Moreton House (formerly until 1821 Daddon House) is a grade II listed country house and former large estate near Bideford, North Devon, England. The house is about one mile west of the old centre of Bideford town, its entrance drive leading off the south side of the road between Bideford and the village of Abbotsham. It has in recent years become increasingly surrounded by the suburbs of Bideford, and in 2014 only 5 acres of the former parkland remain attached to the house. The estate is said anciently to have been the property of the famous Grenville family, lords of the Manor of Bideford, and of Stowe, Kilkhampton in Cornwall. It was later acquired by the Buck merchant family of Bideford, which rebuilt the house in 1760 and again in 1821.
In 1858 the Buck family changed its name to Stucley, in reference to a recent female ancestress and heiress. The now "Stucley" family, which had inherited other substantial residences at Hartland Abbey, Affeton and North Molton, sold Moreton House in 1956, after which it was occupied by Grenville College, a private school, which vacated the site in 2009. The house is a fine example of Georgian architecture and had at one time ornate gardens with two lakes, fountains, waterfalls and formal herbaceous borders. The house with five acres of land was offered for sale in 2014 for the surprisingly low price of £500,000. The house's former name is memorialised by an industrial estate called "Daddon Court" a short distance to the south of the house.
History
Buck
The family of Buck were Bideford ship owners and merchants who from the 17th century traded with the American Colonies and owned tobacco plantations in Virginia and a saw-mill in Bideford, Maine. Bideford was the leading tobacco trading port in England. From their profits they acquired much land near Bideford and eventually by the end of the 18th century their estates almost surrounded the north side of the town from Westleigh to Northam. Their arms are: Per fess embattled argent and sable three buck's attires each fixed to the scalp counterchanged. These arms are quartered with the ancient arms of Stucley by the present Stucley Baronets, with the Stucley arms in the 1st and 4th quarters of greatest honour. The descent of the Buck family is as follows: John Buck, whose wife's family name was Hartwell. Hartwell Buck (died 1691), son, who was buried at Bideford. He married Sibella Ford (died 1706), daughter of John Ford. George Buck (1674–1743), 3rd son and eventual heir. He was seven times mayor of Bideford. In 1697 he married Sara Stucley (died 1742), daughter and in her issue heiress of Dennis Stucley (1673/4-1741/2) of Affeton in the parish of West Worlington, Devon, a very ancient and prominent Devonshire gentry family, which had however almost been ruined during the Civil War for its adherence to the Royalist cause. John Buck (died 1745), 3rd son and heir, who in 1729 married Judith Pawley (died 1739), sole heiress of William Pawley of Bideford George Buck (1731–1794), eldest son and heir, JP for Devon. In 1755 he inherited the estate of Affeton and other lands from his great-uncle Dennis Stucley (died 1755), Sheriff of Devon in 1748, who died unmarried. In 1754 he married Anne Orchard (1730–1820), daughter of Paul Orchard (died 1740), MP, of Hartland Abbey, near Bideford, and sister of Paul Orchard (1739–1812) of Hartland Abbey, who died childless and bequeathed it to his other sister Charlotte Hooper Morrison of Yeo Vale House. The Orchards had made their wealth through their involvement with the Customs and Excise in Exeter, Barnstaple and Bideford. George Buck rebuilt Daddon House in about 1760, which he made his residence. The irregular plan indicates that some of the fabric of the older structure was retained. The Bucks visited Affeton from time to time, and stayed with the tenant of the barton farm as the former grand fortified manor house of the Stucleys had been destroyed in the Civil War with only the ruinous gate house surviving. He acquired the advowson of Bideford from the heirs of William Henry Granville, 3rd Earl of Bath (1692–1711), the last Grenville lord of the Manor of Bideford.