Obituary Notice - Daniel Robert Scratton

Trans. Devon. Assoc. vol. 34 (1902), p. 36.

Provided by Tim Treeby

DANIEL ROBERT SCRATTON, D.L., J.P., came into this county from Essex about the year 1869, having purchased the manor of Ogwell, the ancient possession of the Reynell family. He made the place famous in the agricultural world, devoting to the farm he established there such personal care as if he had to make his living out of the land. He recognized to the full the duties and claims attaching to the possession of property. He built schools, founded a cottage hospital, gave at considerable cost a water-supply to Ogwell, lighted his parish church with acetylene gas, and also provided it with an organ, and when someone was wanted to blow it he undertook the work, saying, as he could not sing, he wanted to do something. He was a busy, active man, fond of work for its own sake. He had tried every kind of sport, he used to say but had found nothing so satisfying as work. He was Chairman of the Newton Abbot Board of Guardians for some time, Secretary of the Hospital at Newton Abbot, Honorary Clerk to the School Boards of Denbury and Ogwell, and Clerk to the Parish Councils of the same places. He was elected a member of our Association in 1884, but never took part in any of the proceedings. He died on the 10th February, 1902, at the age of eighty-five years.

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