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Plympton-Earl, Plympton St. Mary, and Neighbourhoods. Transcribed from - Pigot & Co.'s Directory of Devonshire 1830-31. Please notify me of any errors. Contact. EARL PLYMPTON is a market-town, borough, and parish in the hundred of Plympton, about five miles from Plymouth; seated in a pleasant valley about one mile south of the river Plym. This was formerly the baronial seat of the earls of Devon, and the vestiges of former magnificence are traced in the present remains of the castle. The artificial mount, on whose summit the keep was erected, is one of the most perfect specimens now in existence; remnants of the walls, as well as the fosse, attest its ancient strength. The manor was granted to Richard de Rivers, by Henry I. Plympton boasts high antiquity as a borough and stannary town, and still retains its privileges. The corporation consists of a mayor, recorder, and eight aldermen; the mayor, who is chief magistrate, is elected annually at the town hall. The guildhall is a neat building, with the date 1696 on its south front; in the hall the magisterial business of the borough is transacted; a portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, by himself, is most appropriately places in it, this town having been the birth place of that eminent ornament of the British arts. Plympton first sent members to parliament in the twenty-third year of the reign of Edward I.; the right of election is in the corporation; the mayor is the returning officer, and the present representatives are the Hon. G. Edgcumbe and Gibbs C. Antrobus, Esq. The church or chapel is appendant to that at Plympton St. Mary; and near to the edifice is a well endowed free school. The market day is on Friday, and the fairs are February 25th, April 5th, Holy Thursday, August 12th, and October 29th. By the last returns Earl Plympton contained 763 inhabitants. PLYMPTON ST. MARY is situated on the left of the road to Modbury, near to Earl Plympton; and was formerly of some consequence, having had a college founded by one of the Saxon kings, which was dissolved by Wm. Warlewas, Bishop of Exeter, who settled here, in 1121, a priory of the order of St. Augustine. The parish, in 1821, contained 2,044 inhabitants. POST OFFICE, Earl Plympton.-- Elizabeth Eveleigh, Post mistress. -- Letters from LONDON, PLYMOUTH and EXETER arrive every evening at seven, and are despatched every evening at half-past six.-- Letters from YEALMPTON, &c. arrive every evening at six, and are despatched every afternoon at 1/4 past 4.
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