DEVONPORT, an arsenal (naval, formerly called Plymouth
Dock), in the parish of STOKE-DAMERALL,
hundred of ROBOROUGH, county of DEVON, 1
mile (W.) from Plymouth, and 218 (W. by S.) from London.
The population is returned with the parish. In
the reign of William III., a naval arsenal was established
here under the name of Plymouth Dock, and
to this event the town is indebted for its importance
and present magnitude; in 1824, the appellation of
Devonport was conferred upon it by royal permission.
It was first fortified in the reign of George II., but
the works have been much improved under an act of
parliament passed in the 21st of George III. In the
early part of the American war, Colonel Dixon, then
commanding engineer at Plymouth, applied, on behalf
of the troops in garrison at Dock, to the corporation of
Plymouth, for supplies of water from a leat, a stream
which had been conveyed to that borough by Sir Francis
Drake; the application was refused for the alleged reason
that this stream was insufficient to supply both
places; various other plans were devised and proposed
without success, till 1792, when Mr. Bryer, Messrs.
Jones and Grey, and others, submitted a plan to the
government, and also to the inhabitants, for supplying
the latter with water on the same terms as those of
Plymouth, and the government departments at a stipulated
price; which plan, under an act of parliament
obtained in the same year, though not without strenuous
opposition, was carried into effect by means of a stream
brought from Dartmoor, in a circuitous line of thirty
miles, to a reservoir on the north side of the town.
Devonport is situated on an eminence, bounded on
the south and west by the mouth of the Tamar, which,
expanding into an irregular aestuary, forms the capacious
harbour at Hamoaze, and on the east by Stonehouse
creek. The town is of an oblong figure, and the streets,
which are regular and well built, nearly intersecting each
other at right angles, are paved and lighted; the footpaths,
when washed by a. shower, have a remarkably
beautiful appearance, being paved with marble obtained
on the manor, which receives a considerable polish from
the action of the weather and the feet of passengers.
The Fore-street, which crosses the upper part of the
town in a direct line, is approached through a plain
but handsome gateway on the east, where there is
a fosse with a draw-bridge; the houses are in general
respectable, and some of a superior order; the entire
thoroughfare forming a good approach to the dock-yard.
The town is protected on the north-east and south
sides by a wall about twelve feet in height, called
"the King's interior boundary wall;" skirted on the
west by the dock-yard and gun-wharf; and fortified on
the sea side entrance by heavy batteries on Mount Wise:
immediately south of the town are the houses of the
Port Admiral and Governor, the telegraph, and grand
parade. Without the wall is a line, or breastwork, with
a fosse excavated in the solid rock, of from twelve to
twenty feet in depth, planned by a Mr. Smelt, of the
engineer department, and begun about the year 1756
In the lines are three barrier gates; the North Barrier,
which leads to the passage across the Tamar; the Stoke
Barrier, leading towards Tavistock, and the Stonehouse
Barrier, conducting towards Stonehouse, Plymouth, &c.
On the south side of the town, immediately above the
sea-shore, is Richmond walk, raised under the direction
of the Duke of Richmond, when master-general of the
ordnance, for the accommodation of the inhabitants; it
commands a fine view of Mount Edgecumbe, and forms
a healthy and pleasant promenade. There is a small
theatre in the southern part of the town: the public
subscription library is ornamented with an Egyptian
facade; and there is an elegant assembly-room at the royal
hotel. Southward from the town ai"e hot, cold, shower,
vapour, and swimming-baths, with six convenient lodging-
house's handsomely furnished. The commerce will
be noticed in the account of Plymouth, of which port
Devonport is a branch. The principal quays are at
Mutton Cove, North Corner, and Morice Town. On the
south is a ferry to Mount Edgecumbe, and another on
the north-west, to Torpoint. The market days are Tuesday,
Thtirsday, and Saturday, but the market is not
chartered; the market-place is of recent erection, and,
for extent and accommodation, is inferior to none in the
western part of England; it is well supplied with all
kinds of provision, particularly with fish, but it is not a
corn market.
The government of the town is vested in commissioners,
among whom are the lord of the manor, who
holds courts leet and baron at Michaelmas, the stewards
of .the manor, the rector of the parish, the commissioner
of his majesty's dock-yard, the port admiral, the mayor,
aldermen, and recorder of the boroughs of Plymouth
and Saltash, the manorial lords of East Stonehouse, and
of East and West Anthony, with the stewards of those
manors; the affairs of the poor, the lighting, watching,
and cleansing of the town, and the granting of licenses
to porters and watermen, are all under their superintendence.
The county magistrates hold petty sessions
every Wednesday at the town-hall, for the despatch of
business connected with the town and parish. The
town-hall includes, in addition to its principal room,
which is seventy-five feet by forty, a watch-house, temporary
prison, engine-house, &c.; the front, is decorated
with a noble Athenian-Doric portico) finished with a
horizontal blocking-course and tablet, instead of the
usually adopted pediment; near this edifice is- a column
erected to commemorate the naming of the town anew j
it is a fluted column of the Doric order, and from its
summit, which is accessible by a spiral flight of one
hundred and forty steps, there is a most splendid view.
