Haccombe
| Haccombe | |
| Devon | |
|---|---|
 Haccombe from near the Round House | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SX897701 |
| Location: | 50°31’14"N, 3°33’22"W |
| Data | |
| Postcode: | TQ12 |
| Local Government | |
Haccombe is a hamlet in Devon, two and a half miles east of Newton Abbot, in the south of the county. It has been said to be the smallest parish in England: in 1810 is was noted that the parish was so remarkable for containing only two inhabited houses, namely the manor house known as Haccombe House and the parsonage.[1]
Haccombe House is a "nondescript Georgian structure",[2] rebuilt shortly before 1795[3] which Pevsner reckons to have been built "in about 1800" by the Carew family on the site of an important mediæval manor house.[4]
The manor was the seat of important branches of the Courtenay and Carew families.
Parish church
Next to the house is the small parish church dedicated to Saint Blaise, remarkable for the many ancient stone sculpted effigies and monumental brasses it contains,[5] amongst the best in Devon,[4]
Archpriest of Haccombe
St Blaise's is also remarkable because the incumbent has the rare title of 'Archpriest' and is accountable not to the local bishop (Bishop of Exeter), as are all other parish churches in Devon, but to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The archpresbytery was established in 1341 with six clergy; only the office of archpriest survived at the Reformation.[6]
Persons to have held the office of Archpriest of Haccombe include:
- 1581-1594: John Woolton (1535?–1594), Bishop of Exeter from 1579 to 1594, who "as the bishopric had become of small value, was allowed to hold with it the place of archpriest at Haccombe (20 Oct. 1581) and the rectory of Lezant in Cornwall (1584)".[7]
References
- ↑ Risdon, Tristram: 'A Survey of Devon' (1632), 1810 edition, p 377
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Devon, 1952; 1989 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09596-8
- ↑ Journals of the Reverend John Swete (published in Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of Reverend John Swete, 1789-1800, ed. Todd Gray & Margery Rowe, 1999)
- painting by Swete in July 1795
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.402
- ↑ Pevsner, p.464
- ↑ John Carnell. Will of Archpriest of Haccombe. https://books.google.com/books?id=QohMZrmjbYsC&pg=PA301&lpg=PA301&dq=archpriest+haccombe+exeter&source=bl&ots=FX8dDc--NZ&sig=QAxpql3d8uoE82IzTYeiOX47DuI&hl=en&ei=RqUtSq_rLomsjAep27XiCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#PPA302,M1. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
- ↑ Dictionary of National Biography
- Pole, Sir William: 'Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon'
- Risdon, Tristram: 'A Survey of Devon' (1632)
- Prince, John: 'The Worthies of Devon' (1810 edition, pp.164-167)