William Henry Kelland (1853 - 1911)

Born in Lapford he was educated in Dunsford, Barnstaple, Totnes and Trinity College Cambridge. He then trained in law at Lincoln's Inn.

His father John farmed at Kelland Barton in Lapford, but by the time he was nine both his parents had died. His elder brother John died aged 17 in 1868.

At various times he owned large country estates including Kelland Barton in Lapford, Grattons in Bow, and Chulmleigh Manor. He became Lord of the Manor of Bow and Nymet Tracey in 1881, and lived in Barnstaple and London.

In the late 1880s he endowed several charites in mid-Devon including the William Lane Kelland Charity in Bow. He also paid for two stained glass church windows commemorating his parents and grandparents in Lapford, as well as another window in Bow, and one at Dunsford for his schoolmaster Rev George Arden. His own name appears prominently. He was an amateur genealogist.

Around 1894 he was declared bankrupt, and in 1898 he was arrested in Barnstaple and charged with an assault whilst drunk. He died in obscurity in London in 1911, having never married.