Col. George Trevilian (MA Oxford, and Royalist in the English Civil War)

At age 15, George Trevilian graduated from Wadham College of Oxford University on the 30th of October 1629.

SOURCE: Alumni Oxonienses: the members of the University of Oxford, 1715 ..., Volume 4 By University of Oxford, page 1508.

George was a member of the gentry and supporter of the Royalist cause, serving as a colonel in the Royal Cavalry during the English Civil War. George and his family were grievously persecuted by Parliament. His wife died trying to save Nettlecombe and George died at only age 39. After the restoration of the crown, yet unfortunately after George had died, the king heard of his trials and created a hereditary baronetcy as a way to reward the Trevillian family for George's loyalty to the crown.

Spouse: Margaret STRODE died outside of London of small pox on the return trip home to Nettlecombe after she personally petitioned Parliament to reduce the fine Parliament demanded to punish them for supporting the crown during the English Civil War. Upon her death Margaret left 11 small children at Nettlecombe without a mother.

George, their father, died at age 39, when the eldest son was only 10 years old.

Parliament was rapacious in their ongoing fines for the Trevillian support of the crown in the war, being that the point was to disempower those landowners. When one fine was paid, another was set. George was diligent in trying to keep Nettlecombe, however, the continuing demands of Parliament compounded financial difficulties. After the Restoration of the monarchy, the eldest son George was created Baronet in January 1661/2 and the fortune needed to support Nettlecombe was restored by the marriage of Sir George to Lady Mary, daughter and heiress of John Willoughby of Ley Hill near Honiton.

The Trevillian family had enjoyed many generations of well-being and prosperity at Nettlecombe that was severely threatened by the English Civil War, and in the same generation, the upheaval of the Rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth which took place locally in Somerset during the summer of 1685 after the death of King Charles II.

The Protestant Duke of Monmouth, albeit illegitimate, as the only son of King Charles II, upon his father's death, Monmouth sailed from France and arrived in Somerset where he proclaimed himself the rightful King of England at Taunton (not too far from Nettlecombe). However, after local fighting, Monmouth was captured by forces loyal to his rival heir to the throne, Catholic King James, and was beheaded at the Tower of London.

Since many local people of Somerset had supported the Duke of Monmouth, the new king exacted revenge upon the county. About 320 local people were hanged and over 800 local people were sentenced to slavery, and were transported to the West Indies where they were sold-off as slaves. In Somerset, “two hundred and thirty-three prisoners were in a few days hanged, drawn, and quartered ironed corpses clattering in the wind, or heads and quarters stuck on poles, poisoned the air, and made the traveller sick with horror”. In one small village alone, 13 men were hanged, their bodies dismembered, then boiled in pitch and publicly exhibited. In many villages, neighbour had fought neighbour, causing much resentment for years after.

As a local landowner, Parliament demanded that Nettlecombe pay an enormous sum as "recompense" for the rebellion.

A number of the landowners were able to buy themselves off with crippling bribes while the common people were brutally treated. Trials were largely used as a means of extracting the property of prominent Whigs and potential political opponents of the King who frequently had nothing to do with the Rebellion. These unfortunate noblemen only escaped with their lives by paying huge ransoms or surrendering all their property. This was done with the enthusiastic support of the King James II, the Queen and a number of the new Catholic courtiers enjoying their rise to prominence. It was effectively an act of revenge.

James II further took advantage of the suppression of the rebellion to consolidate his power. He asked Parliament to repeal the Test Act and the Habeas Corpus Act, used his dispensing power to appoint Catholics to senior posts, and raised the strength of the standing army. Parliament opposed many of these moves, and on 20 November 1685 James dismissed the Parliament. In 1688, when the birth of an heir heralded a Catholic succession, James II was overthrown in a coup d'état by Protestant William of Orange in the Glorious Revolution at the invitation of the dispossessed Protestant Establishment.

The Children of George Trevillian and Margaret Strode:

1. Sir George TREVELYAN of Nettlecombe, Baronet

2. John TREVILLIAN

3. Robert

4. Henry

5. Alexander TREVILLIAN

6. Francis TREVILLIAN+ married Anne Bampfield

7. Amos (Amyas) TREVILLIAN

8. Anthony

9. Margaret TREVILLIAN

10. Susan TREVELYAN

11. Catherine TREVILLIAN

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Trevelyan Baronets (From Wikipedia)

There were two Baronetcies created for members of the Trevelyan family, one in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. As of 2008 one creation is dormant while one is extant.

The Trevilian, later Trevelyan Baronetcy, of Nettlecombe in the County of Somerset, was created in the Baronetage of England on 24 January 1662 for George Trevilian son and namesake of the elder George Trevillian.

The elder George was a member of the gentry and supporter of the Royalist cause in the Civil War, serving as a colonel in the Royal Cavalry.

After the elder George died, the baronetcy was a way to reward the Trevillian family for his loyalty to the crown.

The family derived its surname (which is pronounced "Trevillian") from Trevelyan in the parish of St Veep, Cornwall.

The second Baronet sat as Member of Parliament for Somerset and Minehead.

He eventually changed the spelling of the family surname back to Trevelyan, which was the way the family had spelt the name in antiquity.

