Mr. Lysons says, that this parish is an appendage to the manor of
Werrington. This would indicate its being impropriated by the Abbey of
Tavistock, as Werrington was the chief seat of the Lord Abbat; but
Tresmere is not noticed in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of that Abbey; but
in the Valor Ecelesiasticus of Launceston Priory there occurs this
trifling entry:
£. _s._ _d._
Tresmare――Pensio 0 1 8
The tithes of this parish are completely in lay hands. When tithes
were first bestowed on monasteries, the duties of the Church to which
they appertained, were performed by members of the Convent, who
occasionally travelled there, and succeeded each other; the
“book-bosomed priests” of the Last Minstrel. In times more remote,
secular clergy went on circuits from the Cathedral or seat of the
Bishop and his priests; till the inconvenience of this itinerant
system became strongly felt, and decrees were made in several General
Councils of the Latin Church, enacting that each benefice should
have a permanently resident priest, and that a competent provision
should be made for his support. This was usually done by assigning to
the deputy, the Vicarius or Vicar, all the tithes except those of
corn, although others were occasionally retained; but in various
instances, instead of tithes, an allowance was made in money,
equivalent perhaps at the time, but long since reduced to nominal
payments, by the gradual depreciation in the value of gold and silver
from natural causes, and by the fraudulent reduction of the standards
practised in various degrees by all governments, or lastly, by the
non-convertible paper currencies.
The very great difference in the circumstances of those deputies,
arising from the nature of their endowments rather than any legal
distinction in the offices, has affixed to one the name of Vicar, and
to the other that of Perpetual Curate.
It appeared from Mr. Tonkin’s narrative, that the stipend in this
parish amounted to six pounds a year, and that it had been withholden
by superior force; without doubt, the liberality of modern times has
long since caused it to be restored and increased.
Mr. Lysons states, that the impropriation has passed through the
families of Molesworth and Manaton, and that it is now vested in
Edward Coade, Esq. and that this great piece of preferment is in the
Crown.
Tresmere measures 982 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 588 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 50 12 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 129 | 154 | 173 | 171
giving an increase of 32½ per cent. in 30 years.
Perpetual Curate, the Rev. W. A. Morgan, presented by the Lord
Chancellor in 1821.