Stratton is now situate in the hundred from thence denominated
Stratton, (formerly Major Trigshire Cantred) and hath upon the north
Powghill, east Lancells, south Marhamchurch, west Bude Bay and the
Channel. As for the name, after the Saxon, it is compounded of
Strat-ton, i. e. street or highway town, a lane or public road,
derived perhaps from the Latin strata, a street or Roman highway; and
by this name of Stratton, it is taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. In
the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester aforesaid
1294, Ecclesia de Stratone, in decanatu de Major Trigshire, was rated
£7. 13_s._ 4_d._ vicar’ ibidem 20_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it
was valued £10. 11_s._ 6½_d._ The patronage formerly in the prior
of Lancells, who endowed it as I am informed; now ――――; the
incumbent ――――; and the rectory in possession of ――――; and the
parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, £290.
18_s._ The town of Stratton is privileged with a weekly market on
Tuesdays, and Fairs annually on the 8th of May, 28th of October, and
30th of November.
Thurlebere, Thurle-ber, bir, in this parish, was another district
taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, from whence was denominated an
ancient family of gentlemen surnamed De Thurlebere, or whurle-ber; i.
e. cast, whirle, twine, the spit, short spear, dart, pike, lance or
broach, for so the terminative particle ber, bere, bir, indifferently
signifies. See Floyd upon Obelus. In this place John de Thurlebere
held by the tenure of knight’s service, twenty pounds per annum in
lands, tempore Edward III. and John de Cobham had likewise in it by
the same tenure the third part of a knight’s fee. (Survey of Cornwall,
page 40 and 52.) One of those Thurleberes married the daughter and
heir of Thomas de Waunford, Lord of Ebbingford, alias Efford in Bude
Bay, and afterwards made it the place of their residence, tempore
Henry V. till at length the daughter and heir of those Thurleberes was
married to Arundell of Trerice, tempore Edward IV. whose posterity are
now in possession thereof.
Near this town of Stratton, in a field called ―――― there happened on
Tuesday the 16th of May 1643, a sore and bloody battle between the
army or soldiers of King Charles I. under conduct of his general Sir
Ralph Hopton, knight, and Major-General Chudleigh, Commander of the
Parliament Forces in those parts; where, after a sharp contest from
five of the clock in the morning till three in the afternoon, the
fight or success continued doubtful: so that Sir Bevill Grenvill,
knight, was unhorsed, and his troop put into disorder by Chudleigh’s
men; and the king’s party had been totally overthrown had not Sir
John Berkeley with great courage and conduct led up the musketeers he
commanded to their seasonable assistance, maintaining the charge with
that stoutness, that the Parliament army, after the loss of about
three hundred soldiers, gave ground, and Chudleigh was taken prisoner,
with seventeen hundred more of his party. The king’s army having
sustained the loss of about two hundred persons, had the plunder of
the field, wherein they found seventeen brass pieces of ordinance,
seventy barrels of powder, three thousand arms, with ammunition,
provision, and biscuit, proportionable.
The country people hereabout will tell you, that the field aforesaid
where this battle was fought, being afterwards tilled to barley,
produced sixty bushels of corn, Winchester measure, in every acre (See
St. Sennan); the fertility whereof is ascribed to the virtue the lands
received from the blood of slain men and horses, and the trampling of
their feet in this battle.
For this victory, Sir Ralph Hopton, knight of the Bath, was by Letters
Patent dated at Oxford, 4th September, 19 Charles I. by him created
Baron Hopton of Stratton; but he dying without issue at Bruges in
Flanders, King Charles the Second, in the 12th year of his reign,
conferred that honorary title of Straton, upon Sir John Berkeley
aforesaid (younger son of Sir Maurice Barkley of Bruton in Somerset)
who also was one of the four managers of martial affairs in Cornwall
for King Charles I. together with the Lord Mohun, Sir Ralph Hopton
aforesaid, and Colonel Ashburnham; he also reduced Exeter, and was
made governor thereof, and gave for his arms in a field Ruby a chevron
Ermine, between ten crosses pattee Pearl, six in chief, and four in
base.
The ancestor of this Sir Ralph Hopton, knight, came out of France or
Normandy, a soldier or huntsman under William the Conqueror 1066, by
the name of the Norman Hunter, to whom he gave Hopton in the Hole
in the county of Salop, (from whence afterwards he was denominated De
Hopton,) which he conveyed to him and his heirs, and failing the
remainder, to the crown.
Sir William de Mohun, one of the founders of the Abbey of Newham in
Devon, 30th Henry III. gave to the same the bailiwick of the hundred
of Axminster, and also the manor of Norton, with the hundred and
bailiwick of Major Trigshire, now Stratton in Cornwall. (See Prince’s
Worthies of Devon.) After the dissolution of Newham Abbey, 26 Henry
VIII. it fell to the crown, from whence the present titles of those
bailiwicks are derived.