BERRIS, hundred of ROBOROUGH, county of DEVON 14
miles (N.) from Plymouth, and 211 (W. S. W.) from
London. The population is returned with the parish.
This place, about the year 1295, received the grant of
a weekly market and an annual fair, which have been
for a considerable time discontinued. It is pleasantly
situated within a mile of the navigable river Tamar
but consists only of a few mean houses. Some lead
mines, opened here in the reign of Edward I., produced
abundance of ore, from which a great quantity of silver
was separated; after a long period of disuse they were
again worked, but their produce had greatly diminished.
A portreeve and other officers are annually chosen at
the court leet of the lord of the manor, which is held
under a large tree, where also the election of the
parliamentary representatives for the borough takes
place. The elective franchise was conferred in the 27"th
of Elizabeth, since which time the borough has returned
two members to parliament: the right of election is
vested by burgage tenure in those who have land in the
borough, and pay an acknowledgment to the lord of
the manor, upon whose will their number is entirely
dependent: the portreeve is the returning officer. Here
was formerly a chapel of ease to the rectory of Beer-
Ferris. There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists.