Robert Wrey
Sir Robert Bourchier Sherard Wrey, 11th Baronet (1855 – 16 January 1917) of Tawstock Court, North Devon, was a prominent member of the Devonshire gentry.
Origins
He was the son and heir of Sir Henry Bourchier Toke Wrey, 10th Baronet (1829-1900) by his wife Marianne Sherard, daughter of Philip Castel Sherard, 9th Baron Sherard (1804–1886).[2]
Career
He served in the Royal Navy, seeing action in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War and with the Naval Brigade landed in the Third Anglo-Burmese War. He retired from the service with the rank of Captain, and later served as honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal North Devon Hussars. In 1900 he succeeded his father in the baronetcy and the family estates. He was the last to live at Tawstock Court and "to keep house in the old manner" and moved to Corffe a nearby house on the estate, having let the Court.[3]
Marriage & progeny
He married Jessie Fraser, daughter of William Thomson Fraser and granddaughter of John Fraser, of Mongewell Park, Oxfordshire. He left no male progeny, only a daughter:
- Rachel Wrey (1911-1991), wife of John Henry Peyto Verney, 20th Baron Willoughby de Broke (1896–1986).
Death & succession
On his death in 1917 without male progeny the title passed to his younger brother, Sir Philip Bourchier Sherard Wrey, 12th Baronet (1858-1936),[4] who promptly in 1919 sold 2,500 acres of the estate for £67,000, leaving some 7,000 acres remaining.[5]
References
- ^ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.877, Wrey Baronets
- ^ http://www.thepeerage.com/p19384.htm#i193834
- ^ Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, p.156
- ^ Obituary: p. 156, The Annual Register: a review of public events at home and abroad, for the year 1917. London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1918
- ^ Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, p.156