Dartmouth St Petrock

from

Some Old Devon Churches

By J. Stabb

London: Simpkin et al (1908-16)

Page 78

Transcribed and edited by Dr Roger Peters

Full text available at

https://www.wissensdrang.com/dstabb.htm

Prepared by Michael Steer

Between 1908 and 1916, John Stabb, an ecclesiologist and photographer who lived in Torquay, published three volumes of Some Old Devon Churches and one of Devon Church Antiquities. A projected second volume of the latter, regarded by Stabb himself as a complement to the former, did not materialize because of his untimely death on August 2nd 1917, aged 52. Collectively, Stabb's four volumes present descriptions of 261 Devon churches and their antiquities.

DARTMOUTH. St. Petrock. The church consists of chancel and nave with continuous roof, north and south aisles, and west tower with five bells. The roofs which are waggon shape are plastered.

In front of the altar are two old gravestone, one with the inscription:- In Memory of Robert Newman who died May 3rd 1739 and his wife Joyce Newman who died Feb ye 10th 1714 and Elizabeth Newman his second wife who died the 12th July 1759.

The other is in memory of:- Elizabeth the wife of William Neal who died the 5th April 1777.

At the east end of the south aisle are three brasses; one in memory of John Roope, represents him standing, bareheaded, with his hands joined in prayer. He wears round the neck a ruff and has a cloak and doublet with trunk hose, and shoes with rosettes; at his feet is the inscription:-

"Twas not a winded nor a withered face
Nor long gray hair nor dimness in the eyes
Nor feeble limbs nor uncouth trembling pace
Presaged his death that here intombed lies
His time was come his maker was not bounde
To let him live till these marks were founde
His tyme was come that tyme he did embrace
With sence & feeling with a joyfull Harte
As his best passage to a better place
Where all his cares are ended & his smarte
This Roope was blest that trusted in God alone
He lives two lives where others lived but one."

Round the stone ran a fillet of brass, there are only fragments remaining; the following words can be seen:- H . . . of John Roope of Dartmouth
Merchant borne the first . . . the
22 Daye of October 1609.

The centre brass has a small figure of a female wearing ruff and hoop-skirt and has the following inscription:- Here lyeth the bodye of Mrs.
Dorothy Rouse who yielded her soul
to God the XIX Daye of March
in the yeere of our Lord 1617.

The third brass has a larger figure of a female wearing the ruff and hoop-skirt and bears the inscription:- Here lyeth the body of Barbara
the wife of John Plumleigh of Dar . . .
who departed . . . . thirde
daye of September Anno Domini 1610.

At the base are two small brasses of two male figures in long cloaks, and four female figures with high ruffs and hoop-skirts; the inscription runs:-

"Here lyeth the wife of John Plumleigh who Barbara had to name
Whose virtuous life and Godly death hath left her lasting fame
Of rich and poore she was beloved to ye one a neighbour kind
To the other still in all distress a tender hearted friend
Two sones and daughters 4 shee bare unto her husband deare
And dyed when aged had neere runne out ye foure & VXXX yeare
Whose corp though thou o death destroyed yet Christ shall raise again
And it conjoyne with soule in blisse for ever to remaine
For death to life a passage is as scriptures all accord
This Roope was blest that trusted in God alone
Blest are the dead therefor that die in favour of ye Lord."

On the wall over the brasses is a tablet in memory of the Roope family, the inscription is too worn to be made out, but underneath are the following lines:- Also here lyeth ye body of Edward Roope,
Gent: the erector of this monument who
departed this life June 2nd 1689, ætatis suæ 55.

On the south wall is a tablet in memory of Nicholas Roope, who died June 15th 1623; Alice his wife, October 20th 1623; and Mary wife of Nicholas Roope the younger, July 25th 1637. On the same wall are the arms of one of the [King] Charles.

In the tower is a circular Norman font [plate 78a] of the type common in the neighbourhood. On the north side is a tablet with the inscription:- Hereunder lyeth ye Body of Margaret the second wife of John Plumleigh of Dartmouth Gentleman, who was the daughter of Nicholas Martin of Exon, Esq: who departed this life ye 25 of Februar 1638. She lived vertously and died Godly.

The pulpit is dated 1641. At the east end of the nave are gravestones in memory of members of the Newman family dated 1670 and 1761. A gravestone in the nave has the inscription:- Here lyeth the body of Mrs. Mary Page who dyed the 1st day of October 1699, aged 66.

"Behold thyself by me
For once I were as thou
And thou in time shalt be
In dust as I am now."

There is an old carved figure [plate 78b] preserved in the church, but I do not know its history, it might have been on a tomb, or on a canopy over the pulpit.

The registers date: baptisms, 1652; marriages, 1653; burials, 1652.