John Headon Stanbury

John Headon Stanbury (11 May 1835 – 20 May 1907) was an English hotelier, property developer, and Exeter businessman. Stanbury was born on 11 May 1835 in Barnstaple, Devon to Elizabeth Headon and John Stanbury, a yeoman and auctioneer.[1]

John Headon Stanbury
Born(1835-05-11)11 May 1835
Barnstaple, England
Died20 May 1907(1907-05-20) (aged 72)
Exeter, England
Occupations
  • Landlord
  • hotelier
  • property developer
RelativesJohn Geoffrey Rowe Orchard (grandson)

Stanbury owned an estate at Thrushelton.[2][3] He was a donor of the United Devon Association,[4] the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.[5] He was also a member of the Devon County Agricultural Association[6] and the Royal Bath and West of England Society. In its 1889 Cattle Competition, Stanbury presented the prizes.[7]

Career
J. Headon Stanbury, proprietor of The Grand Hotel, Plymouth in the ABC Hotel Guide, 1901–2

In 1876, Stanbury bought the Star & Garter, a now demolished pub in Brentford.[8][9] In 1879, he purchased the Royal Clarence Hotel (now thought to be the second oldest hotel in England).[10][11]

Stanbury was an assentor in the Exeter City Council elections of 1889 and 1892.[12][13] He was also a member of the Exeter Theatre Company:[14] in the 1890s, he served first as its vice-chairman[15] and then as its chairman.[16]

On 7 February 1890, Stanbury formed The Heavitree Brewery Limited,[17] a company which had emerged from the Heavitree Brewery PLC, one of the oldest pub companies in the south west, founded in 1790. On 19 November 1892, the company purchased The Finch Eagle Brewery in Exeter, followed by the neighbouring Windsor Brewery in North Street, Heavitree on 9th January 1899.[18]

In 1893, Stanbury gave evidence before the High Court of Justice (with Sir Francis Jeune presiding) at the hearing of Lady Alice Elizabeth Gooch's suit for judicial separation from her husband, Sir Alfred Sherlock Gooch, 9th Baronet.[19] He bore witness that Lady Gooch had visited the Royal Clarence Hotel in 1884 with a man claiming to be her brother (possibly Capt. George Henry Eden, with whom it was claimed she was having an affair).[20][21]

In 1895, Stanbury bought the Grand Hotel at Plymouth, soon after his purchase of the Seymour Hotel in Totnes and the Western Counties Hotel in Paddington.[22] In 1898, he sold the Half-Moon Hotel in Exeter.[23][24][25]

In 1899, Stanbury purchased Membland, an historic estate in Devon, from Edward Baring, 1st Baron Revelstoke, senior partner of Barings Bank, who rebuilt the mansion house known as Membland Hall.[26] Stanbury planned to develop the area that bordered the River Yealm, and in 1900, sold it to William Cresswell Gray, a shipbuilder from Hartlepool, at which point the estate included the Hall and 2720 acres of land.[27][28]

Stanbury died on 20 May 1907 in Exeter. His will was proved on 6 July, at which point his estate was reportedly worth some £44,452 (around £6,841,595 in 2023).[29][30] The Royal Clarence Hotel passed to his son-in-law (John Bailey Rowe Orchard) and then to his son (John Geoffrey Rowe Orchard).[31] J. H. Stanbury & Co., one of his corporations, continued to make donations after his death, including to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.[32]

References
  1. 1886 Probates of England & Wales
  2. "Mortgage for £43,000" (19 December 1899). 28 - Plymouth Archives, The Box, ID: 1149/2. The National Archives: 1149 - MEMBLAND HALL.
  3. "CITY AND DISTRICT [ill]". Exeter Flying Post. 16 December 1893. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  4. The book of fair Devon. Internet Archive: Exeter : United Devon Association. 1900. p. 207.
  5. "ANNUAL SUBSCEIPTIONS AND DONATIONS TO BEANCHES" (PDF). Journal of the Royal National Life-boat Institution. XVI (184): 798. 1 May 1897. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  6. "DEVON COUNTY AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION". Exeter Flying Post. 24 June 1893. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  7. "Bath and West of England Society (ESTABLISHED 1777) AND Southern Counties Association, FOR THE Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce". Journal Of The Bath And West Of England Society. 20: 510, 573. 24 April 1889. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  8. "LONDON PURCHASES". London Daily News. NewspaperArchive 1700s - 2023. 13 November 1876. Retrieved 3 April 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  9. Harris, Stephen (11 June 2020). "Star & Garter, Kew Bridge Road, Brentford W4". Pub history. pubshistory.com. Retrieved 3 April 2023. 1878/John Headon Stanbury/../../../Post Office Directory
  10. "Crewman's Exeter Flying Post". Exeter Flying Post. 3 September 1879. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  11. "'J Headon Stanbury' historical pictures". Look and Learn. Look and Learn. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  12. "EXETER ELECTION". Exeter Flying Post. 2 July 1892. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  13. "DEVON COUNTY COUNCIL". Exeter Flying Post. 5 February 1889. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  14. "EXETER THEATRE COMPANY". Exeter Flying Post. 25 July 1891. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  15. "SHAKESPEARE AT SHEPHERD'S-BUSH". The Era. 2 August 1890. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  16. "EMMANUEL CHURCH, ST. THOMAS". Exeter Flying Post. 9 December 1893. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  17. Memorandum of Association of The Heavitree Brewery PLC
  18. "History". Heavitree Brewery. Heavitree Brewery PLC. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  19. "SENSATIONAL MATRIMONIAL SUIT". Evening Express. 27 January 1893. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  20. "A SOCIETY SCANDAL". South Wales Echo. 27 January 1893. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  21. "THE SOCIETY SCANDAL". South Wales Daily News. 28 January 1893. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  22. Kelly's directory of Devon, 1902. Internet Archive: Kelly's. 1902. p. 566.
  23. "LOCAL GOSSIP". Exeter Flying Post. 8 January 1898. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  24. "Half Moon Hotel, 22 High Street". Exeter Memories. David Cornforth. 24 July 2015. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  25. Kelly's Directory of Devon & Cornwall, 1893. AnyFlip: Kelly's. 1893. p. 272.
  26. "The Late Lord Revelstoke's Membland Estate". The Pall Mall Gazette. 22 March 1899. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  27. "Membland Estate in South Devon". The Pall Mall Gazette. 14 March 1900. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  28. "Gray, William Cresswell". Hartlepool History Then & Now. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  29. "Business Notes: Wills and Bequests". The Economist Group. Internet Archive. 6 July 1907. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  30. "Wills and Bequests". The Illustrated London News. Internet Archive. 6 July 1907. Retrieved 3 April 2023.
  31. "Eight Hundred Years of Exeter's Mayors and Lord Mayors". Retrieved 14 Feb 2023.
  32. The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and the Ockenden Convalescent Home 1935 Annual Statements. Internet Archive: Exeter. 1936. p. 61.
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