ST. THOMAS, lying to the west of the river Exe, has a station on the line of the Great Western railway from Exeter to Plymouth; it is a parish and the head of a union, in the North Eastern division of the county, Wonford hundred and petty sessional division, Exeter county court district and partly in that parliamentary borough, rural deanery of Christianity, and archdeaconry and diocese of Exeter. It is united to Exeter by the Exe bridge, and was for a time governed under the “Local Government Act, 1894” (56 and 57 Vict. c. 73), by an Urban District Council, but now forms part of the municipal borough of Exeter, under the provisions of the “Exeter Corporation Act, 1900.”

The church of St. Thomas the Apostle, in Cowick street, is a building of stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, transepts, north porch and a western tower with pinnacles, containing 6 bells, all cast by the Penningtons in 1789, from a former peal of 5, with additional metal: in the chancel is a canopied tomb with recumbent figure, by Bacon, to Mrs. Medley, wife of the Most Rev. John Medley D.D. Bishop of Fredericton, Metropolitan of Canada, and late vicar of this parish; there are also monuments to the Northmore, Buller and Williams families; and others to Capt. William Augustus Gordon and to Major-Gen. Charles George Gordon R.E., C.B. slain at Khartoum, 26 Jan. 1885, erected in 1891; on the north side is a chapel belonging to Sir Charles Brune Graves Sawle bart.; seven of the windows are stained, and three of these are memorials: the present church, built in 1656—7 on the site of a former church, and enlarged in 1821—9, was reseated and restored internally between 1868—71, and has 900 sittings. The register of baptisms and burials dates from the year 1554; marriages, 1577. The living is a vicarage, with Emmanuel church annexed, net yearly value £150, with residence, in the gift; of Gen. the Rt. Hon. Sir Redvers Henry Buller P.C., V.C., G.C.B., G.C.M.G, of Downes, Crediton, and held since 1874 by the Rev. Maurice Swabey M.A. of King’s College, Windsor, Nova Scotia, who is also official patron and perpetual curate of the chapelry of Oldridge.

The Mission Hall, Alphington street, was erected in 1896 by Mr. McLaren, and will seat 500 persons.

Emmanuel Church, in Okehampton road, first erected in 1887, as an iron structure, at a cost of £505, was rebuilt in 1899, in the Early Perpendicular style, and has 600 sittings; the Rev. Charles Hitchcock Williams M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, has been curate in charge since 1889, and the Rev. Frank Simmons A.K.C.L, is Blundell’s missioner.

Blundell’s School Mission Room, Cowick street, with a parochial library of over 1,000 volumes attached; the Rev. Charles H. Williams M.A. is the librarian.

The Emmanuel Church Institute, in Okehampton street, is open daily.

The Free Methodist chapel, in Church road, will seat 500 persons.

The Cemetery, at Landhayes, on the Exwick road, and consecrated in 1877, consists of about 3 acres, and has a double mortuary chapel. It is under the control of the Exeter City Council.

St. Thomas’s Pleasure Grounds, Cowick street, opened March 30th, 1891, consist of about four acres of land, laid out with walks and flower beds; a portion in the centre of about three acres being reserved as a playground for children; the total cost, defrayed by the late St. Thomas Local Board, amounted to £3,600.

Floyer Hayes, in this parish, was for centuries the seat of the Floyers, the tenure depending on the service of attending the Earls of Devon, as lords paramount, whenever they came into Exe Island.

Cleve House is the property of John Northmore esq. of Ashburton, and residence of Mrs. Snow.

General the Right Hon. Sir Redvers Henry Buller P.C., V.C., G.C.B., G.C.M.G, who is lord of the manor, Sir Charles Brune Graves-Sawle, of Barley, Exeter, John Northmore esq. and T. M. Snow esq. are the principal landowners.

The area is about 3,000 acres; rateable value, £33,131; the population in 1881 was 6,161 and in 1891, 8,245, which includes 9 officers and 176 inmates in the workhouse.

A part of the parish of St. Thomas has been added to Whitestone by Exeter Corporation Act, 1900, the remainder forming part of the Exeter municipal borough.

At Cowick, in this parish, was once a Benedictine Priory, founded in the reign of Henry II. by William Fitz-Baldwin, as a cell to the Abbey of Bee, in Normandy, and dedicated to St. Andrew. This monastic house was under the especial patronage and protection of the Courtenay family, and within the priory were buried Hugh de Courtenay, feudal baron of Okehampton, ob. 1292, and his wife, Eleanor (Spencer), interred 1 Oct. 1328; Hugh de Courtenay, his son, knight banneret and Earl of Devon, ob. 1340, and Agnes (St. John), his wife: the convent, seized with other houses belonging to foreign monasteries by Hen. V. was afterwards restored and granted about 1462 to the abbey of Tavistock: the exact site of the buildings is uncertain, but they are believed to have stood between the river and the Okehampton road: the arms were: “3 cows pass. sa. collared or, eyed gu.” Some of the windows of Cowick farmhouse retain ancient stained glass. Here also, at Marsh Barton, was the priory of Marshe, or St. Mary de Marisco, founded as a cell to Plympton priory for canons of the order of St. Augustine.