Richard Bampfield

Richard Bampfield (1526–1594) of Poltimore and Bampfylde House in Exeter, both in Devon, was Sheriff of Devon in 1576. He began construction of the Tudor era Poltimore House in 1550, and completed the building of Bampfylde House, Exeter, along with The Great House, Bristol one of the finest Elizabethan townhouses in the West Country, in 1590. He is the ancestor of the Bampfylde Baronets and Barons Poltimore. Origins He was the eldest son and heir of Sir Edward Bampfield (died 1528) of Poltimore by his wife Elizabeth Wadham, the widow of John Warre of Chipleigh (see Chipley Park, Somerset), second son of Sir Richard Warre of Hestercombe, and a daughter of Sir Nicholas Wadham (died 1542) of Merryfield, Ilton in Somerset and of Edge, Branscombe in Devon. The Bampfield family had been seated at Poltimore since the 13th century. Career Bampfield's father died when he was two years of age, and the 18th-century genealogist Thomas Wotton related this tradition about his childhood: However, the editor of the 1771 edition of Wotton's genealogy added "Having received no account from the family, concerning this particular, I do not presume to give it as authentic."