St. Wenn is in the hundred of Pider, and hath to the west St. Colomb
Major and St. Ennodor, to the north St. Breock, to the east Withiell,
to the south St. Roche. This parish takes its name from St. Wenna, its
female patroness.
This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book £16. 6_s._ 8_d._ The
patronage in Philip Rashleigh, Esq. the incumbent Mr. John Bedford.
In an. 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory here was valued (Tax. Ben.) at
vi_l._ xiii_s._ iiij_d._ being appropriated to the Abbey of Tewkesbury
in Gloucestershire; and the vicarage at xiii_s._ iiij_d._
The manor of Borlase, id est, the green summit or rising [as Bar Glas
or Las (C.)] This lordship was given by King William II. surnamed
Rufus, to ―――― Lord of the Castle of Palfer in Normandy, ever since
which his posterity have flourished here and at Treluddero, &c. in
great esteem, by the name of Borlace (V. Upton de re militari). [N. B.
This is a singular, perhaps a single, instance of a Norman or Saxon
family assuming a Cornish name. Indeed I suspect it not to be true;
and what is more certain, that species of apples which in Cornwall we
call a Borlase, and more commonly a Treluddera, pippin, appears
plainly to have taken its name from this family and that place, and
serves as a good opening for explaining all those other names of
apples which are merely Cornish in themselves like this. WHITAKER.]