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BOW

Select map to view parish boundaries in detail.

"BOW, or NYMET TRACEY, is a small, decayed market town, on the banks of a rivulet, 7½ miles W. of Crediton. Its parish contains 973 souls and 2962 acres of land. The manor anciently belonged to the Tracey family, and afterwards passed to the Martin, Audley, Fitzwarren, Bourchier, and Lethbridge families. S.C. Hamlyn, Esq., Samuel Wreford, Wm. Hill, and several smaller owners, have estates here. About 80 houses and cottages were destroyed by fire in the parish in 1833 and 1835. . . . The Church (St. Bartholomew,) stands nearly a mile south of the town, and is a fine antique fabric. . . ." [From White's Devonshire Directory (1850)]

• General historical and descriptive information, area map from 1765, details about administrative boundaries, etc., about Bow from the Devon Library's Local Studies Service.

Cemeteries

Partial listing of surnames on gravestones in St. Barthlomew's churchyard.

Dwelly, E. (ed.). Devon M. I. vol. 1., being all the monumental inscriptions in the parishes of Countisbury, Brendon, Martinhoe, etc. pp. v. 226. E. Dwelly: Fleet, (1918). 8o. BL 9918.aaa.1. [SoG Library]

Bow St Bartholomew Memorial Inscriptions. G.M. Project. C.C.C. Community Programme. [SoG Library DE/M17]

Census

Snetzler, M.F. North Devon Surname Index to the Census. Microfiche: M.F. Snetzler, Barcott, Buckland Brewer, Bideford, Devon EX39 5LN. [Covers the 1881 census records for this parish]

Church History

Bow - from J. Stabb. Some Old Devon Churches (London: 1908-16).

Aubry, Marion. A Neat and Plain Chapel . . ., Typescript, (2001) 91 pp. [A study of Bow Congregational Church, 1898-1993, taken from the minutes of the church and Zeal Monachorum Chapel minutes] [The author can be contacted c/o Bow Congregational Church, Station Road, Bow, Crediton, Devon]

Church Records

The registers include entries for Broad Nymet.

Transcripts of the Parish Registers going back to 1602 are held in a special collection in the Westcountry Studies Library - for details see Parish Registers in the Devon & Cornwall Record Society's Collection.

The Devon FHS publishes indexes covering (as of June 2004): Baptisms 1813-1839, Marriages 1754-1837, Burials 1813-1837 - for details see their book list.

Other churches and chapels (with pre-1840 records):

• Independent/Congregational Chapel: Registers for 1824-36 (ZC) in PRO RG 4/578

Granville, Roger & Mugford, W.E. (eds.) Bow, 1598-1638. Abstracts of the Existing Transcripts of the Lost Parish-Registers of Devon, 1596-1644, and short notes on the extant pre-reformation registers of all the parishes in the county, from particulars furnished by the several incumbents thereof. Vol. 1 A-Bra. Exeter: W. Pollard (1908). [Full text]

Sellman, R.R. Bow (Nymet Tracey), Devon: edited transcript of surviving parish registers to 1836. Typescript (1991) 155p. Westcountry Studies Library - sx929.3/BOW/1603]

Christenings 1607-20, 1624-41, 1659-78, 1683-85, 1689-98, 1703-28, 1731-1871, Marriages 1604-23, 1630-36, 1731-1847, Burials 1604-21, 1624-41, 1653-1708, 1731-1960, Banns 1754-1812, 1825-31, 1912-76., Microfiche (2001). [SoG Library DE/REG/102078]

Directories

Gazetteers

The transcription of the section for this parish from the National Gazetteer (1868), provided by Colin Hinson.

Genealogy

The Online Parish Clerk scheme's representative for this parish is Maureen Carroll, who invites queries and lookup requests. (Baptisms, marriages, burials 1731-1837.)

This parish is one of the growing number of places for which the Devon Heritage website provides census or parish register transcriptions, articles, and/or illustrations, etc.

History

Sue Davey's Bow pages provide historical information, and parish register extracts.

Oaths of Allegiance, Bow 1723 by Rita Balado, Carole Herbert and Trish Rodbourne, provided by the Friends of Devon Archives.

Carbonnell, Barbara M.H. Notes on the History of the Parishes of Nymet Tracy, alias Bow, with Broad Nymet. Devonshire Association Trans., vol. 60 (1928) pp. 299-312.

Carbonnell, Barbara M.H. and Wauton, M. Thirteen Centuries in Bow alias Nymet Tracey with Broadnymet, James townsend (1949) 57p., plates : ill,map. [DFHS Library]

Williams, H.Fulford. Notes on the "lost parish" of Broadnymet, Devon. Typescript (1962) 5p. [Westcountry Studies Library - sB/BRO 4/0001/WIL]

Names, Personal

Protestation Return of 1641/42 from Devon Heritage.

Bow contributors to a 1678 brief for the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral.

Probate Records

Summary of the will of Gilbert Mallett (1846), provided by Mike Mallett.

Summaries of the wills of Roger Wreford (1665) and John Wreyford (1760) provided by John Moore.

Last updated: 8 Apr 2012 - Brian Randell

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