Axmouth, Devon Genealogy

England Devon Devon Parishes

Parish History
AXMOUTH, a parish, in the union and hundred of Axminster, Honiton and S. divisions of Devon, 2¾miles (S. by E.) from Colyton. This place, from the numerous traces of Roman occupation on the eastern bank of the river Axe, which intersects the parish, is supposed to have been the Moridunum of the Romans. The manor formerly belonged to the abbey of Sion, in Middlesex, and was given at the Dissolution by Henry VIII to his queen Catharine Parr, as part of her dower. It reverted at her death to the crown, and was granted by Edward VI, in 1552 to Walter Erle. The church is a very ancient Norman structure having two Saxon arches and a fine specimen of the zig-zagarch in the north porch, now converted into a vestry room. On an extra-parochial estate of about 200 acres called Roosdown, in the centre of the parish, is a chapel endowed with certain lands from Queen Anne's Bounty, but no duty has been performed in it within the memory of man. On Hawksdown hill is a large encampment supposed to be of Roman or Danish origin.

Civil Registration
Births, marriages and deaths were kept by the government from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

Church records
Overview, Include information for parish registers and Bishop's Transcripts, Contact information for the office holding the original records, Links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to [county] Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
There are many maps and gazetteers showing English places. Valuable web sites are:


 * 1851 Jurisdiction Maps
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
Add here any relevant sites that aren't mentioned above.