Plate, Registei'-s, and Old Books. 131
church at Fitzford. One dish, or paten, iif inches in diameter, with scalloped edge 2\ inches high, inscribed,
- Richard Peek,' in the centre. This Richard Peek must
be the 'Manly Peek' of famous memory, who joined the expedition against Cadiz as a volunteer, and being taken prisoner, won his freedom by defeating three fully-armed Spaniards with a quarter-staff.
Registers. — These begin with a fine old folio containing baptisms, marriages, and burials from 1614. Our registers are therefore about eighty years later than those of some parishes; but from their commencement they continue down to the present time without any break. There is naturally some confusion under the Commonwealth, when the marriages are mostly performed by the magistrates of Tavistock and the neighbourhood. Many points of interest are suggested by Dr. Barham's Digest of our Registers, a copy of which is to be found in the Public Library. From this it appears that the population of Tavistock was larger in 1680 than in 1780. The town seems to have rallied very slowly from the shock of the plague in 1626, when nearly six hundred deaths occurred in the twelve months, and more than a hundred a month died in August, Sep- tember, and October. For one hundred and fifty years after this the population rather declined than increased ; but it made a fresh start from 1780, and then the progress was steady, and from 1830 to 1850 very rapid. For instance, the population in 1781 was 31 17; in 1801, 3420; in 1811, 4723; in 1821, 5483; in 1831, 5602; in 1841, 6272; in 1851, 8147. Since 1851, with the falling off in mining, we have steadily fallen back again to the 7781 of 1 87 1, and the 6900 of 1881. These figures are from census returns ; but Dr. Barham shows that, whereas from 1687 to 1737 burials exceeded baptisms by 521, marking a steady decline ; from 1786 to 1836 baptisms exceeded burials by 1697, showing, of course, a rapid increase.
Old Books. — (i) In black letter and with chain, Frasmus' Paraphrase of the Nezv Testament, done into English by Nicholas Udall, in 1545. One portion is dedicated to Queen Catherine Parr, another to Edward VI.
(2) Also in black letter, and printed in 1609, a consider- able portion of Jewel's works, namely, A Defence of his Apology against Dr. Cole ; A Replie to Harding ; A Treatise of Holy Scripture ; Comments on i and 2 Thessalonians ; and Sermons.
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