Hemiock, deanery Dunkeswell

Chanter 225A, 39-40

  1. Population and dissenters: It is difficult to certify the exact number of Families in my Parish: it comprehending a very large Tract of Hills and waste Ground, on which are scattered up and down a great many Cottages. The number of Families, including these Cottages, may be, according to a moderate Computation, about 200. There are here 24 Families of Dissenters, two of them Quakers, the rest Presbyterians & Anabaptists. I have great reason to think that there is no licenced Meeting-House here, tho’ it is pretended that there is a House licenced; one Darracott of Wellington comes here sometimes (I think never on a Sunday) and holds forth to some idle poor people on the side of a Hill, and I have been inform’d once or twice in the House abovementioned.

  2. Public or charity schools: There is no Publick or Charity School in my Parish.

  3. Alms-house, hospital or charitable endowment: There is no Alms-house, Hospital, or other charitable Endowment in this Parish. Nor are there any Lands <or Tenements> left for the Repair of the Church. There are a few Donations, amounting in the whole to about £6 per annum, left to the Poor of this Parish, which are distributed by the Rector, and the officers of the Parish for the time being. There is also £5 per annum left for putting out poor Children Apprentices: the Disposal of which is vested in the Owner of the Estate, out of which the Money is paid. I do not know, nor have heard of any Abuses, or Frauds committed in the Management of either of them.

  4. Residence upon cure: I reside personally upon my Cure in my Parsonage House.

  5. Curate: [No answer given]

  6. Divine service at other churches: No.

  7. Frequency of divine service: Divine service is perform’d, and a Sermon preached twice every Sunday in my Church, excepting every third Sunday in the afternoon, when there are Prayers and a Sermon in a Chapel in the Parish called Culm Davy. Excepting also the intermediate Space between All Saints Day and Candlemas: during which there is no Sermon in the afternoon at the Mother Church, but Prayers only.

  8. Frequency of communion: Four times in my Church, and three times in the Chapel.

  9. Number of communicants: There are about twenty four Persons who communicate at my Church, and eight at the Chapel; their number is generally the same every time when the holy Sacrament is administred.

  10. Catechising of children: My Predecessor used to catechize the Children <on> those Sundays in the year when the Days are longest; but as I think they will better retain the Instruction they receive if they are catechized every month, I intend to pursue that method.

  11. Chapels or chapels in ruins: Culm Davy Chapel (the only one in my Parish) is about two Miles from the Church and is served by me.

    Hemyock R – E Rayner A.M. inst. Jun. 2 1742 Presb Jun 17 1733 Jo. Oxon. [Explanation]