HEATHs of EXETER

By Jean E. Harris

The Heaths of Exeter were one of the wealthy and somewhat extraordinary families of Exeter during the 18th century. The following is a brief overview of what has been gleaned about them from many sources.

Whilst the Heaths were always a prominent family in Exeter, it is the later generations of whom more is known as they were to become some of the wealthy woollen merchants at the time when this trade was flourishing in the West Country. One of the earliest known merchants of this Heath family was a Thomas Heath who was married to a Mary. Their marriage has not been traced but it may have taken place during the 1660s as, during those years, there are baptisms of some of their children at Holy Trinity Church, Exeter. As no baptism has been found for their son Benjamin (born c1672), it is possible that by that time Thomas had already turned away from the Anglican (CoE) church to become a member of the Baptist congregation that was meeting in Catherine Street and Candy's Lane. This is evidenced somewhat by the fact that it was his son Benjamin, by now a wealthy fuller and merchant, who bought the site in South Street where the Baptist Church was erected in 1725.

Benjamin (born c1672) had a son also named Benjamin who was educated at Exeter Grammar School and who later entered the Middle Temple 6 January 1724 with a readmittance 9 June 1725. Although Benjamin senior must have been a strict nonconformist, it was after his death in June 1728 that his two sons Benjamin and Thomas were both baptised on the same day of 11th October 1729 in the Anglican church of St Leonard, Exeter. Whilst we do not know just what motivated these two sons to return to the Anglican church after their father's death in 1728, we can perhaps speculate (or not!) that this may possibly have been due to their political ambitions as later they both served on the Exeter City council.

For Benjamin (junior) the Dictionary of National Biography reveals that "about 1730 Benjamin set out on the Grand Tour of Europe" and it was during that time in 1732 that he met and married his wife Rose Marie in Geneva, Switzerland. DNB also has that Benjamin's chief pleasures lay in literature and book collecting and he is said to have had a great classical library. His will (1766) reveals bequests of various classical volumes (by name) to members of his own family and also a bequest of other classical volumes from his library (again as specified in his will), to his friend Revd Standford of Balliol College, Oxford, with the request that they be taken by him to the Bodleian Library in Oxford. At some point in time, Benjamin became an Exeter city politician and he later served as the Town Clerk for that city from 23 March 1752 until his death 13 Sept 1766. He was so highly regarded that, as the DNB writes "On the day of his funeral the mayor and chamber of the city passed a resolution that a copy of his full-length portrait by Robert Edge Pine should be made by that artist and deposited in the Guildhall, where it still hangs." And there it still hangs to this very day. All of Benjamin's sons were well educated with some being clergymen in other parts of England. One of them, another Benjamin, was to become an assistant master at Eton and in later years of 1771-1785, the head master of Harrow School.

Thomas Heath, son of Thomas and brother of Benjamin, also entered local city politics and was the Mayor of the City of Exeter for the years 1738-39 and again in 1749. In addition to that he was the Sheriff for the years 1732 and 1741. He too has a portrait hanging in the Guildhall but it is much smaller than the magnificent one of his brother Benjamin in the main hall. Thomas' portrait can be found upstairs in the Mayor's parlour well hidden over a doorway almost out of sight! One of Thomas' sons, John Heath, became a member of the Inner Temple in 1762 and subsequently on 19th July 1780 was appointed a judge of Common Pleas where he sat for thirty six years.

Another branch of this Exeter Heath family went to reside at Ottery St Mary as it was a Thomas Heath of Exeter who, in 1685, bought Chanter's House in Ottery St Mary and had it renamed Heath's Court which name remained for the next 200 years. This became the home of Thomas's son Staplehill Heath, who was connected with the Duke family of Otterton through his Bicton marriage 2 June 1702 to Anne Duke, daughter of Richard Duke of Otterton. Staplehill Heath was also an attorney and, as the burial register entry for him 16 March 1759 reveals, he was also one of the Governors of Ottery St Mary.

This briefly is some of the information gleaned from various sources about one of the more prominent and influential families of those early times in Exeter. Some of the sources used for this article:

Dictionary of Biography
Biographical Dictionary of Judges of England
- Edward Foss of the Inner Temple pub 1870 John Murray, London
Exeter Freemen 1268-1967 (from Mayor's Court Books)
- pub Devon & Cornwall record Socty Extra Series 1
Long Ago in Ottery - Roy Packer
- pub 1983 E.R.D. Publications Ltd, Exmouth
Around Churches in Exeter - Walter Jacobson
- pub 1998 Obelisk Publications, Pinhoe, Exeter
PCC Wills:
- Thomas Heath 1687 (80 Exton)
- Benjamin Heath 1728 (212 Brook)
- Benjamin Heath 1766 (381 Major)