Exeter Heavitree

from

A Topographical Dictionary of England

by

 Samuel Lewis (1831)

Transcript copyright Mel Lockie (Sep 2016)

HEAVITREE, a parish in the hundred of WONFORD,county of DEVON, 1 mile (E.) from Exeter, containing1253 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, withthe curacies of St. David and Seidwell, rated in theking's books at £34. 3. 4., and in the peculiar jurisdictionand patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter.The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is in thelater style of English architecture. This parish is asuburb of Exeter, including the villages of Whipton,Polsloe, Monkaton, and East and West Wonford. Thename is said to have been derived from its having beena place of execution, the gallows being called "heavyand grievous tree." It was the western head-quartersof the parliamentary forces during the civil war.At Polesloe was formerly a Benedictine monastery,founded by Lord Brewer, and dissolved in 1538, when itsrevenue was valued.at £164. 8. 11.: some remains ofit are yet visible. There was also a monastic cell, ofthe Cluniac order, dedicated to St. James, the estatesof which were given to the Provost and Fellows ofKing's College, Cambridge, by Henry VI. Here is asmall school, wherein sixteen children are educatedfor £5 per annum, paid out of the proceeds of parishlands. Dennis almshouses, for twelve aged poor, areendowed with a rent-charge of £45 per annum: thereis also an almshouse, founded in 1603 by R. Duck, consistingof four tenements. The river Ex bounds theparish on the south-west.