To the Revd the Minister of Stokenham
Chanter 232B, 573, 574, 575
- Residence, curate and lecturer: My Lord,
Your enquiries & the Account of your intended Confirmation were sent to Stokenham, Chivelstone & Sherford; but I imagine this happen'd from your Secretary's being unaquainted that Stokenham is a Vicarage with the Above Chapels annexd, which makes more than one Paper of Enquiries &c needless. My Answers therefore for Stokenham, I hope, will sufficiently satisfy your Lordship of the State of the whole:
My Residence is in the Vic: House. There is a Resident Curate in the same Village with a Salary of £42 per Annum: he is not Licenc'd but I Believe hath no Objection to be so.
- Other benefices: I have no other Benefice but Stokenham.
- Divine service at other churches: I serve no other Church but my own.
- Frequency of divine service: Stokenham hath generally D. Service twice every Sunday. Two Chapels have according to imemorial Custom D. Service the whole day once a Fortnight.
- Frequency of communion: Four times a year in each Church. The Communicants at Stokenham about seventy. At the Chapels about twenty each.
- Catechising of children: From Whitsunday to Michaelmas.
- Church fabric: The Churches, Chancels & Church yards are in pretty good Order & all things are provided for the decent performance of D. Service.
- Glebe terrier: There is a proper Terrier for the three Parishes according to Canon.
- Number of families: About 200 in Stokenham. About Eighty in each of the other Parishes.
- Chapels: There is no other Chapel, but those already mention'd.
- Papists, dissenters and meeting houses: I know of no Papists in the Vicarage: In the Parish of Chivelstone is a Meeting: House for Presbyterian-Dissenters. The Teacher's Name is Evans. There is also in the same Parish one Wm Eales a Blacksmith who pretends to instruct a very small Congregation <of Methodists> in his own House.
- School, alms-houses, hospital and charitable endowments: There is no School, but such as is generally found in Country Villages for the instruction of Children in reading & writing: neither is there a Parochial Library.
- Charity: I know of no Lands &c left for pious & charitable uses.
Priest's orders and institution: Priest Orders dated June the 5th 1757. Institution Sepr the 1st 1767. A Letter directed at Stokenham near Dartmouth will be safely conveyed to my House.
Thos Rennell
Stokenham
May the 13: 1779