THE FOUNDERS OF CHARLES CHURCH. 
237 
know ; but that beyond all question he was the identical Thomas 
Bedford who was smuggled away from Plymouth was at last 
settled by the discovery by Colonel Vivian, and Mr. E. H. W. 
Dunkin, of Blackheath, of the original will of Thomas Bedford in 
the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. 
The will is dated 16th February, 1651, and was proved on the 
15th June, 1653. In August, 1652, the Court of the Merchant 
Tailors' Company, suspicious and cold no longer, gave to their 
weak and sickly parson £10 for his supply and comfort; and on 
the 10th November, 1652, Matthew Smallwood, afterwards Dean 
of Lichfield, was appointed to the Rectory of St. Martin, vacant 
by the death of Thomas Bedford ; so that he must have died in 
the month of September or October ; Wilson says Michaelmas, 
1652. The Testator describing himself as of Martin Outwich, 
minister of God's word, begins with the usual pious preamble and 
declaration of faith, and gives to my deare wife Testance " that 
peece of land of myne in Plymouth ; " and after legacies to his 
sons John, James, and William, and his daughters Mary and Phebe, 
he proceeds, " To the Minister and Church Wardens of the New 
Church in Plymouth doe I bequeath tenne pounds to be bestowed 
upon a font stone or some other utensill for that Church. And 
this I doe as a testimony of my thankfullness to God for that 
legacy w ch by the last will and Testament of myne e vr honor ed 
friend Mr. Robert Trelawny was bequeathed to me To the poore of 
this Parish of St. Martyn Outw ch I bequeath forty shillings and 
forty shillings to the poore of Aderstone and tenne shillings to the 
poore of Marivall." 
The passing references of the will trace the history of Bedford. 
Aderstone, where he had been schoolmaster from 1617 to 1631; 
Plymouth, where he had lived so long ; and, finally, the gift to 
him by his ever-honoured friend Robert Trelawny. A gift from a 
man of sterner stuff would be valued on that account all the more 
highly, and coming as it did exactly at the time when misfortune 
and oppression fell heaviest, would ever be remembered as the 
one gleam of light, the one kindly remembrance during that 
sad time. 
From the isolated touches scattered here and there, it may be 
conjectured what manner of man the Bedford of St. Martin was. 
Broken probably in fortune and health, he had for subsistence to 
yield to the powers that were, and give perhaps an unwilling, 
VOL. VIII. Q 
