M*CH*MORE One Name Study

EARLY POPULATION RETURNS

Before the advent of the national census, population lists were compiled spasmodically for a number of different purposes. They contained limited information and were often restricted to specific segments of the population. Nevertheless, they do provide us with valuable information. The following returns are included here:

• Hundred rolls 1274
• The Devon Lay Subsidy 1524-27
• Devon & Cornwall Muster Rolls 1569
• The Devon Lay Subsidy 1581
• A Blackawton rate assessment 1597
• An unsourced Stoke Fleming document dated between 1630 and 1640
• Devon & Cornwall Protestation Returns 1641
• The Devon Assessment 1647
• Devon & Cornwall Hearth Tax returns 1664-1674
• A census of Buckfastleigh 1698
• Devon Freeholders Books 1711-1799
• Devon & Exeter Oath Rolls 1723
• Devon Tithe Maps and Apportionments 1840-1849

Underlining (if any) indicates changes made at the latest update.

Hundred rolls 1274

Hundred rolls were records of surveys undertaken in the second half of the 13th century to provide the data upon which feudal taxes could be calculated. The following information, taken from a card file located at the Devon Heritage Centre in Exeter called the Burnet Morris Index, relates to a survey taken in 1274.

Devon Lay Subsidy 1524-27

A lay subsidy was a tax levied on laymen. (There was a separate tax on the clergy.) The Great Subsidy of 1524-27 lists all people over the age of 16 years with income from land or with taxable goods worth £2 per annum, or with annual wages of £1 or more. The following data were abstracted from Devon Lay Subsidy Rolls 1524-27 edited by T L Stoate, 1979.

Devon & Cornwall Muster Rolls 1569

Muster Rolls were lists of able-bodied men between the ages of sixteen and sixty who were capable of fighting, together with their weapons or other assets that could be called on in times of warfare.

In the following, the Devon data were abstracted from The Devon Muster Roll for 1569 transcribed by A. J. Howard and edited by T. L. Stoate, published 1977.  The Cornish data were taken from The Cornwall Muster Returns of 1569 edited by T. L. Stoate, published 1984. Note that persons with the same name in the same parish could possibly be the same person listed twice under different categories.

A bill was a weapon consisting of a hooked blade with a spike at the end on a long handle, a pike was a long spear, an almen rivet was light armour made of overlapping plates, a harquebus was a heavy matchlock gun, and a sheaf consisted of 24 arrows.

Devon Lay Subsidy 1581

The following data on the 1581 Lay Subsidy (a tax on laymen) were abstracted from Devon Taxes 1581-1660 edited by T L Stoate, 1988.

Blackawton rate 1597

The following data were abstracted from a document entitled "A rate agreed uppon between the pishioners of Blackawton for the contribution towards the preparacon of the church, the 20 of August Anno Dni 1597" to be found in Devon Parishes, transcribed by C A T Fursdon, 1927.

It is not known what the word "farling" refers to. It may be measure of the land farmed by each person or (less likely) a mistranscription of "farthing", a quarter of a penny.

Stoke Fleming billeting dues 1630?

The following line was abstracted from another document in Devon Parishes, transcribed by C A T Fursdon, 1927. The origin of the document is unknown, but it appears to be a list of residents of Stoke Fleming who had billeted soldiers. The baptismal dates of the persons listed who can be identified suggest that the document was compiled between 1609 and 1632, but possibly as late as 1644. (The Civil War broke out in 1642.)

The entry appears to indicate that Edward MICHELMORE billeted one soldier, for which he was due payment of £1 7s.

Devon & Cornwall Protestation Returns 1641

In July 1641, the English parliament passed an act requiring that all men above the age of sixteen years swear an oath of allegiance to the King and the established church. For Devon and Cornwall, this "protestation" read as follows:

I, ..........................., do in the presence of Almighty God, promise, vow, and protest, with my utmost power, to maintain and defend the true Reformed Protestant Religion, established by Law in this Kingdom, against all Papery, Popish, and other innovations of Sectaries and Schismaticks, as also His Majesties Person and Rights, against all forces whatsoever; and in like manner, the Laws, Liberties, and Privilidges of Parliament, and of this Kingdom. And I shall, to the utmost of my power, preserve and defend the Peace of the two Counties of Cornwall and Devon; and all Persons that shall unite themselves by this our Protestation, in the due performance hereof. And to my power assist His Majesties Armies for reducing the Town of Plymouth; and resistance of all Forces of Scots, invaders, and others, levied under pretence of any authority of two Houses of Parliament, or otherwise, without His Majesties personal consent.
[From The Association, Agreement, and Protestation of the Counties of Cornwall, and Devon dated 5 Jan 1643 and printed by Robert Barker and John Bili at Bristol.]

Commissioners were appointed to record the names of all those who made the required protestation within each parish as well as the small number who refused. Protestations took place in February and March 1641/42, and the records were then returned to Parliament. Fortunately, the great majority of the records of interest have survived. In Cornwall, the protestation records appear to be extant for all parishes where M*CH*MOREs occur in the parish registers. In the South Hams area of Devon, only the protestations from Ashburton, Brixton, Buckland Tout Saints and Kingston are missing.

