Transcript 

of

Mr Baldwin John Pollexfen Bastard [Obituary]

by

J. Brooking-Rowe (Ed.).

Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol.  XXXVIII, (1906), p. 37.

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was read at the Association’s July 1906 Lynton meeting. The Bastard family claims to be one of the oldest in Devon. The family has been seated at Kitley since 1710, but they may be descended from the Robert Bastard, apparently a companion of William the Conqueror, named in Domesday Book as possessed of 10 manors in South Devon in 1086. The Kitley estate was inherited by Baldwin John Pollexfen Bastard who abandoned a career in the army to manage it. He married but had no children. At his death Kitley was inherited by the Rev. William Pollexfen Bastard. A great deal of information about the family is available from Nicholas Kingsley’s excellent Landed families of Great Britain and Ireland website. The obituary, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Mr. Baldwin John Pollexfen Bastard. Mr. Baldwin J. P. Bastard died at Buckland Court, Ashburton, on 22 October, 1905. He was the head of one of the oldest families in the county. As a young man he served in the 9th Regiment of Foot, and fought with it in the Crimea. Succeeding to the family estates on the death of his elder brother, he left the Army and lived the life of a country gentleman, and for some years took an active part in public matters, and also for some time acted as chairman of the Conservative party. He was a D.L and J.P. for Devon, and had served as Sheriff. He had been a member since 1876.