Cornworthy (St. Peter)

CORNWORTHY (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Totnes, hundred of Coleridge, Stanborough and Coleridge, and S. divisions of Devon, 4¼ miles (S. E. by S.) from Totnes; containing 554 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the navigable river Dart, and separated from Ashprington by the river Harborne, which falls into the Dart. It comprises by estimation 1600 acres: the soil is fertile in some parts, in others poor; there are some good pastures, and productive orchards. About fifty persons are employed in the paper manufacture. Here are quarries of limestone, which is raised for building purposes, but chiefly for burning into lime, and for the roads. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £10; net income, £210; patron, the Rev. Charles Barter; impropriators, Edward Holdelet, J. Peete, and H. Tucker, Esqrs. The church is a neat structure in the later English style, and contains a monument to Sir Thomas Harrison. A school, now conducted on the national plan, was founded in 1609, by Elizabeth Harris, and endowed by her with land producing about £25 per annum. Sir John Peters bequeathed a small sum from the great tithes, to be distributed to poor people; and there are some cottages erected on land given for that purpose by Sir Peter Edgecumbe. A priory for seven nuns of the order of St. Augustine, said to have been founded by the family of Edgecumbe, and valued at the Dissolution at £63 per annum, formerly stood here: two of the arched gateways still remain.