152 ST. BUDEAUX CHURCH. 



original site, near the proprietor's manor house. 

 But, whether this hypothesis be correct or not, if the 

 parish records, in speaking of the new church, mean 

 an entirely new building (which is somewhat irre- 

 concileable with other documents), the present struc- 

 ture was erected through the means, if not at the sole 

 expense, of Roger Budockshed, about 1563-4, and 

 not by Robert, his ancestor, as stated by Risdon, 

 and, after him, by Prince. A deed, bearing date 

 8th Eliz., is extant, in which this Roger grants the 

 piece of land " wherein the church now standeth,'' 

 as well as another piece adjoining the same (the site 

 of the residence house) ; and also Agaton Green, 

 close to the church-yard, — the latter as a parish 

 sporting ground, for a tenii of 2000 years. 



Of Robert Budockshed, Prince, the county bio- 

 grapher, quaintly remarks, " see his fate, or rather 

 the inscrutable event of Providence. This gentle- 

 man's own daughter was the first that handselled it, 

 the place of her burial."* As this Robert was born 

 in 1360, I confess myself utterly unable to reconcile 

 this statement with the incidental notices referring 

 to the church as a newly-erected building in 1563-4. 

 The only conjecture I can offer is, that an older 

 chapel in the present site might have been so altered 

 and enlarged about 1 560, as to give rise to the ap- 

 pellation of new church ; be this as it may, among 

 the numerous monuments by which the interior of 

 the church is adorned, none records the burial of a 

 single individual of the Budshed or Budockshed fa- 

 mily, the earliest being erected to one of the Gorges, 

 to whom the property passed from the name of Bu- 

 dockshed. 



The whole interior of the church, though simple, 

 is pleasing ; and the lover of ancient ecclesiastical 

 propriety will notice with pleasure the situation of 

 tlie font, just within the great door. The font is 



* Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 4. 



