James Templer (canal builder)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

James Templer (1748–1813) of Stover House, Teigngrace, Devon, was a landowner and the builder of the Stover Canal. He was the eldest son of James Templer (1722–1782), who made his fortune building dockyards. James Templer worked as a Master in the Crown Office in London. He inherited the Stover estate in 1782 and began building a new church at Teigngrace, using granite from Hay Tor quarries. The church was finished in 1787, and his brother, Rev. John Templer, was the first rector. As clay mining grew, from 1790 Templer financed and oversaw the Stover Canal to move ball clay to cellars on the River Teign, so it could be shipped by barge to Teignmouth. In 1776 he married Mary Buller, daughter of James Buller, a member of Parliament. They had several children. Templer died on 21 June 1813, aged 65, and a Coade stone monument in Teigngrace church commemorates him.