Napoleonic Wars and French POWs

Napoleonic Wars and French POWs

During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars of 1797 – 1815, French Prisoner of War officers were sent to live with households in provincial parole towns such as Tiverton. Officers had to swear not to attempt escape. The government made a payment of 10/6 a week...
Johnny Stedman arrives from Suriname

Johnny Stedman arrives from Suriname

Johnny Stedman arrived in Tiverton in 1782. He was a mixed race young man whose mother was from Suriname, and whose father was from the Netherlands. During his early years, Johnny lived with his mother. She was born in Surinam (now the Republic of Suriname) and is...
Black men recorded in Tiverton

Black men recorded in Tiverton

By the 18th and 19th centuries, Tiverton’s diversity manifested in more ways, including the presence of Black men in the town – potentially enslaved, or ex-enslaved persons. Although Tiverton was not a port town, there are records of Black men living, being...
The mystery of Huguenots in Tiverton

The mystery of Huguenots in Tiverton

Little is known about a Huguenot presence in Tiverton – but there is evidence of people with Flemish descent in the town at this time. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Protestant Huguenots in France, Belgium and the Netherlands were persecuted by the...
Tudor Tiverton 

Tudor Tiverton 

During the sixteenth century, Tiverton was part of a Europe-wide network of trade in goods and services, with people from France and Germany coming to live in the town. For centuries, people have come to Tiverton to work. In Tudor times people journeyed from France,...
Norman invaders and Tiverton Castle

Norman invaders and Tiverton Castle

Tiverton was a Saxon town, but by 1106 it was an important strategic town for Norman kings.  In Saxon times Tiverton formed part of the inheritance of Aethelweard, youngest son of King Alfred. Countess Gytha of Wessex controlled the town in 1066 and the Domesday Book...
BC and Roman Tiverton

BC and Roman Tiverton

Archaeological evidence reveals an ancient site with a nearby Roman fort north of Tiverton.  The town’s name is conjectured to derive from “Twy-ford-ton” or “Twyverton”, meaning “the town on two fords”, and was historically...