THE OLD MANSE MARY STREET,
Previously HILL HEAD and a Nonconformist Chapel
Frances Billinge 2024
INTRODUCTION
There is a house half-way up Mary Street which is now called The Old Manse (Fig.1). Previously it was known as Hill Head and contained a nonconformist chapel.
Figure 1. The Old Manse Mary Street (Frances Billinge 2019).
The earliest map of Bovey Tracey was in 1640 and showed no houses at what was later called Hill Head being above the then houses on Mary Street and the top of Hind Street. (Fig 2).[1]
Figure 2. Map of the Manor of Bovey Tracey 1640 showing unbuilt on land marked V where Hill Head would be built the following century. By kind permission of Devon Heritage Centre.
The first reference to a house on the site was in 1726 when James Satterley sold to Isaac Taylor, ‘a newly erected mansion, stable, courtledge and herb garden with an orchard and about an acre of land at Hill Head in Bovey Tracey, together with rights of pasture on Bovey Heathfield’.[2] James Satterley was a sleamaker, meaning he was involved in the weaving trade and made the reeds for stocking frames. Before James Satterley owned the land the owner was Amice Pinsent. We learn from this document that Charles Challis of Lions Inn Middlesex was involved in the transaction on the financial side, and Isacc Taylor was a baker from Bovey Tracey. The witnesses to this indenture were local men Joseph Inglett, John Hellyer and William Daymond. Although James Satterley was successful enough to build and own property and run a business he could not write his name and so made his mark on the document. Challis and Baker both signed their names.
Isaac Taylor died in 1734 and the house was inherited by his wife Wilmotte Taylor.[3] Wilmotte could not sign her name. In 1737 Wilmotte leased the property to George Miller, a yeoman from Lustleigh.[4] When Wilmotte died in 1753 the property passed to her two daughters Ann and Mary Taylor. The witnesses were local men John Steere, William Winsor, and Thomas Durston.[5]
From 1759 the property went from the various inheritors and Ann and Mary Taylor to Samuel Knowling a sergemaker. Only one person could sign their names on the deeds- Isacc and Wilmotte Tylor’s daughter Mary who was by then Mary Dicker.[6]
In 1773 the property passed from Samuel Knowing to William Hole, the major landowner in the parish.[7] William Hole died in 1779 and this property passed to his son, also called William.[8] Although this William was a wealthy and successful cartographer and estate manager when he died in 1812 he did not leave a will, perhaps because he never married. His estate passed to his brother Robert Hole of Stickwick. The house known as Hill Head was auctioned as part of his estate in 1813 and purchased by Moses Savery a clothier of Bovey Tracey among others. Savery then passed his part to John Jones an attorney of Exeter. By this time all interested parties could sign their names.[9] Moses Savery was also involved in the development of the Baptist Church nearby in Hind Street.[10]
When John Jones died in 1819 his part of Hill Head was inherited by his wife Harriet. Robert Hole still held part of it and when he died in 1820 his estate went to his son William and others. In 1823 when William Hole junior was of the age to deal with his various properties the ownership of the house became less divided as it passed from him, Harriet Jones and others to Elizabeth Croker.[11]
In 1824 Elizabeth Croker died and the property passed to William Creed a gentleman of Abbotskerswell and Susannah Crout a spinster.[12] They then sold it to John Mogridge a surgeon of Bovey Tracey in 1829.[13]
In 1833 John Mogridge sold it to Robert Tucker, a gentleman of Ashburton, trustee for Maria Elizabeth Tucker who was still an infant.[14]
The 1841 Tithe Map showed how built-up Mary Street and Hill Head were by then (Fig.3).
Figure 3. Tithe Map of Bovey Tracey 1841 with blue arrow marking Hill Head,later The Old Manse. By kind permission of Devon Heritage Centre.
In 1846 Robert Tucker sold the house to Miss Julia Puddicombe a spinster of Reading.[15] This was to be a significant development in the history of nonconformity in the parish. The Puddicombes, a well to do family had owned land in the area since at least 1640.[16] In 1767 they were recorded as living in Church Stile, one of the larger residences in the town (Fig. 4).[17]
Figure 4. Church Stile. Kindly donated by Helen Cowell.
