MUSBURY

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

"MUSBURY, a parish in the hundred of Axminster, county Devon, 3 miles S.W. of Axminster, its post town, and 2 from Colyton. The village, which is of small extent, is situated on the road from Axminster to Seaton, near the river Axe. Musbury Castle, a double-ditched camp of 20 acres, is in this parish. The soil is of a clayey and sandy nature, with a subsoil of gravel. The tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £435. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Exeter, value £365. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a very ancient stone structure, with a tower containing five bells. A south aisle was added by the Drake family towards the end of the 15th century. The interior of the church contains monuments to the Drake family, who settled here in the reign of Henry VII. The great Duke of Marlborough was born in the parish in 1650, and his maternal uncle, Sir John Drake, was created a baronet in 1660. Ash-House, the ancient seat of the Drakes, is now a farmhouse. The Rev. John Vaughan Payne is lord of the manor."