Bratton Clovelly is a genealogist’s dream, thanks to a long line of church leaders, clerks and historic families who maintained the parish’s baptism, marriage and burial records. They’ve left a legacy of parish registers dating back to 1555 full of information on the people of Bratton Clovelly’s past. Over 4000 baptisms, 3000 burials and 1000 marriages are recorded. Within the next few weeks, these records will be transcribed and available to help reconstruct the families of the parish. Admittedly, it is just a first draft transcription so there will be errors and gaps where the registers are particularly challenging, but we hope that over time people will let us know of corrections so that we can keep improving the quality of the transcripts.
Although it will be a long-term project, we want to use these transcripts to try to build the family trees of the parish. Our approach will be to choose the most prevalent surnames from the registers and construct trees for each of those surnames. There will be limitations to this approach, not only due to errors and omissions in these first draft transcripts but also because there are many people who may have lived in Bratton Clovelly but were not born there. In addition, they may have married in other places or moved away from the parish. We will limit these trees to the generations where the families have had a fairly continuous presence in the parish but there will still be lots of missing bits of information.
A request for help: If you have worked on a family tree for a family that has a history in Bratton Clovelly, we would appreciate hearing from you. As with all of the information we have collected on the parish, you are welcome to use whatever we have found out about the parish as you see fit. Our request to you is that it would be helpful if we might use some of your information to fill in those gaps in the parish records where people have come into the parish, married elsewhere or left the parish. Combining our information will lead to a more accurate and complete story of the parish’s past.
Hello,my area of interest is the Perkin/s family.John and Grace Perkin who had samuel 1807,james 1816,john 1819,and my x4 great grandfather thomas 1822,roger 1824(died 1827) .All children were born in Bratton town.Prior to this the family came from Ashwater and Bradford before that.I believe I can trace back to 1630s.I do believethere were a number of the Perkin/s family inBratton Clovelly.
Sian,
Thanks so much for getting in touch. Yes, we see many references to Perkin/Perkins/Perkings/Perkyns etc. We’d be happy to put together what we see from the Bratton Clovelly records and send along for your review and filling in gaps where you can. Does that sound like the right approach to you? Let us know. Thanks.
Kim & Mark
Hi, Sorry, I’ve only just seen this. I am descended from the Smale family who were in Bratton in the 1800s and moved on from there. I have a lot of information that you are welcome to if it will help. Not sure what is the easiest way to get it to you. I could give you access to my tree on Ancestry if that works?
Sue Restell
Hello I am happy to send you a pedigree chart and family group charts for Perkin/s, Wooldridge, Henwood, Jory families.
Thank you very much, Sian. That would be much appreciated.
Kim
Hi
I wonder if you could help-After losing both parents in 1879 my great grandmother was sent to Bristol Orphanage. On her admittance documents, it refer to her nearest relatives, John Lovell of Burrow Farm, Bratton Clovelly. I’ve tried to find information on Burrow Farm in the late 1800s but I haven’t found anything. Would anyone have any information or know where I need to look?
Many thanks – By the way, great website.
Hanjam,
So sorry to have missed the notification of this comment. It was the month we moved from England to Malta and I admit that a great deal has gotten lost in the flurry of this year. Let me know your great grandmother’s name and anything you know about her, either here or send me a note at eastlake@one-name.org. You’ve probably seen on the tithe map (‘Maps’ on the main menu) that in 1845, Burrow Farm was already Great Burrow, Little Burrow and West Burrow. In all about 500 acres, a sizeable portion still held by the reverend as glebe land. There was a John ‘Lovill’ at Burrow in 1841, Great Burrow 1851, West Burrow 1861 (‘Lobell’) and Burrow Cottage in 1871 who seems likely. Born 1808 Inwardleigh, son of John and Sarah, married Joanna Woodman (born 1807 Bratton Clovelly), moved to Sydenham Damerel in the 1870s probably after his wife died, both are buried in Bratton Clovelly. Anyway, send me an email and let’s see if we can figure anything else out (unless you’ve got it all solved by now!). Again, deepest apologies for the very long delay.
Kim
Hello. Wonderful study by the way…..My family go way back here as Pengelly but the two families I struggle with are my Higgins and Kite’s. My Great Grandmother was one of a few children to the family but the only one not seemingly in the baptism records. She was Ilet Kite born 1866 I believe. I would appreciate any help. Her unusual name makes her one of only 18 of that name and most from the village. All the girls in my family share it (at least 6) Thank you.