The Puddicombes were supportive of nonconformity and were involved in the Baptist Church which was already meeting in Hind Street. From the 1820s they had been subscribers to its Sunday School for which they provided prizes.[18] In 1846 Julia Puddicombe, the niece of the family living at Church Stile, purchased Hill Head while she was the owner and proprietor of a school in Reading.[19]
Although Julia Puddicombe owned Hill Head she was not living in it. In 1857 a Free Church (nonconformist) was built attached to Hill Head. This was a year of considerable religious disquiet in Bovey Tracey as some residents were expressing their anger with the ‘High Church’/Tractarian views of the local vicar Revd the Hon Charles Courtenay, who was a brother of the Earl of Devon. Courtenay had built a new church in Brimley which followed ‘High Church’ liturgy, and he was now trying to re-order the parish church in a way which some residents considered to be ‘popish’. At a meeting of the Parish Vestry it was reported that there was a movement to build a free church in the town.[20] This movement worked with speed and on 21 September the new Free Church was opened as a place of worship.[21] The architect and builder was Mr Lock and it could hold a congregation of two hundred. The newspapers reported that the local Puddicombe family and others helped build it. Deeds together with extant architecture in The Old Manse and a 1955 plan confirm that the Free Church was built behind and attached to the much older house called Hill Head at the top of Hind Street. (Fig. 5).[22]
Figure 5. Plan of Old Manse and Chapel 1955. Bovey Tracey Heritage Centre.
Newspapers in 1858 and 1860 reported on this new Free Church. By 1861 Julia Puddicombe had returned from Reading and was living at Church Stile.[23] In 1864 Julia sold Hill Head to Rev. Charles Wilson of Plymouth, minister of the Gospel.[24] The deeds described that part of the hereditaments were now used as a chapel or a place of worship. In 1866 Rev. Wilson sold the house and its chapel to Messrs A. Rooker and Alexander Hubbard, both gentlemen of Plymouth and Thomas Windeatt of Tavistock.[25] By 1866 it was also referred to as a Congregational Church with Rev. William Ritchie being the Independent Minister at Hill Head.[26] Ritchie was also closely involved with the British School in Mary Street which had been established to counteract the Tractarian teaching in the Church of England National School.
By 1869 the deeds of the house described in detail the trustees and ‘the purposes of the meeting house or place of worship for service of God by the Society or Congregational of Protestant Dissenters of the denomination known as Independents.’ The number of trustees of the property had increased and they sold it to particular trustees named as Rev. Charles Wilson, who already had a share, and Rev. Frederick Evans Anthony Minister of the Gospel, Edwin Polkinghorne merchant, William Armstrong a merchant, Jospeh Pillman a draper, Thomas Gourd an accountant, Charles Cox and John Walter Wilson a gentleman, all of Plymouth and John Sparke Amery of Ashburton a gentleman; with financial support from Alfred Rooker, William Lavers, Alexander Hubbard, William Derry and John Windeatt all gentlemen of Plymouth, Thomas Windeatt of Tavistock a gentleman, Richard Peake of Hazelwood near Kingsbridge a gentleman and Rev I. Coombes of Torquay a Minister of the Gospel. This meant that several people had a religious and financial interest in supporting the non-conformist chapel and place of worship in the town.[27]
The 1871 Census showed that Mary Street had then become Hill Street as it rose past the Hind Street turning. Hill Street had Church House (also called Hill Head) where James Young, a minister of the congregational church, was living with his wife and child.[28] The gazetteer of 1873 listed his dwelling as Hillhead.[29] From 1877 – 1879 the Independent/Congregational minister was Rev. W. Cotton of Hill Head.[30]
In 1880 a new Wesleyan Chapel on Mary Street was being constructed.[31] This meant that Bovey Tracey then had a Baptist Chapel, a Congregational Chapel and a Weslyan Chapel which showed how popular the non-denominational movement was in the town. On the 1881 Census Henry King the Congregational Minister with his wife and two children were listed as living at Hillhead. He was still the Congregational Minister in 1889. By the time of the 1891 Census Melanethon L. Gooby was the Congregational Minister living there.[32]
1892 was the first reference to Hill Head being called The Manse. This was in connection with the Gooby residence when Rev. Gooby’s daughter, Miss Gooby, received a prize.[33] By 1893 Rev. Gooby was described as living at The Manse and from then on this was the name of the house.[34]
A title document of 1921 referred to the property as the Congregational Chapel Manse and Trust property in Bovey Tracey.[35] In 1928 a new site on Fore Street was found for the Congregational Chapel and School. This is now the Methodist Church.[36]
The Old Manse continued to be owned by trustees and in 1955 a decision was made by the Supreme Court that the Congregational Union mortgage was donated to the funds of the charity, in other words the original mortgage of 1866 had never been repayed. Effectively the matter of any money owing on the property was closed.[37] Following this judgement the Charity Commission agreed that the property could be sold. The Devon Congregational Union sold The Old Manse to William Robinson Thomas a master baker of 3, Blenheim Terrace. This was the conclusion of any religious financial interest in the property.