In the following list, the Devon names were obtained from The Devon Protestation Returns 1641, a transcription made by A. J. Howard and edited by T. L. Stoate in 1973. The Cornish names were extracted from Cornwall Protestation Returns, a collation of work by R. M. Glencross and H. L. Douch edited by T. L. Stoate in 1974.

Devon Assessment 1647

The following data were abstracted from Devon Taxes 1581-1660 edited by T L Stoate, 1988. Note that the records for most Devon parishes have been lost.

Hearth Tax returns: Cornwall 1664 & Devon 1674

From 1662-1689, house occupiers in England were required to pay a tax of 2s (the equivalent of about £150 today) per hearth, although paupers were exempt. The following data were abstracted from Cornwall Hearth and Poll Taxes (1981) and Devon Hearth Tax Returns (1982), both edited by T L Stoate. The Cornish data were taken from the 1664 returns and the Devon data from the 1674 returns, the most complete set in each case. Stoate estimates that 1 hearth indicates a house containing 2-4 rooms, 2 hearths 4-6 rooms and 3 hearths 6-8 rooms. Although almost all Devon and Cornwall parishes are included in the returns, there are surprisingly few M*CH*MORE entries.

Buckfastleigh census 1698

The following data were extracted from a transcription of a 1698 census of Buckfastleigh contained in Harleian MSS 6832 ff. 132-43 in the British Library. The manuscript contains a list of persons and their ages in sets consisting of several persons with the same surname listed in decreasing order of age followed by a few people with different surnames. Households are not explicitly separated, but it has been assumed that each such set of data refers to a household containing a single family along with their house or farm servants. Nine households contained MICHELMOREs.

Devon Freeholders Books 1711-1799

The Devon freeholders books were compiled annually for the purposes of identifying inhabitants of the county who were eligible to serve on juries. Eligibility was restricted to men between the ages of 21 and 70. With certain exceptions, the qualification from 1692 until 1730 was to own freehold or copyhold land with an annual value of £10 or more. After 1730, tenants of land worth £20 per year held on long leases were also eligible. Therefore, the lists contain the names of the more substantial property-owning inhabitants of Devon parishes in the 18th century. In addition, the books provide information regarding the status or trade of some of those listed.

The following data were extracted from the available transcriptions of the freeholders books for 1711-1799, published here and here.

Devon Militia Assessments 1715

After the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, each parish was required to recruit and pay a certain number of militia soldiers. The cost was to be distributed across persons owning land in the parish in proportion to the value of their income or estate, the list of such persons being prepared by the parish constables under the supervision of a deputy lieutenant of the county. The individual assessments were expressed in pounds sterling, where £50 corresponded to the obligation to pay one foot soldier.

Manuscript copies of the 1715 Militia Assessment for all of the South Hams parishes are extant. In a transcription available here and abstracted below, M*CH*MOREs only appear in one parish, Buckfastleigh. (Unfortunately, the assessments for Staverton are not included.) The list was compiled by William MICHELMORE and one other constable and dated 20 Oct 1715.

Devon & Exeter Oath Rolls 1723

An Act to oblige all Persons being Papists ..., and all Persons ... refusing or neglecting to take the Oaths appointed for the Security of His Majesty's Person and Government ..., to register their Names and real Estates received royal assent on 27 May 1723. The 1723 Oath Act stated that all persons aged eighteen years and above not having already taken the Oaths appointed in and by an Act made in the first year of his Majesty's Reign must now swear. The reference was to the 1715 Oath Act, under which only certain officeholders (including clergy, local magistrates, schoolmasters and hundred constables) were required to take the oaths.

The oath taker was to declare that our Sovereign Lord King George [the First] is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and that they would defend him to the utmost of my Power, against all traiterous Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever, which shall be made against his Person, Crown and Dignity and renounce, refuse, and abjure any Allegiance or Obedience to the Pretender. The oath also included the words, I A.B. do swear, that I do from my Heart abhor, detest and abjure, as impious and heretical, that damnable Doctrine and Position, That Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope ... may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects.

Only about 1 in 5 Devon residents actually took the 1723 oath. It has been suggested that, since the penalty for not taking the oath was forfeiture of one's estates, there may have been a tendency for only the wealthier people to take the oath. Unlike most earlier rolls, this one was not restricted to men.

The following list is taken from a transcription of the Devon & Exeter oath rolls that is available here (where further details on the 1723 Oath Act can also be found). Notice that the M*CH*MORE surnames in the rolls (as written by a clerk) almost never agree with the signatures, confirming the variability in spelling at the time.

Devon Tithe Maps & Apportionments 1840-1849

Tithe maps, as the name implied, were used for apportioning church taxes. The following data were extracted from the results of the Friend of Devon's Archives Tithe Apportionments Project, which analysed some 469 Devon tithe maps and apportionments dating mostly from the 1840s. These maps cover 97.4% of the county but omit several important parishes, including Kingsbridge, Dartmouth St Saviour, East Stonehouse and the urban parishes of Exeter.