Short Notes. 



183 



The Place of Burial of Col. J ohn Penruddocke. 



A series of letters on this subject appeared in the Wiltshire County 

 Mirror, January and February, 1896. Mr. T. J. Northy, in his " Popular 

 History of Old and New Sarum," which has been coming out in that paper, 

 says (chap, xxix.) : — " The remains of Penruddocke were interred at the 

 Church of St. Lawrence, Exeter," following, as Mr. Harry Hems pointed 

 out, the well-known tradition in Exeter itself, which is doubtless responsible 

 for the definite statements made on the subject by various authorities. 

 Thus, Jenkins, in his " History of the City of Exeter " (1806), says that 

 Penruddock was buried in St. Lawrence's ; Dr. Oliver, in his " History of 

 the City of Exeter " (1861), after narrating the facts of the execution, 

 says : — " In the appendix we give the parting letters between Colonel 

 Penruddock and his wife. His execution took place at the Castle on 

 Wednesday, 16th May, 1655, and he was privately interred in St. Lawrence's 

 Church. His fellow-sufferer, Mr. Groves (sic) was privileged to be decently 

 interred in St. Sidwell's Church and was thither attended by some thousand 

 persons of a depressed party. The brass plate to his memory there was 

 erected after the restoration of monarchy." (This brass still exists at the 

 east end of the north aisle.) Cotton & Woolcombe, in " Gleanings from 

 the Municipal and Cathedral Records of the City of Exeter," 1877, 

 say : — " Penruddock and two others were condemned to death and suffered 

 the extreme penalty on Heavitree gallows tree." (This is a mistake — 

 Penruddocke and Grove were beheaded at the Castle, seven others were 

 hanged at Heavitree.) Tsacke, in his "History of Exeter," 1677, though 

 he gives the dying speeches of both Grove and Penruddocke in full, does 

 not say where the latter was buried. The Rev. W. Everitt, Rector of St. 

 Sidwell's, writes : — "• There is not the slightest reference to Colonel Pen- 

 ruddocke in my parish books, there is a tradition that he was buried in St. 

 Lawrence Church. The sexton's family here have often told me that a few 

 years ago the body was exhumed, by order in council, by the representatives 

 of the Penruddocke family, and taken away to the family burial-place, and 

 this quite recently, in Mr. Davis's incumbency." [This, in the light of Mr. 

 C. Penruddocke's evidence, given below, is a curious example of the modern 

 growth of a legend.] The incumbent of St. Lawrence states that Col. 

 Penruddocke's name does not occur in the registers of that Church. Lysons, 

 "Magna Britannia," II., p. 448 (1822), says : — "John Penruddocke, Esq., 

 beheaded at the same time, was buried in Wiltshire." And Mr. Charles 

 Penruddocke, of Compton Chamberlaine, conclusively proves ( Wilts County 

 Mirror, July 24th, 1896) that this was so, from the parish register of that 

 place, in which is the following entry : — "John Penruddocke, Esq., died at 

 Exeter May 16th (1655), and buried at Compton the 19th of the same 

 month." He also gives the following extracts from an account book 

 preserved at Compton : — 



"For bringing home Mr. Penruddocke's body 



from Exon to Compton £07 09 00 



For a tombstone the mason's work about it 00 07 06 



More for ribbands and gloves 00 19 11." 



VOL. XXIX. — NO. LXXXVII. 0 



