The death of Sophie Rawlins in August 2006 (see her obituary at the foot of this article) precipitated a chain of events which lead inexorably to the sale of the contents of Newton Surmaville house in October 2007. The fact that this important Jacobean residence had survived largely intact, including its furniture and fittings, throughout the 20^th century, was largely due to her determination to resist the pressures to which so many of our great houses have succumbed. What follows is a summary of the history of Newton Surmaville up to the time of the recent auction.

The Early History

The principal source for the history of Newton Surmaville down to c. 1700 is a paper by Preb. Bates Harbin published in SANHS Proceedings for 1910. The earliest reference to ‘Newton’ which he quotes is from a document dated 28^th Jan 1208. Like many other local examples the appellation `Surmaville’ is the family name of the Norman lords who held the manor. This is confirmed by an Inquisition Post Mortem of 1221, which states that Emma de Waie held land in Newton of the King and that Philip de Surmaville was her son and heir. Emma’s husband was apparently a member of the family who took their name from a small village just north-east of Rouen and who held lands elsewhere in Dorset (Langton Herring was formerly Langton Surmaville). By the end of the 13^th century the manor was split with Johanna de Surmaville or Cricket and William de Surmaville holding one half and William de Gout’s holding the other.

The Fourteenth Century

Johanna de Surmaville’s Inquisition Post Mortem was taken at Somerton in 1307, when William de Crucket (i.e. Cricket) was described as her son and heir. It was recorded that she held in Newton Surmaville one messuage with a garden, 66 acres of land, one acre of wood and another of pasture and two acres of alder grove. This fits well with the current topography of Newton Surmaville, with the garden indicating the presence of a residence and the alder grove suggesting the proximity of the river Yeo which flows near to the present house. Early in the 14^th century the manor appears to have passed to the Muskets with whom it remained until the death of Alianora Musket in 1385. Newton was subsequently in the hands of the Warmwell family of whom Roger Warmwell had been one of the leaders of the riot in St. John’s churchyard in 1349.

The Fifteenth Century

In 1411 the register of Bishop Nicholas Bubwith recorded a licence for Robert Langbroke and Christina his wife to have masses and other divine services in a chapel or simple oratory within the Manor of John Warmwell at Newton Surmaville. The latter’s Inquisition Post Mortem in 1436 mentions a messuage with a garden, one toft, half a carucate of land and 48 acres of pasture in Newton Surmaville. His heirs were his daughters Alice and Agnes. When Agnes died in 1478 her inquisition, taken at Ilchester, found that she held three messuages, eleven tofts, one dovecot, one garden, one curtilage with a garden annexed, 160 acre of land, four acres of meadow and 254 acres of pasture. Some of this she held by the service of rendering annually to her overlord a towel and a tablecloth of the value of 13s 4d. By Agnes’s time it would appear that the whole manor was in the possession of a single family. It was inherited by her son Henry Burnell whose will of 1490 stipulated that he was to be buried under the high altar of Sherborne Abbey.

The Sixteenth Century

John Burnell was the next heir and in 1510 he sold part of his large inheritance to John Compton for 300 marks (equivalent to £44,760 today). It comprised four messuages, eight tofts, a columbarie called a dovehouse, a mill, 231 acres of land, four acres of meadow and 88 acres of pasture in Newton Surmaville and elsewhere. John Burnell retained use of the manor while he and his wife Dorothy still lived and he survived John Compton by some 34 years. Hence the first of the Comptons to take possession of Newton Surmaville was John’s son and heir, Thomas, whose son Joseph purchased part of the manor of Kingston in Yeovil in 1587 (see also Chronicle Vol 9 No. 1, page 26). However, Joseph evidently over- reached himself and ran up large debts both with the crown and with private individuals. As a result, he was obliged to sell Newton Surmaville to Robert Harbin of Wyke in the parish of Gillingham, Dorset. The conveyance is dated 18^th November 1608, covering the manor of Newton Sumiaville and all that capital messuage, mansion house and demesne lands belonging to it. There is also reference to a debt of £600 (equivalent to £81,000) owed to Sir Walter Raleigh.

Robert Harbin and the Building of the House

Robert Harbin was born in 1526 and was a merchant of Blandford in Dorset, where he had married Margaret Maunsell. His second wife was also named Margaret and she died in 1597. When Robert purchased Newton Surmaville he was already 82 years of age but apparently still possessed the energy to make sweeping changes. The old mansion of the Comptons was pulled down and the present house built in its place. This seems to have been accomplished by 1612 from the evidence on the heads of the rain water pipes to either side of the main entrance. That on the left bears ‘1612’ and that on the right, has Robert’s initials. The house was built with two wings projecting south but, probably in response to the topography of the river valley in which it is situated, the main entrance was to the north rather than the south. The building was designed to be seen from the north and the east, with the western face relatively plain. The north frontage is 85′ and the east side (56′) has three projecting chimney stacks which divide the face into four panels, each with windows and surmounted by a balustrade. All the dressings are of finely worked Ham stone, with the rest of the walling left roughly tooled. The outer walls are three feet thick (at ground level). Preb. Bates Harbin described the house thus,

The Harbin arms are carved as a full achievement over both north and east doors, although impaled with Pert over former. The grant of the Harbin arms was made in May 1612 by William Camden, Clarenceaux King of Arms and they are ‘Azure a saltier voided between four spear-heads erect or; and for a crest a cubit arm in armour holding a spur’. Robert Harbin died on Christmas Eve 1621 at the great age of 95 and was buried in Yeovil St John’s. In his will he described himself as ‘sicke of body but of perfect remembrance (praysed be God)’. Not only had he built a fine house but Robert had also greatly strengthened the family land holding in both Somerset and Dorset.

