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LITTLEHEMPSTON

Select map to view parish boundaries in detail.

"LITTLE HEMPSTON, a small scattered village, in a valley opening to the Dart, 2 miles N.E. of Totnes; has in its parish 268 souls, and 1270A. 3R. 17P. of fertile land. The manor, anciently held by the Arundells, belongs to the Duke of Cleveland and the Countess of Sandwich; but F. Cornish, Esq., and other freeholders have estates here. Gatcomb, a seat which was rebuilt by the late C. Cornish, Esq., was the birthplace of Zachary Bogan, a learned divine, who published treatises on the idioms of Homer and Hesiod. The Church (St. John,) is a small antique fabric, and the living is a rectory, valued in K.B. at £19. 15s. 2½d., and in 1831 at £201, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and the incumbency of the Rev. F.H. Hele, M.A. The glebe is 56A. 2R. 11P., and the tithes were commuted in 1838 for £207 per annum. £138, left to the poor by Cphr. Blackhall, and other donors, was laid out in 1727, in the purchase of Dreadon close, (10A.) now let for about £13 a year. The poor parishioners have also a yearly rent charge of £9. 5s. 6d., out of the great tithes of Berry Pomeroy, left by William Bogan, in 1723. They have likewise the dividends of £111. 2s. 3d. Old South Sea Annuities, purchased in 1744, with arrears of this rent charge. " [From White's Devonshire Directory (1850)]

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

Cemeteries

Whitmore, J.B. Devonshire Monumental Inscriptions, MS at Society of Genealogists (1951). [Extracts]

Church History

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

Church Records

Transcripts of the Parish Registers going back to 1539 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): Marriages 1731-1837 - for details see their book list.

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

• Wesleyan Chapel: Registers for c1811-37 - see Brixham (PRO RG 4/842)
• Wesleyan Chapel, Lilliesford: Registers for c1813-37 - see Teignmouth (PRO RG 4/1220)

Directories

Copy provided by Val Henderson of the entry (description and names) in Morris and Co's Commercial Directory and Gazetteer of Devonshire 1870

Gazetteers

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

Genealogy

Worthy, C. Devonshire Parishes: or the antiquities, heraldry and family history of twenty-eight parishes in the archdeaconry of Totnes (2 vols), Exeter, W. Pollard (1887). [Chap. XVI: Little-Hempston - Roger ARUNDELL, Duke of Norfolk; STRETCH of Pinhoe and other owners of the Soil; the Lords BROKE; KNOLLES; BOGAN of Gatcombe] [Index]

History

Ellis, A.C. Visit to Little Hempston. (1925) [Torquay Library]

Worthy, Charles. Devonshire Parishes. Exeter: William Pollard (1887) - Vol. 2, pp. 55- 84.

Manors

Watkin, Hugh R. Little Hempston manor and parsonage. Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries 14:1, (1926) pp.33-45.

Names, Personal

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

Last updated: 9 Jul 2007 - Brian Randell

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