Unnamed Unit, Somerset : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Taunton. You may be able to find further references to Taunton in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Taunton parliamentary and municipal borough Bartholomew
TAUNTON a town, two parishes, a district, and a hundred Imperial
Taunton, St James parish Bartholomew
Taunton, St Mary Magdalen parish Bartholomew

This additional information from our descriptive gazetteers is for locations within the parish or parishes associated with Taunton.

Place Type of entry Source
Rowbarton ecclesiastical district Bartholomew

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Taunton within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Daniel Defoe Letter 4, Part 2: Somerset and Wiltshire 8
Celia Fiennes 1698 Tour: Bristol to Plymouth 5
William Camden Dorset and Somerset 3
John Wesley 1769-70: Opens a New Church; Comments on Rousseau; Geology; Swedenborg 2
William Cobbett Sept. 29th to Oct. 2nd, 1826: Ryall to Burghclere 1
Charles Wesley Sept. 9 - Dec. 31, 1737: Oxfordshire, and down to Devon 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 1, Part 3: Norfolk and Cambridgeshire 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 4, Part 1: North Cornwall and Devon 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 4, Part 3: Berkshire and Buckinghamshire 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 7, Part 2: East Midlands 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 8, Part 3: South and West Yorkshire 1
Celia Fiennes 1698 Tour: Lands End to Winchester 1
John Wesley 1743: Wesley Refused Sacraments at Epworth; Cornwall and the Scilly Isles 1
John Wesley 1754-6: Retirement in Paddington; Wesley Slandered; Premonitions 1
John Wesley 1777-80: On the Isle of Man; City Road Chapel; Wesley Visits Lord George Gordon 1
John Wesley 1781-4: An Ideal Circuit; Wesley in his Eighties; Wesley Visits Holland; Scotland 1
Arthur Young 1776 Tour of South Wales and South Midlands 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Rowbarton 0 1
Wilton 2 2
Holway 0 2
Bishops Hull 0 2
Staplegrove 0 2
Cheddon Fitzpaine 0 2
Stoke St Mary 0 2
West Monkton 0 3
Ruishton 0 2
Trull 0 2
Norton Fitzwarren 0 2
Orchard Portman 1 2
Kingston 0 3
Thurlbear 0 2
Bradford 0 2
Creech St Michael 0 2
Thorn Falcon 0 2
Pitminster 0 2
Corfe 0 2
Hillfarrance 0 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Taunton. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
ST JAMES TAUNTON John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
ST MARY MAGDALEN TAUNTON John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
TANNTON Celia Fiennes Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 1888).
TANTON Celia Fiennes Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 1888).
TANTUN John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
TAUNTON John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
TAUNTON ST JAMES John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
TAUNTON ST MARY MAGDALEN John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
THONETUN John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
THONTON William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.