January 20. 1851.
_Venville_ (Vol. iii., p. 38.).--R. E. G. inquires respecting the origin of
this word, as applied to certain tenants round Dartmoor Forest. The name is
peculiar to that district, and is applied chiefly to certain _vills_ or
villages (for the most part also parishes), and to certain tenements within
them, which pay fines to the Lord of Lidford and Dartmoor, viz. the Prince
of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall. The fines are supposed to be due in respect
either of rights of common on the forest, or of trespasses committed by
cattle on it; for the point is a _vexata quaestio_ between the lord and
tenants of Dartmoor and the tenants of the Venville lands, which lie along
the boundaries of it. {153} In the accounts rendered to the lord of these
fines, there was a distinct title, headed _"Fines Villarum"_ when these
accounts were in Latin; and I think it cannot be doubted that the lands and
tenures under this title came to be currently called _Finevill_ lands from
this circumstance. Hence Fenvill, Fengfield, or Venvill; the last being now
the usual spelling and pronunciation. R. E. G. may see a specimen of these
accounts, and further observations on them, in Mr. Rowe's very instructive
_Perambulation of Dartmoor_, published a year or two ago at Plymouth.