BRAUNTON, a parish in the hundred of BRAUNTON,
county of DEVON, 5 miles (W. N.W.) from Barnstaple,
containing 1699 inhabitants. The living is a
vicarage, in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage
of the Dean of Exeter, rated in the king's books at
£16. 3. 6. The church is dedicated to St. Brannock,
from whom the parish is supposed to derive its name.
There is a meeting-house for Independents. A free
school was founded by the Rev. William Chaloner, in
1667, to which Arthur Acland, Esq., in 1690, gave
land, now producing £75 a year: the children are instructed
on the Madras system. There is also a charity
school with a small endowment, the gift of Nicholas
Beare, in 1751. The parish, which contains several villages,
is bounded on the west by the Bristol channel,
and has the navigable river Torr on the south, at the
mouth of which there is a lighthouse, in addition to
another structure of the same kind in the parish. A
small tract of land here, formerly covered by the sea, is
considered the richest in the county: some of the lands
descend to younger sons, and a widow is entitled to a
lifehold interest in her husband's inheritance so long as
she preserves her widowhood. Within the parish are
the remains of several ancient chapels.