156 KINGSBRIDGE 



of Salcombe Castle, and maintaining a gallant resistance 

 for a lengthened period; but it seems this was far from 

 being all he did for the Royalist cause. From the first, 

 he had shewn great activity on behalf of the King, and 

 his bravery and daring were known to his opponents, inso- 

 much that they speak of him at this date as " a very 

 great malignant." 



Early in February, 1642, Sir Edmund's head quarters 

 being at Plympton, he had gone over to Modbury to meet 

 other gentlemen of distinction in the county, and the trained 

 bands, when they were attacked suddenly by a party of 

 five hundred horse from the garrison at Plymouth; and 

 the men being seized with a sudden panic, under the im- 

 pression that the forces of the enemy were more numerous, 

 took flight, and Sir Edmund Fortescue and the other gentle- 

 men were taken prisoners. The particulars are found in 

 the following quotation. 



"The Commanders of the garison at Plymouth having 

 had intelligence that the High Sheriffe of that Shire, by 

 name Sir Edmund Fortescue, a very great malignant, lay 

 at Modburie, where the trained bands, by virtue of his 

 ' Posse comitatus,' met also Avith him that day, the Cavaliers' 

 chief quarters being then at Plympton, which was within 

 three miles of them; hereupon they thus formed their 

 designs. Very early in the morning, Capt. Thompson, Capt. 

 Pym, Capt. Gould, and some others, with five hundred horse 

 and dragooners, marched to go away privately northward 

 towards Rowbardown, as if they meant to go to Tavistock; 

 but suddenly wheeling about, they came secretly to Mod- 

 burie, where, in Master Champnon's house,* they found 



* This was Modbury House, the residence of the Champernowne family 

 from the time of Edward II. to the end of the seventeenth century. The 