CONCLUSION
Hill Head was an important contribution to the development of non-conformist/independent religious worship in the town. The Puddicombe family of Reading and Church Stile bought the property and in 1857 supported an independent place of worship to be built attached to and behind it. Hill Head became known as The Old Manse. Later the nonconformist congregation were able to build a large chapel on Fore Street. The Old Manse was let to various individuals and it was not until 1955 that it became a private property free from religious ownership.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to the owners of The Old Manse for their assistance with this research; and to Woolcombe Beer Watts, Solicitors for donating the records of the ownership of this property which played an important part in the history of religious worship in Bovey Tracey, these records are now kept at Bovey Tracey Heritage Centre.
Abbreviations
DHC Devon Heritage Centre
BTHC Bovey Tracey heritage Centre
[1] DHC Map of the Manor of Bovey Tracey 2802Z/11640.
[2] BTHC 1726 February 8 Lease and Release.
[3] BTHC 1734 August 5 letters of Administration.
[4] BTHC 1737 November 2 Indenture.
[5] BTHC 1753 March 29 Indenture.
[6] BTHC 1759 March 13 Indenture.
[7] BTHC 1773 June 26 Assignment.
[8] BTHC 1782 April 29 Will and Probate.
[9] WBW 1813 April 13 Assignment.
[10] Frances Billinge, 2019. Baptist Church Bovey Tracey (www.boveytraceyhistory.org).
[11] WBTHC 1823 March 31 Indenture.
[12] BW 1824 April 9 Assignment.
[13] BTHC 1829 May 15 Assignment.
[14] BTHC 1833 April 25 Indenture.
[15] BTHC 1846 September 29 Assignment.
[16] See note 1.
[17] DHC 2160A/PO/3/2/23 Overseers of the Poor Apprenticeship Records.
[18] DHC box 3574 Baptist Church Bovey Tracey Account Book Baptist Sunday School.
[19] Royal Berkshire Archives D/EX1942/2/3/3 Lease.
[20] The Western Times 5 April 1857, p.7.
[21] The Western Times 26 September 1857, p.7.
[22] BTHC 1955 July 12 Charity Commission Report and Supporting Plan.
[23] The national Archives 1861 Census.
[24] BTHC 1864 November 22 Assignment.
[25] BTHC 1866 April17 Assignment.
[26] 1866 Post Office Directory of Devonshire, London, Kelly and Company, p. 734.
[27] BTHC 1869 January 11 Abstract of Title.
[28] The National Archives 1871 Census.
[29] Kelly’s Directory of Devonshire, London, Kelly and Company, p.57-8.
[30](The Western Times 18 December1878, p .8;1878 J. G. Harrod and Co’s Directory Royal County Directory of Devonshire, London, Harrod J.G., pp. 72-3; 1878-9 William White, History Gazetteer and Directory of Devonshire, Sheffield, Robert Leader, p.167-8).
[31] The Western Times October 26, p. 5.
[32] The National Archives 1881 and 1891 census; Kelly’s Directory of Devonshire, 1889, London, Kelly and Company, p.68).
[33] Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 16 April 1892, p. 2.
[34] Kelly’s Directory of Devonshire and Cornwall and Devon ,London, Kelly and Co., p.70).
[35] BTHC 1921 August 23 Abstract of Title.
[36] Exeter and Plymouth Gazette June 28,1928 p.7; Veronica Kennedy, 2004. The Bovey Book, Bovey Tracey, Cottage Publishing, p. 88).
[37] See note 23.