The parish of

TEMPLE

This tiny isolated parish on Bodmin Moor takes its name from a chapel established here by the Knights Templar in the 12th C., thought to have been for the benefit of pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land. With the passing of the Marriage Act in 1753, it became notorious as a place where couples could marry without banns or licence, but this came to an end in 1774 and the church, dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria, fell into ruin. Rebuilt about 100 years later, on the foundations of the old chapel, it incorporates many artefacts from the original.
 
In 1841 the parish had 37 inhabitants, dropping to 12 in 1861 and rising to 51 in 1891. Most worked on the land or in local china clay pits.
 

St Catherine's Church © David Coppin	The Church Interior © David Coppin
A typical Cornish Lane in the Parish of Temple © David Coppin

The Online Parish Clerk for Temple is Kay Halley, who can be contacted by Email.

PARISH INFORMATION

CENSUS:

Information can be found at COCP (Cornwall Online Census Project) which is complete for 1841 to 1891 and has been verified, FreeCen at Rootsweb, which has a very good search engine and information from COCP, as well as GenUKI, which has more reference information and alternate resources.

REGISTERS:

For Parish Register information, please see our online searchable database (C-PROP) which is updated frequently and GenUKI. The C-PROP parish coverage page is here.

DIRECTORIES:

For information, see the University of Leicester's Historical Directories website.

OTHER:

For information regarding history, population, etc., visit GenUKI.

MAPS:

For a Parish Locator map, please click here. Temple can be located at coordinates I - 6.

For further map information, please visit GenUKI (Genealogy - United Kingdom & Ireland).

To see a current, zoomable Ordnance Survey map, please visit MultiMap, or for maps and satellite images use Google Maps.

ADJACENT PARISHES:

Blisland, Bolventor (post-1849), St Neot, Warleggan and Cardinham.

ONLINE BOOKS:

1. Temple is included in The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume IV by Davies Gilbert, William Hals, Thomas Tonkin, Henry Samuel Boase, originally published in 1838. Also downloadable as a pdf.
2. The Parochial and Family History of the Parishes of St. Teath and Temple in County of Cornwall by Sir John Maclean, F.S.A., originally published in 1876. Also available to download as a pdf.