*BEAR-ALSTON, (Devon) or BERALSTON, or, as some call it, BORALSTON, on the r. Tave, 3 m. fr. Tavistock, and 163 cm. and
200 mm. fr. London, is a small, but ancient bor. by prescription, and is governed by a portreeve, who is chose yearly. The
burgage-holders, who pay 3 d. a year, or more, acknowledgment for the land they hold in the borough to the Ld. of the
manor, are the only voters for its members, who are returned by the portreeve. This place, though of such consideration as
to send two members to Pt. is only a hamlet, in the p. of Bear-Ferris above-mentioned, from the Ch. of which it lies near
2 m. It did not send members till the 27th of Eliz. when many other mean boroughs had the like summons; and, in its first
return, it was called Berealveston. Its houses, which are not a hundred, are but ordinary, and its Mt. on Th. but
inconsiderable, Its Lds. however, to whom it has been obliged for its privileges, were some of them of the first rank. The
first of these was a branch, which (says Rider, in his survey of Devon) budded out of the royal family of Alencon, in
France, on whom William the conq. bestowed Bire, from whence it has corruptly assumed its present name. He says, that in
the R. of Henry II. this honour was held by Henry Ferrers, who had his castle here, and that an heiress of his family
brought this estate to the Champernouns, by whom it descended to Willoughby Ld. Brook. It afterwards came to the Ld. Mont-
joy's family, and next went with the manor of Bere-Ferrers to Sir John Maynard, by whose grandaughter it passed to the
late E. of Stamford; and in default of issue by her, to Sir Henry Hobart, Bart, father to the present E. of
Buckinghamshire.