Getting to know the Cockrams

we left Stockleigh Pomeroy and Cheriton Fitzpaine yesterday after four nights staying at a 14th century pub. I learned so much it's hard to believe. First, in the churchyard at Cheriton Fitzpaine, right next to the pub, the headstones of Richard and Robert Melhuish. then, in the graveyard at the church in Stockleigh Pomeroy, the headstone for James and Charity Cockram, with dates of death. I had wanted to know when the family left SP and whether or not Charity came back. Here was proof. James died in 1848, so they left after that (in the London census for 1851). Charity died back in Sp, but a church record of payments to the hard up (not paupers) showed her getting 2/6 in 1855 . We went in to Exeter to check the Devon Records Office and find James' father's will. Anthony Cockram wrote his will in early 1817 and died two days later. He left ten pounds to his son John, twenty pounds to his daughter Sarah, and all his goods and chattels to his son James. Anthony was a miller and his residence was described as Stockleigh Mill. We had seen the farm at Westwood, but now realize that what is there now is Upper Westwood, where his sister Sarah and her husband Phillip Yeandell farmed. Right next to that farm is a house with millstones in front, and I believe that to be Lowre Westwood. Anthony also left money to his granddaughter Betty, and she was the illegitimate daughter of Sarah---quite common in those days according to the records we looked at.

On the final day I went to take a look inside the church at CP early in the morning, and met the Vicar Stephen Smith. He told me that there were still records at the church in SP and offered to show them to me. We met him at the church and he took us into the vestry where a continuous death record has been kept in one book since the early 1800s. We saw many of the family in there, starting with Anthony, and it's clear that my family has deep roots in Stockleigh Pomeroy. Before we left I put a small bunch of lavender on the grave of James and Charity. my family!