LITTLE HEMPSTON, a small scattered village, in a valley opening to the Dart, 2 miles N.E. of Totnes ; has in its parish 268 souls, and 1270A. 3R. 17P. of fertile land. The manor, anciently held by the Arundells, belongs to the Duke of Cleveland and the Countess of Sandwich ; but F. Cornish, Esq., and other freeholders have estates here. Gatcomb, a seat which was rebuilt by the late C. Cornish, Esq., was the birth place of Zachary Bogan, a learned divine, who published treatises on the idioms of Homer and Hesiod. The Church (St. John,) is a small antique fabric, and the living is a small antique fabric, and the living is a rectory, valued in K.B. at £19 15s. 2½d., and in 1831 at £201, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, and incumbency of the Rev. F. H. Hele, M.A. The glebe is 56A. 2R. 11P., and the tithes were commuted in 1838 for £207 per annum. £138, left to the poor by Cphr. Blackhall, and other donors, was laid out in 1727, in the purchase of Dreadon close, (10A.) now let for about £13 a year. The poor parishioners have also a yearly rent charge of £9. 5s. 6d., out of the great tithes of Berry Pomeroy, left by William Bogan, in 1723. They have likewise the dividends of £111. 2s. 3d. Old South Sea Annuities, purchased in 1744, with arrears of this rent charge.
