User:NHSavage/sandbox/Hillersdon Manor

William Charles Grant (1817-1877)
The estate was purchased in about 1847 by William Charles Grant (1817–77), a Lieutenant of the First (Kings) Dragoon Guards. He was a nephew of Sir William Grant (1752-1832), Member of Parliament, Solicitor General and Master of the Rolls, who had retired to Barton House, Dawlish, Devon. William Charles Grant was lord of the manor of Cullompton. He was descended from a younger son of Alexander Grant of Hillochhead in Scotland, a branch of Grant of Elchies.

In 1843 Grant married Maria May (d.1891), a grand-daughter of Joseph May of Membland in Devon and of Hale Park in Hampshire. She was a noted pteridologist, and an adept of the "Victorian Fern Cult",. At the Royal Horticultural Society's Exhibition of British Ferns held in London in August 1892, her son provided "Mrs Maria Grant's Memorial Prize for 10 varieties of Athyrium filix-femina", Silver Gilt Flora Medal, in her honour.

William Charles Grant also built the present Hillersdon House to replace the earlier house which was in a dilapidated state, and which had been offered for rent in the early 19th century.

William John Alexander Grant (1851-1935)
Hillersdon passed to his second and eldest surviving son "Johnny" William John Alexander Grant (1851-1935), JP, the distinguished Arctic  photographer who in 1895 married Enid Maud Forster, a daughter of William Forster (1818-1882), Premier of New South Wales, Australia, whom he divorced in 1901. In the 1890s Hillersdon became known for its wild parties. One incident occurred after the Exeter Ball, when four young gentlemen plunged into one of the lakes, and were subsequently washed off in baths of Champagne. Elinor Glyn, a noted society beauty was part of the house party on this occasion.