Axminster history author to launch new book with talk at heritage centre

Local author David Knapman will give a talk at Axminster Heritage Centre about his new book 'Axminster Legacies, in Wills, Deeds & Stone' on Thursday, March 23 at 7.30pm.

In the book, David focusses on a selection of buildings in Axminster and the families most closely associated with them, and uses their stories to give a sense of how those families lived and what they contributed to the prosperity (or otherwise) of the town.

David's previous book, 'Unsteady Progress: A History of Axminster from 1701 to 2000', won the W.G. Hoskins prize from the Devon History Society. Both have been published by and are available to buy at Axminster Heritage Centre in Silver Street.

In his talk, David will focus on one of the houses featured, Purzebrook, and will look primarily at the Taunton family who lived there from 1748 to 1828.

Thomas Taunton, a Catholic lawyer and landowner, was just 17 when he and his siblings were orphaned, but as a young man he sorted out his father's affairs, eventually winning a landmark legal case against the family of his erstwhile employer, Lord Arundell of Wardour, for seeking to hide assets with which his debts could have been paid.

Thomas had a large family of his own, but when he died in his early 80s his wife and every one of their children had pre-deceased him, and so his considerable wealth was allocated for the benefit of his surviving grandchildren.

His daughter, Teresa Ann, had married into the Knight family of Cannington, near Bridgwater – a branch of which had also settled at Axminster, where they eventually became Lords of the Manor after a protracted legal dispute – and her two children became heirs to a further substantial fortune from their father.

Imagine the shock, then, when the residents of Axminster and Cannington read in the London Gazette of May 11 1858 that Thomas Charles Knight, formerly of 12a Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, and a "proprietor of Assembly Rooms", had been imprisoned for debt in the Queen's Prison, formerly the King's Bench Prison in Southwark.

His fatal mistake had been to marry a young widow who managed to wrest control of his affairs, leaving him in debtors' prison. Once he got out they were evidently not reconciled, and he supported himself by teaching.

Three years before his death she re-married, again describing herself as a widow.

No evidence has been found of any divorce, and if this is correct she was a bigamist, who then proceeded to defraud her new husband, before sending a series of begging letters to the Catholic press pleading for money based on her connections to the Knight family.

Thomas Charles Knight's only surviving child put a decent distance between himself and his mother, becoming a Catholic priest in Killarney before dying in his 40s.

Further details of David's new book can be found at axminsterheritage.org

The talk will be free, but because of space limitations in the Bradshaw Room at Axminster Heritage Centre, those interested to reserve a place in advance by emailing [email protected]

All requests for places will be acknowledged and confirmed. If demand outstrips capacity, the talk will be repeated a week later.

Copies of 'Axminster Legacies' and 'Unsteady Progress' will be on sale at the talk and David will be signing copies.