Ottery St Mary, Deanery of Ailesbeare.

Chanter 225A, 68-69

  1. Population and dissenters: The Families within the Parish are upwards of 490.
    Dissenting Families 71.
    We have no Dissenters of any Denomination but Presbyterians.
    They have had a Meeting House upwards of 50 years in the Parish so I presume it is licenced. The Teachers Name is Robert Batten.

  2. Public or charity schools: There is only a publick School endow’d by King Henry the 8th with £10 a year a House & Garden. Edmund Prideaux Esqr secretary & others have added £10 a year more. The Number taught in it is now 46. Proper Care is taken of their Principles. they attend church Prayer Days &c & have a Place there appropriated for them.

  3. Alms-house, hospital or charitable endowment: There are no Lands left for the Repair of the Church. But we have lands given by Henry Beaumont Esqr & others to the value of £213 [per] Annum for the use of the Poor. These Lands ought to be under the Direction of 12 Feoffees principal Inhabitants of the Parish but are now reduced to 4 one of whom absconds & the other 3 are of one Family. The Accounts should, according to the wills of the Donors, be annually made up at a Parish meeting: which having been neglected since Mich[aelmas] 1740 The Charity is likely to be injur’d by <large> arrears in very precarious Hands.1

  4. Residence upon cure: I reside in the School-house adjoining to ye Vicarage Because I had laid out above £200 about it to make it convenient, before I was presented to the Vicarage.

  5. Curate: I have none.

  6. Divine service at other churches: I do not.

  7. Frequency of divine service: On Wednesdays & Fridays in the Morning, Saturdays in the Afternoon, Holidays, twice very Lord’s Day with a Sermon in the Morning & a Sermon in the Afternoon or a Lecture on the Catechism; & a sacramental lecture on the Saturday Afternoon before the first Sunday in every month.

  8. Frequency of communion: On Christmas Day, Easter Day, Whitsunday & the first Sunday in every month.

  9. Number of communicants: The Number of Communicants in the Parish are calculated to be upwards of 200. There are usually between 40 & 50 every month Sunday: & the Number last Easter Day as I am informed was about 120.

  10. Catechising of children: Every other Sunday beginning the first Sunday in Lent: till the Parish is gone thro’ which is divided into 10 Portions for that Purpose. They are in general very ready to come & are well instructed.

  11. Chapels or chapels in ruins: There is no Chapel within the Parish, neither has there, as far as I can learn, ever been one.

      Richard Holme Vicar.

    Ottery St. Mary V. Richard Holme A.M. inst. May 26th 1744. Presb. Sept 21st 1729 Stephan Exon. [Explanation]

      1 Much of the righthand side of this entry lost in the binding to the volume. Where the text is obscured entirely squared brackets have been used to indicate the likely missing words. [back]