184 ANTIQUITIES OF OKEHAMPTON. 



The parish church of Okehampton, now standing, was conse- 

 crated to the service of God, and the honor of all his saints, on 

 the last day of July, 1261, by Walter Branscombe, the Diocesan. 

 This prelate is mentioned as being remarkable for having raised 

 himself by industry from a very mean parentage to the episcopal 

 throne in his native city of Exeter. The gentle descent of the 

 mitre seems to have been far more essential in those days than at 

 present. Bishop Branscombe left behind him many proofs of a 

 patrician spirit ; and among others old Fuller reckons that the 

 archangel Gabriel was indebted to him for instituting at his proper 

 charge a feast-day to the angel's honor. This church was built by 

 the prior of Cowicke, a religious house once existing in the parish 

 of St. Thomas by Exeter, and where Hugh Courtenay, first Earl 

 of Devon, so called, was buried 12th. Edward III. The Priories 

 seem originally to have all been off-shoots from certain abbeys, 

 to which they were long held as subordinate : Cowicke was a cell 

 for canons regular of the order of Saint Benedict. 



It seems strange, at first view, that the monks of Ford should 

 allow this church — lying as it does so near their patron's castle — 

 to have been built by another order. In fact, the scandal of those 

 times laid covetousness to the charge of the Cestertians ; Richard 

 Ist's reply " that he would give his avarice to the white monks*' 

 or Cestertians is well known. It is right to state, however, that 

 the tythe of the parish was then vested in the priory of Cowicke. 



In the book collected by travel of Tristram Risdon, gent., the 

 situation of that» church is noticed, in the author's quaint manner, 

 as " lying apart from the town without comfort or company." 



Eos. 



To be concladed in our next number. 



