CHIEF RENTS AND PROPERTIES IN THE MANORS

OF

SPREYTON, LAMFORD AND FURSHAM, 1800 AND 1859

Transcribed by Sophia Lambert

These schedules list the Chief Rents payable to the Lord of the Manor out of properties in the Manors of Spreyton, Lamford and Fursham (in Spreyton, Cheriton Bishop and Drewsteignton parishes, respectively), with the names of the owners and occupants of the properties; and also the owners and occupiers of certain properties in Spreyton in 1800 (note that an "occupier" was the person renting the property; he or she did not necessarily live there themselves as many properties were sublet or used to house employees of the "occupier").

The documents have been transcribed (with very minor editing) from documents in the possession of the descendants of George Lambert Gorwyn (1818-1885), who was the last person to collect these rents. Chief rents were the small annual rents payable by freeholders to the Lord of the Manor; often they were a monetary equivalent of a payment in services or kind in medieval times. Not all the rents on these schedules are true manorial rents dating back to medieval times. By the 18th century, when manors were being broken up and properties belonging to the manor were being sold, the vendor often sold a property subject to a "reserved rent" payable to him and his heirs in perpetuity (or for the term of a lease so long - 1000 years plus - as to be effectively a freehold) by whoever owned the property. This applies to several of the properties on these lists. The right to both manorial rents and such reserved rents could be sold on to third parties.

The three Manors above (or parts of them) belonged by the late 18th century to the Hole family of North and South Tawton, who were substantial landowners. The heirs of the Rev. Richard Hole of North Tawton and Holy Trinity Exeter sold the rights to the chief and reserved rents in 1800 to John Lambert Gorwyn of Lamford or Lampford (now Lambert) in Cheriton Bishop. He immediately sold them on to his uncle George Cann of Falkedon in Spreyton. The latter was killed by a fall from a horse in Hittisleigh in 1804, and bequeathed the rents to his nephew George Lambert Gorwyn, also of Falkedon (1763-1837), who in turn bequeathed them to his grandson George Lambert Gorwyn of Coffins in Spreyton (1818-1885).

The first two lists are taken from the 1800 documents recording the transfer of rents and properties from the Hole family to the Cann/Lambert Gorwyn family. The third list is one of a series of documents between 1843 and 1879 recording each year the collection of chief rents due to George Lambert Gorwyn. All the documents are being deposited in the Devon Record Office in Exeter.

1. Schedule transcribed from the deed dated 29 September 1800 whereby Juliana and Robert Hole sold various properties together with the rights to certain rents to John Lambert Gorwyn (the identical schedule appears in the deed dated 15 October 1800 whereby John Lambert Gorwyn sold the rents and some of the properties on to George Cann).

2. The freehold (or a share in the freehold) of certain premises in Spreyton was also sold on to George Cann in September 1800 and the second deed lists these properties as follows:

• The house and garden called Risdon's House in Spreyton Churchtown*, heretofore in the occupation of Mary Risdon, widow, and afterwards Thomas Stone as tenant, together with the vendor's right in the adjoining stable;
• A half share of Coate, heretofore in the possession of Thomas Earlon and Robert Kellaway;
• A half share of the dwelling in Spreyton Churchtown formerly in the possession of Henry Carthew as tenant;
• A quarter share of North Beer, formerly in the possession of Mark Cann;
• A quarter share of Huddishill, formerly in the possession of George Howard or assignees;
• A quarter share of the dwelling in Spreyton Churchtown called Martin's House, formerly in the occupation of Simon Martin as tenant;
• The dwelling in Spreyton Churchtown known as Dayers, formerly in the possession of Andrew Battishill as tenant;
• A quarter share of the dwelling house and smith's shop belonging to it formerly in the possession of Oliver Langmead as tenant;
• A quarter share of Joint's Tenement, late in the possession of John Langmead;
• A quarter share of the dwelling known as Clampeys (Cramphay), also late in the possession of John Langmead.

*Spreyton Churchtown was the expression used to describe the main village grouped round the church.

Some of these properties had been leased by the Rev. Richard Hole on a 2,000 year lease to Mark Cann of Spreyton in 1758, subject to an annual reserved rent of £9. The second deed lists the premises subject to the £9 rent as: Risdon's House and right in the stable; the half share of Coate otherwise Risdon's Tenement; the half share of the house in the possession of John Carthew; the fourth share of North Beer and Huddishill; the fourth share of Martin's House; and the house called Dayers. The right to this £9 reserved rent also passed to George Cann and from him to the Lambert Gorwyns, and thus appears in later schedules of chief rents like the one below.

3. Schedule of Chief Rents payable to George Lambert Gorwyn in 1854