56 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
the Baptists were available. So Abraham Cheare was sent to 
Exeter gaol for encouraging religious assemblies, and remained 
there three months, until released by " special grace." 
Plymouth was singled out for special visitation. Its gallant 
stand for the Parliament made it a marked town. Its corporation 
continued thoroughly Puritan. Every way it was obnoxious to 
the ruling powers. So Plymouth had a call from the commissioners 
appointed to regulate corporations, who ejected the mayor, made a 
clean sweep of his brethren, and turned out Hughes from the 
vicarage of St. Andrew, a week before the fatal 24th of August. 
The mayor, William Allen, a Presbyterian, gave place to William 
Jennens, who justified his selection by proving an adept in persecu- 
tion ; and the old corporators to new aldermen and councillors of 
the same school. Eour ministers were silenced in Plymouth. 
George Hughes, the vicar ; Obadiah Hughes, his son, ejected from 
a studentship at Oxford ; Thomas Martyn, lecturer at St. Andrew ; 
Samuel Martyn, his son, an occasional preacher. Porter, minister 
of Charles Church, then unconsecrated, conformed. George Hughes 
and Thomas Martyn were sent to Drake's Island, under the charge 
of two files of musketeers. That rugged rock then held the 
dignity of state prison; and among its occupants were General 
Lambert (who died there), Colonel Lilburne, and Harrington, the 
author of " Oceana." Hughes was attacked with dropsy and scurvy, 
and after nine months was released on bond for £2,000 (given by 
his friends without his knowledge) not to come again within 
twenty miles of Plymouth. So he retired to Kingsbridge, where, 
in July, 1667, he died. Martyn was released under a similar bond 
for £1,000. He had been silenced some months before Bartholo- 
mew Day, on pretence of speaking certain words in private 
conventicles, which he altogether denied. At the same time 
Cheare was again seized, and lodged in the gaol at Exeter for 
three years. Obadiah Hughes is said to have been imprisoned, 
but if so it could not have been for long. 
The Bartholomew storm beat most violently on the heads of the 
ministers ; but there are entries in the accounts of our corporation 
which indicate that the congregations suffered likewise, though 
their turn had not yet fully come. Between August 14 and Sep- 
tember 29, 1662, £3 10s. were paid for sending away prisoners to 
the common gaol. These were neither rogues nor malefactors ; for 
they were carried in under a separate entry ; and I do not think it 
