Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/364

Pentreath , Collections, i. 298). His works are: 1. ‘A discourse concerning the worship of God towards the Holy Table or Altar,’ 1682, of which Hearne says a copy was in Dr. Charlett's study (ib. ii. 11). 2. ‘The Guardian's Instructor, or the Gentleman's Romance, written for the diversion and service of the gentry’ [anon.], 1688. It deals with the bringing up of children at home, and with the training at the university of Oxford. 3. ‘Apparatus ad Theologiam in usum Academiarum. I. Generalis. II. Specialis,’ 1688; dedicated to Thomas, earl of Ailesbury, with a preface to the young academics, especially the fellows of New College. 4. ‘New Instructions to the Guardian, with a method of institution from Three years of age to Twenty-one,’ 1694; dedicated to Charles, lord Bruce, son and heir to the Earl of Ailesbury. Dr. Knight, in his ‘Life of Dean Colet’ (p. 145), notes the condescension of Penton, ‘a very worthy and noted man, who not only publish'd the “Guardian's Instruction for Youth,” but (even laterly) a “Hornbook (or A. B. C.) for Children.”’

[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Wood's Life, pp. lxxxiv–v; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 1059, iv. 550, Fasti, ii. 265, 394; Wood's Oxford Colleges, ed. Gutch, p. 665; Memorials of Ripon Church, ed. Rev. J. T. Fowler (Surtees Soc.), ii. 299–303; Nichols's Topogr. and Genealogist, iii. 430, 432, 593; Whitaker's Richmondshire, ii. 187.] 

PENTREATH, DOLLY (1685–1777), last surviving speaker of the Cornish language. [See .]

PEPLOE, SAMUEL (1668–1752), bishop of Chester, was born at Dawley Parva in Shropshire, and baptised on 3 July 1668. His father, Podmore or Padmore Peploe, seems to have been in humble circumstances. From Penkridge school in Staffordshire Peploe proceeded to Oxford, where he matriculated as a battler of Jesus College 12 May 1687. He graduated B.A. 12 March 1691, and M.A. in 1693. Having taken holy orders, he was presented to the rectory of Kedleston, near Derby, in 1695 (, Churches of Derbyshire, iii. 174). A strong whig in politics, and a latitudinarian in religion, Peploe attracted the notice of Sir Charles Hoghton, a strenuous supporter of Revolution principles in Lancashire. Hoghton nominated him to the important vicarage of Preston in 1700.

Preston was then a stronghold of the Jacobites, to whom through life Peploe was uncompromisingly opposed. This, coupled with a somewhat overbearing manner, rendered him obnoxious in the town, although he greatly exerted himself to improve its educational and religious condition. He took a prominent part in building a bluecoat school in 1702, and in founding Cadley School in 1707. After the Jacobite occupation in 1715 he viewed with alarm the large number of Roman catholic residents in the town, and he procured the erection of two new churches. While Preston was in the hands of the Jacobites, tradition says that a party of rebels entered the church while the vicar was reading the prayers, and threatened him with instant death unless he ceased praying for the ‘Hanoverian usurper.’ With great self-possession Peploe continued the service, only pausing to say, ‘Soldier, I am doing my duty; do you do yours.’ On this incident being related to George I, he is reported to have said: ‘Peep-low, Peep-low is he called?’ Then, with an oath, he added: ‘But he shall peep high; I will make him a bishop.’ Whether this story be authentic or no, Peploe's subsequent advancement was probably rather an acknowledgment of the active assistance rendered by him to the commission for forfeited estates, appointed in 1716, to which he furnished an elaborate report of ‘estates granted to superstitious uses in and about Preston’ (Forfeited Estates Papers, P.R.O. p. 34). On 1 July 1718 Peploe was nominated by the king warden of the collegiate church of Manchester, in succession to Dr. Richard Wroe [q. v.] The statutes requiring the warden to be B.D. or LL.D., he obtained the former degree from Archbishop Wake, and thereby was thought to have cast a slur upon Oxford. On presenting himself for induction the visitor, Francis Gastrell [q. v.], bishop of Chester, hesitated to perform the office, on the plea that a university degree was essential to the dignity. The matter was taken into the court of king's bench, which decided in Peploe's favour, ruling that the legatine power of conferring degrees was established, and that the degrees so conferred were of equal validity with university degrees in qualifying for ecclesiastical preferment.

As warden of Manchester, Peploe was involved in constant disputes with his chapter. On all religious and political questions he found himself alone; and the episcopal visitor, to whom frequent appeals were made, was on the side of his opponents. On the other hand, his tolerant views made him a general favourite with the dissenters.

On the death of Gastrell, Peploe was nominated to succeed him at Chester. He was consecrated on 12 April 1726, when he resigned Preston, retaining Manchester in com-