Seal of Tavistock Abbey Betsy Grimbalds Tower and sepulchral Vestigies preserved at the Vicarage Tavistock. Gent. Mag. June 1830. P. p. 483 NOTICES OF TAVISTOCK. With a Plate. N Tavistock Church is a monu I ment, beautifully executed, of Judge Glanvile, in his robes; another, which I bave little doubt, is that of the unfortunate Sir John Fitz (of whom more under Fitzford) and his lady. Also memorials of the Willesfords, the For tescues of Buckland Filleigh, and the Manatons, who, subsequently to the Glanviles, were the possessors of Kilworthy. Prince mentions an honorary ce- THE LAZAR HOUSE, OR HOSPITAL, An hospital for leprous men and women, (of the foundation of which no record is extant) stood at the westeru extremity of the town of Tavistock, on the spot where the parish work-house is now built. It was dedicated, as eleemosynary establishments for a similar purpose usually were, to St. Mary Magdalen, and was commonly called the Maudlin Chapel. St. Theobald was, in this instance, associated as co-patron with St. Mary. My researches among such of the old deeds in the parish chest at Tavistock as were accessible to me, in the year 1827, has enabled me to give the following list of Priors or Governors of the Maudlin. I shall incidentally mention the different documents which have afforded me the information. Ralph Gryth was Prior in the 17th year of the reign of Edward the Fourth, when I find him granting to Ralph Foster, in the name of himself and his successors, for 20 years, all the close called the Maudlin park (enclosed GENT. MAG. June, 1830. 489 fields obtained, and in many instances - I believe retain, the appellation of parks in this county), at the yearly rent of 12s. per annum. Thomas Glanfelde was Prior in the 19th year of Henry VIII. as I learn from his lease to John Tibb, during the term of the contracting parties' lives, of nine feet of ground lying by the hospital plats and boundyngs," at 10d. per ann. the rent to be paid at Michaelmas and Lady-day, half-yearly. William Cole, Prior in the 32d of Henry VIII. leases for 60 years to Richard Foster, Constance his wife, and John the son of Richard Foster, all the close and garden situate north of the hospital, having on the west the Spital-lane, and the land called the "Mawdelyn grounde." Robert Isaac, who is styled Guber-nator (Governor), in the following year grants a lease to Guido Leman, of a tenement and three gardens in Ford-street. 66 Thomas Payne, Prior in the 2d and 3d of Philip and Mary, lets to William Russell, baker, all the garden and its appurtenances called "the blind Hey," at 2s. per ann. The style of the King and Queen I shall add from the attestation, as it is not perhaps very generally known: Philipp and Marye, by the grace of God Kyng and Quene of England, Fraunce, Naples, Hierusalem, and Ireland, defenders of the Fayth, princes of Spayne and Sicyll, archedukes of Austria, dukes of MilJayne, Burgundye, and Brabant, counts of Haspurge, Flaunders, and Tyroll." The hospital or lazar-house of St. Mary and St. Theobald, survived the suppression of establishments of a larger nature, and in the 27th of Elizabeth, "John Batte, then Prior, and the bretheryn and sustern of the same house, with one consent, by deed indented under seal, demised to John Ffitz, Esquier, William Houghton, Nicholas Glanvile, Robert Moore, Edward. Denys, Roger Upcote, Thomas Libbe, Richard Drake, Thomas Sowton, the last eight being supervisors, dispensators for the behoof of the Church and parish of Tavistock of the poor people of the same, for the term of one thousand years, the house known by the name of the Maudlyn Chapel, the chapel hay thereto belonging, three closes of land called the Maudlin parkes, one garden in the occupation of John Ffitz, and one meadow called 490 Notices of Tavistock. the Maudlin mead, lying near the water of Lambourn." "These were therefore the possessions of this charitable endowment (by whomever originally made) which had protected for some centuries the outcast of society, the poor afflicted leper, from beggary and want. Lepers not thus provided for, sought their living from the charity of passengers, and sate by the wayside, attracting their attention, or warning them from contact, by the ringing of a hand-bell: in an illuminated MS. of the Lansdowne Library, in the British Museum, may be seen a representation of a leprous woman thus provided, her face disfigured with spots, her limbs swathed in bandages. She rings her bell and exclaims, “ some good, my gentle masters, for God's sake!" Stow, speaking of the charitable provisions instituted in London by the Christian benevolence of Edward the Sixth, says, "they provided for the Lazer to keepe him out of the citie from clapping of dishes and ringing of bels, to the great trouble of the citizens, and also to the dangerous infection of many, that they should bee relieved at home at their houses, by severall pensions."+ The Chapel of the Maudlin appears by the following entry in the Church warden's book of Tavistock, to have been in existence, and used I suppose for divine service, in the year 1672. "October 20, 1672, then collected at the Maudlin Chappell, towardes the reliefe of John Bazely, blacksmith, inhabitant in the saide towne of Tavistocke, the sum of thirty shillings and sixpence." ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL. On the south bank of the Tavy, under a steep and woody declivity, near -Guile or Abbey-bridge, stood St. John's Chapel, a dependency of the Abbey, occupied, I believe, by a solitary monk or hermit, to whose custody this oratory was consigned. A fine natural spring rises in this spot from the earth (a circumstance which seems to have been usually sought for in chusing the site of an hermitage), and falls into the Tavy. *Now Lamerton. Rowe the Poet was born there. He was son of the incumbent of the Church. 596. Survey of London, 4to. edit. 1613, p. See observations by A. J. K. on the Hermitage in the wall, Monkwell-street, Cripplegate. Gent. Mag. May, 1825, p. 401. [Junė, Hermitages were generally dedicated to St. John, from that apostle having entered on his labours in the desert. The ancient Romish Pontifical has a particular office for consecrating an hernit to his solitary life, "Ad recludendum anacoritam." From an old inventory of the Treasury of Tavistock Parish Church, I gather that a hermit (doubtless of St. John's) left his silver crucifix to the Church, inclosing a portion of the wood of the real cross. § The following petition to William Earl of Bedford, which may be dated about the year 1677, is extant among the parish archives. "To the Right Honorable William Earle of Bedford, Lord Russell, and Baron of Thornaugh: "The humble petition of your Portrieve, and the Masters of yor Towne and Burrough of Tavistock, "Humbly sheweth, "That, whereas theare is a little cottage much ruyned, with two little garden plotts to the same belonginge, called by the name of St. John's Chapple, bought in by the p'shioners of Tavistocke in the tyme of the late contagious sicknes, and then converted to a Pest House, and was verie usefull and beneficiall to your said Towne and Burrough, in regard it borders on the River of Tavey, and seeinge of late it is falne into your Lordship's hands, wee humbly desire and begge your Lordship, out of your noble bountie and wonted charitie, to bestowe an estate for nynetie nyne yeares determinable on the three lives hereunder named, in the said cottage and gardens on your said Towne and Burrough, reservinge to your Lordship the auncient rent of one shilling yearly and as it is our whole desire, soe it shall be our choicest care, it be altogether converted to and Burrough, except great necessitie conthe use of the poore of your said Towne strayne us againe to convert it to a Pest House. This boone, if your honour please to bestowe on us for soe pious a worke, your humble petic'oners shall daylie praie for your Lordship's prosperitie, long to continue. (Signed) John Cudlippe, Portrieve, Ffrancis Collen, Michael Willesford, Jo. Herry, David Sargant, Richard Spry, William Saxfen, Walter Godben." ST. MARGARET'S was a small Chapelry also dependant on the Abbey. No remains of this § I saw a cross of gold of this description, sold in the year 1828, at Thomas's Auction-rooms, described as having belonged to Edward the Confessor; it inclosed a small portion of black wood, and bore the inscription PRECIOSVM LIGNVM DOMINI. 1830.] Notices of Tavistock. building are now extant; but the Rev. Mr. Bray thinks it stood near Tavy town, now Mount Tavy, the seat of John Carpenter, esq. and that it was used as a place of worship by the families in habiting the hamlet and manor of Cudlippe town. THE BRIDGES. There are three stone bridges over the Tavy at Tavistock, establishing a communication between the town and the south bank of the river. Two are in immediate contiguity with the town, Abbey or Guile bridge, and New bridge; and the third is West bridge at Ford or Fitzford, in its immediate vicinity. The legend which accounts for the erection of Guile or Abbey bridge, however trite, cannot well be passed over in silence in a topographical sketch of Tavistock. In the reign of Edward III. one Child of Plimstock, a man of large possessions, hunting in the winter season on the trackless waste of Dartmoor, lost his way, and being pressed by the extremity of cold, killed his horse, embowelled him, and crept into his carcase for shelter; but seeing little chance of preservation by this expedient, he at the same time made his will in the following terms, using some of the blood of his steed for ink: "He that finds and brings me to my tomb, My lands which are at Plimstock shall be his doom." At length, to use the words of a British pastoral poet, pathetically describing a similar occurrence, "" on every nerve The deadly winter seizes, shuts up sense; And, o'er his inmost vitals creeping cold, Lays him along the snows a stiffened corse, Stretch'd out and bleaching in the northern blast." A passenger finds the body with the testament, and gives notice to the monks of St.Rumon of the circumstance; they hasten to the spot in order to bring the corpse to their church for interment, and to claim the conditional bequest. The men of Plimstock, hearing also of the extraordinary will of their townsman, assemble at a certain bridge, then the only passage over the river in those parts, to oppose the