THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF OLD PLYMOUTH. 
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the island, then unfortified, very conspicuously. It belonged to 
Plynipton Priory. Towards the middle of the sixteenth century 
it was thought well that the island should be fortified, and the 
privy council called upon the mayor of Plymouth to do what was 
necessary. Whether the mayor and his brethren thought that the 
king might fitly expend some of the proceeds of the spoil of the 
great Devonshire monasteries in the defence of the coast, or whether 
not so thinking, from those motives of economy which distinguished 
municipal bodies in past centuries, and which distinguish some now, 
history sayeth not ; but the request was not complied with, and on 
the 28th March, 1548, a letter was written, marvelling of " their 
unwillingness to proceed in the fortifying of St. Michael's chapel, 
to be made a bulwarke ; and when they allege the plucking down 
of that chapelle to the foundation, they were answered, the same 
being made up again with a wall of turf, should neither be of less 
effect or strength, nor yet of such great cost as they intended ; 
and therefore eftsoons the lords desired them, like good subjects, 
to go in hand with that work accordingly as they might thereby be 
esteemed, that they tender to the king's niajestie's pleasure, and 
their owne surety, and defence chiefest." 
It will be thus seen, that although the mayor and his brethren 
made haste to demolish, they were in no hurry to build ; but the 
considerations thus laid before them had, we may suppose, their 
due weight ; and the island of St. Michael, called afterwards St. 
Nicholas, and later still, by the name of one who, though not 
canonized by the Church, will live in the hearts of all Englishmen ; 
as old Puller says, " a religious man towards God and His houses, 
generally sparing churches where he came, chaste in his life, just 
in his dealings, true to his word, and merciful to those who were 
under him," was fortified as wished by the king and his council. 
In almost every town which had a religious foundation, or was 
connected with a religious house, a cross was set up in the market- 
place, in the neighbourhood of which provisions were sold and 
bought. As crosses were in every place designed to check a 
worldly spirit, the market cross was intended to inculcate upright 
intentions, and fairness of dealing. There appear to have been 
three crosses in Plymouth. The first — the market cross — which 
was in Old Town Street, about fifteen yards south of Butcher's 
Lane, now Treville Street. It is shown in the map so often referred 
to. In 1310, in the third year of Edward the II., there were 
