The town of Great Torrington played a not inconspicuous part in the Civil Wars, the culminating and dramatic incident of which was the blowing up of the Parish Church after the defeat and flight of the Royalist forces who were then in the town. The fight at Torrington, too, was the last important engagement of the campaign in the West, being the final decisive blow to the Royalist cause there. A very accurate and full account of the whole of the doings in North Devon during this stirring time is to be found in the late Mr. R. W. Cotton’s invaluable work on Barnstaple and the Northern part of Devonshire during the Great Civil War, 1642–1646, and the incidents more particularly relating to Great Torrington were collected by me and embodied in a little book entitled, A few Pages of Great Torrington History, 1642–1646, and the blowing up of the Church is also dealt with in my paper in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the year 1894.
Though of far less importance than the final battle, there were two other previous engagements at Great Torrington. The first of these took place in December, 1642, when a party of Parliamentarian horse and foot from Barnstaple attacked the Royalists then in the town. From the varying accounts given by each party, it is, however, uncertain which side came off best in the encounter.
Great Torrington Church (Old).
Great Torrington Church (New).
There are entries of burials in the Parish Register of Great Torrington of this date, one being that of Christopher Awberry, a trooper of Sir Ralph Hopton, who was killed by the “goeing off of a muskett unawares upon the maine gard,” and was buried “Souldier Like,” and another of Thomas Hollamore, “slaine by ye goeing off of a muskett.”
In the next year another attack was made on the Royalist forces under Colonel Digby in Great Torrington, resulting in a fight on the Commons on the north side of the town, in which the attacking force was repulsed. A description of this engagement is given by Lord Clarendon in his History of the Rebellion.
Between this last date and that of the blowing up of the Church, there is the following interesting entry in the Register of Burials of July, 1644:—
Thomas Moncke gent. lieuetennt to Colonell Thomas Moncke of Poderidge Esq beeing slaine in South Streete the IXth day about 12th a ’clocke att night by somme of his owne company by reason of some misprision of the word given being the IXth day att 12th aforesaid was buried the 10th day.