DEAN PRIOR

A high number of rates survive for this parish which is located on the main road between Plymouth and Exeter. The two main volumes are in fragile states which do not allow, at this time, a proper examination of their contents. The first manuscript, in which much of the ink has faded, is a parish book in that it comprises business relating to the poor, the church and highways from 1567 to 1599. Items relating to the militia include a note that the parish armour was loaned on 20 August 1595 to Robert Bonevin who had been pressed by Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins. Eight years earlier the parish gave six pence for the tinners to ‘the man’ of Sir Walter Raleigh, Warden of the Stannaries. Other incidental expenses were for the making of new seats church in 1597. The second manuscript includes poor accounts and rates from the early 1600s to 1657 but many have sustained considerable damage. A selection of the rates have been edited for this volume but the accompanying accounts have not been read or analysed in full.

A scribe recorded the names of those parishioners who were appointed on an annual basis to serve as the four sidemen (often referred to simply as the ‘Four Men’) from 1565 to 1622 (with the exception of 1584 to 1587 when there were eight men), two wardens (otherwise churchwardens but sometimes known as the ‘head wardens’ or ‘head wardens of the church’) from 1554 to 1628, two, three or four ‘collectors’ (otherwise referred to as the ‘overseers’ of the poor)2 from 1569 to 1626 and two ‘supervisors of the ways’ (otherwise known as waywardens) from 1569 to 1628 who were responsible for the maintenance of public thoroughfares. Their accounts appear to have normally been independent of one another but were sometimes referred to in common. The sidemen appear to have acted for the parish in an overall manner. One rate, that of 1599 jointly from the churchwardens and overseers of the poor, distinguished contributions from forty inhabitants from those of seventeen non-parishioners who held land in Dean Prior.

In other parts of Devon parish roles were decided by a rota of householders of larger properties.