Exeter No. 2 / Execestre / Exonia

There are eighteen entries for Exeter [variant spellings] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SX9292/exeter/] [accessed 13 May 2018], of which two mention a church in it. Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports "a beautiful basin of white marble, embellished with cherubim and supported by a pedestal of black marble" erected in 1643 for the baptism of princess Henrietta Maria, daughter of Charles I and born in Bedford House, Exeter. Noted in John Murray's Handbook for travellers […]: "The font, in the S side of the nave, was the gift of archdeacon Bartholomew in 1842, and is a copy of the Perp[endicular] font at Beverley Minster. The inscription round it should be read." [NB: is this a second font?] Described and illustrated in Bond (1908] as a font "especially made for the christening of Henrietta, youngest child of Charles I (afterwards Duchess of Orleans), who was born 21st July 1644 in Bedford House, Exeter. She was christened in Exeter Cathedral when only a fortnight old, and to this haste probably may be attributed the inferior carving of the heads on the font. The cover is of the same date." Bond (ibid.) writes that the earliest entry referring to a font cover is one in the Exeter Fabric Rolls for 1323-4: "for a cord for the baptismal font, 3d", and as he adds, "the cord implying the existence of a font cover, and one so large that it could not be lifted off by hand" (ibid.). The later Jacobean cover is described as "reminding one of the little ogee cappings of the turrets of man a Jacobean Hall" (Bond, ibid.) Tyrrell-Green (1928) described this font as one of "several large fonts of good design" [other such fonts at Falmouth and Tunbridge Wells] that were caused to be made by the "Laudian revival of churchmanship". Pevsner (1952), however, notes: "Font. Tall, white marble, on pillar, 1692." The font-cover is noted in Howard & Crossley (1919). The Ecclesiologist (vol. 9, 1849: 78) reports "wanton mutilation" on the new font.