On the Whitsunday of 1549, the village of
Samford Courtenay rose in revolt against the new prayer-book that Edward
VI. had ordered to be used in the churches, and the whole diocese
speedily followed the lead. The people swore that "they would keep the
old and ancient religion as their forefathers before them had done." Sir
Gawain Carew, Sir Peter Carew, and Sir Thomas Dennis, the sheriff, were
busy in stemming the tide of rebellion. Efforts at compromise were
useless. The people bitterly demanded the old religion, and called the
new form of worship "a Christian game," while the Cornishmen declared
that they, since "certain of us understand no English, utterly refuse
the new English." Early in July the malcontents set siege to Exeter. The
wealth of the civic dignitaries stimulated the besiegers, who summoned
the city to surrender three times, vowing that "they would enter by
force and take the spoil of it," were their demands refused. There was
discontent and plotting within the walls, and food gave out. Many were
eager to let in the rebels, and Hoker records that "but two days before
the delivery of the city," the malcontents paraded the streets, crying
out: "Come out these heretics and twopenny bookmen! Where be they! By
God's wounds and blood we will not be pinned in to serve their turn: we
will go out and have in our neighbours; they be honest good and godly
men." But the principal citizens, though nurtured in the old faith, held
out grimly for the king. The siege was raised by John, Lord Russell,
whom Sir Peter had hastily summoned from Hinton St. George, in
Somersetshire. Food was supplied to the city "by the special industry
and travels of a thousand Welshmen under Sir William Herbert." Sir
Peter, on his arrival in London, was threatened with hanging by the Lord
Protector "as having caused the commotion by burning the barns at
Crediton. He pleaded the king's letter under his hand and privy signet."
But he escaped with difficulty, though he obtained from Lord Russell the
lands of Winislacre as a reward. Later on he opposed Queen Mary's
marriage with the King of Naples, and as Fuller puts it: "This active
gentleman had much adoe to expedite himself, and save his life, being
imprisoned for his compliance with Sir Thomas Wyate." He lived an
active, reckless life to the last, closing his career by some "signal
service" in Ireland. He was a brother of the Earl of Totnes. The
handsome Elizabethan monument is to Sir John Gi