TIMBERSCOMBE, a parish in the hundred of CARHAMPTON,
county of SOMERSET, 2 miles (W. S.W.)
from Dunster, containing 409 inhabitants. The living
is a discharged vicarage, in the peculiar jurisdiction and
patronage of the Prebendary of Timberscombe, in the
Cathedral Church of Wells, rated in the king's books
at £6.10. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, has an
embattled tower, surmounted by a low spire. Richard
Ellsworth, in 1714, bequeathed £200 towards building
a school-house, and an annuity of £20 for clothing
and educating poor children. It was not erected
till 1824, and the original endowment having accumulated
to £50 a year, from fifty to sixty children are instructed
on the Madras system. He also left £40 per
annum to Balliol College, Oxford, for the endowment
of two scholarships, to be enjoyed for seven years by
boys of Timberscombe, Cutcombe, Selworthy, Wooton-
Courtney, Winchead, or Dunster, in default of which, by
two from any other part of the county, to be chosen by
the Master and Fellows of that college.