All the names that could be traced were of gentry status, except for two individuals, one of whom was probably an Exeter merchant and the other a yeoman from Hatherleigh. Few of them may have been long-distance graziers who used this land for feeding herds of cattle at certain times of the year. It was certainly not unusual for the Devonshire gentry to hold land in many different parishes: Hoskins has shown that many gentry families held about ten farms, besides their home manor or farm, scattered throughout several different parishes. This was usually the result of past marriages bringing different parcels of land into the grasp of one gentry family. Hoskins believed that this was the reason for the fact that 60% of surnames disapeared from the records every hundred years in the parish of Parkham, only five miles from Hartland, due to mobility in occupancy and cultivated growth with neighbors such as prospects in the textile industries of Barnstaple and Torrington, expanding ports on the Torridge estuary such as Bideford and Appledore, expanding ship-building industries on the Torridge estuary, which were growing due to the development of the North American trade at this time- proportionate to the adult population. Bideford's population probably grew from approximately 100 people during the 1560s to about 1,650 people by the 1630. Baptisms and burials approached or crossed each other at least eight times between 1558 and 1620 and 1612 to 1645. Barnstaple Registers recorded that a cold wet climate started ca. 1300 AD in England in general and it is said that wine was made in Devon 15th century.
The links between surnames and place-names in the Hartland register indicates that individuals were identified with hamlets and farms scattered around the parish rather than with the parish itself. The boundaries of the community of Hartland were not fixed but extended over different areas according to themes studied and defined loss of accumulation during the Easter Fair from 1558-1620 from an original list of 375 surnames of families to 292, only about 27 could ascertain appointment of parish offical of noted locality since the status of the manorial survey had added parishes together unknowing who the families counted. Six different manors were located within the parish: the large Dynham manor which covered most of the parish, the former Abbey estate held by the Abbot and Lutterell families successively, the former Abbey lands held by the Smiths arter 1517, and the three ancient but small manors of Kilrord, Meddon and South Hol.
The northern half of the parish was probably the area that was first settled and farmed: the large number of customary tenancies are possibly the feudal relics of this early medieval period, including the parish of Woolfardisworthy within the Dynham manor. The location of the freehold farms was situated outside the parish boundaries and more along the upward slopes of the uplands connecting the settlement to the more numerous northern tenancies of the parish where parcels of reserve were colonized by customs recorded by making a freehold with barton tenancies as there were probably parcels of land that had been reserved by the Dynhams for their own use, until the death of the last Lord Dynham in 1501. Lords of the Manor (the estate had been divided among the four daughters of the last Lord Dynham after 1501)
Elizabeth Bagelhole was the first successor to 12 acres of land scaled by George Bagelhole, besides probably being the wife of John Bagelhole, a glover of Harton. Elizabeth, the wife of the glover John Bagelhole, was the tenant of 5 acres on the Dynham manor. William Bagelhole was recorded as a merchant in 1615 the only example in Hartland during this period and was Portreeve of Harton at least twice (in 1612 and 1619) and he is recorded on the Pew List as sitting in the South Transept of Hartland church, part of the prestigious area of the church. John Bagelhole was recorded in 16r1 as "at ye Tree of Harton" [127]. a seeming innkeeper of an inn called the 'Tree." Not all of the buildings used for non-agricultural production were located in Harton Borough.
William Bagelhole, merchant, was the portreeve in both 1612 and 1619. Charles Yeo was portreeve in 1615: he came from a prominent merchant family which lived in Northam, near to the thriving ports of Appledore and Bideford. William Yeo of Northam was recorded in the Hartland register in 1587, but it appears that Charles and Justinian Yeo (the latter was portreeve in 1616) were resident in Harton, members of a branch of the family which had probably settled there. John Nicoll was portreeve in 1618, same man who was recorded as a glover in 1606. The portreeve not recorded on the Pew List was John Blagdon who was elected to office in 1620. He may have been among the group of "sufficient young married men not seated in the life of their parents" who occupied the spare seats in the North Chapel. The portreeve's yeare in office commenced on the Feast of St Michael the Archangel (September 29th). Probably his most important duty was to maintain the borough's annual income by exacting tolls on standings at the Easter and Holirood Fairs and at the weekly markets. The Accounts show that the portreeves had to occasionally travel to Holsworthy and Torrington to attend these sessions, although they sometimes paid a fine for dispensation from these duties. William Bagelhole paid "6d to the Constables" in 1612 to discharge him from two Quarter Sessions.
Approximately 50 out of 292 presumed resident families had some adult members who worked in Harton Borough during this period. At least 39 of these families had surname connections with the landholding section of the parish. John Kene, tailor, and John Kene, glover, were both tenants of Abbey lands in 1546, while John Dayman of Harton was recorded in 1566 as a free tenant of a farm at Norton. It is possible to firmly identify at least 8 craftsmen who worked on repairs in Hartland church or who practised a trade in Harton Borough during this period. John Bagelhole, George Husband, John Kene, John Nicoll and Can were all glovers, while Thomas Cholwell was a tanner, another John Kene was a tailor, and John Williams was a 'plummer' . Phillip May mended the church muskets (stored for the musters) in 1597, 1600 and 1607, and made a lock and two keys in 1605. Thomas Buse mended one of the bell clappers in 1602 while Martyn Husband repaired the challice in 1605. William May repaired the church organ in 1605, while Humphrey Skitch mended the bells in 1613. William Deyman and William Buse refurbished the church armour in 1613 and 1618 respectively.
William May was employed by borough and church every yeare between 1613 and 1618; while John Stapledon, John Saunder and Abraham Bond were each hired during three successive years. 5 of the 26 labourers recorded worked in both church and borough between 1612 and 1620, while 13 labourers worked only for the borough and 8 only for the church. The existence of the 5 labourers (Abraham Bond, Richard and William May, Hugh Robin and John Saunder) in both borough and church added to Hartland's geographic mobility of the labouring population of that time. Misfortune at the hands of pirates was a fairly regular occurrence on the North Devon coast, perhaps accounting for the fortified farmhouses that were built in Hartland parish. People who had suffered sudden misfortune dealt charitably as they were Flanders soldiers, former captives of Moorish pirates, those of a shipwreck, lost a ship. Some came from Ireland.
An early 1600s connection between Ireland and North Devon indicates that there was a certain amount of trade with Ireland by route of the North Devon ports during the early seventeenth century in a late period of westcountry Gaelic!