Tothill House, Plymouth Charles, Plymouth, Devon

 Tothill House extracts via The Master Builder St Judes Plymouth

 THE CULME-SEYMOUR FAMILY — From Tothill House

Anthony Culme was a gentleman farmer at Plympton Erle in 1680, when he became interested
in a modest 28 acre estate just half a mile east of the new Charles Church. It was called T othill,
and it wasn’t long before the family were settled into the great house there. Gradually they increased
their ownership of the land around them, mainly to the south and east. By 1800 most of Lipson
was in their possession extending beyond the present Alexandra Road to two large fields called the
Manna Meads.

At this time the “Squire” at Tothill was John Culme and with his wife Elizabeth they had had
five children, three boys and two girls. By 1805 all the sons and their father John were dead, leaving
no male heirs. Elizabeth remained with her two daughters, Elizabeth and Frances. Frances was
happily married to Thomas Bewes next door, as we have already seen, but then, in 1809 Frances
and her mother Elizabeth both died, leaving the young Elizabeth alone, a spinster in the great house.

Now Elizabeth had two nieces by her brother Thomas and they became co-heirs to the Tothill
Estate. In 1833 one of the girls, Elizabeth, married the Rev. John Hobart Seymour, the eldest son
and heir of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour. Sadly, their marriage ended nine years later with
Elizabeth’s death. The following year, 1842, Sir John Seymour, as he was then known, assumed, by
Royal Licence, the surname CULME before his own surname. The Rev. Sir John Hobart Culme-
Seymour was now owner of Tothill. It is most unlikely that he ever lived there because before his
death in 1880 he had become a Canon of Gloucester Cathedral, a Prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral
and Chaplain to Queen Victoria. But as owner of most of the land in the Tothill and Lipson area he
was the obvious person to approach concerning the siting of the proposed new church at St. Judes.