98 Plympto7i in the Olden Time, by James Hine, F.R.I.B.A. 
was discovered about four years ago embedded in a wall of the 
Guildhall, taken down in the course of some alterations. It now 
lies desecrated, under a heap of stones ; but it is satisfactory to 
know that its restoration is in contemplation. 
In the register of this parish are some curious entries; thus, 
there is record of a plague which carried off a great number of the 
inhabitants ; and on one occasion forty marriages are said to have 
taken place in one day, by proclamation, at the Market Cross. 
This was during the Commonwealth, when the religious ceremony 
was ignored, and against the entry some stout royalist or dis- 
appointed bachelor has written, " This was the hour and power of 
darkness." 
We have yet to touch on the politics of the town. 
Plympton became a borough town, with the privileges of a 
market and fairs, by a charter from Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of 
Devon, dated March the 25th, 1241. The borough sent members 
to Parliament as early as the 23rd year of Edward the First's 
reign, and continued to do so until disfranchised in 1832. It was 
a very respectable constituency of nearly a hundred free burgesses, 
who were sworn in by the corporation, which consisted of a mayor, 
recorder, and eight aldermen, called the Common Council. 
The Strode influence was great in the town from a very early 
time, and several members of that family sat in Parliament for 
Plympton. In Elizabeth's reign. Sir John Hele, a distinguished 
lawyer, and at one time King's Sergeant, was returned for the 
borough. A little later Sir Francis Drake, nephew of the great 
Sir Francis, and successor to the baronetcy, became member. In 
Charles the First's reign. Sir "William Strode, one of the most 
distinguished of the great party which then resisted the undue 
authority of the Crown, and who, with three other members, was 
committed to the tower by the King, sat in Parhament for Plymp- 
ton. Another famous member for Plympton was Sir Nicholas 
Slanning, a staunch Royalist, who distinguished himself, especially, 
