Totnes, Devon Family History Guide
Totnes is an Ancient Parish and a market town in the county of Devon.
Alternative names: Totness
Other places in the parish include: Totnes St John the Evangelist, Bridgetown, Bridgetown Pomeroy, and Little Totnes.
Parish church: St Mary
Parish registers begin: 1556. Separate registers exist for Totnes St John the Evangelist: 1844
Nonconformists include: Baptist, Independent/Congregational, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Society of Friends/Quaker, Wesleyan Methodist
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
Parish History
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
TOTNES, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Devon.
The town stands on the river Dart and on the South Devon railway, 22¼ miles SSW of Exeter; was anciently called Totneis, Totonese, Toutaness, and Dodonese; is supposed to have got these names from words signifying “a rocky or projecting place;” dates from very ancient times; may, not improbably, have been a place of trade with the Phœnicians.
It is thought, by some, to have been the Roman Ad Durium Amnem, at the terminus of the Fosse way; was held at Domesday by Judhael de Totneis, and had then 110 burgesses; acquired from Judhael a castle, the keep of which still stands: acquired also a Benedictine priory from Judhael, and a Trinitarian house from Bishop Warlewast; was once surrounded with walls, some fragments of which still exist; numbers among its natives the Saxon scholar Lye, who died in 1769, the Hebrew scholar Kennicott, 1783, the theologian Furneaux, 1726, and the Australian explorer Wills, 1860; gave the title of Earl, in the time of James I., to G. Carew.
It is a borough by prescription, governed, under the new act, by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors; sent two members to parliament from the time of Edward I. till 1867, and was then disfranchised; is a seat of petty-sessions and county courts; occupies the acclivity and the brow of a steep hill, sheltered by higher grounds, yet commanding a fine view.
It is connected by a handsome bridge of 1828 with the suburb of Bridgetown, in Berry-Pomeroy parish; exhibits aspects of antiquity in some houses with slated fronts, with piazzas, and with projecting gables; and has a head post-office, a r. station with telegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, a guildhall, an assembly-room, recreation grounds around the castle, a public walk along the river, a granite obelisk of 1864 to Wills, a fine later English church, three dissenting chapels, a mechanics institute, an endowed grammar-school with £70 a year, another endowed school with £40, a workhouse built in 1839 at a cost of £6,000, and charities £105.
A weekly market is held on Saturday; a cattle market on the first Tuesday of every month; fairs on 12 May and 28 Oct.; and a considerable coasting trade, in vessels of 100 tons and under, is carried on.
The borough limits include all T. parish and part of Berry-Pomeroy. Pop. in 1851, 4,419; in 1861, 4,001. Houses, 793.
The parish comprises 1,043 acres. Real property, £15,545; of which £137 are in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 3,828; in 1861, 3,409. Houses, 652. The manor passed from Judhael to successively the De Braoses, the Zouches, the Valletorts, and the Edgcumbes; and belongs now to the Duke of Somerset.
The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £170. Patron, the Lord Chancellor.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Bankrupts
Below is a list of people that were declared bankrupt between 1820 and 1843 extracted from The Bankrupt Directory; George Elwick; London; Simpkin, Marshall and Co.; 1843.
Adams Henry, Totness. Devon, merchant, Sept. 20, 1842.
Brimicombe William, Totness, Devonshire, plumber, Feb. 4, 1831.
Clay Gustavus, Totness, Devonshire, builder, July 13, 1822.
Cridland Henry, Totness, Devonshire, aaddler & harness maker, Dec. 16, 1842.
Fitze George, Totnes, Devonshire, grocer and tea dealer, Nov. 2, 1822.
Heath Edwin and John, Totness, Devonshire, linen drapers, Nov. 27, 1838.
Heyward Thomas Nosworthy, Totness. Devonsh., grocer & baker, Mar. 2, 1827.
Holditch Samuel, Totnes, Devonshire, merchant, Nov. 2. 1830.
Monteith James, Totnesl, Devonshire, mercer and draper, Dec. 10, 1841.
Phillips Bickford Hele; and John Serle ; Totnes, ship owners, Jan. 3, 1834.
Sanders Samuel, Totnes, Devonshire, coach builder, Feb. 26, 1833.
Snell William, Totness, Devonshire, linen draper, Dec. 16, 1831.
Watts John, Totnes, Devonshire, linen draper, Nov. 9, 1822.
Worth Wm. & Hen. Worth; Totnes, Devonshire, linen drapers, June 12, 1838.
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Maps
Vision of Britain historical maps
Administration
- County: Devon
- Civil Registration District: Totnes
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Archdeaconry of Totnes
- Diocese: Exeter
- Rural Deanery: Totnes
- Poor Law Union: Totnes
- Hundred: Coleridge
- Province: Canterbury