He

He

and the other Victuallers of the Navy are to pay. requests Sir Robert Crooke to be Overseer of his will. speaks of his cousin Valentine Petit, Esq., godfather of his daughter Penelope. He makes him, "and his beloved friends, Sir Robert Crooke and Sir John Griffiths," Trustees for his daughter Penelope, who is to have a thousand pounds for her marriage portion. He speaks of an Agreement, bearing date 6th July, 1672, with Andrew Ellis, Esq., in virtue of which Colonel Robert Whittley is to pay Lady Margaret Frowde, his wife, £250 a year. He speaks of his and his wife's "losses by the late Fire." He is described at the commencement of the will as of Westminster."

Of Sir Philip Frowde's children, Philip, born probably about 1648, succeeded him as Postmaster-General. He was a Colonel, and obtained Pepper Harrow, in Surrey, from John, Earl of Clare, about 1674. He sold this estate to Viscount Midleton in 1713. He died in 1736. Another son of Sir Philip, Ashburnham Frowde, born about 1666, was "Alphabet Keeper," in the Foreign Department of the Postoffice, in 1694. In 1735 he was "Controller of the Foreign Post-office." He died about 1736.

Colonel Philip Frowde's son Philip, born in 1680, was a pupil and friend of Addison. He is said by Watkins to have been a native of Devonshire. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where Addison was a Demy. He was a poet; wrote a tragedy entitled "The Fall of Saguntum," another entitled "Philotas," and Latin verses, which were published in the Musae Anglicanae. He also contributed several articles to the Spectator. He died in December, 1738, as far as I can find, unmarried. There are several notices of Colonel Frowde and his son in the writings of Addison and Swift. Indeed Philip Frowde, the grandson of Sir Philip, appears certainly to have been Addison's travelling companion on the Continent in the year 1699, if not also, as is most probable, in the years immediately subsequent to 1699.

Besides the Froudes commemorated above, a will of Osmond-ffrowde, of Grantham, was proved in London, in May, 1656; and a will of John Fruid, of Blackshaw, "in the Commissariat of Dumfries," was proved in 1657. This John Fruid married a Janet Dicksone, and a son Thomas Fruid was his executor.

ELLIS VERYARD, OF PLYMTREE, PHYSICIAN

AND AUTHOR.

A DEVON WORTHY. BORN 1657. DIED 1714.

BY FRANCES B. TROUP.

Read at Plymouth, July, 1892.

THE name of Verriard, or Veryard, first appears in the Plymtree Church Registers in the year 1598, when Christian, daughter of "Ellis Verriard," was baptized; but from whence the family came we do not know, though the name at one time was not uncommon in the valley of the Axe. It would seem that this Ellis Veryard, with his wife Wilmot, took up his residence in this parish towards the end of the 16th century, and remained there until his death in 1640. The family thus established continued at Plymtree, where the name constantly occurs in the registers until 1788, and in that period underwent the usual vicissitudes that happen to most families during a couple of centuries.

We are not aware what occupation the original Ellis Veryard pursued; it is, however, just possible that he was one of the "makers of Spanish cloth" who flourished in Plymtree at that era, but this is a mere conjecture. At all events, we find the elder branch of the family at a later date were sergemakers, while the younger branch practised medicine. Beside the Plymtree doctors, we notice there was a Dr. William Veryard of Wapping1 (1709), and a Dr. Walter Veryard of Devon (1672), perhaps a member of the Sidmouth branch of Veryards. Both the father and grandfather of our Ellis Veryard were doctors, so it may well be said that he came of a family of physicians.

2

1 Will of William Veryard, of Wapping, Chyrurgeon, dated 19th August, 1709, proved 9th March, 1709-10. P.C. of C. (Smith, 92.)

2 On 27th May, 1672, a license was granted to Walter Veryard to practice surgery in Devon. (Epis. Reg. Exon.)

The second son of the first Ellis Veryard of Plymtree was a physician. At his death in 1680-1 he is described in the parish registers as "Ellias Veryeard, Doct", Sen"." His second son, Ellis Veryard, was licensed to practise surgery 1662-3, and perhaps assisted his father at Plymtree, where his children were baptized between the years 1655 and 1664. He may have lived there during the civil wars, though we have no evidence of his residence in the parish until 1664, at which time his father's name appears on the church rates as Ellis Veryard, Sen. But this Ellis Veryard, jun., third, predeceased his father, dying before he was forty years old, in October, 1673, leaving three sons, Ellis, Andrew, and John. The elder Dr. Veryard's name continues on the Church rates until 1680, when the entry reads, "Dr. Ellis Veryeard, or ye occupiers.' Among the churchwardens' receipts for the same year is "Rec. for Dr. Veryard's Burial, 6s. 8d.," for the old doctor was buried in the church on 10th February, 1680-1, having nearly reached his 80th birthday.

It was some time previous to this event that Ellis Veryard, grandson of the old doctor, began his travels; for we find that he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Utrecht in 1679, at which time he wrote a "Disputatio . . . . de fluxu hepatico." He probably returned to Plymtree for a short time and then again set forth to see more of the world. At the beginning of his book, entitled "An Account of Divers Choice Remarks, &c.," he writes, "April 6th, 1682, I arriv'd at Amsterdam." His voyages occupied thirteen years, he informs us on the titlepage, and at the end of that time it would appear that he returned to the vicinity of his native place, as we find his daughters, Sarah and Mary, were baptized at Plymtree 6th February, 1695-6. About this time he probably wrote his book, as it was published in 1701. In the following year his daughter Grace was baptized at Plymtree, the last of his children entered in the baptismal register. In the accounts of the Overseers of the Poor of Plymtree, for the years 1702 and 1704, are entries of the payment of "Dr. Veryard's bill," so it would seem that he practised his profession there until 1704 at least. But we may conjecture that it was soon after this date that

3 On 13th January, 1662-3, a license was granted to Ellis Veryard, of Plymtree, to practice surgery in Devon. (Epis. Reg. Exon.)

