Plymouth, Sir Thomas Wise

PLYMOUTH
DATA

The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History

SIR THOMAS WISE

The family of Wise traces its line back to Saxon times but it was not until one Thomas Wise, of Sydenham, married Margaret, the daughter and heiress of Robert Britt of Slottiscombe, that that the family became involved in the Plymouth area. It was through that marriage that they acquired the manor of Stoke Damerel.

Thomas and Margaret had two sons, Thomas and John. Thomas married Mary, the daughter of Richard Buller, of Shillingham, in Cornwall.

Their only recorded son was another Thomas. He married Margaret, the daughter of Robert Stowford of Stowford, Devon. At the coronation of King James I, he was created a Knight of the Bath. He also became High Sheriff of Devon in 1612 was the Member of Parliament for Beeralston (sic) in 1620. He was the Sir Thomas Wise who built for his residence 'a fair house', which he named Mount Wise, in competition with Mount Edgcumbe just across the water. Until then, the family had lived at Keyham Barton. Sir Thomas died in 1629. There is a monument to Sir Thomas in the parish church at Marystowe.

Sir Thomas and Lady Margaret Wise, of Sydenham and Mount Wise, had a son, yet another Thomas. This Thomas married Lady Mary, the daughter of Edward, the Viscount Chichester of Carrickfergus and the Earl of Donegal.

The members of the family of Wise were devoted adherents to the Royalist cause during the great rebellion, and suffered much for their loyalty by fine, sequestration, and imprisonment. But although the elections of 1640 ran in favour of the popular party, the second Sir Thomas Wise, who was Sheriff of Devon in 1638-9, retained sufficient influence to be returned as the representative of his county in the memorable Long Parliament.

Sir Thomas and Lady Mary Wise had a son, Edward Wise, who was born in 1632. In 1651 he married Arabella, daughter of Oliver St. John, eldest son of the Earl of Bolinbroke. He was a member of the Oakhampton (sic) Convention Parliament, and was created a Knight of the Bath in 1661. In 1667 he sold "Mount Wise" to Sir William Morice, and died in 1673 or in 1695.

Sir Edward and Lady Arabella Wise had two sons, St. John and Thomas, who both died without issue. Thus, Sydenham passed to Edmund Tremayne, who had married Arabella Wise, the sister of St. John and Thomas Wise.