Witheridge

from

A Topographical Dictionary of England

by

 Samuel Lewis (1831)

Transcript copyright Mel Lockie (Sep 2016)

WITHERIDGE, a parish in the hundred of Witheridge, county of Devon, 8¼ miles (E.) from Chulmleigh, containing 1121 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Barnstaple, and diocese of Exeter, rated in the king's books at £23. 10. 5., and in the patronage of the Rev. W. P. Thomas. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, has a stone pulpit highly enriched. This is a decayed borough and market town. A fair for cattle is held on June 24th; and there are still great markets on the Wednesday after September 21st, and the first Wednesday in November. Richard Melhuish, Esq., in 1799, gave £500 stock, the dividends arising from which are applied for the instruction of forty poor children. William Chapple, the antiquary, was born here; he died in 1755.