Tavistock Devon Family History Guide
Tavistock is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Devon.
Other places in the parish include: Gulworthy and Ogbear.
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1614
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1602
Nonconformists include: Bible Christian Methodist, Independent/Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian Unitarian, Society of Friends/Quaker, Wesleyan Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist Association.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Peter Tavy
- Bere Ferrers with Bere Alston
- Whitchurch
- Brent Tor
- Mary Tavy
- Calstock
- Lamerton
- Buckland Monachorum
Tavistock Parish Records
An index of parish records of people from Tavistock. The index includes information from Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licences Granted by the Bishop of Winchester 1689 to 1837
Marriage Licences and Allegations
The following have been extracted from Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licences Granted by the Bishop of Winchester 1689 to 1837 Published 1893 Editor: William John Charles Moens. Parishes without a named county are parishes within the county of Hampshire.
Carpenter, John, of Tavistock, co. Devon, Esq., 21, b., & Lucy Garnier, of Wickham, 21, sp., at W., 14 July, 1828. Aff
Marriages Out of Parish
| Details | Place of Marriage |
|---|---|
| Mr. John Carpenter, of Tavistock, & Mrs. Christian Phillipps, lic. 4 July 1759 | Lanteglos by Camelford |
FamilySearch
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
TAVISTOCK, a town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred, in Devon.
The town stands on the river Tavy, and on the Plymouth and Launceston railway, 16½ miles N of Plymouth; took its name from the Tavy, and was anciently called Tavystocke; belonged to Earl Orcar, father-in-law to King Edgar; acquired from Orcar, and from his son Ordulph, in 961-81, a magnificent abbey; derived from that abbey much and long consequence as a place of concourse; underwent many vicissitudes in the course of public events; was occupied by the royalists in 1643, and visited by Charles I. in 1644.
It numbers among its natives, Sir Francis Drake, who died in 1596, Sir J. Glanville, who died in 1600, Sir J. Maynard, who died in 1690, the poet Browne, who was born in 1590, and the recent graphic writer Mrs. Bray; and gives the title of Marquis to the Duke of Bedford.
Its abbey was destroyed by the Danes in 997; was rebuilt with increased splendour; was invested, by Henry I., with jurisdiction over all Tavistock hundred; rose, in the early years of Henry VIII., to the status of a mitred abbey, with exemption from episcopal oversight: had a school for the study of Saxon, and the second printing-press set up in England,
It was given, at the dissolution, to Lord Russell, ancestor of the Duke of Bedford; was partly incorporated, about 1755, with an edifice called the Bedford hotel; and is now represented chiefly by the principal gateway, a small but picturesque adjoining tower, a pinnacled porch at the back of the hotel, a tower and an outhouse in the grounds of the vicarage, and the refectory converted into a Unitarian chapel.
The town stands in a fine hollow, surrounded by verdant hills; enjoys attractive environs, with great diversity of feature; is irregularly aligned; and consists, for the most part, of narrow streets with many old houses.
The guildhall, on part of the site of the Abbey, was built in 1848. The rooms of the literary and philosophical institution, over the Abbey gateway, contain a public library and a museum. A spacious covered market, with shops, a reading room, and adjoining open yards, was constructed in 1863, at a cost of £25,000; and is in the late pointed domestic style. A bronze statue of the late Duke of Bedford was erected in 1864.
The church is later English, was restored in 1846, and contains some good monuments. There are seven dissenting chapels, a mechanics; institution, a grammar-school, a national school, a British school, a school of art, a dispensary, a workhouse , and charities £216. A canal, 4 miles long, goes to the Tamar; sends off a branch of 2 miles to Millhill; makes a descent of 250 feet; traverses a tunnel 1¾ mile long; and was formed in 1803-17, at a cost of £68,000.
The town has a head post-office, a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, and two chief inns; is a seat of petty-sessions and a polling place; publishes a weekly newspaper; has a weekly market on Friday, nine annual fairs, a very large ropery, and extensive iron-foundries and engine-works; and carries on trade in connexion with neighbouring mines.
It was never chartered: is governed by a portreeve: sent two members to parliament occasionally from the time of Edward I., and always from that of Edward III. till 1867; and was reduced, by the reform act of 1867, to the right of sending only one.
The borough boundaries include only part of the parish. Electors in 1833, 247; in 1863, 422. Pop. in 1851, 8,086; in 1861, 8,857. Houses, 1,133.
The parish comprises 10,700 acres. Real property, £96,214; of which £72,116 are in mines, £353 in the canal, and £110 in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 8,147; in 1861, 8,965. Houses, 1,152. A section, with a pop. of 1,323 in 1861, was constituted a separate charge, under the name of St. Pauls, in 1858.
The head living is a vicarage, and that of St. P. is a p. curacy, in the diocese of Exeter. Value of the former, £298 of the latter, £150. Patron of both, the Duke of Bedford.
The sub-district contains 4 parishes, and comprises 26,312 acres. Pop., 17,864. Houses, 2,870.
The district comprehends also Milton-Abbot, Lifton, and Buckland-Monachorum sub-districts; and comprises 158,567 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £12,372. Pop. in 1851, 32,386; in 1861, 35,265. Houses, 6,073. Marriages in 1863, 210; births, 1,259, of which 73 were illegitimate; deaths, 706, of which 270 were at ages under 5 years, and 20 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,888; births, 10,292; deaths, 5,590.
The places of worship, in 1851, were, 29 of the Church of England, with 7,912 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 1,048 s.: 4 of Baptists, with 710 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 340 s.; 1 of Unitarians, with 224 s.; 18 of Wesleyans, with 3,147 s.; 20 of Bible Christians, with 1,799 s.; 2 of the Wesleyan Association, with 309 s.; and 5 undefined, with 100 s.
The schools were 31 public day-schools, with 2,321 scholars; 37 private day-schools, with 1,141 s.; 49 Sunday schools, with 3,455 s.; and 2 evening schools for adults, with 20 s.
The hundred contains three parishes. Acres, 18,529. Pop., 10,155. Houses, 1,400.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Maps
Vision of Britain historical maps
Administration
- County: Devon
- Civil Registration District: Tavistock
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Archdeaconry of Totnes
- Diocese: Exeter
- Rural Deanery: Tavistock
- Poor Law Union: Tavistock
- Hundred: Tavistock
- Province: Canterbury