PLYMPTON CASTLE. Oh 
did not, however, live long to enjoy. We may suppose that it 
was in the days of his prosperity, before Stephen seized the crown, 
that the good deeds we have recorded of him were accomplished, 
churches and monasteries having been founded by him. His 
pedigree shows that he married Adelicia; but we have no in- 
formation as to her birth or parentage. He had issue three sons, 
Richard, Henry, and William, who afterwards succeeded to the 
earldom; and two daughters, Matilda and Hadewisa. He died 
June 4th, 1155, only about six months after the accession of 
Henry, for whom he had suffered so much. He was buried in the 
church of the monastery of Quarr, in the Isle of Wight, which 
he had founded, and his eldest son Richard succeeded to his title 
and estates. 
To return to Plympton. We are told, in the only account that 
we have of the surrender of Plympton, that after the Castle fell 
into the king’s hands it was rased to the ground. I believe that 
this statement is a correct one of what took place, and that from 
that period it has always been as it is now, aruin. We have not, 
as far as I can ascertain, any reference to it as a place of defence 
afterwards, although it existed in name, and offices in connection 
with it continued until within a comparatively recent period. 
Baldwin De Redvers had no time to rebuild it, and in all pro- 
bability his son would not have been allowed to, one of the means 
which Henry relied upon to restore order in the troubled state of 
the country being the destruction of many of the smaller fortresses, 
as well as the enormous number of adulterine castles which had 
sprung into existence during the reign of Stephen. The miseries 
which these last-mentioned castles were the means of inflicting are 
incredible, and the accounts given in the Saxon Chronicle and 
elsewhere of the tortures inflicted therein, and the cruelties prac- 
tised by their owners, are most pitiful. 
Asa Norman castle, therefore, I think it is certain that Plympton 
could have existed but a very short time. The domestic buildings 
probably lasted on, and were used from time to time, although it 
is evident no care was bestowed upon them. 
With various intervals of forfeiture the Honour and Castle of 
Plympton remained in the Redvers and Courtenay families until 
the death of Edward Courtenay, who had been created twelfth 
Earl of Devon, in 1556, without issue. 
In various documents we find references to Plympton in the 
