Jon's Travel Notes on Bishops Tawton, Devonshire
6/25/96 was a fairly profitable day of going
through
the Bishops Tawton Parish Register in the Barnstaple Record Office. It
becomes obvious that I'm mostly retracing the steps of people who have
already contributed to the Mormon index, as I encounter some of the
same
gaps, and haven't necessarily added a lot of new information--but there
was some, and some leads on others. The most interesting new tidbit was
the explicit mention in an 1842 birth record that Philip Skinner (my
great
great grandfather, and Eliza's dad) was the Butler at Hall (the
Chichester
family mansion in Bishops Tawton). The lady downstairs at the tourist
office
encouraged me to call the current Chichester eldest daughter, a Mrs.
Maxse,
to let her know I would be taking a picture from the road; I did so,
and
had a nice chat, and will write a letter to see if there's more
information
on why Skinner left that position to emigrate. Interestingly, in a book
on the B.T. parish church that I picked up later, Charles Chichester
("c.
1850") is quoted as saying his servants were his friends, "and their
loyalty
was such that no one ever left him." I think 1850 is almost precisely
when
Philip and Sarah Skinner
did leave (and incidentally, the birth
records indicated that Sarah would have been a candidate to wet-nurse
no
fewer than three of the Chichester children), although it's very
possible
that Chichester assisted Philip in rising to a "higher" position in the
States.
At day's end I drove out to Bishops Tawton, which remains a charming
old-fashioned English village, took a picture (a rather distant one) of
Hall
and its own chapel, called Herner Church, which had a magnificant
Copper
Beech in the yard.
The road was the typical Devonshire "tunnel" through high banks of
green
and overhanging trees, with Queen Anne's Lace and Foxgloves everywhere.
Back in the village, I went into the church,
and walked around the graveyard, finding a few relevant
gravestones--including
most notably that of my great great great grandfather, Thomas
Avery, who is, I believe, my last direct ancestor to die in the
British
Isles, and whose dates (quite clear on the gravestone) I had not
previously
known; and also his son Samuel
Avery--but mostly having a lot of deja vu seeing the same names I
had
been reading in the Parish Register all day! Then I had a very nice
dinner
and a pint, in the Chichester Arms on the village square--a pub that
dates
from about 1400, with the same name as long as the Chichesters have
been
in charge around there. In the Civil War (the publican told me) they
were
for Cromwell, while the family directly across the river Taw (the
house,
now a school, is in full view from the front door of the pub) were
royalists.
[Joe's comment: Oh sure, all you drank was a pint! Give me a
break!
This is for posterity, Jon. You don't want some future great-grandson
dismissing
you as a chronic liar.]
