Buckyette is one of the ancient manors of Littlehempston. Charles Worthy says:
‘The manor of Buckyat, or Bokeyt, within the parish of Little Hempston, appears to be the ‘Bocheourde’ of Domesday, which at the Conquest, became the property of Robert Earl of Mortaigne, the Conqueror’s half-brother, who was also lord of the soil of the neighbouring parish of Broad Hempston…….it was for some years the residence of a family who took their name from it. The names of John de Bokeyete and Stephen de Bokeyete occur in 1310. …
This family, whose arms were a stag’s head cabossed between three broad arrows, terminated with Agnes ‘Buckert or Buckhort’, who married Richard Huckamore, described in the Visitation as ‘of Buckent’ Esq. Her father was John de Bokeyt.
In 1822 Mr Thomas Whiteway was the owner of this estate. It is now the residence of Mr George Adams.’
(Charles Worthy, May 2nd 1884.)
Will of John Legassick of Buckyette, proved 3rd October 1718. He became Rector of Littlehempston in 1692.
Buckyette was the birthplace of Sir William Vallance Whiteway (1828 – 1908), the fifth Prime Minister of Newfoundland 1878 -1897.
His father was still farming at Buckyette in 1850, but the old house was pulled down in the 1870s, when a local builder (?George Adams) bought the estate and built a fine Victorian house just above the old one.
The owners of Buckyette in the Census Returns are as follows:
1841: Thomas Whiteway.
1851: Thomas Whiteway.
1861: Vallance Whiteway (Thomas’ son).
1871: George Adams.
1881: George Adams.
1891: (Only the gardener is present on the day of the Census. 1891 is the first Census year in which Buckyette Lodge is mentioned.)
1901: Edward Montague Douglas.
1911: Leigh Densham.
According to the Trade Directories, William Staddon owned it in 1923.
The farm was bought in 1932 by Mr Norman Miller, and his son and daughter-in-law, Roger and Elizabeth Miller, are still living there at the present time (2016).
