Veryan is in the hundred of Powder, and is bounded to the west by St.
Just, [by Gerrans,] by Philleigh, by Ruan Lanyhorne, and by St. Cuby,
[by Ruan Lanyhorne and the Fal,] to the east by St. Ewe and St.
Michael Carhays, to the south by Gerrans and the sea [rather by the
sea only, Gerrans being only west and south-west].
The name of this parish is a corruption, or rather abbreviation of St.
Symphorian, of which name there are two; one, saith Mr. Willis (Not.
Parl. vol. II. page 119), “born (as the Legenda Aurea tells us) in
Augustinum, the head city of Burgundy, where he suffered martyrdom on
the 22d of August, about the year 270.” The other [Mr. Willis’s own
words are these, “though besides this person, I find mention made of
another St. Simphorian, in Leland’s Collectanea, vol. I. a martyr,
buried with St. Wolfran a Bishop at Grantham, to whose memory that
church is dedicated. This St. Wulfran’s festival [was] celebrated the
15th of October.” (Note, that in many fines, records, &c. this parish
is called Sancta Symphrogia, or Simphrosia, who was wife to Getulius,
a rich citizen of Rome, and suffered martyrdom with him and seven of
her sons at Rome, A. D. 136, under Adrian. See Le Seur, Hist. de
l’Eglise et l’Empire, vol. I. page 516).
This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, £19; the
patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Mr.
Fincher; the sheaf in Mr. Richard Kempe of Tregony, by lease [from Mr.
Weston, who had a lease transmitted, I believe, from his father,
Bishop Weston]; who resigning in 1734, was succeeded by Mr. Question.
But the antient name of this parish was Elerky, and so it is still
called in the King’s Book, as it is too in Taxatio Benefic. 20 Edw. I.
“Ecclesia de Elerky 10 lib. vicar’ ejusdem, xl. solid.” from the great