The fourth Baronet was Member of Parliament for Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Somerset. The eighth Baronet served as High Sheriff of Cornwall from 1906 to 1907.

The presumed tenth Baronet never successfully proved his succession and was never on the Official Roll of the Baronetage. Likewise, as of 13 June 2007 the presumed eleventh and present Baronet has not successfully proven his succession and is consequently not on the Official Roll of the Baronetage, with the baronetcy considered dormant since 1976.

Four members of the main branch of the family may also be mentioned as noteworthy.

The Venerable George Trevelyan, third son of the fourth Baronet, was Archdeacon of Taunton.

His third son Henry Willoughby Trevelyan was a Major-General in the British Army.

His younger son Sir Ernest John Trevelyan (1850-1929) was a Judge of the High Court of Calcutta, a writer on legal matters and a member of the Oxford Town Council.

Humphrey Trevelyan, Baron Trevelyan, son of Reverend George Philip Trevelyan, son of the Reverend William Pitt Trevelyan, sixth son of the aforementioned the Venerable George Trevelyan, was a diplomat and author.

The Trevelyan Baronetcy, of Wallington Hall in the County of Northumberland, was created in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 13 March 1874 for the civil servant and colonial administrator Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet.

Charles was the son of the aforementioned the Venerable George Trevelyan, third son of the fourth Baronet of the 1662 creation (see above).

The second Baronet was a prominent historian and Liberal politician.

The third Baronet was a Liberal, and later Labour politician.

The fourth Baronet was a teacher, craftsman in wood and New Age thinker.

Three other members of this branch of the family may also be mentioned. R. C. Trevelyan, second son of the second Baronet, was a poet and dramatist.

His son Julian Trevelyan was a painter.

G. M. Trevelyan, third son of the second Baronet, was a distinguished historian.

The seat of this branch of the family is Wallington Hall, Cambo, Northumberland.

The estate came into the family in 1777 on the death of Sir Walter Blackett, 2nd Baronet.

Trevilian, later Trevelyan Baronets, of Nettlecombe (from 1662)

Sir George Trevilian, 1st Baronet (c. 1635-1671)

Sir John Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet (1670-1755)

Sir George Trevelyan, 3rd Baronet (1707-1768)

Sir John Trevelyan, 4th Baronet (1735-1828)

Sir John Trevelyan, 5th Baronet (1761-1846)

Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, 6th Baronet (1797-1879)

Sir Alfred Wilson Trevelyan, 7th Baronet (1831-1891)

Sir Walter John Trevelyan, 8th Baronet (1866-1931)

Sir Willoughby John Trevelyan, 9th Baronet (1902-1976)

Sir Norman Irving Trevelyan, 10th Baronet (1915-1996)

Sir Edward Norman Trevelyan, 10th Baronet (b. 1955)

Trevelyan Baronets, of Wallington

Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan, 1st Baronet (1807-1886), a British civil servant and Governor of Madras.

Wallington Hall was received in the will, executed in 1879, of his cousin Walter Calverley Trevelyan, 6th Baronet

Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet (1838-1928), a British statesman and author.

Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan, 3rd Baronet (1870-1958)

Sir George Lowthian Trevelyan, 4th Baronet (1906-1996)

Sir Geoffrey Washington Trevelyan, 5th Baronet (1920-2011)

Sir Peter John Trevelyan, 6th Baronet (1948-)

Book: A Very British Family: the Trevelyans and their World,

by Laura Trevelyan. I.B.Tauris, 2006. ISBN 1860649467.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nettlecombe_Court

Nettlecombe Court has a late medieval hall, with the entrance front, porch, great hall and parlour added in 1599. Around 1641 there were further additions to rear of great hall, and between 1703 and 1707 the South West front was extended. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building.[1]

As stated in "Nettlecombe Court" by R. J. E. Bush:

"Nettlecombe is first mentioned in the Domesday book of 1086, when it was stated to be held by William the Conquerer, and in the charge of his Sheriff for Somerset, William de Mohun." A family lineage published in Nettlecombe Court shows that the estate passed into the Trevelyan (Trevilian / Trevillian) family in 1452, upon the marriage of Elizabeth Whalesburgh to John Trevelyan. Two generations of Walesboroughs held it and before that and three generations of Raleighs-- all in direct blood ascent. William de Mohun is also a blood relative.

It remained as a family estate in the Trevelyan family until the mid-nineteen hundreds.

Nettlecombe Court is a large country mansion in the English county of Somerset.

Nettlecombe Court was originally built as a manor house, becoming a girls' boarding school in the early 1960s. Since 1967 has been the Leonard Wills Field Centre run by the Field Studies Council. The house is surrounded by Nettlecombe Park, a 90.4 hectares (223 acres) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Records suggest this site has been wood pasture or parkland for at least 400 years. There are some very old oak pollards which may be of this age or older. The oldest standard trees are over 200 years of age. The continuity of open woodland and parkland, with large mature and over-mature timber, has enabled characteristic species of epiphytic lichens and beetles to become established and persist. Many of these species are now nationally scarce because this type of habitat has been eliminated over large areas of Great Britain.

The house and park are set in a secluded valley on the northern fringes of the Brendon Hills, within the Exmoor National Park.