MORTEHOE

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)]

"MORTEHOE, a parish in the hundred of Braunton, county Devon, 5 miles S.W. of Ilfracombe, its post town. The village, which is small and straggling, is situated near Morte-Point, on Morte Bay, and is wholly agricultural. The parish includes the hamlets of Osborough, Shatesborough, and Eastacott. Off the coast is a large isolated rock, called Morte Stone, from the numerous shipwrecks it has occasioned. The substratum contains a variety of slaty stone, which is quarried for building purposes. The appropriate tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £380, besides 30 acres of glebe; the vicarial glebe comprises 16 acres, valued at £20 per annum. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter, value £128, in the patronage of the dean and chapter, who are the impropriators. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient edifice, with a tower containing three bells. The interior of the church has an altar-tomb of Sir William de Tracey, one of Thomas-a-Becket's murderers, who, after that event, founded a chantry here, and ended his days in a hermitage at this place. The Primitive Methodists have a place of worship, and there is a National school."

"MORTE BAY, in the parish of Mortehoe, on the coast of Devonshire, a little to the N. of Barnstaple Bay. It is about 3 miles wide, and has anchorage in 5 fathoms water, but its approach is obstructed by the Morte Stone rock, with a dangerous tide-race."

"PUTSBROUGH, a creek in Morte Bay in the parish of Mortehoe, county Devon, 7 miles N.W. of Barnstaple."