monks in their way, and possess themselves of his body. The monks, too subtle for their opponents, construct a temporary bridge for the passage of the corpse, on the spot where one of stone was afterwards erected, which bears to this day the name of "Guile bridge," in allusion to 491 the wily stratagem. Those, however, who are not easily credulous of these amusing old tales, will perhaps conceive that by Guile bridge there is nothing more implied than the Guild bridge, particularly as it leads immediately to the Guildhall of Tavistock. Mr. Bray informs me that the old bridge of the town was situate between Guile and the East-bridge, and that he some years since recollects the ruins of one of the piers projecting above the water-course. None of the present bridges at Tavistock bear the marks of any antiquity. FITZ-FORD. At the distance of about a mile westward of the town of Tavistock, near the bridge over the river Tavy, called West bridge, in which spot the river was anciently passed by a ford, stood the mansion of the ancient family of Fytz, which from its contiguity to the passage over the river, obtained the appellation of Fitz-ford; a gothic gateway of the Tudor age, and some spacious barns and outbuildings, still afford testimony of the former importance of this knightly residence. John Fytz, one of the governors of the Society of Lincoln's Inn, in 6, 7, and 8 Hen. VI., settled here about the middle of the fifteenth century, and John his great grandson joined to a distinguished proficiency in his profession as counsellor at law, a profound application to the more abstruse and altogether chimerical principles of judicial astrology; reveries which, like those of Gall and Spurzheim, had their day, but which possessed a longer influence than the latter are likely to maintain over men's imaginations. Mr. Fytz married a daughter of Sir John Sydenham, of Brimp: ton, in the county of Somerset,* and previously to the birth of a son and heir, while his lady was in labour, he erected a scheme to calculate his child's nativity, and fonnd by the relative position of the planets at the moment, *The counterpart lease of a field, with liberty to John Fytz, esq. to convey water from a fountain therein "in pipes of timber, lead, or otherwise," to his mansion-house at Fitzford, dated 10th of Elizabeth, is extant among the archives of Tavistock parish. It is sealed with Mr. Fytz's arms, a cross engrailed gules in a field gouttée argent. There is some variation between this and the coat as given by Prince. The spring above mentioned is in a meadow at a short distance from the gateway, and a little conduit is erected over it. The name of Fytz is pronounced by the Devonians long, Fyze. 492 66 Notices of Tavistock. that unless the midwife could defer the Trux homicida mei, mox homicida sui; [June, cised by him in the contest, that he really, as the story goes, took advantage of a false step made by his antagonist, to give him his death-blow. The imputation could hardly otherwise be just, how much soever duelling is to be deprecated as a violation of the laws of God, and consequently of the bounden duty of a Christian. Much more courage in this point of view may be exhibited in refusing than accepting a challenge. He must be a hero indeed who, for conscience sake, can consent to be "A fixed figure for the hand of Scorn To point her slow unmoving finger at." The monument of this Fytz and his lady are extant, as has been said, in Tavistock Church; it was erected probably in their lifetime, and his subsequent dreadful end may account for the absence of all inscription whatever. There remains in the parish chest of Tavistock the muster roll of Sir Nicholas Slanning, son of the above, who was remarkable for his zeal in the royal cause during the civil war, and who, having joined the forces of the West under Sir Bevil Grenville, was present at the battle of Lansdowne near Bath, and perished in the same year, 1643, at the assault of Bristol. Slanning's muster roll is thus intituled: muster-roll, containing the several hundreds, "Stannary of Tavistocke.-A perfect parishes, and hamletts, together with the officers and souldiers within the said Stannary. Officers, Sir Nicholas Slanning, Lieutenant-Colonel; Joseph Drake, esq. Capt.Lieutenant; John Jacob, gent. Ensign." Names of four serjeants and eight corporals. "Hundred of Roborough.-Walkhampton, 12 names; Whitchurch, 13 ditto; Tamerton Folliett (Foliot), 3 ditto; Sampford Spiney, 6 ditto; Wilsworthy Hamblet, 3 ditto; Buckland Monocor' (Monachorum), 29 ditto; Peter Tavy, 7 ditto; West Tavistocke, 8 ditto.-Hundred of Tavistock-Tavistocke towne, 24 ditto.-Hundred of Liston-Liston and Verginstow, 3 ditto; Sourton, 6 ditto; Mary Tavy, 9 ditto; Lidford, 3 ditto; Lew Trenchard, 1 ditto; Broadwood widger, 2 ditto; Lamerton, 4 ditto; Bridistow, 10 ditto; Oakhampton, 2 ditto; Coriton, 3 ditto; Bratton Clovelly, 6 ditto. -Hundred of Black Torrenton-North Lew, 2 ditto; Keakebeare Hamblett, 0. "Seen and confirmed by us under our hands and seales (name effaced), Nicholas Slanning, Edw. Yarde, Joseph Drake." The total of this force is 156; of which about two-thirds are specified as armed with muskets, and the remainder |