“The ancestor of Mr. Peters of St. Mabyn was a royalist. The Rev. Charles Peters was born on the 1st of December 1690. In Tregony, at the German school there, he was taught Latin and Greek, and the first rudiments of Hebrew. He was afterwards of Exeter College, Oxford. When first ordained he served the curacy of St. Justin Roseland; then was presented with the living of Boconnock. In 1723 the living of Bralton Clovelly was given to him, and three years afterwards St. Mabyn, where from that time he chiefly resided, but spent a part of each year at Bralton, keeping a curate at each. Every Sunday he entertained a great number of the poorest of his parishioners; and on Monday the remaining meat was distributed to them, with bread for each; and thus in succession he entertained all the poor of the parish; and there was scarcely any poor rate in St. Mabyn during his life.
“He spent a large portion of his income in relieving the
temporal wants of his fellow-creatures, and much of his time in their spiritual instruction. Besides morning and evening prayers, he read the Bible daily to his family, and also daily studied it himself in the original languages.
“When he published his Dissertation on the Book of Job, and drew on himself the insolence of Warburton, he bore it with the most perfect Christian charity.
“He had written a vindication of Homer in answer to Warburton. Before it was published Warburton had become a Bishop, when, fearing that the faults of the man might reflect on the sacred order, he abstained from publishing it, saying, ‘Thou shalt not speak evil of the rulers of thy people.’ Mr. Peters was of abstemious habits, regular both in his studies and his exercise, which the natural delicacy of his constitution required. He never married, but educated the two eldest sons of his elder brother, Dr. Joseph Peters, M.D. of Truro, and the Rev. Jonathan Peters, of St. Clement’s. The latter was bred to the church at his desire, and continued with him as his curate, till the living of St. Clement called the nephew to the cure of his own church.
“Mr. Peters lived to the age of eighty-four, retaining the full possession of his faculties to the last.”
Extracts from his Meditations in manuscript:—
When speaking of Warburton, he says,
“Let me then go on with this work which I have begun. Let me beg the assistance of God, that I may do it in a proper manner, so as not to return evil for evil, or railing for railing, but to preserve my temper, and to consider what the Dean has said, in a cool dispassionate way if possible; or at least to check my pen so as to say nothing that may misbecome me either as a Christian or a clergyman.
“As to what relates to Dean Warburton, he has freed me, I think, from all manner of obligation to say anything in complaisance; for this, considering the usage he has given me, would look like stooping to him, and distrusting the cause I have to plead for. I must keep up my spirits