St Marychurch Devon Family History Guide
St Marychurch is an Ancient Parish in the county of Devon. Coffinswell is a chapelry of St Marychurch.
Other places in the parish include: Watcombe, Shiphay Collaton, Edginswell, Barton, Babbacombe, and Comb Pafford.
Parish church:
Parish registers begin: 1641
Nonconformists include: Baptist, Bible Christian Methodist, Independent/Congregational, Plymouth Brethren, Protestant Dissenters, Roman Catholic, Society of Friends/Quaker, Strict Baptist, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
St Marychurch
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
MARYCHURCH (ST.), a village and a parish in Newton-Abbot district, Devon.
The village overlooks Babbicombe bay, 1½ mile E by N of Torre r. station, and 1½ N by E of Torquay; is a large place, built chiefly of marble rock, and containing many genteel houses and marine Villas; resembles Torquay in the style of its buildings, and may be regarded as suburban to that town; attracts summer visitors for sea-bathing and for yachting; and has a post office under Torquay, several good inns, a coast-guard station, and bathing-machines.
The parish contains also the hamlets of Babbicombe, Barton, Comb-Pafford, Edginswell, Shiphay-Collaton, and Watcombe. Acres, 2,589. Real property, £14,182; of which £120 are in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 2,293; in 1861, 3,231. Houses, 618. The increase of pop. arose from improvements by land-proprietors, and from advantages for the erection of houses. The property is much subdivided.
The manor of St. Marychurch belongs to R. S. Carey, Esq.; and that of Comb-Pafford, to Sir Lawrence Palk. The surface, particularly along the coast, abounds in features of interest.
Famous marble quarries, with remarkable formation of limestone rock, and with profusion of beautiful fossils, are at Petit Tor. A broken piece of ground, encircled by fantastic red cliffs, at Watcombe, marks the results of a romantic landslip.
The living is a vicarage, united with the vicarage of Coffinswell, in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £270. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Exeter. The church stands on high ground; serves as a landmark to mariners; is partly an old building with a tower; and recently was, in great measure, rebuilt, at a cost of about £6,000. A chapel of ease, called the Free church, stands at Furrough-Cross.
The vicarage of Babbicombe is a separate benefice.
There are chapels for Baptists and Wesleyans, national schools, and charities £5.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850
Mary-Church (St.), 6 miles S.E. Newton-Abbots. P. 1668
Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850
Babbacombe
Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales Circa 1870
Babbicombe, a village in St. Marychurch parish, Devon; on the coast, 1½ mile NE of Torquay. It has a post-office under Torquay, and an inn. It was recently a sequestered hamlet; but it is now a well-built place, rapidly extending. A romantic tiny bay, of its own name, is adjacent; and a brilliant view is enjoyed of a great extent of coast.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Maps
Vision of Britain historical maps
Administration
- County: Devon
- Civil Registration District: Newton Abbot
- Probate Court: Court of the Peculiars of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter
- Diocese: Exeter
- Rural Deanery: Post-1847 – Ipplepen, Pre-1848 – None
- Poor Law Union: Newton Abbot
- Hundred: Haytor
- Province: Canterbury