Introduction and Acknowledgments

  

I am descended from the Eastwrey branch of the Lustleigh Wills family. This was first farmed by the Wills family in the early 1700s by Christopher and later by five generations of Thomas Wills. The last Thomas to own the farm died in 1891, when his family were relatively young.

This painting of Eastwrey by F. Foot was painted in about 1866. The artist is said to have lived in Lustleigh for only two years. The monkey puzzle tree or tennis court, both prominent features today, do not appear in this picture

   
 

The village assembled on Lustleigh church steps for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. Great grandfather Thomas is wearing the white hat on the right of the picture. To celebrate the jubilee he donated the granite for the new church steps. My grandfather and his older brother William are also in the picture.

One of the old elm trees, now no longer a feature of the English countryside due to Dutch Elm disease, can clearly be seen.

 
   
 

 

My grandfather Percy Nosworthy WILLS was born at Eastwrey in 1878 and died in Bournemouth in1955.

He was 10 years old when his mother died and 13 when his father Thomas died. The family nanny was Clara DISCOMBE.

After his father died he was educated at Blundells School.

He married Mary TOMS and worked most of his life as a farm bailiff in Devon and Somerset. He owned Stippaden farm in South Brent where he lived when his family were young.

 
  Clara DISCOMBE nee Wills circa 1960 at the entrance to Lustleigh Churchyard. In 1960 she lived next to the tea rooms near this gate.
     
  Picture of Eastwrey c 1890s. The edge of the monkey puzzle tree and terrace up to the tennis court can be seen. Thomas died in 1891 and Eastwrey was inherited by William with the other three sons, Thomas, Charles and Percy getting other properties. Eastwrey was eventually sold by William in 1897, to the unrelated George WILLS of Pepperdon, and the family "went their separate ways". Under the terms of the will William had to pay a legacy of £5,000 to the daughters, when the farm was finally sold he was left with £400. He then lived and farmed at Caseley "cottage" where his family were born before moving to Marlwood in Gloucester.
 
  This painting of Lustleigh by Foot was done at about the time the railway opened in 1866. My great grandfather Thomas was a director of the railway company and he died the next day after returning from a board meeting with chest pains.
   
Dick Wills of Narracombe, who died in 2003 at the age of 80, wrote his first letter inquiring about family history when he was aged 16. Over the years he gained a great understanding of the local branches of the Lustleigh Wills family. I was fortunate to work on the family history with him over his last 15 to 20 years. Dick was greatly helped by Bill Amery who was at the same time researching his Amery family and who documented a great deal of information on property ownership and extracts from the registers etc. In more recent years, thanks to the Internet, I have worked with 5th cousin Greg Ramstadt in Utah and together we have gained considerable information on those lines that strayed away from Lustleigh and also on the early Wills family before they moved to Lustleigh.
 
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