The church of this parish is situated on an elevated ridge of land,
and is therefore conspicuous to a considerable distance. It contains
several monuments, and in the churchyard is a memorial of Nicholas
Courtenay, one of the family to whom lands in this parish, parcel of
Montacute priory, were granted by King Henry the Eighth.
There are two places in St. Veep especially deserving of attention.
One the site of an ancient monastery constituted on the smallest
scale.
Tanner has given a list of the various names by which this little
priory appears to have been called in early times. St. Syriac, St.
Ciriac, St. Carricius, St. Kerrocus, St. Cyret, and St. Julette. It
was a small cell of two monks only, dependent on Montacute; and being
mentioned by Gervase of Canterbury, it is known to have existed at the
least so early as the time of King Richard the First.
The church of St. Currie, or Karentocus, was given to the monks of
Montacute by their founder.
This cell occurs but once in Pope Nicholas’s Taxation.
Prior de Sancto Karabo (or by a various reading S^{to}. Karoko) habet de
redditu in decanatu de Westweleschire, et Major Tregeschire, £2.
In the valuation returned to King Henry the Eighth, and preserved in
the Augmentation Office, this small establishment is said to possess a
revenue of £11. 1_s._
It appears to have been valued as a separate house from the parent
establishment, although the return states, Cella Sancti Kaboci in
comitatu prædicto, dicto Prioratui de Monte Acuto appertinens, unde
Laurencius Castelton est Prior, est dative et removabile dicti Prioris
de Monte Acuto.
The site was granted in the 37th of Henry VIII. as parcel of the
possessions of Montacute, to Laurence Courtenay.
St. Cyric’s Creek, by which this house stood, is said to have derived
its name from a saint so called, who was buried there, perhaps in the
very place where the small monastery stood. The place has long since
acquired the appellation of St. Cadix; it belongs to the coheiresses
of the family of Wymond.
It is certainly a curious circumstance, that a work which engaged the
attention and even the admiration of England for a long period of
years, should have emanated in any way from a remote cell, consisting
of two monks. Mr. Carew assigns 1292 for the date of this work; but
Mr. Warton says, in his History of English Poetry, that a life of Guy
Earl of Warwick was written by Giraldus Cambrensis, who died about the
year 1220; but the history of our renowned champion has been composed
in Norman French, and in old English, both in prose and in verse;
moreover, the first part of the romance describing the adventures of a
_preux chevalier_ combating _à la outrance_ to recommend himself to
the favour of his lady love, is clearly by a different hand, and even
of another age from the second part, which represents him deserting
the idol of his affection; journeying to Palastine; and on his
arrival back to England, instead of repairing to Warwick Castle, the
abode and rich inheritance of his wife the Lady Felicia, retiring to a
cell, and taking alms at the castle gate, on the supposition that a
powerful and malignant demon, the creation of perverted imagination in
those times of ignorance, and blasphemously named after the Divinity,
might be propitiated by such disgusting observances, and by human
misery. The monk of St. Cyric may therefore have blended, enlarged,
abridged, versified, or rendered into prose the achievements of Sir
Guy, and his performance may have been peculiarly suited to the taste
of his age.
The second place to be noticed is Trevelyan, the original seat of the
very ancient and respected family that has resided for the last three
hundred years at Nettlecombe in Somersetshire, which they acquired by
a marriage with the heiress of Whalesborowe. The names of
Whalesborough and of Trevelyan occur among the Sheriffs of Cornwall in
the time of the Plantagenets, and also together as representatives of
the county; and the name of Trevelyan may be found in the same lists
for the county of Somerset. It is extraordinary that of this ancient
seat one half only belongs to the family. It would almost suggest the
suspicion of the other part being lost from want of attention, when
the intercourse between distant places was interrupted by difficulties
unknown to modern travellers. Few traces remain of the ancient
mansion.
Mr. Lysons notices several manors in this parish, with their descents
or sales, but without any thing that can make them interesting, except
perhaps the notice that a manor called Manely Coleshill formed a part
of the ample estate possessed by Lord Chief Justice Trevilyan.
Mr. Howell and Mr. Rashleigh are proprietors. The advowson of the
vicarage is divided, and in private patronage.
The Rev. Nicholas Every the present incumbent.
It is said that the cavalry commanded by King Charles the First
was stationed at St. Veep when the infantry of the opposite army
capitulated at Fowey. This station was probably selected for the
purpose of preventing a retreat to Plymouth; which however the cavalry
effected by passing the river some miles higher up, but not without
much blame attaching to many officers on the royalist side, and
especially to General Goring.
St. Veep measures 2394 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4087 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 477 17 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 506 | 511 | 585 | 697
giving an increase of 38 per cent. in 30 years.
Net Value of the benefice in 1831, £215.
Since the above was written, Mr. Every, Vicar of this parish, and a
magistrate in the prime of life, is no more.――1836.