PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
|
|
Plympton had been the site of an ecclesiastical college, consisting of a dean and four canons, since the days of the Saxon kings. This was replaced in 1121 by a St Augustine Priory founded by Robert Warlewas, who from 1150 until 1159 was the Bishop of Exeter. He apparently objected to the fact that the Chapter 'wold not leve their concubines'. The new Priory was dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. It became a very rich Priory and by the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 it had 21 canons and was earning £912 per year. Just a couple of years earlier, in 1534, the last Prior, John Howe, had surrendered to the King's supremacy. The Priory and its demesne were granted by the King to Mr Arthur Champernowne, who later sold it on to the Strode family. As Plympton was much older than the little fishing village of Sutton, the Priory pre-dated the construction of St Andrew’s Church and the Prior was responsible for the appointment of its vicars, a fact that caused much consternation in later years. One story, related by the Deputy Mayor of Plymouth, Mr Isaac Foot, at the re-opening of Plymtpn Grammar School in 1921, was how Plymouth overcame the problem of having to pay Plympton a pension of £120 a year. Apparently, the new Borough 'squared a royal officer with a tun of wine costing £5 6s 8d to speak to the King that he should abolish the pension'. This piece of municiapl curruption was successful. At the end of the nineteenth century the Early English refectory and the Norman undercroft plus a fifteenth century kitchen were still in situ within the house and grounds of Lower Priory, which belonged to a Mr Evans. The Church of Plympton St Maurice was formerly a chapel
attached to the Priory.
|