The Civil War and its Aftermath

Robert was succeeded by his son John who, like his father, featured in one of the family portraits. John was a lawyer of the Middle Temple in London, High Sheriff of Dorset in 1623 and an active Justice of the Peace. His eldest son Robert was his heir and, also like his father, had legal training. However, he became embroiled in the troubled times of the mid-seventeenth century, being a strong opponent of the King’s policy. When hostilities began he was a Deputy Lieutenant of militia and Colonel in the Parliamentary forces, being present at the siege of Wells and the sack of Sherborne in 1643. It was claimed that ‘a Lewd fellow’ had been sent to Yeovil to ‘stab Colonel Harbin and the rest of the Commanders.’ However, Robert Harbin subsequently made peace with the King and was pardoned in 1644. This changed situation is reflected in the fact that the Royalist commander Lord Goring subsequently sent a letter from Newton, concerning an action near Dorchester.

Following the Parliamentary triumphs at Langport and Naseby, Robert Harbin was threatened with sequestration of his goods. Fortunately, this did not happen and he retired to Mudford, handing over Newton Surmaville to his eldest son John. Robert died in 1659 and willed to be buried at Yeovil ‘in the Newton aisle’, giving his coach, horses and furniture to his executors. John Harbin had to cope with reduced family circumstances, dying in 1672 and being succeeded by his second son, William who became head of the family when he was only 18. William’s first action in that capacity (as he recorded) is a fascinating insight into a Herald’s Visitation seen from the viewpoint of the interviewee. [From time to time the Heralds from the College of Arms toured the country, visiting families entitled to bear arms, making records of genealogies. These enquiries were known as Visitations.] William was obliged to travel to Ilchester to meet Sir Edward Bish (Clarenceaux King of Arms), and carried with him ‘my parchment in which my coat of arms were granted to my family many years ago’. He was questioned about the number of brothers his father had had, who he had married etc. Having paid 39s/6d (some £250 at today’s equivalent) for a confirmation by the Herald of the family’s right to the arms, he returned home. William was subsequently of the opinion that had he not been a very young man at the time, he need not have been there ‘and parted with my money for nothing’.

William also recorded news of his ‘uncle’ Edward Harbin,

William married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Wyndham of Trent but when he (Sir Francis) died in 1676, there were insufficient funds to pay his daughter’s portion of the estate, so all the moveable goods at Trent were made over to her instead. Preb. Bates Harbin was unsure whether any of the furniture or tapestries at Newton Surmaville in his time had originally been at Trent but he says ‘there is no doubt that’ the pewter chargers in the cross passage must have come from there, since they bore the arms of Wyndham impaling Gerard. The remarkable relics of King Charles II’s clandestine stay at Trent during his flight after the battle of Worcester may well have moved at this time. They comprise a night cap and a small knife in a wooden sheath.

William Harbin died in 1705 and was buried in the family vault in Yeovil church. Preb. Bates Harbin concluded his account here, with the following prophetic remarks,

The Eighteenth Century

The story of Newton Surmaville is continued by Sophie Rawlins herself in volume 109 of the Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (1965). William was succeeded by his second son, Wyndham, who married Abigail Swayne of Tarrant Gunville in Dorset. Wyndham erected a monument in St John’s (on the east wall of the north transept) recording members of the Harbin family back to John, son of the builder of the house, who were all buried ‘in a vault beneath this place’. Wyndham and Abigail’s only son, Swayne, became High Sheriff of Dorset in 1747. His wife, Barbara Abington (of Nether Compton), retained in her possession the manor of Sutton Bingham. They had five sons and a daughter. After Swayne’s death in 1780, Barbara continued to live at Newton Surmaville as a widow for nearly thirty years. Subsequently the estate was managed by the second son, William, who married Rhoda Phelips of Montacute. It was William’s elder son, George, who succeeded his uncle Wyndham in 1837 (who had moved away from Newton to live in Hampshire).

George Harbin and Nineteenth Century Developments

Unlike his absentee uncle, George Harbin took considerable interest in the house and embarked on the first significant alterations since its construction 250 years earlier. His principal addition was a corridor built out into the courtyard on the south side of the hall. He removed the staircase into the new passage and made some changes to doors and windows, installing a number of new stone fireplaces. In 1875, he built a large room onto the east wing but on a level intermediate between the ground and first floors. It has a projecting bay window, copied from the gatehouse of Montacute Priory. He also attached a range of conservatories on the south side of the house, (see Plate 29).

