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POLTIMORE

From White's Devonshire Directory of 1850

POLTIMORE, 4 miles N.E. of Exeter, includes the small hamlet of RATSLOE, and contains 264 inhabitants, and 1430 acres of land, all the property and manor of Lord Poltimore, who resides occasionally at POLTIM0RE HOUSE, a large square cemented mansion in a beautiful park, stocked with deer, and encompassed by verdant and well-wooded hills. His lordship has recently much improved both the mansion and the park, and considerably enlarged the latter. At Domesday Survey, the manor of Poltimore was held in demense by Haimerius de Arcis, but it soon afterwards passed to the Poltimores, who conveyed it in the reign of of Edward I. to Simon Lord Montacute, who sold it to Wm. Pointington, a canon of Exeter. The latter gave it to his pupil, John Bampfylde, or Baumfeld, an ancestor of its present owner. In 1641, John Bampfylde, Esq., was created a baronet, and the late Sir Charles Warwick Bampfylde was the fifth baronet of his family. The present Rt. Hon. Sir George Warwick Bampfylde was created BARON POLTIMORE in 1831, and is colonel of the North Devon Militia. He was born in 1786, and his eldest son, the Hon. Augustus Fredk. George Warwick Bampfylde, was born in 1837. He has another seat at Hardington Park, Somerset. Lord Goring, who had been quartered at Poltimore with 1500 horse, retired into Essex on the approach of Sir Thomas Fairfax, in October, 1645, when Poltimore House was garrisoned by the latter, with the consent of its owner. The treaty for the surrender of Exeter is said to have been opened here on the 3rd of April, 1646. Sir Coplestone Bampfylde was an active promoter of the restoration of Charles II., and was the first sheriff of Devon after the king's return. Two farms here formerly belonged to the prebendaries of Cutton and Hayes, in the small collegiate chapel which stood in Exeter Castle yard. The Church (St. Mary,) is an ancient cruciform structure, with a tower and six bells. It was built by John Bampfylde, who died in 1390, and gave the great bell, as appears by an inscription in the church. The rectory, valued in K.B. at £15. 15s. 5d., and in 1831 at £589, with that of Huxham annexed to it, is in the gift of Lord Poltimore, and incumbency of the Hon. and Rev. John Fortescue, M.A., who is also a canon of Worcester. The Rectory House is a neat cemented building, with tasteful grounds. Lady Poltimore supports a school here for 36 poor children. The Almshouses were founded and endowed for poor people, by John Bampfylde, in 1631, and enlarged for two additional almspeople, by the executors of Sir R.W. Bampfylde, who, in 1775, left for that purpose £200, now vested in £245. 7s. 11d. three per cent. reduced annuities. The original endowment consists of 4½ acres of land and two cottages, at Pinhoe, let for about £12 per annum. The rent and dividends are divided equally among the six almspeople. In 1797, Mary Bradford left £100, five per cent. annuities, in trust, that the yearly dividends should be distributed among the poor of Poltimore, except what was necessary for repairing the monument of her husband and daughter.

Lord Poltimore, Poltimore House
Fortescue Hon. & Rev John, Rectory
Adams Henry, blacksmith & par. clk
Capp Henry, farmer, Cutton
Carthew Arthur, carpenter
Franklin Thos. farmer, Horn Hill
Gould John, land agent, Hayes
Hughes Robert, gamekeeper
Pearce John, butcher, Ratsloe
Smith Chas. pork butcher, Ratsloe
Thomas Wm. carpenter, Ratsloe
Watts Catherine, schoolmistress Wilcocks Thomas, sexton