Catalogue description Whitechapel estate and the families and individuals associated with it

Many of the documents listed here involve the right to collect timber at Whitechapel, Reeds and Hammets, etc..

Whitechapel itself is located in Bishopsnympton; other estate properties included Reeds and Hammetts, West Berwill or Berryfield, both in Bishopsnympton, and properties in Mariansleigh, Kingsnympton and Roseash.

Whitechapel (recorded in the 1086 Domesday survey as Blaunchapele) was owned by the Bassetts till 1603. The Amory family held it until around 1660, when a series of settlements and legal agreements passed it back and forth between the Amorys, Gibbens and Lears. Then, from 1734 to 1777 the Shorts took over ownership of the estate.

The estate was split up and sold in 1777. However, Whitechapel itself and the other properties mentioned above were bought by John Sanger the elder and passed down eventually to various members of the Sanger family. John Sanger and his wife Frances had four children, including Edward, John the younger and possibly Mary. Mary held Reeds and Hammetts; she married William Tucker and also had a family of four - Edward, William, John Sanger and Mary (Denziloe/Coppinger).

John Sanger the elder disinherited his son Edward (who had left home and married without permission). John Sanger the younger therefore inherited Whitechapel. This was probably the reason behind two cases involving the brothers at the Devon assizes in 1822 and 1823. These cases may also have been a factor in John Sanger the younger's wills (which were drawn up in various forms between 1824 and 1833); these gave a great deal of property and influence to his servants Alexander and Mary Fisher; they made James Pearce, Joshua Bawden, John Pease, William Flexman and J. Riccard trustees; they gave very little to his immediate relations, although his nephew Edward Melton Sanger was left Whitechapel on the proviso that he entered a profession; annuities were given to Edward, William and John Sanger Tucker.

The Fishers held Whitechapel probably in trust from 1834 to 1866, when the Sangers again took over the estate. A succession of different owners has come and gone since 1900.