Lin, sorry for the great delay. Based on work I’ve been doing this past year on nonconformity (mostly Methodists/Bible Christians) in Bratton Clovelly, I transcribed the Bible Christian Northlew Circuit baptism records and found Ilet Kite’s baptism record. She was baptised as ‘Ilot Kite’ in Providence Chapel (in the village, the chapel is still there as a private residence), baptised 8 Oct 1867, daughter of John (labourer) and Grace. They also baptised Jessie there on 28 Feb 1865. I’ll send you an email with a photo of the chapel. It was a very interesting denomination that united with the Methodist Church in the early 1900s. Kim
Lin,
What fortunate connections. The Pengelly family has especially caught my interest as I’ve done considerable work on the Bratton manor rolls. Unfortunately, my volunteer work has left me little time to do anything with this study this year but I have high hopes for the future!
You know more about the Kites than me, as I can only find Elizabeth Jane’s baptism. I see that the family moved to Okehampton in the 1870s and that Ilet’s maternal grandmother was buried in Bratton Clovelly, but the lack of burials for her parents and the missing baptisms makes me wonder if they became Bible Christians, very popular at this time in Bratton Clovelly, or another Methodist branch. We have the gravestone inscriptions from the Boasley chapel but I found no Kites amongst them. Sorry I can’t be of help but would appreciate hearing if you find something. Do you know where the ‘Ilet’ forename came from? It’s very interesting how many were from the village. I can see the early occurrences (1600s-1700s) in North Devon.
Kim
I am looking for information re Elizabeth Phare, born circa 1799 in Bratton Clovelly as I understand it. She married John Littlejohns who was born in 1793, probably in Northlew. I would be grateful for anything else you may be able to add please?
I am studying the Postulate, Postlet, Poslett and Poslet Families of North Cornwall and North Devon. The deaths of George, 1 Aug 1663, Maud, 3 Mar 1666 and Walter Poslett 16 Dec 1654 were followed by burials in Bratton Clovelly. Any further information regarding these folk would be greatly appreciated. It seems from my research that early records start in Poughill and Stratton, Cornwall and then Black and Great Torrington together with Braunton and Abbotsham, later Tawstock near Barnstaple and from there Newport in Wales and Tiverton in mid-Devon. Thank you for considering my request, Eddie Marks..
Eddie, I haven’t found any other information on the Poslett/Postlet etc families except for a marriage of Edmond Postlett to Phillipp Pengelly in 1627 in Bratton Clovelly. Presumably this is Phillipp born 1603 in Bratton Clovelly, daughter of Andrew. I looked for baptisms, marriages and burials for Edmond, Phillipp, George, Maud and Walter in Devon (findmypast.co.uk) and Cornwall (cornwall-opc-database.org) but have found nothing further. I don’t know if the burials have any connection with the 1627 marriage. Sorry I can’t be of more help. I’ll also send you this in an email.
Hi Kim, firstly thank you for an interesting talk last night about Bratton Clovelly.
I am descended from the Rice family who farmed at Morson Farm and also South Breazle and Breazle Farm. My great grandfather bought his family to Worcestershire between 1895 and 1901 and so there is an extended branch now up here. I have visited Bratton Clovelly a few times and also viewed the parish records in Exeter Record Office so have quite a lot of information on the Rices. If you would like me to share any info with you then please let me know. I can trace them back to the early 1700s.
I also wanted to ask about the Wimpey children you mentioned last night, I do have a Charlotte Wimpey in my tree (born about 1838 from memory) and also a brother Benjamin … I couldn’t remember the name of the mother of the Wimpey children you mentioned so as to know whether they could be connected,
Many thanks
Sally
Sally,
I would really appreciate seeing what you’ve found out about your Rice family. Rice is one of the most frequent surnames in Bratton Clovelly and it can be a challenge to keep the different family lines straight. I’ll send you an email as well but there was a Charlotte baptised as Charlotte Exworthy in 1809 and her brother Benjamin baptised as Benjamin Exworthy in 1812, the children of William Wimpey and Joan Exworthy (or Hexworthy). There were two other children as well, William (1806) and Samuel (1808).