Morthoe (St. Mary)
MORTHOE (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Barnstaple, hundred of Braunton, Braunton and N. divisions of Devon, 4 miles (S. W. by W.) from IIfracombe; containing 379 inhabitants. It comprises by computation 4470 acres; the substratum contains stone of a slaty and inferior quality, quarried for building purposes. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £9. 19. 3.; net income, £128; patrons and appropriators, the Dean and Chapter of Exeter. The appropriate tithes have been commuted for £380, with a glebe of 30 acres; and the vicarial glebe consists of 16 acres. The church contains an altar-tomb, said to be that of Sir William de Tracy, who founded a chantry here, and, after the murder of Thomas à Becket, ended his days in a hermitage in the parish. There is a place of worship for Primitive Methodists. Off the coast is a large isolated rock, termed Mortstone, from the numerous deaths, by shipwreck, which have been occasioned by vessels striking against it.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.