Modbury, Devon Family History Guide
Modbury is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Devon.
Other places in the parish include: Ludbrook and Brownston.
Alternative names: Modbury with Brownston
Parish church: St. George
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1553
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1613
Nonconformists include: Baptist, Presbyterian, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
MODBURY, a small town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Kingsbridge district, Devon.
The town stands on steep declivities, descending to the bottom of a valley, 1¾ mile E of the river Erme, 4½ SSE of Ivy-Bridge r. station, and 11½ E by S of Plymouth; dates from remote times; was anciently called Mortherry and Motheria; belonged, in the time of the Confessor, to Wado; sent two members to parliament in the time of Edward I., but afterwards petitioned to be exempted from sending them on account of poverty.
It was, with adjacent fields, the scene of a sanguinary conflict between royalist and parliamentarian forces, when, tradition says, “the streets ran blood;” is governed by a portreeve, elected annually, and by other officers.
It is a seat of petty sessions; consists chiefly of four streets, descending the hills from the cardinal points to a common centre at the bottom of the valley; includes houses on the E perched on so steep an acclivity as to look as if they would fall down upon and overwhelm the parts below; contains many houses with slated fronts, of ghastly appearance; presents, nevertheless, a singularly picturesque aspect, as seen from almost any neighbouring point of view.
It is well supplied with water from three old granite conduits; and has a post-office under Ivybridge, a good inn, a church, three dissenting chapels, a literary and scientific institution, a national school, a British school, and charities £18.
The church is ancient, and was originally cruciform; consists now of nave, aisles, and chancel, with projecting sacrarium, S porch, and W spire, the last rebuilt about 1621, and tapering from the ground to a height of 134 feet; has a curiously sculptured door-way in the N wall; underwent recent repair in the interior; and contains monuments of the Champernownes and the Swetes.
The dissenting chapels are for Baptists, Quakers, and Wesleyans. The literary institution was founded and endowed in 1840 by Mr. Richard King, a native of the town, who acquired wealth in America; and it is a handsome edifice. The British school was formerly an Independent chapel. A weekly market is held on Thursday; a cattle market, on the second Monday of every month; and a large fair, on 4 May.
The parish comprises 6,233 acres of land, and 25 of water. Real property, £12,634. Pop. in 1851, 1.858; in 1861, 1,621. Houses, 338. The decrease of pop. arose from scarcity of employment.
The manor went from Wado to the Valletorts; passed to the Okestones and the Champernownes; was held by the latter so early as the time of Edward II.; and passed, in the beginning of the 18th century, to the Legassickes.
Modbury Court, on a hill immediately W of the town, was the seat of the Champernownes, where they lived in great splendour; was fortified, besieged, and captured at the time of the royalist and parliamentarian conflict in 1642; and has been displaced by a modern house, occupied by a maltster.
Fleet House, Ludbrook House, and Whimpstone are chief residences. A Benedictine priory, a cell to St. Peter-sur-Dive in Normandy, stood at Scotland farm; was given, by Henry VI., to Eton college; and has left some traces.
Sir John Fortescue, Lord Chief Justice in the time of Henry VI., and Sir John Baker, president of the Royal College of Physicians in the last century, were natives.
The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelry of Brownstone, in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £302. Patron, Eton College.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
MODBURY (St. George), a market-town and parish, in the union of Kingsbridge, hundred of Ermington, Ermington and Plympton, and S. divisions of Devon, 36 miles (S. W. by S.) from Exeter, and 208 (W. S. W.) from London; containing 2048 inhabitants.
This place, called in Latin records Motberia, was in the possession of Wado in the time of the Confessor, and subsequently became the property of the Champernownes, of whom Richard Champernowne, in 1334, obtained permission to fortify his manorial residence here. During the contest between Charles and the parliament, the fortress was taken by the garrison of Plymouth, and in February, 1643, Sir N. Stanning, when intrenched here with 2000 soldiers, was defeated by the Devonshire clubmen.
The town is situated at the junction of roads from Plymouth, Kingsbridge, and Dartmouth, and occupies the bottom and declivities of a valley; it consists of four streets, which meet at right angles, the point of union being in the lowest part of the town: the inhabitants are supplied with water from three conduits.
The manufacture of woollen goods, which was formerly of great extent, has decayed: there is still some weaving of long ells; also a considerable trade in corn and malt. A creek, navigable for barges, extends from the estuary of the river Erme, which bounds the parish on the west, to within two miles of the town, and facilitates the importation of coal, and the export of the produce of the soil.
The principal general market is on Thursday, and there is another on Saturday for butchers’ meat; also a great cattle-market on the second Tuesday in every month. A fair takes place on the 4th of May, unless that day fall later in the week than Thursday, in which case it is postponed till the following Tuesday.
The town is governed by a portreeve and subordinate officers, who are appointed at one of the courts leet, which are held at Michaelmas and Lady-day. The borough sent two members to parliament in the 34th of Edward I., but was afterwards relieved from making returns, on the plea of its inability to pay their expenses.
The parish comprises 5977 acres, of which 229 are common or waste; the surface is varied, and the scenery in many parts is highly picturesque. The substratum abounds with limestone, which is quarried both for building and for burning into lime; there are also some quarries of slate-stone.
The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £19. 11. 0½.; net income, £302; patrons and impropriators, the Provost and Fellows of Eton College. The church, which stands upon an eminence south-westward of the town, is an ancient embattled structure, with modern additions; the tower, rebuilt in 1622, is surmounted by a spire.
Here are places of worship for Baptists, the Society of Friends, and Wesleyans.
Some years since, there were slight remains of Modbury House, and also of a Benedictine priory, founded in the reign of Stephen, and dedicated to St. Gregory, as a cell to the abbey of St. Peter sur Dive, in Normandy; its possessions, valued at £70 per annum, were given by Henry VI. to Eton College.
Sir John Fortescue, a celebrated lawyer, and lord chief justice in the reign of Henry VI.; and Sir George Baker, M.D., president of the Royal College of Physicians, born in 1722; were natives of the place.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Parish Registers
Marriages Out of Parish
| Details | Place of Marriage |
|---|---|
| Hercules Rickard, of Modbury, co. Devon, & Elizabeth Bele 4 Nov. 1746 | Lanteglos by Camelford |
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Administration
- County: Devon
- Civil Registration District: Kingsbridge
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Archdeaconry of Totnes
- Diocese: Exeter
- Rural Deanery: Plympton
- Poor Law Union: Kingsbridge
- Hundred: Ermington
- Province: Canterbury