SOUTH MOLTON  , a market town and municipal borough in the South Molton parliamentary division of Devonshire, England. on the river Mole, 197 M . W. by S. of London, by the Great Western railway . Pop . (1901), 2848 . Besides the parish church II of St Mary Magdalene, a fine and massive Perpendicular building with an ancient pulpit of carved stone, there are a guildhall and market house . Linen goods are manufactured; fairs are held twice yearly, and numerous flour mills are worked by the river . The town is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors . Area, 5910 acres . South Molton (Sud Moutona) was probably the site of a very early settlement, the remains of a British camp being visible 2 M. south of the town, but its authentic history begins with the Domesday survey, which relates that the manor had been royal demesne of Edward the Confessor and now paid 10 a year to the Conqueror . In the 13th century it was held by Nicholas Fitz Martin of the earl of Gloucester for the service of finding a bow with three arrows to attend the earl when he should hunt in Gower . In 1246 Nicholas obtained a grant of a Saturday market and a fair at the feast of the Assumption (both maintained up to the present day), and in 1275 South Molton appears for the first time as a mesne borough under his overlordship . The borough subsequently passed to the Audleys, the Hollands, and in 1487 was granted for life to Margaret, duchess of Richmond, who in 1490 obtained a grant of a fair (which is still held) at the nativity of St John the Baptist .

It returned two members to

parliament in 1302, but no charter of incorporation was issued until that of Elizabeth in 159o, instituting a common council of a mayor and eighteen burgesses, three of whom were to be elected capital burgesses, with a recorder, steward of the borough court, two sergeants-at-mace, and a court of record every three weeks on Monday . A fresh charter was issued by Charles II. in 1684 . This remained in force until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 . The town formerly had a considerable manufacture of serges and shalloons, or light woollen linings, so called from Chalons-sur-Marne, France .