England
& Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index |
The ParishThe parish of Merton lies in northwestern Devon about 6 miles southeast of the small market town of Great Torrington. Merton is a small and compact village built astride the A386 road which connects Great Torrington with Okehampton. Much of the village is built on the valley side of the River Mere as the road descends into that valley. At the time of this transcript much of the income of the parish would have derived from pastoral farming albeit a small industry exploiting the local clays for pots was in place. The River Mere drains the parish eastwards to shortly join the Torridge whence it turns north to reach the Irish Sea through the joint estuaries of Taw & Torridge and the port of Bideford. Merton is sited at between 80 & 100 metres above the sea, local heights top out at between 140 & 170 metres within a few miles, the village sitting on the southern end of a descending ridge. Merton parish was fairly typically sized for this area of Devon, it covered just over 3,500 acres and would have supported a population of around 750 parishioners. In Domesday time Merton was a small place, held by Bishop Geoffrey of Coutances it could offer just 9 ploughs with small meadows, pastures and woodland. |
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Register No | Covering Dates | Deposited With | Register Style | Quality Standard | Comments |
1 | 9th December 1754 - 29th June 1791 | North Devon Record Office - Reference - 2044A/PR/1/6 | Plain, unruled book containing combined Banns & Marriages compliant with Hardwicke's segregation & wording requirements | Grade 2 Register - not a perfect read but with a low likelihood of misreads | None |
2 | 5th October 1791 - 18th November 1812 | North Devon Record Office - Reference - 2044A/PR/1/7 | Plain, unruled book containing combined Banns & Marriages compliant with Hardwicke's segregation & wording requirements | Grade 4 Register - there are notable quality issues with this register which may have resulted in many misreads | This register has suffered markedly from fading resulting in some entries being unreadable. This transcript could only be completed by reference to the extant Bishops Transcripts and may still contain many misreads |
3 | 29th March 1813 - 27th June 1837 | North Devon Record Office - Reference - 2044A/PR/1/8 | Standard Rose style preprinted and prenumbered Marriage register | Grade 4 Register - there are notable quality issues with this register which may have resulted in many misreads | This register has suffered markedly from fading resulting in some entries being unreadable. This transcript could only be completed by reference to the extant Bishops Transcripts and may still contain many misreads |
Little
Torrington St Giles
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Peters
Marsland St Peter
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Dolton
St Edmund
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1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830
Corrections to Tinstaafl Transcripts