Plumpton House

To read Bryan Stewards's research into the history of Plumpton House please click on the link below. The spelling of this property has varied throughout the years sometimes Plumpton and at other times Plumton.

Click on the link below to discover more about the history of Plumpton.

/assets/Uploads/Plumton-BS.pdf

In addition to Bryan's research we have more infomation about the history of the building obtained in conversation with John Jump who owned Plumpton  from 1972 until the 1990s. 

Iron age artefacts have been found on the site.

John recounts that it was the Drury family from Doveden who built the core of the present house in 1537. Some of the timber frame structure remains within the present building. The 'new' house was built over the original moated site. A very deep well from the earlier building is said to still exist near the gateway into the courtyard and close behind the present house.

Later, in the C16th, Plumpton was owned by James Bouchier (1572-1635). The Bouchiers were from Felsted in Essex. The family had previously been Royalists but later changed sides to support the Puritans. James Bouchier had eleven children of whom the eldest, Elizabeth, (1598-1665) married Oliver Cromwell.

When James died in 1635  Plumpton is believed to have inherited by Richard Bourchier. His younger brother, James, married Susan Frost from Doveden .James died  here in 1656 and was buried in Whepstead churchyard. Richard Bourchier is also recorded as having been buried in Whepstead but this has not been confirmed..

After the Civil War the property passed to Henry Wood whose daughter Mary was contracted at the age of seven to marry Charles Fitzroy the illigimate son of Charles II and Barbara Castlemain. Henry Wood had been a courtier to Charles 1 and was reputed to be the richest man in England. He was paid to act as guardian for the three sons whom Charlles II had with Barbara Castlemain. Henry Wood is not thought to have lived in Whepstead; he prefered his house in Woodbridge. Sadly Mary died of smallpox before the marriage could be formailsed.

PLUMPTON PHOTGRAPHS

A picture of Plumpton dating from about 1886 from the Spanton Jarman collection by kind permission of the Bury Past and Present Society. The 1881 census tells us that William Bevan JP, his wife Sarah and their daughters Harriet, Caroline and Beatrice were in residence.

Plumpton House