Mural monument to Elizabeth Peryam (1571-1635), wife of Sir Robert Bassett (d.1641). Heanton Punchardon Church, Devon. A mural monument to Elizabeth Peryam (1571–1635), heiress of Little Fulford, and wife of Sir Robert Bassett (1574–1641) of Heanton Punchardon, North Devon, MP for Plymouth in 1593, is situated on the east wall of the Basset Chapel in Heanton Punchardon Church. She was one of the four daughters and co-heiresses of Sir William Peryam (1534–1604), Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, by his second wife Anne Parker, daughter of John Parker of North Molton, Devon, ancestor of the Earls of Morley of Saltram House near Plymouth. She bore her husband two sons and four daughters,^[1] amongst whom was Colonel Arthur Basset, MP, who erected the monument. It is inscribed in Latin as follows:

Memoriae Sacrum Dominae Elizabethae Bassett uxori Roberti Bassett militis clarissima stirpe oriundi filiae et cohaeredi Gulielmi Peryam militis Schaccarii Regii Baronis primarii Judicic integerrimi et religiosissimi piae prudenti justae patienti modestae castae temperanti constanti hospitali misericordi beneficae pauperum matri et medicae suae familiae conservatrici. Arthurus Bassett armiger filius eius primogenit(us) debitae gratitudinis et observantiae ergo H(oc) M(onumentum) M(atri)? M(aerens) P(osuit) Anno Domini 1635 aetatis suae 64 ad Dominum remeaunt.

Should monuments goe by merit then surely thine,

With pretious stone and orient pearle should shine,

But since thy world of worth ye world doth know,

This marble stone may serve thy name to show.

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all". Psal. 34.19.

Ita in fornacem prodiit aurum

Which may be translated literally into English as:

"Sacred to the memory of Lady Elizabeth Bassett wife of Robert Bassett, knight, arisen from a famous stock, daughter and co-heiress of William Peryam, knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Royal Treasury, (he was) most impartial and duty-bound, (she was) pious, prudent, just, long-suffering, modest, chaste, temperant, constant, hospitable, compassionate, kind, a mother and healer of the poor, a preserver of her own family. Arthur Bassett, Esquire, her sorrowing first-born son, of a duty of gratitude and respect therefore placed this monument to his mother in the year of Our Lord 1635 of her age 64 may she remain to the Lord...Thus does gold come forth into an oven".