Ashburton Devon Family History Guide
Ashburton is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Devon. Buckland in the Moor and Bickington are chapelries of Ashburton.
Parish church: St. Andrew
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1603
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1608
Nonconformists include: Baptist, Particular Baptists, Independent/Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian, Wesleyan Methodist
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Torbryan
- Buckland in the Moor
- Bickington
- Buckfastleigh
- Holne
- Staverton
- Widecombe in the Moor
- Ilsington
- Woodland
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
ASHBURTON, a town, a parish, and a subdistrict in the district of Newton-Abbot, Devon.
The town stands on the Yeo, about 1¼ mile from the Dart, near the grandest part of Dartmoor, 7 miles NNW of Totnes; and a railway to it, from the South Devon, was in advanced progress in 1869. It was anciently called Asperton and Aisbertone.
It belonged to the Crown at Domesday; was given to the see of Exeter before 1310; became a stannary town in 1328, on account of tin and copper mines in its neighbourhood; belonged to the Crown again in the time of Charles I.; was taken by Fairfax in 1646; and went, after various changes, into the possession of Lord Clinton.
It consists principally of two long streets; and has a neat appearance. The market house has a lofty basement for market purposes, and an upper story with public rooms; and is a fine edifice, in the Italian style, built in 1850, at a cost of upwards of £3,000.
The parish church is a spacious cruciform structure, of perpendicular date, with modern alterations, surmounted by a central tower, 90 feet high, was formerly collegiate, and contains some fine monuments. There are four dissenting chapels, a grammar school, with £80 of endowed income, and two exhibitions and two scholarships at Exeter college, Oxford, other charities with £322, a post office under Newton-Abbot, and three chief inns.
A weekly market is held on Saturday, and fairs on the first Thursday in March and June, 10 Aug., and 11 Nov. The manufacture of serge and blanketting is carried on. A great business formerly arose from the thoroughfare between London and Plymouth; but has died away since the opening of the South Devon railway.
The town is a borough by prescription; sent two members to parliament in the times of Edward I. and Henry IV., and from 1640 till 1832; and was half disfranchised by the act of 1832, and entirely disfranchised in 1868. It is governed by a portreeve, a bailiff, and constables. Acres, 6,936. Real property, £13,670. Electors in 1868, 356. Pop., 3,062. Houses, 574.
John Dunning, solicitor-general in 1767, Dr. Ireland, dean of Westminster, and William Gifford, the well-known editor of the Quarterly Review, born in 1756, were natives. A peerage, with the title of Baron Ashburton, was given to Dunning in 1782; and, becoming extinct in 1823, was revived in favour of Alexander Baring in 1835.
The parish, as already noted, is co-extensive with the borough. The living is a vicarage, in annexation with the vicarage of Buckland-in-the-Moor, in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £639. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Exeter.
The subdistrict includes six parishes and a chapelry. Acres, 31,599. Pop., 6,362. Houses, 1,245.
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: Pre-1848 – None, Post-1847 – Moreton
- Poor Law Union: Newton Abbot
- Hundred: Teignbridge
- Province: Canterbury