Bulteel Street

John Crocker Bulteel was born in 1793, the eldest son of John Bulteel and Elizabeth Perring. He was educated at Plympton Grammar, Eton and Oxford.

On May 13, 1826, he married Lady Elizabeth Grey, the daughter of Lord Grey.

When his father died in 1837, John Crocker inherited the magnificent 3000-acre Bulteel estate.

The family home, Fleet House, at the mouth of the Erme River, had been in the hands of the Bulteels since 1716.

Like many of the aristocracy, Bulteel was a passionate hunter. He was Master of the Dartmoor Hunt and his pack of hounds was said to be the finest in England. An inscribed stone called the "Hunter's Stone", celebrating his accomplishments, is still to be found at Shipley Bridge.

Bulteel also found the time to become MP for South Devon and was the High Sheriff of Devon in 1841. Known to live life to the full, John Crocker died suddenly in 1843, aged 50, leaving a widow and five young children. As it turned out, not only had he gone, but so had the fabled Bulteel wealth.

In the end, the estate was saved thanks to the prudent management of Lady Elizabeth and the well-judged marriages of two of her daughters.

Now named Flete House, the property is one of the few stately homes still in private ownership.

During World War Two, it was requisitioned to replace the bombed Freedom Fields Maternity Hospital. After the war, Flete House continued to be used as a maternity home until 1958. The last baby born there was Wendy Ham who had the distinction of being the 7992nd birth. In 1959, the house was returned to the-then owners, the Mildmay family. More recently it was used as the location for director Ang Lee's 1995 film, Sense and Sensibility, starring Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant.

Although John Crocker Bulteel had no direct relationship to New Plymouth, one of his daughters married the Hon Francis Baring (of Baring Tce fame) who was the deputy governor of the New Zealand Company.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.