Jane and Mary Parminter
British designers
Jane Parminter (1750–1811) and Mary Parminter (1767–1849) were cousins and British travellers and designers from Devon who commissioned and were involved in designing the sixteen-sided house named A la Ronde. They also built a chapel, called Point in View, a schoolhouse for local girls and almshouses for local spinster women on the site, and set up wills that passed the properties from women to women.
Early life
Jane Parminter was born on 5 February 1750 in Lisbon, Portugal, where her father, a Devon wine merchant, was based. Her mother was Jane Arboyne (or Arbouin) and was of Huguenot descent. She had an elder brother, William, as well as younger siblings: MaryAnne, Elizabeth, Margaret and John. The family were visiting London in 1755 when the Lisbon earthquake destroyed their Portuguese business. Her father returned to Portugal to help rebuild, but the rest of the family moved to Devon. In 1773, the Parminters were living in Braunton when they took in Jane's cousins Mary and Rebecca Parminter. Jane acted as Mary's guardian.
Travel
In 1784, after the death of her father, Jane organised a Grand Tour of Europe for herself, Mary, Elizabeth and Jane Colville.
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