NOTES ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF STONEHOUSE. 357 
That there was a chapel of St. Lawrence at Stonehouse is evident 
from a license granted in 1472 to Magister Johannes Stubbes, 
perpetual vicar of the parish of Plympmouth, to depute a priest 
to celebrate divine service in "capella sancta laurencij apud Stone- 
howsse," within the said parish of Plympmouth, without prejudice 
to the rights of the mother church. But as we shall see, there 
was a chapel of St. George at least in 1497, and I take it that 
this was the one replaced by the present hideous structure in 1789. 
When did the chapel of St. Lawrence disappear It corresponded 
very closely in position as regarded Stonehouse to the chapel of St. 
Katherine on the Hoe, to Plymouth ; and may have originated as 
a place to offer prayer for preservation from the perils of the 
dangerous ferry : for very dangerous Cremill Passage appears to 
have been regarded throughout the Middle Ages. And no doubt 
the transit was often attended with considerable risk, having 
regard to the strong set of the tide, the exposure to wind, and the 
frail character of the boats. That a chapel should be erected 
at such a place is just what we might anticipate from mediaeval 
piety; and since the ferry as an accustomed passage certainly dates 
back to the thirteenth century, the chapel may have been originally 
the work of the Valletorts, and in all likelihood was. 
The earliest reference to the establishment of religious worship 
at Stonehouse with which I am acquainted is, however, a license 
granted to Stephen Durneford and Eadegund his wife, for their 
mansion of East Stonehouse in the parish of Plymouth, Sep- 
tember 28th, 1414. 
It is quite possible that this may have led to the erection of the 
chapel of St. George, hard by their residence ; but however that 
may be, we find certain property which had been granted by the 
feoffees of James Durnford the elder (James Durnford the younger, 
William Carver of London, John Tanton, parson of the church 
of Eame, and William Dernefford) in 1474 (13 Edward IV.) to 
John Bastard, made the subject of a grant, December 24, 1497, in 
favour of John Melett and Lawrence Serle, chapel wardens — 
" custod capell sci georgii martii de Est Stonhous " — for the use 
of the same chapel. 1 This shows that the chapel of St. George 
1 It was a garden in ' Southyll streteyshynde, ' or the end of Southhill 
Street : Wynrech Down south, Calisparke east, king's highway west, 
tenement of Margareta Willyam north. Tenements of John Crokker 
and John Merser, subsequently Harman's and Seyntcler's, are also mentioned 
as boundaries. 
