BROMPTON-REGIS, a parish (formerly a market
town) in the hundred of WILLITON-and-FREEMANNERS,
county of SOMERSET, 4 miles (N.E.) from Dulverton,
containing 771 inhabitants. The living is a discharged
vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Taunton, and diocese
of Bath and Wells, rated in the king's books at
£ 12. 5. 7., and in the patronage of the Master and Fellows
of Emanuel College, Cambridge. The church, dedicated
to St. Mary, has a curiously carved screen, separating
the nave from the chancel. This parish anciently
constituted a hundred; the river Exe winds pleasingly
through it, and it contains an abundance of stone used
for building. A weekly market on Tuesday, and two
fairs annually, each for four days, were granted to Sir
Thomas de Besilles, Knt., lord of the manor; the market
has long since fallen into disuse, but the fairs are
held in May and October, for the sale of cattle and sheep.
About two miles south of the church stands a private
mansion, formed out of the remains of Barlinch priory,
which was founded by William de Say, in the reign of
Henry II., for Black canons, and dedicated to St. Nicholas,
the revenue of which, in 1534, was valued at
£98. 14. 9.: in the burial-ground several stone coffins
containing human skeletons have been found. Three
Roman tumuli are visible on an adjacent eminence; and
at a mount, called Hadborough, near the western extremity
of Haddon hill, Roman coins have been found.
Until lately a subscription hunt existed here, for the
purpose of chacing the wild red deer found in the
neighbouring woods; this once popular amusement,
however, has been discontinued.