When the Research Corner was established in 2013, we became a Service Point for the Devon Record Office. Part of this entailed the provision of microfiche copies of the parish registers and tithe maps of the parishes we represent, along with a microfiche viewer. Viewing parish registers on microfiche was hard work, and the tithe maps were worse. More recently much better online sources have become available, and we have retired the microfiche service.
For viewing parish register information, we recommend the Find My Past website. Our family history research service can access this. A detailed list of the parish register coverage provided by FMP is here.
Tithe maps are available on the Devon County Council Historic Environment website, or the Know Your Place website.
We have a searchable transcription of the Tithe Apportionments for our parishes.
For reference, our parishes are:
Bow, Cheriton Bishop, Cheriton Fitzpaine, Clannaborough, Coldridge, Colebrooke, Crediton, Crediton Hamlets, Down St Mary, Eggesford, Hittisleigh, Kennerleigh, Lapford, Morchard Bishop, Newton St Cyres, Nymet Rowland, Poughill, Sandford, Shobrooke, Stockleigh Pomeroy, Stockleigh English, Tedburn St Mary, Thelbridge, Upton Hellions, Whitestone, Woolfardisworthy (East), Zeal Monachorum.
Miscellaneous notes from Parish Registers
Apart from the regular baptism, banns, marriage and burial information, other interesting notes are occasionally to be found in parish registers. We gleaned the following from the Record Office notes which accompanied our microfiches, and given plenty of notice could probably find them if our microfiche reader is still available at the time of asking:
Bow:
- totals for population and houses: 1801-1851
- benefactions to Bow: 1634-1732
- memorandum re payment for building vault: 1800
- vestry resolution: 1799
- average yearly baptisms, marriages and burials: 1781-1800
- average yearly baptisms: 1775-1794
- totals for population, divided into specific groups: 1798
Clannaborough:
- List of rectors from 1707
- 2 Down St Mary 1813 marriage entries
Colebrooke:
- memoranda concerning dispute over vicar's right to appoint one churchwarden, 1827 and 1886
- a note concerning the lowering of the clock weights,1877, and a newspaper cutting concerning the vicar's pew, 1910
- reference to mutilation of the Register
- memorandum dated 1874 concerning the burial of Mary Willcocks in 1837
Crediton:
- Draft baptismal register 1800-1807
- Manuscript index to baptisms 1862-1876
- Marriages at Yeoford 1964-1970
- Draft burial registers 1797-1808, 1809-1812
- Churchyard registers 1845-1871, 1872-1958
Down St Mary
- a note of the building of a pew for the Rector, 1792
- extensive memoranda and newspaper cuttings concerning weather in front pages, 1821-1825
- note on stained glass placed in window between porch and tower, 1880
- notes of inscriptions on gravestones buried under the chancel floor, 1851
Eggesford:
-in 1920 Eggesford parish was united with Wembworthy parish under a single incumbent. Papers included here of that date and afterwards therefore relate also to Wembworthy.
Lapford:
- note of gifts to the poor
- note of “everyman’s part of pale” 1611
- note of Arundel’s gift, 1627
- copies of 2 bastardy bonds, 1757, 1777
- copy of apprenticeship indenture, 1793
- Richards family baptisms, 1818-1850
- school mathematics notes and problems
- 2 poems, one on poverty and the extravagance of tenant farmers, the other on death
Morchard Bishop
- list of burials in Morchard Bishop of children not baptised 1660-1711
Nymet Rowland:
- glebe terrier 1745
Sandford:
- "Sandford Roll of Honour" and "Men who took active part in the Great War" c.1918
- copy Order in Council uniting Sandford and Upton Hellions, 1928
- affidavits of burial in woollen 1678-1747
- inventories of goods at parsonage 1679-1732
[Censuses of Sandford were taken in 1790, 1793 and 1800 by the Vicar at the time, George Bent (1771-1814), and subsequently transcribed by a later Vicar of Sandford, George Taylor Llewellyn (1883-1934). Sadly Bent's original was lost in WW2 when Exeter City Library was bombed, but Llewellyn's transcription survived. We have a photocopy of it, and a spreadsheet transcription of it.]
Stockleigh English
- banns 1830-1909 see under Poughill
Tedburn St Mary:
- Briefs: 1660-1663 (damaged)
- note of "money lent" 1599, 1600,1645
- note of bequest by Sir George Chudleigh of Ashton, Bart. (17th cent. ?)
- notes of appointments of parish clerks, 1830, 1861
- table of fees, 1864
- a remedy for the bite of a mad dog
Whitestone:
- description of a storm in 1754
- population figures 1811-1821
- a note of the fixing of a new pulpit 1791
- a storm in 1777