Bishops
Tawton , Devon
Place
[From White's Devonshire Directory (1850)]
BISHOP'S TAWTON, a small village on the east side of the fertile
and picturesque valley of the river Taw, 2½ miles S.
by E. of Barnstaple, has in its parish 4268 acres of land,
and 1827 inhabitants, including Newport, a populous southern
suburb of Barnstaple . . . Newport is said to have been anciently
a borough town. It had formerly a market on Monday, and a
fair on the festival of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist,
granted in 1294. The Duke of Bedford is lord of the manor
of Bishop's Tawton, which belonged at an early period to the
Bishops of Devonshire, and was the original Bishop's See;
but Putta, the second bishop, removed the See to Crediton.
The manor was conveyed by Bishop Veysey, in 1550, to Lord
John Russell, afterwards Earl of Bedford, at the request of
the King, together with other manors. The bishops had a Palace
here many centuries after the See was removed, and traces
of it are still to be seen. Robt. Chichester, Esq., owns Accot,
Hall, Pill, and Halmeston estates, and is now building a large
and handsome mansion, in the Elizabethan style, at Hall, the
ancient seat of the Hall family, whose heiress brought the
estate to the Chichesters. Sir B.P. Wrey, Bart., and several
smaller owners, have estates in the parish. The Church (St.
John,) is an ancient structure, consisting of a nave, chancel,
and north aisle, with a tower and spire."
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