Whitstone is situate in the hundred of Stratton, and hath upon
the north part of Bridgerule and Marhamchurch, west Wike St. Mary
and Tamerton, south Werrington and St. Stephen’s.
In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294,
Ecclesia de Witeston, in decanatu de Trigmajorshire, was valued
at £4. 6_s._ 8_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £14. 11_s._
0½_d._ The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, who endowed it; the
incumbent Tregena or Hosken; and the parish rated to the four
shillings per pound Land Tax, 1696, for one year £124. 12_s._
6_d._ tempore William III.
The barton of Benett, in this parish, was formerly the seat of
George Heale, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall, 4 and 5 of Charles I.
that married ――――; as also of Edmund Hele, esq. his son,
Sheriff of Cornwall, 22 Charles I. whose son dying without issue,
those lands and much other descended to his daughter Lucy, the
wife of John Basset, of Tehidy, esq. now in possession thereof.
The name Hele, Heale, is Saxon English, and signifies the same as
hell in British, viz. a hall, either of a dwelling house or
refectory, or a place of judicature or prætorium, a tabernacle or
a tent.
The arms of Heale are Gules, a bend lozengy Ermine.