238 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
1635; the chalice, which was the gift of the Earl of Bedford, 1628; 
and the two patens were the gift of Walter Matthews. He was 
mayor in 1604. In 1677, the churchwardens received from Anthony 
Smith, the executor of the late vicar, Dr. Ashton, the large silver 
cup with his arms engraved thereon, and in the same year they 
bought the covered cup and the two large silver patens. They 
weighed 76 ounces, at 5s. 8d. per oz., the total cost being £21 17s. 
I can find no account of the purchase of the paten with the 
date 1685 upon it, nor do I know where the two old flagons, said 
to have been exchanged for a large new one, at a cost of 4s. 6d. in 
1679, came from, or what has become of the latter so obtained. 
It does not appear in any inventory further on, and there is no 
such flagon now in the custody of the churchwardens ; but in the 
inventory for next year a silver basin is mentioned, which is still 
in existence, and this is perhaps what is meant. 
If there were any organs in the church they were destroyed in 
Puritanical times. It is curious to notice how much hostility these 
instruments have from time to time encountered. The Lollards 
objected to them, the Cistercians proscribed their use, the Puri- 
tanism of the civil war hated them, and doomed most of those 
in England to destruction, and Scotch Presbyterianism called them 
“‘kists o’ whistles.” 
The first account we have of an organ in St. Andrew’s is in ~ 
1735, when one built by James Parsons was opened on the 7th 
December in that year. The choir from Exeter Cathedral attended 
the services on the occasion (they are called singing men), and the 
vicar, Mr. Mudge, preached. I cannot find what was paid for the 
organ ; but the money was raised by subscription, and so was the 
salary of the organist, John Evans. In 1748 James Parsons cleaned 
it, charging 8s. for the work ; and in 1749 the subscriptions for 
the organist’s salary fell off, and the vicar made up the required 
sum. ‘This was repeated several years; but at last the salary of 
£14 is regularly entered by the churchwardens in their accounts, 
and it was increased by an endowment and an annual payment from 
the town. The organ, renovated and improved, remains still in the 
church. In 1737 Samuel Addis bequeathed £400, the interest of 
which was to be applied towards the salary of the organist. There 
were chorister boys at one time in the church. I find a reference 
to them in 1737-38. 
