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HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE PARISH, MANOR, AND 

 ADVOWSON OF OTTER HAM, CORNWALL. 



By SIR JOHN MACLEAN, F.S.A., F.R.S.A., Etc., President. 



This does not pretend to be an exhaustive history of the 

 Parish of Otterham. When we commenced the collection of 

 materials for the history of the Deanery of Trigg Minor, which 

 has now for some years been before the public, it seemed to be 

 uncertain whether the Parish of Otterham were really in that 

 deanery or in the Deanery of Trigg Major. In the Taxatio 

 Ecclesiastica of 1291, it is entered in the latter, but in the Valor 

 Ecclesiasticus it is taxed under Trigg Minor. At all events it was 

 considered to be in Trigg Major when we wrote, and the memoir 

 is based thereon. In the recent alterations of the limits of the 

 Deanerigs in Cornwall it is placed in Trigg Minor. 



The Parish of Otterham is situated in the Hundred of 

 Lesnewth, and contains 3,263 acres. It is bounded on the west 

 by the Parishes of Lesnewth and St. Juliet ; on the north by 

 Jacobstow ; on the east hy Warbstow ; and on the south by 

 Davidstow, and lies at a considerable elevation. *' Cross roads," 

 on Otterham Down, about a mile west of the church, is 758 

 feet above the sea level. 



Industrial Pursuits, Wages, &c. 



The geology of the parish differs considerably from that of 

 the parishes contiguous to it. It consists of a sort of schist, 

 and the soil is very stony, barren, and unprofitable, and becomes 

 quickly overgrown with furze. Laborers' wages vary from 12s. 

 a week to 15s. (with or without a cottage and garden, the value of 

 which is estimated at Is. a week). Occasional labourers receive 

 half-a-crown a day. Laborers are very well off except for the 

 miserable cottages in which they live. Land being very cheap, 

 most of them have a few acres and keep a cow or two. They 

 are industrious, frugal, temperate, and thrifty. It is very usual 

 for them to become small farmers themselves. Most of them 

 have money in the bank. In some cases they have enclosed land 

 worth 2/6 an acre a year, which in a few years they make worth 

 20/- an acre. There are no paupers. 



