I kid you not. Narcissus Manpowder is the name.
OK, bit of background to this and me as I'm new here.
I started doing my family tree back in the early 80s when a Great Aunt died in Plymouth and whilst clearing the house we found piles of old paperwork. For the next 5 years I spent hours in record offices, vestries etc researching the Benneys of Cornwall and Devon with some considerable success.
Along the way I kept getting sidetracked by various interesting things. Most of them I managed to bring to a conclusion so I could move on but one of them is still bugging me to this day.
In the Hearth Taxes I found a Benney who was renting a dwelling owned by a Narcissus Manpowder. Now with a name like that it just had to be followed up. Trouble is I found absolutely nothing else.
When all the records started to go online I figured at last I'd be able to find more about him but, nothing. Well, almost nothing.
There is a reference to a Manpowder family in a Coat of Arms in the old mansion of the Glanvilles at Kilworthy, near Tavistock:
Hen. Manaton de Harwood, m. Martha Andrews, Lyme Regis. Arms : Sable, a saltire Argent between four cross-crosslets Or. About different parts of the house are thirty-six other coats, shewing the descent of the Manatons and their alliances with other houses, such as Buller, Hockmore, Manaton, Edgecumbe, Manpowder, Ilbert, Carminow, Roscarrock, Courtney, Kingdon, Trecarrol, Tremaine, Hunt, etc., etc. Kilworthy, and most of the property in and about Tavistock, now belongs to the Duke of Bedford.
and in an extract from a baptism in Twyford Hampshire:
14.07.1832 Twyford House
Christened by Revd Charles Shipley, Rector of Manpowder, Dorset
Given the family and the rented cottage seemed to have connections with Devon and Cornwall, Dorset seemed like a pretty good bet but the village is called Mappowder and I can't find any info that it was previously Manpowder.
There seems to have been a large manor there, the house there now is believed to have been built on a previous building that nobody knows much about.
So my question is, does anyone know if Mappowder was previously Manpowder and has anyone else come across Narcissus?
