Tristram Risdon

Tristram Risdon (c. 1580 - 1640) was an antiquary and topographer and the author of the "Survey of Devonshire". He was born at Winscot, in the parish of St. Giles, adjoining the town of Great Torrington in Devon. After a local education, he studied at Broadgates Hall in Oxford, though he left the University without taking any degree, supposedly because of the death of his sister upon which he inherited the family estate at Winscot, which required his personal attention. He devoted the rest of his life to the study of antiquities, especially those of his native county; and the fruit of his labours was the "Survey". He died at Winscot in 1640, and was interred in St. Giles's church.

The "Survey"

The original title of Risdon's work was "The Chorographical Description, or Survey of the County of Devon, with the City and County of Exeter; containing Matter of History, Antiquity, Chronology, the Nature of the Country, Commodities and Government thereof; with sundry other Things worthy of observation. Collected by the Travel of T. Risdon, of Winscot, Gent., for the Love of his Country and Countrymen in that Province." For a great part of this work, Risdon was indebted to Sir William Pole's manuscript , as he admitted, though he made also considerable additions and improvements of his own; it includes details to about the year 1632.

In organizing his survey Risdon decided to begin

‘in the east part of the county, and with the sun, to make my gradation into the south, holding course about by the river Tamar, to visit such places as are offered to be seen upon her banks’, and then ‘to take notice of such remarkable things as the north parts afford.’

Unlike his antiquarian contemporaries, Risdon's work is not overburdened with genealogy and reads more like a travel book, apparently describing parishes in the same order as he visited them. However according to Joyce Youings, former Professor of English Social History at Exeter University, although his general description has echoes of John Hooker's writing, "the three hundred pages of topographical detail which follow make extremely tedious reading, unredeemed by [Thomas] Westcote's style." [Cite book
last = Youings
first = Joyce
title = Topographical Writers in South-West England
editor = Mark Brayshay
publisher = University of Exeter Press
chapter = Some Early Topographers of Devon and Cornwall
date = 1996
pages = 61
isbn = 0-85989-424-X]

Publication

After its completion, many copies of the manuscript were in circulation, none of them, however, exactly agreeing with the others, each having something redundant or deficient [Several versions of the manuscript are held in the Westcountry Studies Library in Exeter.] . It was first published in 1714 by Edmund Curll, the infamous London bookseller, who extracted from it such parts as he thought would best suit his purpose, and printed them. But when the book was on the eve of publication, it appears to have been shown to John Prince, author of the "Worthies of Devon", who, having a thorough acquaintance with the original, persuaded him to publish the remainder as a continuation of the parts already printed. It remained a very imperfect version, however.

In 1785 William Chapple published the first part of his "Review of Risdon's Survey of Devon" containing the general description of the county, but he died before he could continue the work.

The first complete edition appeared in 1811, with numerous and valuable additions. This publication was printed from one copy of Risdon's manuscript which, after having been compared with others, appeared to be the most correct.

Notes and references

* [http://www.widegrin.com/devon/risdon_biog.htm Extract from Moore: History of Devonshire, Volume 2, 1829]
* [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/23668 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography] (subscription required)