Charles Dinham, early in the 15th century, married Sir Piers Edgcumbe, and brought Stonehouse, both East and West, into the Edgcumbe family, with whom it has remained ever since.

The district was not included in the limits of Plymouth at the time of its incorporation. As a parish its existence is modern. The births, deaths, and marriages, up to 1697, were entered in the St. Andrew books, since which time there has been a separate register. There has been an idea prevalent that the chapel was built by the French Protestants, who came to reside here in 1723, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, but this is a great mistake; for as early as 1472 reference is made to a chapel then existing dedicated to St. Lawrence, and there are other references to it down to 1600, when we have fuller particulars. In this year the inhabitants required the chapel wardens to pass their accounts yearly on the eve of St. James. † In 1606 the seats in the chapel were sold, and the money thus obtained spent in repairing the chapel. During the civil war there was great confusion at Stonehouse. The Royalists and Parliamentarians seem to have been pretty equally divided; but the latter got possession of the chapel, and elected a warden. For some years after, the building seems to have been left to take care of itself. In 1660 a Presbyterian called Walmsley was in possession as minister, and, like his contemporary, Francis Collins at St. Budeaux, but unlike Hughes at St. Andrew, conformed and continued his holding. In 1672 William Matthews was chosen warden, and took the chapel in hand, and began to repair it and to put the yard in order. Including repairs to the windows, he expended no less than £10 18s. 8d. in that year, which appears to have been considered an enormous outlay. In 1673-74 it is stated that the English inhabitants of East Stonehouse were very few and poor, and not able to maintain a minister, and they applied, with the consent of Sir Richard Edgcumbe, to the vicar of St. Andrew, and agreed with him to pay the small tithes of the chapelry, amounting to £6 13s. 4d., and the surplice fees, upon having a sermon preached there once a month, and the Holy Communion administered three times in the year, and that this arrangement continued until the year 1691. In that year the inhabitants, being increased, stated that they were capable of maintaining a minister constantly, and applied to Canon Gilbert, the then vicar of St. Andrew, to appoint one; and it was then stipuWoollcombe, MSS. + Brindley.

lated, if a curate was appointed by the vicar of St. Andrew, that such curate should, at Christmas, Easter, and Whitsunday, as well as on the first Sunday of every month, assist the vicar in administering the Holy Communion at St. Andrew, which was agreed to accordingly.

The French inhabitants, from the year 1684 to 1691, seem to have had the use of the chapel jointly with the English inhabitants, and during that time had French ministers. The ministers, however, resided in Plymouth, where the bulk of the emigrants also lived, and where there was a larger congregation, and in time refused to visit Stonehouse, but required the French families living there to join their neighbours at Plymouth. In this difficulty the French inhabitants, with the assistance of the Edgcumbe family, obtained with some difficulty by the intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London (the Bishop of Exeter having at first refused one), a license for a Mr. Stephen Molliner, who officiated for some time; but in 1691 the then curate of East Stonehouse refused to permit the burial of any of the French congregation in the yard belonging to the chapel. Again, however, upon the intercession of the Edgcumbe family with Canon Gilbert, this permission was reobtained, and the registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials of the French congregation still exist, being preserved at Somerset House. Further difficulties soon again occurring between the two congregations, a place for the French exclusively was given by the Edgcumbe family in Edgcumbe Street. This was used for a long series of years; but death, removal, and other causes, eventually led to its being closed entirely, and the French became completely mixed up with the English.

In 1787 an Act of Parliament was passed, enabling certain persons therein named as trustees to rebuild the chapel, and what was at one time apparently a very beautiful Early English structure was destroyed. Some remains sufficient to indicate its character may still be seen at Mount Edgcumbe, a few fragments having been put together to form a seat and a picturesque object in the grounds, combining the useful and ornamental in a most objectionable way. I should be sorry to say anything that would offend or annoy the vicar of Stonehouse, or any of his parishioners; but I cannot help observing that the Church of St. George, which has displaced the Chapel of St. Lawrence, is simply hideous, inside,

outside, and around, from tower to basement, from altar to vestry. On entering the building the would-be worshipper is uncertain as to whether he is in a heathen temple or a Freemasons' lodge, or whether the object of worship there is the erection which serves as a pulpit, or the wonderful circular light. The various graven images which crowd the walls, but which are thicker, more ugly, more desponding, and generally more heathenish in character at the east end of the building, will add to his perplexity.

Looking at the poor remains at Mount Edgcumbe and this building, it is impossible to avoid making comparisons, which, without being odious, are much to the disadvantage of the latter.

I should have stated that, a few years before the passing of the act for building the new church in 1784, there was a dispute, upon the death of Mr. Lemoyne, the clergyman, as to the appointment of a successor. Lord Mount Edgcumbe claimed to appoint, as lord of the manor and proprietor of the land on which the chapel stood; Mr. Bastard, as impropriator of the sheaf tithes of the chapelry; and the vicar of St. Andrew, as parson of the mother church. After an appeal to the Bishop's Court, the caveats of the other parties were withdrawn, and the vicar of St. Andrew, as he had done before, and as he has done since, most properly filled up the vacancy.

It is strange that although all the places I have mentioned-St. Budeaux, Weston Peverell, and Compton-are ecclesiastically parts of St. Andrew, yet in all parochial matters they have always been independent of it. Neither has any Act of Parliament making it a separate parish; but each has always maintained its own poor, and elected overseers and other parish officers.

After the

And now to come again to the mother church. Reformation, the parishioners under the new order of things were unable to obtain the offices of religion as before; the sums payable to the crown, formerly due to Plympton Priory, were not forthcoming, the arrears amounted to a large sum, and no person could be found to take the cure. Under these discouraging circumstances, in consequence, I should suppose, of a petition to the Queen, letters patent were granted, as mentioned in my previous lecture, by which the vicarage was vested, under certain conditions, in the mayor and commonalty of the town.†

Woollcombe's MSS.

+ Eccl. Hist. Old Plym, p. 23.