Sir George Chudleigh, 4th Baronet

Chudleigh was born in Ashton, Devon in c. 1683. He was the son of Sir George Chudleigh, 3rd Baronet (c. 1644–1718) and the former Mary Lee (1656–1710), a poet of feminist essays.^[2] Among his siblings was younger brother Col. Thomas Chudleigh, Lt.-Gov. of Chelsea College who married Henrietta Clifford and lost most of his fortune in the South Sea Bubble; and sister Eliza Maria Chudleigh.^[3]

His paternal grandparents were Sir George Chudleigh, 2nd Baronet and Elizabeth Fortescue (a daughter of Hugh Fortescue).^[a] Among his extended family were great-uncles John Chudleigh, MP for East Looe,^[5] and James Chudleigh, a military commander killed in the First English Civil War. His great-aunt, Mary Chudleigh (second daughter of the 1st Baronet), married Col. Hugh Clifford, parents of Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh. His niece, Elizabeth Chudleigh, married Vice-Admiral Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, in 1744. They were divorced in 1769 a mensa et thoro and she married Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, ultimately leading her to be found guilty of bigamy in 1776 and living abroad in exile until her death.^[3] His maternal grandparents were Richard Lee of Winslade, Devon and Mary Sydenham of Westminster.^[6]

Upon the death of his father in 1718, he succeeded as the 4th Baronet Chudleigh, a title in the Baronetage of England that had been purchased on 1 August 1622 by his great-grandfather, George Chudleigh, MP for St Michael's, East Looe, Lostwithiel and Tiverton.^[7]

Chudleigh built Haldon House, a large Georgian country house on the eastern side of the Haldon Hills in the parishes of Dunchideock and Kenn, near Exeter in Devon, England.^[8] Reportedly, it was influenced by Buckingham House in London, built in about 1715. Chudleigh's ancestral seat was at nearby Ashton House, on the west side of Haldon Hill, the residence of his family since about 1320, and which he abandoned to build Haldon House on the east side of the hill.^[9]