Devon Notes and Queries. 233 189. Gold Ring Found at Frithelstock. — The follow- ing letter appeared in the Nartk Devon Journal of the 3rd December, 1868. Can any reader of Devon Notes S* Queries throw any light on the subsequent history of the ring, or better still, give information as to its present whereabouts ? George M. Doe. Sir, — At Frithelstock, some years since, a gold ring was found with a diamond in the centre, now, or late in the possession of C. Spence, Esq., at the Admiralty, Devonport. The emblems are typical of the Holy Trinity, our Saviour, Virgin Mary, and St. Thomas a Becket. In a trefoiled recess, each of which represents one of the persons of the Trinity, is a beautiful diamonds-cut in the form of an equilateral triangle — and signifying Trinity. On one side are the Virgin and Infant Jesus. At the back of the ring is the cinque-foiled flower, and it is emblematical of the five wounds of Christ. The other device represents St. Thomas a Becket celebrating high mass before an altar, on which lies his mitre, the chalice, etc. Above is seen a sword descending on his head. This Priory, the ruins of which remain near the church, was founded by Sir R. Beauchamp, for secular Augustine Canons, and it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St. Gregory, and St. Edmund, and it was granted by King Henry VIII. to Viscount Lisle. In the reign of Henry III. it seems these Canons removed from Hartland Abbey and settled here. In the 15th year of Edward I. the manor of Frithelstock was granted by Robert Beauchamp to Canons of the Order of St. George, and at the dissolution of Monasteries its revenues were estimated at ;£ 127 2S. 4d.* Some 40 years since a coffin in Frithelstock churchyard was opened, wherein a male skeleton was discovered, with its face downwards, causing some persons to believe that premature interment had occurred. This idea was ridiculed by a writer in the Liverpool Mercury^ who maintained that a body could not turn in its coffin, and that instantaneous suffocation must ensue in such a lamentable case. This question is worthy of the notice of physiologists certainly. This living is a perpetual curacy, in the Archdeaconry of Barnstaple, two miles distant from Great Torrington West ; and in 1832 it contained 632 inhabitants. The church was then in the patronage of Mrs. Prudence Johns, in whose family, I believe, it still remains. There is a charity school with an endowment given by the Gay family, in 1735, and 1743. It seems that the Augustines had a monastery at Plympton, and cells at Azmouth, Sidmouth, and Marsh, near Exeter. Their nuns had priories at Canonleigh and Corn worthy, and there was an alien priory at Otterton. In Frithelstock Church are memorials of the families of Dene, Gay, and Lambe. I am, sir, yours obediently, (Signed) Christopher Cooke. London, November 26th, 1868.
- Fredeletescoe (FritheUtodc) was possessed by Ordulf , in the reign of Edward the
Confessor, and by Robert Fitzivo* under Earl of Moreton, when Domesday was taken* In s8az this parish contained loz inhabited houses, with io6 families of 63a persons.