As Captain Harbin he commanded the Mudford Independent Yeomanry and was involved in successfully quelling the Yeovil Riots of 1831, which were concerned with lack of progress in reforming the Parliamentary voting system. Following his death in 1880 his widow survived until 1898 when the estate passed to Col. Henry Harbin, George’s nephew.

Henry followed a military career, serving with both the Somerset Rifle Volunteers and the Somerset Light Infantry. He died in 1909 without issue and Newton again passed to a nephew, the Rev. Edward Harbin Bates, Rector of Puckington in Somerset.

Prebendary Bates Harbin and the Twentieth Century

Rev. Bates gave up the Rectorship of Puckington to take up residence at Newton, adopting the name and arms of Harbin. He had married Hilda Geraldine Fry and they had both a son (who died in infancy) and a daughter, Sophia. Bates Harbin was an established historian, having been educated at Eton and Jesus College Cambridge. In 1915, he was installed in the Chapter of Wells Cathedral as Prebendary of Wanstrow. From 1905, until his death in 1918, he was one of the Hon. Secretaries of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, organising some of the excursions. He was elected President of the Society for the year 1910, which was also the occasion of the Society’s visit to Newton Surmaville. He made important contributions to the Proceedings and was a founder member of the Somerset Records Society, in 1886. From 1898 until his death he was its Secretary, editing several volumes including Gerard ‘s Particular Description of Somerset. He was responsible for the first volume of the Victoria County History for Somerset and, in conjunction with the Rev. F.W. Weaver, produced a valuable index to Collinson’s History of Somerset.

Given his scholarly endeavours, it is unsurprising that his main contribution to the house was the conversion of George Harbin’s new room of 1875 into a Library (see Plate 30). This was to house his considerable collection of books on Somerset and Dorset and those already in the house, which included a collection which had once been the property of the Rev. John Phelips, Vicar of Yeovil 1756-66

Preb. Bates Harbin’s widow lived at Newton until she died in 1962 and the following year the only surviving child, Sophie, moved in with her husband, Cosmo Rawlins. She proved a worthy successor to her illustrious father, as is reported elsewhere in this issue. In 1965, she echoed her father’s concerns about the future, stating that it was becoming ‘increasingly difficult to find an answer’ to the problem of ownership of Newton Surmaville. Forty-two years later, the house has been sold and its contents auctioned. The inevitable had only been delayed.

Conclusion

After Sophie Rawlins death, the house was put up for sale and much of the contents consigned to auction. Significant papers have been deposited at the Somerset Record Office and items from the important collection of militaria have gone to the Somerset Military Museum. It is understood that certain if the most valuable items will be auctioned by Sotheby’s at appropriate specialist sales. The house is in need of extensive and careful conservation and it is believed to have been sold to a private buyer. The bulk of the contents was committed to auction by Lawrence’s of Crewkerne. Viewing (by catalogue holders only) was held at the house on 5^th and 6^th October 2007, with the sale of the Library books on Monday 8^th and the remaining contents on Tuesday 9^th. A marquee was erected to the south of the house for the auction itself. Viewing took place within the house and this afforded a special opportunity to see the objects in their context.

Newton is a Grade 1 listed building and (Somerset Historic Environment Record 50371) which covers some of the fittings, including seventeenth-century tapestries which completely cover two walls of drawing room and of one bedroom, plaster ceilings and original wooden panelling. Other integral fittings which are not part if the listing include four poster beds, tiled fireplaces and heraldic stained glass. The library was a particularly evocative room, with the desk still present at which Preb. Bates Harbin was photographed early last century (Plate 31). A significant number of lots were purchased by Dr Harbin from Atlanta, Georgia, USA who is descended from Robert Harbin, the builder of the house. These included a set of family photograph albums which he kindly lent for copies to be made of the most significant pictures. Another item which was sold as part of a large collection of journals was a foolscap notebook in which Preb. Bates Harbin had written a calendar of the deeds and muniments belonging to Woburn’s Almshouse, in Yeovil. The purchaser has kindly made a photocopy available to the YALHS. Some of the individual books contained additional material and the following are transcripts of two interesting examples. The first , a letter, was pasted onto the flyleaf of Time and Chance: The Story of Arthur Evans and his Forebears by Joan Evans. (She was one of the leading art historians and antiquarians of the 20^th century. Her father, Arthur Evans, was the curator of the Ashmolean Museum at the turn of the 20^th century but is best known as the excavator of Knossos, on Crete, and the discoverer of the Minoan civilisation.) The book was inscribed,

Cosmo W. H. Rawlins
Stratford-on-Avon
August 14^th 1943

The letter was addressed to C.W.H. Rawlins Esq, 97, Albany Road, Stratford-on-Avon and it was written by Joan Evans herself.

The second letter was addressed to Sophie Rawlins’ mother, from the same correspondent and was loose in a copy of Cluniac Art of the Romanesque Period by Joan Evans.