This is a younger branch of an ancient family descended from Richard le Espek, who lived in the reign of Henry II. Wemworthy and Brampton, in the county of Devon, were the original seats; but in the time of Henry VI. Sir John Speke, having married an heiress of Beauchamp, became possessed of the manor of Whitelackington in this county, which for eleven generations continued the inheritance of his descendants in the male line, when an heiress carried it to the Norths, Earls of Guildford. Jordans, a hamlet in the manor of Ashill, also inherited from the Beauchamps, appears to be the only remnant of the former possessions of this venerable house.
See Leland's Itinerary, ii. ff. 51, 55; Topographer, i. 507; and Collinson's History of Somersetshire, i. pp. 12, 66.
Arms.—Barry of eight argent and azure, an eagle with two heads displayed gules.
Present Representative, William Speke, Esq.
Gentle.
Trevelyan of Nettlecomb, Baronet 1661-2.
The name sufficiently implies that this is a Cornish family, traced to Nicholas de Trevelyan living in the reign of Edward I., whose ancestors were of Trevelyan, in the parish of St. Vehap, near Fowey, at a still earlier period. Nettlecomb was inherited from the heiress of Whalesborough towards the end of the fifteenth century. The Trevelyans suffered for their loyalty during the Usurpation, and were rewarded by the baronetcy on the Restoration. The estate of Wallington, in the county of Northumberland, came from the heiress of Calverley of Calverley in the last century.
Younger Branch, Trevelyan of Nether-Witton in the county of Northumberland.
See Westcote's Devonshire Pedigrees, p. 558; Collinson's Somersetshire, iii. p. 539; Gilbert's Cornwall, i. 564; Hodgson's History of Northumberland, vol. i. pt. 2. p. 262; and Wotton's Baronetage, iii. p. 353.