Ashburton, a town and a parish in Devon. The town stands on the Yeo, about 1 1/4 mile from the Dart, near the grandest part of Dartmoor, 7 miles NNW of Totnes station on the G.W.R., and 227 from London. The town has a post, money order, and telegraph office. It was anciently called Asperton and Aisbertone. It belonged to the Crown at Domesday; was given to the see of Exeter before 1310; became a stannary town in 1328, on account of tin and copper mines in its neighbourhood; belonged to the Crown again in the time of Charles I.; was taken by Fairfax in 1646; and went, after various changes, into the possession of Lord Clinton. It consists principally of three streets, and has a neat appearance. The market-house has a lofty basement for market purposes, and an upper story with public rooms, and is a fine edifice in the Italian style, built in 1850. The parish church is a spacious cruciform structure, of Perpendicular date, with modern alterations, surmounted by a central tower, 90 feet high, was formerly collegiate, and contains some fine monuments. It was restored in 1884. There are four dissenting chapels, a grammar-school, with £80 of endowed income, and two exhibitions and two scholarships at Exeter College, Oxford. A weekly market is held on Saturday, and fairs on the first Thursday in March and June, 10 Aug., and 11 Nov. Some very extensive beds of umber are in this parish, and three companies are engaged in preparing it. The Ashburton and Buckfastleigh Cottage Hospital is a building of granite with freestone facings, erected in 1887 at a cost of about £1500. The town is a borough by prescription; sent two members to Parliament in the times of Edward I. and Henry IV., and from 1640 till 1832; and was half disfranchised by the Act of 1832, and entirely in 1868. John Dunning, solicitor-general in 1767, Dr Ireland, dean of Westminster, and William Gifford, the well-known editor of the Quarterly Review, born in 1756, were natives. A peerage, with the title of Baron Ashburton, was given to Dunning in 1782, and, becoming extinct in 1823, was revived in favour of Alexander Baring in 1835. The parish is co-extensive with the borough. Acreage, 6963; population of the civil parish, 2762; of the ecclesiastical, 2838. The living is a vicarage, in annexation with the vicarage of Buckland-in-the-Moor, in the diocese of Exeter; value, £525. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Exeter.
Ashburton Parliamentary Division, or Mid Devon, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 53,005. The division includes the following:—Teignbridge —Abbotskerswell, Ashburton, Bickington, Bishopsteignton, Bovey Tracey, Broadhempston, Buckland-in-the-Moor, Chudleigh, Coffinswell, Coombinteignhead, Dawlish, Denbury, Haccombe, Hennock, Highweek, Holne, Ideford, Ilsington, Ipplepen, Kingskerswell, Kingsteignton, Manaton, Ogwell (East), Ogwell (West), St Nicholas, Staverton, Stokeinteignhead, Teigngrace, Teignmouth (East), Teignmouth (West), Torbryan, Trusham, Widdicombe-in-the-Moor, Wolborough, Woodland; Crockernwell — Bridford, Chagford, Cheriton Bishop, Drewsteignton, Dunsford, Gidleigh, Hittesleigh, Lustleigh, Moreton, North Bovey, Southtawton, Spreyton, Tedburn (St Mary), Throwleigh.