The port admiral's house is a new and elegant structure j
the semaphore near it communicates with the flag-ship
in the harbour, and is the first of thirty-two telegraphic
stations connecting this place with the Admiralty in
London. It is said that a communication has been conveyed
to and from the metropolis in the short space of
fifteen minutes. The dock-yard, one of the finest in the
world, is bounded on the east by the town, from which
it is separated by a wall, which is in some places thirty
feet high, extending from north to south; its water
boundary forms a curve bending outwards in a westerly
direction; it occupies an area of seventy-two acres, including
the projections of the jetties, and was extended
to its present dimensions in 1768; the land entrance is
from Fore-street, having a carriage gate and a gate for
foot passengers. Near this entrance is a chapel recently
built by government, on the site of one erected in 1700,
" by the generous and pious contributions of officers and
seamen belonging to a squadron of men of war" under the
superintendence of George St. Leo, Esq., at that time
commissioner of the yard. In addition to a stipend
from government, the chaplain receives twopence per
month from the pay of each of the officers and seamen
belonging to ships laid up in ordinary. Opposite to this
edifice are the military guard, and navy pay offices. To
the south-west is a row of excellent houses occupied by
the commissioner and other officers of the establishment,
and fronted by a double row of lime trees, from which
is a descent by a number of steps to two handsome
buildings, one of which, the "Joiner's shop," is surmounted
by a cupola. Facing these are the basin
and dock, constructed in the reign of William III; the
latter is sufficiently capacious for a seventy-four gun
ship, being in length one hundred and ninety-seven feet
three inches, in width sixty-five feet ten inches, and in
depth twenty-three feet one inch: the basin is bounded on
each side by jetty heads; that on the south is named
" the Master Attendant's stairs." Adjoining to this jetty
is a handsome edifice of lime-stone, with the quoins and
cornices of Portland-stone,  four hundred and eighty feet
in length, and three stories high, forming one side of a
quadrangle, and called the "Rigging House;" over it is
the sail loft; and different store-houses complete the
quadrangle, the area of which is the "Combustible Storehouse,"
entirely composed of iron and stone, the geometrical
staircase of which is greatly admired. To the
southward is a slip for cleaning the bottoms of vessels,
and beyond it the Camber, a canal seventy feet wide,
terminating in a basin, which is bounded on the north
by the boat-house; this was the boundary of the yard
previously to 1768; all beyond, in a southerly direction,
is called the New Ground. Here are the "Blacksmith's
Shop," a building about two hundred and ten
feet square, containing forty-eight forges, the fires of
which annually consume one thousand three hundred
chaldrons of coal, the anchor-wharf (the largest anchors
xnade here weigh five tons), a boiling-house, mast-house,
and pond, of which the last is enclosed from the sea by
a strong wall ten feet thick, and three hundred and
eighty long: it is supplied with water through two
openings, of about forty feet wide, crossed by light
wooden bridges.
Near the mast-house, in a southerly direction, is
a small mount, called. Bunker's hill, surmounted by
a battery of five cannon (nine pounders), one of
which is a beautiful brass piece; made at Paris: from
this elevation the prospect is very fine and extensive.
In the dock-yard are two lime-stone buildings, parallel
to each other, two stories high, and one thousand two
hundred feet long, called rope houses; the largest cables
made here are twenty-five inches in circumference, and
one hundred fathoms long, weighing Il6cwt. Iqr. l61b.,
and worth £ 404. 9. 3.; a cable of this weight contains
three thousand two hundred and forty yarns. Behind
these buildings, in addition to dwellings and store-houses,
is the Mould, or Model loft. On the north is the jetty,
north stairs, and double dock, so called from being sufficiently
large to contain two ships at a time: the gates
form the segment of a circle, with their convex sides to
the sea. The second dock, called the Union, or North
dock, is two hundred and thirty-nine feet four inches,
by eighty-six feet seven, and twenty-six feet ten in depth:
it is constructed of blocks of granite, faced with Portr
land-stone, and was built in 1762. The New North
dock, two hundred and fifty-nine. feet nine inches, by
eighty-five feet three, and twenty-seven feet eight
inches deep, is said to be the largest in the kingdom,
it was finished in 1789. Amongst the objects of
prominent interest, is the Breakwater, erected for the
security of the harbour, for an account of which see
Plymouth. The immense roofs over the docks, being on
the principle of an arch without a buttress, are extraordinary
specimens of architectural skill; the square contents
of one of them amount to one acre, thirty-nine poles, and
two hundred feet. The buildings on the gun-wharf, which
is separated from the northern part of the dock-yard by
a branch of the town, were erected after designs by
Sir John Vanburgh; the armoxiries, and the immense
piles of ordnance in the yard, each marked with the
name of the ship in Hamoaze bay to which it belongs, are
worthy of especial notice. The barracks are calculated
to accommodate three thousand troops. The harbour of
Hamoaze is about four miles long, and half a mile broad:
its greatest depth, at high water, is between eighteen
and twenty fathoms, at low water, about fifteen; it
is a grand repository for shipgof war of all classes.
There are two episcopal chapels of ease: St. Aubyn s,
a neat edifiee with a portico and octagonal spire at the
west end, erected by subscription in 17715 and St. John's
chapel, also erected by subscription in 1799; the inhabitants
have also free access to the dock-yard chapel.
There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents,
Wesleyan Methodists, and Moravians; the chapel belonging
to the Baptists has a front in the Hindoo style.
A classical subscription school was erected by subscription,
and opened in 1821: about one hundred scholars
are educated in it. The public school for boys adjoins
St. John's chapel, and was erected, also by subscription,
in 1809; over it is a school-room for girls, of whom
there are about one hundred; the children are clothed
and educated. The Baptists and Methodists have their
respective schools. A public dispensary, for this and
the adjoining town of East Stonehouse, was established
in 1815; and a savings bank in 1829. The work-house,
under the management of the commissioners, contains
an excellent infirmary, and schools for children of both
sexes.