Monkton, West (St. Augustine)
MONKTON, WEST (St. Augustine), a parish, in the union of Taunton, hundred of Whitley, W. division of Somerset, 3½ miles (N. E. by N.) from Taunton; containing 1164 inhabitants. This parish, which is situated on the Bath and Exeter road, comprises by measurement 3080 acres; the surface is finely varied. In the upper portion, which forms part of the Quantock hills, stone of good quality is extensively quarried for building, and also for the roads. The river Tone, and the Bridgwater and Taunton canal, flow through the lower part of the parish. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £26; patron and incumbent, the Rev. Dr. Kinglake, whose tithes have been commuted for £630, and whose glebe comprises 50 acres. The church is a beautiful structure, in the decorated and later English styles. A free school, to which John Claymond, Esq., bequeathed £15 per annum for an exhibition to Brasenose College, Oxford, is supported by subscription. Nearly adjoining the town of Taunton is the Spital almshouse, founded in 1270, by Thomas Lambret, destroyed by fire in the reign of Henry VIII., and rebuilt soon afterwards by the abbot of Glastonbury; it is endowed with several parcels of land, producing an income of about £44. 10.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.