St. Wennoe is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north
Braddock and Cardenham, west the Foye river or sea, south St. Veepe,
east Lanreth.
In the glass windows of this church, the Patron Saint is called after
the Latin St. (Sanctus) Winotus, but further knowledge of him I have
not.
In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed by the name of
Tre-vocar-Winoe. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and
Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia de Sancto Winotho was valued lx_s._ In
Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was rated 5_l._ The Patronage in ;
the incumbent Laurence; the rectory in possession of ――――; and the
parish rated at 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, for one year, £210.
8_s._ 8_d._
In this parish is a chapel of ease dedicated to St. Nectan, _vulgo
vocat._ St. Knighton, or Nighton, whose revenues in the Inquisition of
the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, were thus rated, Capella
de Nectan, in decanatu de West, v_s._ This Nectan was born in Devon
about the year 940, a man of singular piety and holiness, as most of
those days afforded, who lived a monkish or eremitical life, at
Hartland, in Devon, where he died about the year 1010. After his death
his relics (see Rawlegh’s Relicta Nomen viri) were enshrined and set
up in the same little chapel where he served God there; in which place
Githa, wife of Godwin Earl of Kent (or rather Goditha his daughter,
afterwards married to Edward the Confessor), as Malmesbury informs us,
1030, built and endowed a monastery of secular priests, which might
marry wives; valued at the suppression, 26 Hen. VIII. at £350 per
annum; and the reason of this her pious foundation is said to be, for
that she was fully persuaded that her husband, Earl Godwin, escaped
the danger of a shipwreck in a raging tempest at sea by his merits and
intercessions.
Galfrid de Dynham, Lord of Hartland, was a great benefactor to this
monastery, and changed the Secular Priests into Black Canons
Augustine, who were prohibited marriage by their rule. See the
Monasticon Anglicanum, tome II. p. 285, concerning Nectan and
Hartland.
This barton and manor of St. Winow gave name and original to an old
family of gentlemen, from thence surnamed de St. Winow, of which
family was that Philip de St. Winow, who had £20 lands and upwards in
this place, held by the tenure of knight service, 25 Edward III. 1352
(Survey of Cornwall, p. 52,) from whose heirs it passed by descent or
purchase about Henry VIth’s time to ―――― Upton, which Upton was
originally descended either from the Uptons of Upton and Colombton, or
Lupton, in Brixham parish, in Devon, whose elder brother’s estate
passed by his daughter and heir in marriage to the Wingfields; as also
the estate of this Upton of St. Winow did by marriage with his
daughter and heir to William Lower, esq. of Trelaske, in Lawanack,
Sheriff of Cornwall 16 Henry VIII. 1525. William Lower, esq. his son,
or grandson, was Sheriff of Cornwall 20th of Elizabeth; he married one
of Reskimer’s heirs, and had issue Nicholas Lower, esq. afterwards
knighted, Sheriff of Cornwall 8 Charles I. Sir Nicholas married ――――,
and had issue one only daughter, that became his heir, and was married
to Sir William Drummond, knight, who had issue by her two daughters
that became his heirs; the one married to Charles Trevanion, of
Caryhayes, esq. and to ―――― Roper, esq. now Lord of this place in fee.
The possession by lease in Stephen Robins, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall
about the year 1700, who married ―――― Robins, his father William of
Probus, and giveth for his arms the same as Robins of Verian.
Tethe, in this parish, alias Eade or Ethy, was the seat of some of the
Courtneys of Boconnock, from whose heirs it passed by purchase, as I
am informed, to John Trevill, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 18 Charles II.
whose three daughters and heirs carried those lands, together with
themselves, in marriage, to Burthog, Savery, and Arscott; but
Arscott’s lady dying under age, he purchased this barton and manor of
Tethe, or Ethy, from Burthog and Savery, whose younger son Denis
Arscott, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 4th King George, was then in
possession thereof.
Tre-vego, alias Tre-vega, in this parish, that is to say, the town
upon the top of a stiff hill or precipice, according to the natural
circumstances of the place, is the dwelling of Warwick Hankey, esq.
barrister-at-law, that married Jane, daughter of Giles Risdon, of
Babeleigh, esq.
In this parish stands Lar-an Bridge, i. e. the Floor Bridge.