History of Clevedon Court

17th century Civil War and politics

In 1630, the Wake family sold Clevedon Court to Sir John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol (1586–1653). Digby was appointed as the English ambassador to Spain by James I where he tried and failed to organize the marriage of the king’s heir apparent Charles, Prince of Wales, to the Spanish Infanta Maria Anna. When Charles ascended the throne in 1626, he blamed Digby for the failed marriage negotiations and imprisoned him in the Tower of London until 1628. Despite this, Digby remained a loyal royalist, and this resulted in Clevedon Court’s confiscation during the English Civil Wars (1642–51) and was gifted to the politician Carew Raleigh (also spelt Ralegh) (1605–66), son of the English courtier and colonial explorer Sir Walter Raleigh. At the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Clevedon Court was returned to the Digby family. 

18th century global trade and wealth

Since the 18th century, Clevedon Court has been home to the Elton family. In 1709 Sir Abraham Elton, 1st Baronet (1654–1727), purchased Clevedon Court and 1000 acres of land. Abraham, an industrialist, made his fortune from glass factories in the city, and also supplied the Bristol Brass Company with the raw materials needed for brass making - a valuable material with a lucrative domestic and overseas market.  

Elton owned and funded ships to export his goods to Europe and Africa, where they were traded for enslaved African people that were then transported to the Americas and the Caribbean. Sugar and rum were then shipped back to Bristol. Abraham was also a prominent member of the Bristol Merchant Venturers, a society that controlled Bristol’s sea trade and hugely influenced the extent of the transatlantic slave trade. In 1697 he successfully campaigned to break the monopoly of the Royal African Company, who transported more enslaved African people to the Americas than any other company, opening the slave trade to ports across England rather than just London. He was twice Mayor of Bristol, became a Member of Parliament, and created a baronet in 1717. With his wife Mary Jefferies, they had three sons and a daughter. When Abraham died, Clevedon Court was left to his eldest son, Sir Abraham Elton, 2nd Baronet (1679–1742). 

Decline and bankruptcy

Like his father, the 2nd Baronet became Mayor of Bristol, Master of the Merchant Venturers, and Member of Parliament for Bristol. He continued his father’s business and owned several ships involved in the transatlantic slave trade. He invested some of his wealth into Clevedon Court and embellished the Great Hall by installing the decorative ceiling and screen. He also spent substantial sums on building houses in Failand and Queen Square, Bristol. He was heavily in debt by his death, leaving his son, Sir Abraham, 3rd Baronet (1703–61), facing bankruptcy in 1745. In 1750, the contents of Clevedon Court were sold off, and the house suffered a period neglect. 

Money through marriage

In 1761, Sir Abraham Isaac, 4th Baronet (1718–1790), the youngest brother of the 3rd Baronet inherited Clevedon Court, and embarked on a major restoration. He had a successful career as a lawyer, was Bristol’s town clerk, presiding over the City’s legal system, and became Master of the Merchant Venturers in 1767. Most of his changes to the house have not survived, but the garden retains the character he brought to it. He created a second terrace behind the boundary wall and built the octagon pavilion and rustic summer house. His son, Revd. Sir Abraham, 5th Baronet (1755–1842), became a clergyman before his marriage to Eliza Durbin (1756-1822), a wealthy daughter of the Sherriff of Bristol. With Eliza’s money, the family’s fortunes were recovered, and he began to invest in the town of Clevedon by building houses and funding several schools. They were the first members of the Elton family to live permanently at Clevedon Court. After Eliza’s death, Sir Abraham married Mary Stewart (c.1773-1849) in 1823. Mary was an accomplished artist and sketched many views around Clevedon Court. She also influenced the interiors of the house by creating a baronial style of decoration. After Sir Abraham’s death in1842, she had a house built nearby which was called Mount Elton.

Literary circles

Sir Charles Abraham Elton, 6th Baronet (1778–1853), was an army officer, classical scholar, and poet. His father opposed his marriage in 1804 to Sarah Smith, daughter of a Bristol merchant, due to the family’s Unitarian faith, and he spent little time at Clevedon before inheriting. Charles Abraham worked as a journalist and drew literary figures to Clevedon Court. His sister Julia (d.1840) married the historian, Henry Hallam, and their son was Arthur Henry Hallam, the ‘A.H.H’ of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’. Charles Abraham was a friend of the poets John Clare and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and his daughter, Jane Octavia Brookfield (1821–96), formed a close friendship with the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, who visited Clevedon and sketched the house. 

Charles Abraham’s son Sir Arthur Elton, 7th Baronet (1818–83), began managing the estate for his father in 1845 and after inheriting in 1853, devoted his energies to the improvement of Clevedon. A Member of Parliament for Bath while the public health acts were being enacted, he installed the water and sewage works, gas street lighting, and a Cottage Hospital, together with Clevedon Pier and several churches. A fire in 1882 destroyed the Elizabethan west wing of Clevedon Court which was then remodelled by the architect C.E. Davis who had worked on the development of the Roman Baths in Bath. 

Creativity and modernity

Sir Edmund Elton, 8th Baronet (1846–1920) inherited Clevedon Court from his uncle, Arthur, whose youngest daughter, Mary Agnes Elton (1844–1926), he married. In 1879 Edmund set up the Sunflower Pottery at Clevedon Court, with the help of his assistant George Masters (1863–1921). They created experimental art pottery from local clays that became popular and was even sold in New York at Tiffany & Co. There is a large collection of his Elton Ware on display in the house. He was also an inventor, in particular patenting an automatic streetlamp lighter which was applied to all the Clevedon town gas lamps. 

His son, Sir Ambrose Elton, 9th Baronet (1869–1951) trained as a barrister and moved to Clevedon upon inheriting in 1920. He closed the west end of the house and dismissed most of the servants. Although he carried out some structural repairs, there was little internal maintenance. Part of the house was leased to the Petroleum Board from 1941–45, which installed electricity in the west end, though Ambrose kept gas lighting in his own apartments.  

Sir Arthur Elton, 10th Baronet (1906–73) inherited Clevedon Court from his father the 9th Baronet in 1951. Arthur was a pioneer of the British documentary film movement and his wife Margaret Ann Bjornson (1915–95), was a film researcher and editor with the Canadian Film Board. She was also a historian and wrote a history of the Elton family. When Arthur inherited, the house was in a bad state, and he had to find the means to pay death duties on what remained of the estate. Advised by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, he commissioned the architect David Nye to reduce the house to a manageable size. Eventually, permission was given to demolish the Elizabethan west wing, reusing some of the salvaged features in the new west wall.

National Trust ownership

In 1961 the house was accepted in lieu of death duties on account of its architectural significance and transferred to the care of the National Trust. Arthur and Margaret Elton continued to live at Clevedon Court and today their children, the current baronet, Sir Charles Elton, and his sister Julia Elton, open the house to visitors on behalf of the National Trust.  

Further reading

• History – The Society of Merchant Venturers

• CLEVEDON COURT, Clevedon – 1136517 | Historic England

• Parish–History–Huscroft–20210118.pdf

• View from the Top of Calton Hill, Edinburgh, looking to the north by Mary Stewart | National Galleries of Scotland