TALLATON, a parish in the hundred of HAYRIDGE,
county of DEVON, 4 miles (N.W. byN.) from St. Mary
Ottery, containing 393 inhabitants. The living is a
rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Exeter,
rated in the king's books at £32. 3. l., and in the patronage
of the Rev. R. P. Welland. The church, dedicated
to St. James, has an elegant wooden screen, in
good preservation. Four poor children are taught by
a schoolmistress, for a trifling annuity left by Elizabeth
Prideaux, in 1710. At Escot House, which was destroyed
by fire in 1808, George III. and three of the
princesses were entertained by Sir G. Young, Bart.,
August 14th, 1789. Dr. Thomas Sprat, Bishop of
Rochester, an historian and poet, was born here, in
1636; he died in 1713. Southcote, in this parish, was
the occasional residence of Sir William Pole, the antiquary.