Ware, but following the 1660 Restoration of the Monarchy, it was restored to the 2nd Baronet, who in 1693 sold the entire estate to George Musgrave (d. 1721).