It was the first novel Du Maurier wrote while living at Menabilly, the setting for an earlier novel Rebecca, where it is called 'Manderley'.
After his father Phillip Rashleigh purchased the manor of Trenant in 1545, Phillip moved his family from Devon to Cornwall to take advantage of the dissolution of the monasteries by buying and re-selling the land acquired around Fowey, it was from this land that John Rashleigh commenced building Menabilly from land acquired in Fowey (from which Menabilly was later completed in its construction by his son Jonathan Rashleigh).