STOKENHAM COMMUNITY HISTORY GROUP

The Stokenham Community History Group are holding an Open Evening on 27^th January in Stokenham Parish Hall at 7.30 pm.

The talk is called “The Holdsworths of Widdicombe, The Rise and Fall of a family of Merchant Adventurers”

The Holdsworth Family was, during the C17 and C18 an enormously powerful Dartmouth Family, being merchants in the triangular trade between Newfoundland and Southern Europe. Additionally they had enormous influence in the government and finances of the town as well as the Church and Parliament as MPs. At the height of their prosperity they built Widdicombe House, and thus they became very important in the Parish of Stokenham, owning enormous amounts of land including farms and other houses. Using records from Dartmouth and the Grand Banks (Newfoundland) and the memorials in the Holdsworth Chapel in Stokenham Church, Clare Pawley will attempt a description of their legacy to us and explain the events that forced them to sell their house at Widdicombe.

Entrance £1

Refreshments and a Raffle!