There's lots more information on the
Contents of this page: [Introduction] [Map] [Dispersal] [Family Tree (Fragment)]
Introduction
Totnes is an ancient and well-preserved town which was built on the West side of the River Dart in Devon. It boasts a Windeatt Square. The WINDEATTs originally made their home in the suburb of Bridgetown on the east side of the river. Bridgetown is in the parish of Berry Pomeroy where the parish records start in 1596 and in that first year a Thomas WINDYET was christened there. There lots of records of WINDEATTs in the Totnes area and those which don't appear on this family's tree may or may not be related.
Totnes - where is it?
Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service.
Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey
and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.
Where did they go from here?
This branch has a tree which has been passed down through the family and starts with the death of an Oliver WINDEATT in Bridgetown in 1650. Early family members were non-conformist traders and manufacturers and one of the branches stayed in Totnes becoming the founder members of the firm of Solicitors in the area. Another branch moved to Tavistock where they were also non-conformist traders and manufacturers.
Families on this tree seem to have been suffered from a lot of infant deaths and several males who did survive never married. They did not proliferate in the same way as the other, humbler branches all of whom seem to have had the typical large Victorian families of ten or so surviving children. Some female descendants married and moved to America (Alicia who married Samuel Blatchford) and Canada. Descendants spell their name WINDEATT.
Partial Tree
This is just a fragment of the tree which has been passed down through the family and starts with the death of an Oliver WINDEATT in 1650. This tree fragment includes the curious character of Thomas WINDEATT, bankrupt, poet, pastor and alleged vandal of Childe's Tomb, a prehistoric monument on Dartmoor. Samuel WINDEATT, the grandfather of Thomas White WINDEATT, lived in Bridgetown, Totnes and made money in the woolen trade. Click here for a picture of his house which is still there today.
