DODBROOKE

Only one rate survives for this parish which was divided by a stream from Kingsbridge. It makes up one half of Kingsbridge in a manner similar to Newton Bushel regarding Newton Abbot. Of Dodbrooke it was later noted by Polwhele that ‘the custom of this place [has been] to pay a tithe to the clergyman in white ale’. Another writer observed it was ‘a liquor peculiar to this part of Devonshire’ and that the tithe was paid by the landlords of every public house. Dodbrooke, which historically comprised one street, had become a borough by 1319 and was later incorporated into Kingsbridge. It was at the time of this rate that a poor man of the parish was excommunicated after the church bell was cracked during his ringing. A few years after this rate John Markell, who was listed in 1613 as paying sixteen pence for the rate, allegedly called the rector a knave, arrant knave, dissembling knave and a ‘shit breech knave’. About 11 per cent of the parishioners contributed to the rate.

108. Dodbrooke, Poor Rate, 1613

DHC, Diocese of Exeter, Principal Registry, Dodbrooke Church Rates, 1613

Note: This rate was written on a single sheet of folded paper which measures 12 inches by 16 inches.

Dodbrooke (114)

The Ratemente there made for the releife of the poore the 6th daie of Aprill in the year of our Lord 1613.