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Moses Gould was a prosperous Exeter merchant who purchased the Downes Estate in 1692, his family having lived at Dunscombe, nearby, since the early part of the century.  He built himself a more substantial dwelling at Downes, which still forms the core of the present house.

Elizabeth Gould, granddaughter of Moses, married James Buller MP in 1739, so beginning the Buller connection, which was to last for 250 years.  The Buller family came originally from Looe in Cornwall and James’s mother, Rebecca, was a daughter of Bishop Trelawney, who was one of the seven Bishops confined to the Tower by James II.  On James’s Death in 1765 his son James inherited the Estate.  Once again, the family first name was carried through to the next generation when the younger son James, who had married Ann Buller, a cousin, inherited the Estate.  Their son was James Wentworth Buller who married Charlotte Howard, niece of the 12th Duke of Norfolk.  It was their son Redvers, the famous General, who succeeded to the Estate in 1874.  On his death in 1908 his brother Tremayne inherited the Estate.  He lived until 1917 when his eldest son Mowbray took over.  Once again, on Mowbray’s death in 1948, the Estate went to his brother Michael Buller who died in 1975.

There being no male Heir, Rosemary Parker, Mowbray’s eldest daughter, inherited the Estate and on her death in 1997 it passed to her son Henry who now lives there.