On This Day in Wembury
28 December 1839 — Draft Tithe Apportionment for Wembury
The Plymouth Herald and Devonshire Freeholder announced that the Tithe Commissioners for England and Wales had deposited a draft apportionment of the new tithe rent charge for Wembury parish. A copy was placed at the house of Mr William Simmons in Down Thomas for inspection, and a formal meeting to hear objections was scheduled for 15 January 1840.
This was part of the Tithe Commutation Act 1836, which replaced the old system where landowners and farmers paid a tenth of produce “in kind” (sheaves, livestock, crops) to the church. Instead, these obligations were converted into a fixed monetary rent charge. Every parish had to go through the process, with surveyors producing tithe maps and schedules of ownership and occupation.
For Wembury, the apportionment recorded who owned and farmed each field, what its use was (arable, pasture, orchard, etc.), and what portion of the rent charge they owed. These documents survive today and are invaluable for tracing 19th-century land ownership, farming patterns, and settlement history. They show, for example, the extent of major estates such as Langdon, Thorn, Wembury Barton, and Old Barton, alongside smaller tenant holdings at Knighton, Hollacombe, and Down Thomas.
Source: Plymouth Herald and Devonshire Freeholder, 28 December 1839.