For full title of this work see Appendix ii.

5 For full title of this work see Appendix ii.

6 From Book of Accounts of Overseers of the poor of Plymtree: "4th April, 1702, paid Doctor Veryeards bill, 0 18 00." "1704, paid Doctor Veryeard for Mary Clitsum."

he removed to his dwelling-house in Cullompton, where he made his will on 13th June, 1712.7 Two years later he was buried in Plymtree Church, on 15th November, 1714. His widow Grace described herself in her will as "of Uffculm," but she was buried beside her husband in November, 1717. They left, with other children, a son Ellis, who had married before he was twenty, and died at the early age of 24, being buried at Plymtree 18th July, 1722, just a week after his infant son Ellis had been laid to rest in the same place.

It is difficult to form any conception of the condition of Plymtree when Ellis Veryard, the author, knew the place. To-day it is a quiet and secluded spot, avoided by highways and railways, and though in the 17th century it must have been a larger and more prosperous village than at present, it could not have been a very lively place. In any event, it must have been a great change for young Ellis to emerge from it into the bustling life of the outer world. We can imagine the boy walking through the shady lanes, the silence only broken occasionally by the sound of the weaver's loom in some thatch-roofed cottage, or else accompanying his father or grandfather on the daily round of visits that fall to the lot of a country doctor. In imagination we can see him on Sunday seated in the parish church, where in 1656, the year before little Ellis was born, there was granted to Ellis Veryard and ffrancis Tottle "a voyd place between ye foremost seate and the minister's pew for them to make a seate thereon," close beside the magnificent screen. We may fancy the studious youth poring over his books, perhaps under the tuition of Parson Glanville, laying the foundation of the learning he displayed in later years. When scarce eighteen we see him, in imagination, lead his bride Mary to the altar, and after a brief married life she is buried in the parish church. No doubt his grief at her loss made him seek to distract his thoughts by travel, for in May, 1679, he had already prepared himself for the degree of Doctor of

7 Will of Ellis Veryard, of Cullompton, Doctor of Physic, dated 13th June, 1712, proved 4th May, 1715, by Sarah Veryard, in Archdeaconry Court of Exeter. The overseers were Mr. Anthony James, who resided at Fordmore, in Plymtree, from 1691 to 1693, and Mr. William Palmer, Clarke, of Combe Raleigh.

8 In Grace Veryard's will she asks "To be buried in the Parish Church of Plymtree, near my late husband."

Will of Grace Veryard, of Uffculm, Devon, Widow, dated 24th October, 1717, proved 10th June, 1718, by Ellis Veryard, her son, in P.C. of C. (Tenison, 122.)

1 Plymtree Churchwardens' accounts for 1656.

Medicine at Utrecht. It is just possible that he returned home in time to close the eyes of his aged grandfather, but his stay in Plymtree must have been short, for he soon after sallied forth again, traversing Holland, France, Italy, the Mediterranean and its islands, going as far as the Holy Land. then returning by way of Turkey. As we follow his footsteps as recorded in his stately volume we notice his taste for the natural sciences and medicine, his familiarity with the Classics, and his keen powers of observation. On his return from the Continent he took to himself another wife, named Grace, and came to reside in Plymtree, where he owned a "tenement called Middletons."2 Here he probably occupied the abundant leisure afforded by the seclusion of his quiet home to write out in a clear and interesting style the plentiful notes he had made on his travels. We can fancy him riding back and forth between Plymtree and Exeter, superintending the preparation of his book and correcting its proofs, till in 1701 the handsome volume issued from the Press of "Sam. Farley," and was "sold by Charles Yeo and Philip Bishop, Booksellers in the Fore-street."3 With pride he and Mr. Farley must have surveyed it, as it was a credit to the printer as well as the writer. In Plymtree he seems to have remained, occasionally acting as parish doctor, until 1704. Soon after this we are led to believe he removed to Cullompton, where he died in 1714, leaving three sons, Ellis, John, and Thomas, and two daughters, Sarah and Grace.*

In those days, before Mr. Murray issued his famous guidebooks, to teach us what we ought to admire, and before the multitude of modern dictionaries of biography and of dates made it a simple matter to supply apt quotations and brief sketches, it was not such an easy task to write a book of travels, and, although in this age we are sated with volumes on similar subjects, yet we can read Dr. Veryard's book with deep interest, while we marvel at his keen insight and knowledge of character. It is worthy of comment that Dr. Veryard dwells little on his personal experiences, which, while going to show that he was not egotistical, may be considered a defect in his book. To be sure he describes his capture by pirates on two different occasions,5 and mentions a conspiracy to rob him, which was thwarted by the hidden robber disclosing his whereabouts by a cough produced by the smoke

2 Estate mentioned in his will. See pedigree given in App. i.

3 See title-page given in App- ii. 5 See Choice Remarks, &c., pp. 236, 286.