Bishops-Tawton, a village and parish in Devonshire. The village stands on the river Taw, 2 miles S by E of Barnstaple station on the G.W.R. and L. & S.W.R., and has a post office under Barnstaple, which is the telegraph office; money order office, Newport. The parish includes Newport a suburb of Barnstaple. Acreage, 3881; population of the civil parish, 781; of the ecclesiastical, 770. It was the seat of the see of Devonshire, from the division of the see of Sherborne in 905 till the removal of the bishops to Crediton, and it possesses some remains of the Episcopal palace. The manor belonged to the Bishops of Devonshire, but was conveyed in 1550 to the Russell family, and belongs now to the Duke of Bedford. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter; value, £440. Patron, the Bishop of Exeter. The church is an ancient edifice of nave, aisle, and chancel, with low square tower, was restored in 1866, and contains monuments of the Bouchiers, Earls of Bath. The perpetual curacy of Newport is a separate benefice.
