MARIANSLEIGH

From

White's Devonshire Directory of 1850

Transcribed by Debbie Kennett

"MARIANSLEIGH, or Mary Ansleigh, a small village on an eminence above the Mole valley, nearly 1 mile S.S.E. of South Molton, has in its parish 338 souls, and 1740 acres of land, including the hamlets of Alswear and Kemp Town, and many scattered houses. . . . Sir H.R.F. Davie, Bart., is lord of the manor and owner of a great part of the parish, and the rest belongs to Mr. Wm. Toms, Mr. F.A. Cockram, and several smaller proprietors. Mr. Cockram owns Kemp Town, and is about to build several new dwellings there. The Church (St Mary,) is an ancient structure, with a tower and four bells. The Rev. Geo. James Gould, of Nympton St. George, is the incumbent, and the patronage is in the Charity Trustees of Exeter, as trustees of John Davye's Almshouses in that city, founded in the 42nd of Elizabeth. . . . In the village is an Independent Chapel, built in 1840. The National School was erected by the late Sir H.P. Davie, Bart. In 1641, John Davie, Esq., charged the manor with the payment of £6. 10s. yearly to the incumbent for preaching a sermon on Sunday afternoons and catechising the children. The poor have the interest of £20 given by Nicholas Sanger and Henry Adams, in 1707 and 1811. They have also an annuity of 10s. out of the tithes, given by an unknown donor. In the following Directory, those marked 1, are in Alswear; and 2, at Kemp Town."