The 1814 settlement examination of Henry Gidley of Tor

Torquay in 1811

Note:- the clerk's spelling was somewhat idiosyncratic.
The settlement examination of Henry Gidley of Tor, tutching [sic] the last legal place of this settlement, taken 12 February 1814.
[He] saieth and belives [sic] he was born in the parish of Dean Prior, as he has heard his parents say, and was bound out as an apprentice with John Rodgers to learn the art of a stone mason till he attained the age of 21 years which time was lawfully served: and then hired himself as a servant with the said John Rodgers for 2 years and then married and took a dwelling house in the pparish of Staverton, the rent being 4-10-0 per year and then removed in the parish of Little Hempson and their [sic] rented a house of Mr Palk at 4-4-0 and then removed in the parish of Tor where he rented a dwelling house of Mr Nic: Mudge at 9-7-0 per year and says he has don [sic] no maner [sic] of Parish Office or any other act so as to gain a settlement by it.

Henry Gidley signed with an X.

Henry Gidley was, I think, born in Dean Prior in 1747, the 5th of 12 children of William Gidley and his wife Elinor Clark. In 1814 I imagine he might have been failing in health, and needing support from the parish, although he didn't die until 1832 in Torquay. He married firstly in 1775 in Dean Prior a second cousin, Joan Gidley. They had two daughters, Margaret and Ann. I believe Margaret is the most likely candidate for the mother of John Gidley, an illegitimate son born in 1804, who married Jane Callicott and became the ancestor of film star Pamela Gidley and actor/singer Bill Gidley. Some other of their Gidley descendants emigrated to New South Wales, Australia.
Henry's first wife Joan died in 1780 and at about this time Henry moved to Staverton and married for a second time, to Ann Preston. They had two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, and a son, William, one of whose sons, Robert, a chemist, also emigrated to Australia, to Melbourne. I have a note that William Gidley may have been involved in a Plymouth Brethren-type church, established in St Marychurch by Philip Gosse after he moved there in 1857. Its congregation was described as "simple and rustic". (Embley, P L. The origins and early development of the Plymouth Brethren.)

The village of Tor or Torre, was the oldest part of Torquay, which developed quickly after the Royal Navy anchored in the bay during the Napoleonic Wars and attracted large numbers of visitors to the area.