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HACCOMBE

From White's Devonshire Directory of 1850

HACCOMBE, 3 miles E. by S. of Newton Abbot, is a small parish, or extra-parochial liberty, in the detached part of Wonford Hundred, south of the estuary of the Teign. It contains only 14 inhabitants, 290 acres of land, and two houses. It is the seat and property of Sir Walter-Palk Carew, Bart., and has been held for many generations by his family, one of whom was created a baronet, in 1661. The present mansion, called Haccombe House, was built on the site of the ancient hall, about 45 years ago. It is a large plain building, standing in a well wooded lawn, at the bottom of a gradual descent, near the church, on the door of which two horse shoes were fastened, "in memory of one of the Carews, who won a wager of a manor of land, by swimming his horse a vast way into the sea, and back again." At Domesday Survey, the manor was held by Stephen de Haccombe, under Baldwin the Sheriff. It passed successively to the Archdeacons and Courtenays. In the 13th century, it passed with the heiress of the latter to Nicholas Lord Carew, one of whose descendants, George Carew, was created Baron Carew and Earl of Totnes in 1625, but, dying without issue, in 1629, his titles became extinct. Another member of the family was created Lord Carew of Ireland, in 1834, and of the United Kingdom in 1838. Haccombe Church (St. Blaize,) is a small ivy clad structure, with a bell turret, and contains some ancient monuments of the Haccombe and Carew families. In 1821- '2, it was newly fitted with a handsome stone screen, stone pulpit, gothic altar piece, &c. Sir John L'Ercedekne, or Archdeacon, about the year 1341, founded in it a college or archpresbytery, consisting of an archpriest and five other priests, who lived together in community, and were endowed with the great tithes of Haccombe and of Quethiock, in Cornwall. These tithes now belong to the rectory, valued in K.B. at £5, and in 1831 at £353. Sir W.P. Carew, Bart., is the patron, the Rev. Thos. C. Carew, is the incumbent and the Rev. Thos. Kitson, curate. The Rectory House is a small old building, occupied by labourers.

Brian Randell, 3 Jul 1998