Menabilly (, meaning stone of colts) is a historic estate on the south coast of Cornwall, England, situated within the parish of Tywardreath on the Gribben peninsula about west of Fowey.
It has been the seat of the Rashleigh family from the 16th century to the present day. The mansion house, which received a Grade II* listing on 13 March 1951, is early Georgian in style, having been re-built on the site of an earlier Elizabethan house, parts of which were possibly incorporated into the present structure. The house is surrounded by woodland and nearby is the farmhouse Menabilly Barton. In the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 Jonathan Rashleigh of Menabilly, Par, was listed as the largest landowner in Cornwall with an estate of or almost 4% of the total area of Cornwall.
Rashleigh family seat
The Rashleigh family of Menabilly originated as powerful merchants in the 16th century. In 1545 Philip Rashleigh (died 1551), a younger son of the Rashleigh family of Barnstaple in Devon, who had become wealthy through trade, purchased the manor of Trenant near Fowey from the King after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. His two sons Robert and John founded the Rashleigh family of Fowey. The land on which Menabilly was built has been owned by the Rashleigh family since the 1560s. In 1589 the building of the first house at Menabilly was commenced by John Rashleigh (1554–1624), shipowner, MP for Fowey in 1589 and 1597, Sheriff of Cornwall 1608–9, who captained his own ship Francis of Foy against the Spanish Armada in 1588. The house was completed in 1624 by his son Jonathan Rashleigh (1591–1675), five times MP for Fowey and a Royalist during the Civil War. It was re-built between 1710 and 1715 by Jonathan Rashleigh III (1693–1764).
In national politics the Rashleighs of Menabilly obtained a voice in parliament because of their power to elect members of parliament for the pocket borough of Fowey. The electors consisted of the portreeve and commonalty (or burgesses), and the family purchased several of the freehold properties in the borough to which the right to vote as burgesses was attached. Thus they and their cousins the Rashleighs of Combe, Fowey, with their combined property holdings, controlled 12 votes in the 1570s and in 1650 controlled 15 votes, corresponding to the number of freehold properties in the borough manor owned by them in 1649. Members of the Rashleigh family frequently used their influence as landlords of these properties to have themselves elected to parliament as members for Fowey.
Description of house
The present house is of two storeys built around a central courtyard with a six-bay front on which the central 3 bays break forward.
Philip Rashleigh (1729–1811) landscaped the gardens and planted the woodland around the house and estate. William Rashleigh, his nephew, succeeded after Philip's death in 1811, and following a fire in 1822 rebuilt the house greatly extended in size.
Jonathan Rashleigh (1820–1905), improved and extended the gardens and grounds and planted many trees including pine, cedar, eucalyptus and beech. He also planted rhododendron, bamboo and hydrangea.
John Rashleigh, grandson of Jonathan, succeeded in 1905 but rarely lived at Menabilly which thus fell into serious decay. In 1943 it was discovered in a dilapidated state by the new tenant, author Daphne du Maurier, who set about restoring it and made it her home before returning it to the Rashleighs in 1969.
Descent of estate
John Rashleigh (died 1582)
John Rashleigh (died 1582), a merchant at Fowey in Cornwall in 1573 purchased from Christopher Copleston (died 1586) of Copleston in Devon, the estate of Menabilly, together with Treswethick, Trewrong and Penpol. He was the second son of Philip I Rashleigh (died 1551) of Fowey. He married Alice Lanyon (died 20 August 1591) (whose 1602 monumental brass survives in Fowey Church,) daughter of William Lanyon by his wife Thomasine Tregian, daughter of Thomas Tregian.
John Rashleigh (1554–1624) John Rashleigh II (1554–1624), son, builder of the first house at Menabilly, shipping-merchant, MP for Fowey in 1588 and 1597, and High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1608.
Jonathan Rashleigh (1591–1675) Jonathan Rashleigh (1591–1675), second son and heir, his elder brother John Rashleigh (1582-May 1624), presumed insane, having died one month after their father, who left instructions in his will for his care to his second son, executor and heir Jonathan: "keep and maintain his brother John, allowing him a chamber, meat, drink, apparel and all other necessities and a servant continually to attend him".