MORELEIGH

Transcribed from William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Devonshire 1850, by Terry Partridge.

MORLEY, or Morleigh, a small pleasant village, six miles S.S.W. of Totnes, N.N.E. of Kingsbridge, and E. by N. of Modbury, has in its parish 202 souls, and 1487A. 2R. 24P. of land. It had anciently a market and fair, granted in 1315. The manor passed in moieties to the Ufflete and Maynard families, and the parish now belongs to the Rev. H. Hare, J. B. Swete, Esq., W. B. Fortescue, Esq., and a few smaller owners. One moiety belonged to the late Viscount Boringdon, who in 1815 was created Earl of Morley, to which title his son succeeded in 1840. Petty Sessions are held monthly, at the New Inn, for Stanborough and Coleridge division. The Church (All Saints,) is a small ancient structure, said to have been built in Edward 1st's reign, by Sir Peter Fizacre, who, in a quarrel, killed the parson of Woodleigh, to whose parish Morley then belonged. For this crime the Pope enjoined the knight to build a church at Morleigh. The rectory, valued in K.B. at £9. 8s. 1½d., and in 1831 at £157, is in the patronage of Sir H. P. Seale, and incumbency of the Rev. E. T. Seale, of Blackauton. The glebe is 16A., and the tithes were commuted in 1842, for £150 per annum. Here is an Independent Chapel, built in 1844, but it stands in that part of Morleigh village which is in Halwell parish. The poor have an interest of £10, given by Mrs. Oldrieve.

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