KINGSBRIDGE 221 



In the parish of Buckland-tout-saints there are extensive 

 slate quarries. Before the Dutch War in 1781, great 

 quantities of this article were exported from these quarries 

 to Holland, but the trade has not since been resumed. 



Bearscombe, or as it was originally called, Woodmaston, 

 once the abode of "Justice Beare" (whose name so frequently 

 crops up in connection with Nonconformist persecution) is 

 in this parish. 



In Worth's "History of Plymouth" is the following: — 

 " When Pope Pius IX. decided upon establishing the present 

 Roman Catholic hierarchy in England, Plymouth was 

 selected as a seat of one of the new dioceses. The first 

 priest who is known to have ministered in Plymouth after 

 the Reformation, was the Rev. Edward Williams, who was 

 settled at the seat of Mr. Richard Chester, in Buckland-tout- 

 saints, and who occasionally visited Plymouth to attend to 

 the spiritual wants of the few and scattered Catholics then to 

 be found there. This was a century since." 



Mr. Richard Chester's residence was at Bearscombe, which 

 is, and has been for many years past, a farm-house.* 



In the adjoining parish of East Allington, is situated 

 Fallapit, the seat of the Governor of Salcombe Castle at 

 the time of the siege. Fallapit was a possession of the 

 Fortescues for many generations ; this branch of the family 

 is descended from Sir Henry Fortescue, chief justice of 

 Common Pleas in Ireland, who married the heiress of 

 Fallapit about 1450 (Fallapit having been for several 

 descents the property and residence of a family of that 

 name). The heiress of this branch married Lewis Fortescue, 

 a younger son of the Fortescues of Spriddleston, who was one 

 of the Barons of the Exchequer in the reign of Henry VIII. 

 * It was at onetime occupied by Walter, brother of the late C. Prideaux, Esq. 



