Tamarton vicarage, alias North Tamarton, is situate in the hundred of
Stratton, and hath upon the north, part of Whitson; south, part of
Devon and Boyton; east, the Tamar river, from whence it hath its
denomination Tamarton, that is to say, the town situate upon the Tamar
river; which river on the Devonshire side gives also name to Tamarton
Decenna, or hundred there, as also to Tamarton vicarage parish, and
Tamarton chapel, situate on the banks of that famous river; as also
Stoke Damarell vicarage and parish. For Stoke Tamar-oll parish; that
is to say, Stoke chapel or college in Cornish British, in Devon; and
for the etymology of the word Tamar, see my Cornish Vocabulary, and
Liber I. Chap. III.
This is the ταμαρα ποταμος, the Tamara Potamos, mentioned by Ptolomy
the Greek geographer 1500 years past; that is to say Tamar fluvius,
flumen, amnis fluentum, the Tamar river, in the province of the
Cornavy, for Cornubia, or Danmonij.
In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was then taxed under the name
and jurisdiction of Hornacott, i. e. iron cot or house, so called from
Hornacott free chapel then extant there, and for aught I hear yet
standing. The present church of Tamarton is either of late erection or
endowment, since it is not mentioned in either of the inquisitions as
to its value of First Fruits, unless it passed as a daughter church to
some other, or was wholly impropriated. The parish rated to the four
shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, at £48. 16_s._ 4_d._
The manor of Tamarton was formerly the lands of Walesbury, by whose
heir it passed to Trevillian of Somerset, now in possession thereof,
as I am informed.
Upon the bastard King Athelstan’s victory over the Cornish Britons,
Anno Dom. 930; and dismembering from that regniculum the district of
Devon, and confining their dominion only to the west side of the river
Tamar, the Saxon poets triumphed in verse, one of which hath those
words of this division.
Hinc Anglos, illic cernit Tamara Britannos, i. e. on this side Tamar
beholds the English, on the other the Britons.