342 
JOUKNAL OP THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
hands of the mayor and corporation. "Whether it was intended 
that it should be the church of Sutton Ralf, as is I think probable, 
we do not know ; but what the mayor and his brethren did with 
it we can tell. They used it for municipal purposes ; perhaps 
wanting a guildhall, they held their meetings in it, and in the 
tower they deposited their archives. But this desecration was not 
permitted to continue long ; for we find the following entry in the 
Black Book of the corporation. 
" In this year was a great insurrection throughout all the realm 
of England, and especially in the counties of Devon and Cornwall, 
in which time the City of Exeter and the Castle of Plymouth were 
valiantly defended, until the coming of the Lord Russell, Lord 
Privy Seal, and Lord Lieutenant, unto the King's Majesty for that 
time in these west parts, who, having a great army, subdued the 
said rebels, of which were slain at the same time, divers put to 
execution, and [others] taken prisoners and conveyed to London, 
and afterward hanged at Tyburne. Then was our steeple burnt 
with all the town's evidence in the same." 
This burning was on the 15th August, 1549, and the same day 
the rebels were driven out of Plymouth, and eighty of them taken 
prisoners, as appears by the registers at St. Budeaux. 
There is some little confusion as to the subsequent owners of the 
church and buildings of the White Friars. They are said to have 
been purchased by Giles and Gregory Iselham, who also obtained 
possession of the property of the Gray Friars, as we shall see. I 
am inclined to think there is some mistake as to this, as not long 
after the attack of the rebels it was in the possession of the 
Sparkes family who probably purchased from the town. Members 
of this family are buried at St. Andrew's, and they are described 
as of the Friary in the 16th and early in the 17th centuries. The 
arms of the family are still to be seen on the keystone of an arch. 
The site passed in 1814 from William Sparkes, by his will, to 
John Molesworth, the son of Sir John Molesworth, of Pencarrow. 
In 1785 Mr. "William Clarke purchased it of Sir William Moles- 
worth, and in 1814 it was sold to the late Mr. Thomas Bewes, 
M.P., and it is now the property of his son, the Rev. Thomas 
A. Bewes.* 
There must have been much of the ancient buildings left until 
recent years, for I find that the eastern wing was in the year 1795 
* The Rev. T. A. Bewes has kindly furnished me with this information. 
