Catalogue description Kingsbridge Feoffees

The Records of the Feoffees of Kingsbridge form the main part of this deposit, which was made in two parts, the first coming directly from Kingsbridge, the second being deposited by the City Librarian of Plymouth. The Clerk to the Feoffees had deposited in Plymouth papers accumulated by his business, and as these were found to include many documents relating to the Feoffees' affairs, it was decided to place them altogether in the Devon Record Office.

The Feoffees were and still are the trustees of the property which had been given to the town in order that the profits arising from it might be used for charitable purposes. The properties were mainly houses and shops, with gardens and closes, in Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke. There were also lands at Ford in Chivelstone, at Fursdon in Sherford and at Merrifield in Churchstow.

The documents are chiefly deeds and leases, with a few accounts, surveys, rentals and miscellaneous papers. There are also deeds and other papers relating to many places in the South Hams, but which do not belong to the Feoffees. Those of them which relate to places in Dodbrooke and Kingsbridge have been listed together with the Feoffees' documents, as it is not always possible to distinguish between them. In the case of the medieval deeds, all those relating to the two boroughs have been listed together and arranged chronologically. The later deeds of Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke are in two groups: those which are known to be the Feoffees' deeds, and the others.

The list begins with the series of trust deeds (215M/T1-215M/T20g) which date from the early seventeenth to the twentieth century. They from the complete record of the enfeoffment of the trustees, and describe the lands and the purposes of the trust. The first full deed of feoffment is that of 1626. The earliest, that of 1601, does not detail all the "Town Lands" of the later deeds, but the lands referred to are among those described in the later deeds, and the survivors of the individuals enfeoffed are those who in 1626 are described as "cofeoffees of the lands etc of the town and parish of Kingsbridge". The feoffment deeds are followed by the medieval deeds (215M/T21-215M/T50). These are related to the medieval deeds in the deposit of parish records, 264A/T. The two lists should be consulted together as it is evident that the two sets of documents have been confused in the past, and it is now impossible to distinguish between the various properties in the two sets.

The list continues with the leases and other deeds of the Feoffees' lands in Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke (215M/T51-215M/T260) which are dated from the sixteenth century onwards, and which are followed by other modern deeds (215M/T261-215M/T308) also relating to houses and lands in Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke. There are four deeds of the Feoffees of Dodbrooke in this section.

The deeds of the Feoffees' lands in Sherford, Chivelstone and Churchstow (215M/T309-215M/T352), and the estate documents (215M/E1-215M/E54) follow. The estate papers include a volume of accounts, 1635-1912 (with gaps), two eighteenth century surveys, nineteenth century rentals and miscellaneous papers relating to the Feoffees' lands. This completes the series of the deeds and papers of the Kingsbridge Feoffees.

Among the Feoffees' papers have been found deeds and documents which do not relate to their property or affairs. It seems probable that some of these may have been placed with the Kingsbridge Feoffees' records for safe-keeping. Others were certainly papers held by the solicitors who managed the Feoffees' estates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and include many deeds of lands in the South Hams. Of particular interest are certain Kingsbridge parish records (215M/ZP1-215M/ZP95) which include the licence from the Rector of Churchstow to the Abbot and Monks of Buckfast to build a chapel in Kingsbridge (probably in the early thirteenth century), and the award by Bishop Stafford in 1414 giving near-parochial status to the chapel of Kingsbridge. This section also includes a number of parish apprenticeship indentures.

Two others of Kingsbridge's charities are also represented in this list (ZF1-31), Duncombe's and Crispin's. The Duncombe papers include the probate inventory of William Duncombe, 1698, and deeds of the Duncombe Trust. There are three deeds, one being the appointment of new trustees, for the Bradninch property of Crispin's Charity.

The miscellaneous deeds (215M/ZT1-215M/ZT552) include medieval and early material relating to lands in Egg Buckland, Newton Ferrers, Stokenham and Totnes, a sixteenth century manor court roll of Loddiswell Arundell, two feoffment deeds of the Loddiswell Feoffees, and early deeds of land in Malborough. Two early sixteenth century deeds of the parish of Malborough are the only early records of the Malborough Feoffees at present known to survive. All the documents in this section are arranged alphabetically under the names of the parishes. Three medieval deeds at the end of this section (215M/ZT550-215M/ZT552) cannot at present be identified by parish name.

A miscellaneous section at the end includes a customs receipt from the port of Dartmouth concerning a load of tin in a ship bound for London in 1510, and a receipt by one of the Collectors of the "Fifteenth" in 1512 for money received from the Mayor of Kingsbridge, from which a certain sum had been deducted on account of the "poverty of the borough".

Feoffment Deeds

Medieval Deeds, Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke

Sixteenth century deeds, Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke

Modern Feoffees' Deeds and Leases, Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke

Other Modern Deeds, Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke, including Dodbrooke Feoffees

Deeds of the Feoffees' lands in Sherford, Chivelstone and Churchstow

The Feoffees' Estate Records

Kingsbridge Parish Records

Duncombe's Charity

Crispin's Charity

Other Deeds and

Miscellaneous records

Kingsbridge Feoffees, Devon

• Kingsbridge, Devon

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