EXETER.
��J HE diocese of Exeter extends over the counties of Devon and Cornwall ^ ; the inhabitants of which, im- mediately after their conversion to Christianity, were, with the whole southern part of the island beyond Kent to the extremity of Cornwall, placed under the juris- diction of the bishop of the West Saxons, whose see was established at Dorchester, near Oxford ; but upon Winchester being erected into an episcopal see about the year 660, all the western parts of England were assigned to the government of the bishop of that church, and continued under his charge until the year 705, when Devonshire and Cornwall were de- tached, and formed into the see of Sherborne, and so remained until archbishop Plegemund, about 909, by command of Edward, created three new sees ; one at Wells in Somersetshire, another in Cornwall, and a third in Devonshire,
The diocese of Exeter contains four archdeaconries, viz. Exeter2, Barnstaple, Totnes, and Cornwall-^. The members of the cathedral body are the dean, pre- centor, chancellor, treasurer, subdean, the four arch- deacons above mentioned, twenty-four prebendaries, and other minor officers.
��' By an order, dated 30th July 1838, gazetted 24th Aug. 1838, the Scilly Islands were declared to be within the diocese of Exeter and archdeaconry of Cornwall.
2 By an order in council, dated nth Aug. 1842, and ga- zetted 23rd of the same month, the archdeaconries of Exeter and
��Cornwall were endowed.
3 Another order in council, dated nth Feb. 1848, gazetted 22nd of the same month, passed for newly arranging the limits of the archdeaconries of Exeter, Totness, and Barnstaple, and for abolishing peculiar and exempt jurisdiction in the said diocese.
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