Robert the Bastard became the new (Norman) Lord of Stonehouse after the Conquest of 1066 and from then until the reign of Edward III the Bastard family held that manor. Then, in 1368, the Stonehouse property of the manor was transferred to Stephen Durnford; “Here at this early date, we have the origin of the well-known street name, “Durnford”, an instance of how history surrounds us in Plymouth as we take our walks abroad.” So wrote Charles Bracken in his 1932 History of Plymouth. He later added; “It would be wearisome to recount the long list of grants and legacies by which the Durnford family became at last almost the sole owners of the manor. Suffice it to say, that by the end of the 14th century it possessed all the estates in Stonehouse, Plymouth, Maker, and Rame, which afterwards passed to the Edgcumbes.”
The passage to the Edgcumbe family came about as a result of the union of the heiress Joan Durnford with Piers Edgcumbe and it was their son, Richard, who was responsible for the construction of what was to become known in his lifetime – Mount Edgcumbe House.
