St Budiox & Penny Cross annex'd, Deanery of Plympton

Chanter 225A, 402-403

  1. Population and dissenters: We have about Seventy Families in our Parish. We have no Dissenters of any Denomination, except one man reckoned an Anabaptist, and a Woman a Presbyterian: But ye one frequents ye Church very duly, and the other has been many years confined thro' sickness. There is not any Licenced or other Meeting=House of Dissenters in our Parish.
    There are about seventeen Families in Pennycross. There is one family of Quakers. There is not any Meeting House of any Sort.

  2. Public or charity schools: We have one Charity=school in our Parish, partly Endowed, but cheifly maintained by Subscription. There are about twenty children taught in it. Great care is taken to instruct them in ye Principles of the Christian Religion according to ye Doctrine of ye Church of England, it being a particular Injunction to ye Master that He teach ye children their Catechism, and bring them to Church all Sundays and Holy=Days. There is no Publick or Charity=School in Pennycross.

  3. Alms-house, hospital or charitable endowment: There is one Small Alms House in our Parish for ye Habitation of two widows, with a Benefaction of four nobles a year issuing out of ye Barton of Ernesttle an Estate now in my Possession. The Annuity is Only paid every Easter to ye Church= and Poor Wardens for ye use of ye Widows. The Proprietor of Ernesettle & ye Church Wardens are ye Trustees. We have one charity=school, partly endowed but cheifly maintained by subscription. The Benefactions amount to about £320. H: Trelawny Esqr Peter Docton Esqr & myself are ye Trustees. I do not know nor have heard of any frauds or abuse in ye management. We have likewise one annuity of thirty shillings left by one Captain Rawlins to ye Poor of St Budeaux forever. Some Lands in Plymouth are charged with ye payment. I don't know of any charitable Endowment in Pennycross, except an Annuity of forty shillings a year to ye Poor, Issueing out of ye Barton of Pennycross, an Estate now belonging to Robert Hewer Esqr: which annuity, I believe, is duly paid, & properly applied.

  4. Residence upon cure: I reside personally upon my Cure, but not in the Parsonage House. I reside upon Ernesttle House as being better and more convenient and sufficiently near the church.

  5. Curate: I have no residing Curate at ye Parish of St. Budeaux: Being Curate myself there.

  6. Divine service at other churches: I perform Divine Service once a Fortnight in ye afternoon at ye Chapel of Pennycross in ye Parish of St Andrews Plymouth, as my Predecessors have time immemorial done before me.

  7. Frequency of divine service: Divine Service is performed twice every Lords day except when I am at Pennycross: And once upon ye usual Holy days.

  8. Frequency of communion: The Holy Sacrament of ye Lord's Supper is administred four times a year at St Budeaux namely at Easter Whitsuntide Michaelmas and Xstmas, and the four following Sundays at Pennycross, instead of Divine service there in the Afternoon. Pennycross chapel is from St Budeaux church scarce two miles distant. The Holy Sacrament is administred at Pennycross four times a year, as above mentioned.

  9. Number of communicants: We have commonly about fifty or sixty Communicants in our Parish. I believe there were about fifty last Easter. There are not commonly above ten or twelve communicants at Pennycross. There were ten last Easter, I think.

  10. Catechising of children: As such particular care is taken that ye Schoolmaster instruct the children in ye Catechism of ye Church of England I catechise them myself only once every two years and then in ye Afternoon about midsummer. The Parishioners take care to send their children & servants & I endeavour to teach them ye sense and grounds as well as ye bare words of ye Catechism & to that purpose am employed for 2 months.

  11. Chapels or chapels in ruins: We have no Chapel in our Parish. Pennycross chapel is no otherwise annexed to St. Budeaux, than as ye Minister of St. Budeaux serves it once a Fortnight.

    The Answers here given are to ye best of my knowledge true answers to ye several queries above mentioned. Thomas Alcock. Dated St Budeaux: 11th: July: 1744.

    St. Budeaux – perpetual Curacy: Thomas Alcock M:A:
    Licensed 29th: Decem: 1733. Stephen Exon. [Explanation]