Farringdon (and Clyst Sackville)

from

A Topographical Dictionary of England

by

 Samuel Lewis (1831)

Transcript copyright Mel Lockie (Sep 2016)

FARRINGDON, a parish in the eastern division of the hundred of BUDLEIGH, county of DEVON, 4¾ miles (N. E.) from Topsham, containing, with a portion of the tything of Clist-Sackville, 379 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Exeter, rated in the king's books at £8. 8. 1½., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Exeter. John Weare, in 1691, bequeathed £3 a year for teaching four children, and to purchase books. In pursuance of the will of Walter Wotton, in 1708, a house was conveyed to trustees for the purpose of a school, with an endowment of £56: the house was burnt down many years since, but the inhabitants erected another, with apartments for the master, and a room for vestry meetings. At Bishop's Clist was formerly a chapel, endowed for two chaplains by Bishop Bronscombe, to which was annexed an hospital for twelve blind or infirm clergymen. Clist house was garrisoned by Fairfax, during the civil war in 1645.

CLIST-SACKVILLE, a chapelry in the parishes of CLIST ST. MARY, FARRINGDON, and SOWTON, eastern division of the hundred of BUDLEIGH, county of DEVON, 2¼ miles (N. by E.) from Topsham. The population is returned with the parishes of Farringdon and Sowton. The chapel, which was dedicated to St. Gabriel, has been demolished. This place was mortgaged by Sir Ralph Sackville to Walter Brownscomb, Bishop of Exeter, to enable him to proceed with Edward I. on a crusade to the Holy Land, promising to refund the money at a fixed period, and to defray all charges on the estate during his absence; on which the bishop erected a palace, still standing, and fenced the ground at great charge, so that the expense exceeded the value of the land, in consequence of which it remained with him and his successors, until Bishop Vesey alienated it to the Earl of Bedford.