St. Teath is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north
Dundagell, south-east Michaelstow and Lantegles, west the Irish Sea,
or Trevelga, south-west St. Kewe and St. Udye.
As for the name, if St. Eata, alias St. Eatah, be the tutelar guardian
of this church, note that he was a Briton of Wales by birth, and
Bishop of Lindisfarne, predecessor of St. Cuthbert 678, who was
translated from thence to the diocese of Hexham, by the Latins called
Axelodunum; by Bede, Hagulstadiensis, and by us Hexhamshire, in
Yorkshire or Northumberland. He was succeeded by ten other Bishops,
who enjoyed his chair, till by reason of the Danish depredations it
was annexed to York, and made the see of the Archbishopric, and had
the reputation of a county palatine; but discontinued by the statute
of 37th Henry VIII. chap. 16, and annexed to the county of
Northumberland. In this see St. Etha sat six years after his
translation to Hexhamshire, as Bede saith, but two as others; and was
buried in his Cathedral Church there.
In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed under the
jurisdiction of Dundagell. At the time of the inquisition of the
Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices
1294, this Church was not endowed, if extant. The parish is rated to
the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, £156. 8_s._
Bodanan, in this parish, was the lands of that old British family of
gentlemen surnamed de Cheiney, so called from Cheynoy in St.
Endellyan; of which place, name, and family was John de Cheyney,
Sheriff of Cornwall, the 5th and 6th of Edward I. 1280. Ralph de
Cheyney, his son or grandson, had £20 lands and upwards in Cornwall,
held by the tenure of knight’s service 24th of Edward III. Survey of
Cornwall, p. 51. Robert de Cheyney, probably his son, held also by the
tenure of knight’s service in this place, the fourth part of a
knight’s fee of land 3 Henry IV. idem liber, p. 42; whose son William
Cheyney, Esq. married the daughter and heir of [Stretch] in Devon,
lord of Pinhoe, and made it the place of his residence, and
accordingly was made Sheriff of Devon 11 Henry IV. 1410; John Cheyney,
his son, was Sheriff of Devon 22 Henry VI. 1444; John Cheyney, his
son, was Sheriff of Devon 1 Edward IV. 1480; John Cheyney, his son,
was Sheriff of Devon 12 Edward IV. 1472.
In this Church are to be seen the gravestones of some of those
gentlemen interred here, and in the same, and the glass window of this
Church, the arms of those gentlemen, viz. in a field Gules, on a fess
of four lozenges Argent, as many escallops Sable; in memory, as
tradition saith, that one of their ancestors, going into the Holy Land
and War with King Richard or King Edward I. carried such shells with
him for taking water to drink in the hotter clime of Asia.
Sir John Cheyney of this family was chosen Speaker of the Parliament 6
Henry IV. called indoctum Parliamentum, or Parliamentum indoctorum; so
called, for that in the writ of summons there was a clause no lawyer
should be chosen therein. Sir John Cheyney was also Speaker of the
House of Commons 1 Henry IV. and styled not only Parlour, but
Procurator, de les Commons. Hakewell’s Catalogue of the Speakers, p.
202.