Agnes Prest

Agnes Prest (died 15 August 1557) was a Cornish Protestant martyr from the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary.

Whilst she was released, she is said to have met a Dutch stonemason in Exeter Cathedral who was repairing the statues of the saints beloved of the Catholics.

[1][2] In 1909 a monument in the form of an obelisk of Dartmoor granite was erected in Denmark Road, Exeter, to the memories of the Protestant Martyrs Agnes Prest (d. 1557) and Thomas Benet (d. 1531).

Two bronze sculpted relief panels by Harry Hems on the base of the obelisk depict Prest burning at the stake and Benet nailing his protest to the door of the cathedral.

[3] The following inscriptions are contained on two bronze plaques affixed on opposite sides of the base:[3] To the glory of God & in honour of his faithful witnesses who near this spot yielded their bodies to be burned for love to Christ and in vindication of the principles of the Protestant Reformation this monument was erected by public subscription AD 1909.

"What a madman art thou, to make them new noses, which within a few days shall all lose their heads!" Illustration of "Prest's Wife and the Stonemason" by Kronheim from the 1887 edition of Foxe's Book of Martyrs