The church of this parish, although gone much into decay, is said to
exhibit appearances of venerable antiquity. In it is a monument to the
memory of Richard Bennet, counsellor at law, who died in 1619. And
another of artificial stone, with the following inscription:――
Underneath lieth the body of Richard Coffin, Esq.
and also some of his nearest and dearest relations,
who resided for many generations at Hexworthy, in this county.
He was the son of Edward Bennet and Honor his wife,
daughter of Richard Coffin, of Portledge in Devon, Esq.
and Honor his wife, who was daughter of Edmund Prideaux, of
Padstow, Esq. in this county.
Dying without issue, in him ended the lineal descent of
the families of Bennet and Coffin.
He was born in the year 1715, and died Sept. 30, 1796.
This gentleman gave Hexworthy to one of his relations, the Prideauxes
of Padstow.
The lessees of the great manor having neglected to renew their
holding, it reverted to Doctor George Lavington, Bishop of Exeter fom
1746 to 1762, who made a new lease in favour of his only child,
afterwards married to the Rev. Nutcombe Nutcombe, Chancellor of the
Cathedral, in whose three daughters or their families it still
remains.
The Editor cannot quit this parish without noticing that here resided
as rector during many years the Rev. Robert Walker, who once
entertained thoughts of really executing, what is now feebly
attempted, a parochial history of Cornwall. The Editor well remembers
waiting on him in 1787, to make inquiries respecting some of his own
ancestors, when Mr. Walker, then far advanced in life, received him
with the utmost kindness, insisted on his taking refreshments, and
when they were declined on the ground of giving him trouble, Mr.
Walker remarked, that such trouble was at once a duty and a pleasure,
since our most important business in this world was to accommodate
each other, and to make each other happy.
In a letter from him dated November the 9th, of the same year, the
parish is written Lewhitton.
Mr. Walker is said to have been born in 1699.
Lawhitton measures 2455 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2715 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 246 15 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 289 | 368 | 435 | 485
giving an increase of nearly 68 per cent. in thirty years.
Present Rector, the Rev. J. D. Coleridge, collated by Bishop Carey
in 1826.