244 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
These three are the only stones we can with certainty assign to 
the sixteenth century ; but the church is rich in monuments of the 
seventeenth. The history of these during this century would be 
almost the history of the town. We have the Fownes again in 
force, the Sparkes, the Northcotts, the Seelys, the Spurwells, the 
Schaggells, the Trelawnys, the Trevilles names which to the 
Plymothian recall many a tale of his town’s former glory. 
The most conspicuous of the monuments are of this time. The 
strange Etruscan-like memorial of the Calmadys, the quaint one of 
the Sparkes,—old John Sparke, with his three sons by his side, 
and his wife Deborah, with her daughters and dead children ; the 
quaint-figured tablets of Fowell and Goodyeare, and the fine 
monuments of Strelley and Skelton, were all erected in this 
century. Of this period also is, of course, Rebekah’s tombstone,— 
“Wife 17 years to Mr. G. H., Minister of the Gospel in Plymouth, 
interred near this pillar, and being dead yet speaketh.” 
Also the one,— 
“To the precious memory of that truly vertuous gentlewoman 
Mrs. Mary Sparke— 
Life’s but a Sparke, a weak uncertain breath, 
No sooner kindled but puft out by death. 
Such was my name, my frame, my fate, yet I 
Am still a living Sparke ; though thus I die 
And shine in Heaven’s orbe a star most bright, 
Though death on Earth so soon eclipst my light.’’ 
The eighteenth century, although its monuments are not so 
striking, has many worthy of notice; and some of those erected 
still more recently will rightly find their admirers. 
The story of the inscriptions and monuments would occupy a 
separate paper. We shall find memorials to eighteen mayors of 
the town, to seven physicians, to many soldiers, and to more 
sailors. Strangely enough, the earliest I recollect to a sailor is the 
one which commemorates the services of that brave commander, 
Edmund Lechmere, who although wounded to death in an action 
with a French privateer, persevered in the battle, and won it, 
dying the next day. The date is so recent as 1703. 
The heraldry of the church is worth study; but I can only 
glance at it now. Besides the Fownes, the Sparkes, the Waddons, 
