OKEHAMPTON

This article appears in Volume V20, Page 55 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NUM-ORC

OKEHAMPTON , a' market town and municipal borough in the Tavistock parliamentary division of Devonshire, England, on the east and west Okement rivers, 22 M. W. by N. of Exeter by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 2569. The church of All Saints has a fine Perpendicular tower, left uninjured when the nave and chancel were burned down in 1842. Glass is made from granulite found in the Meldon Valley, 3 M. distant. .Both branches of the river abound in small trout. Okehampton Castle, one of the most. picturesque ruins in Devon, probably

dates

DATES

from the 15th century, though its keep may be

late

LATE

Norman. It was dismantled under Henry VIII., but considerable portions remain of the chapel, banqueting

hall

and herald's tower. Immediately opposite are the traces of a sup-posed British camp, and of the Roman road from Exeter to

Cornwall

CORNWALL

. The custom of tolling the curfew still prevails in Okehampton. The town is, governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 503 acres.
Okehampton (Oakmanton) was bestowed by William the Conqueror on Baldwin de Brioniis, and became the caput of the barony of Okehampton. At the time of the Domesday Survey of ro86 it already ranked as a borough, with a castle, a market paying 4 shillings, and four burgesses. In the 18th century the manor passed by marriage to the Courtenays, afterwards earls of Devon, and Robert de Courtenay in 1220 gave the king a palfrey to hold an annual

fair

FAIR

at his manor of Okehampton, on the vigil and feast day of St Thomas the Apostle. In the reign of Henry III. the inhabitants received a charter (undated) from the

earl

EARL

sf Devon, confirming their rights " in woods and in uplands, in ways and in paths, in common of pastures, in waters and in mills. They were to be free from all

toll

and to elect yearly a portreeve and a beadle." A further grant of privileges was bestowed in 1292 by the

earl

EARL

of Devon, but no charter of incorporation was granted until that from James I. in 1623, and the confirmation of this by Charles II. in 1684 continued to be the governing charter, the

corporation

CORPORATION (from Lat. corporare, to form into a
body
- BODY
, corpus, corporis)

consisting of a mayor, seven principal burgesses and eight assistant burgesses, until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1882. On a petition from the inhabitants the town was reincorporated by a new charter in 1885. Okehampton returned two members to parliament in 1300, and again in 1312 and 1313, after which there was an intermission till 164o, from which date two members were returned regularly until by the Reform Act of 1832 the borough was disfranchised.
See Victoria County History, Devonshire; W. B. Bridges, History of Okehampton (1889).

End of Article: OKEHAMPTON

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/NUM_ORC/OKEHAMPTON.html">
OKEHAMPTON
</a>

(Previous)
OKAPI

(Next)
OKEN, LORENZ (1779-1851)

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email