Lestwithiel is in the hundred of Powder, and is surrounded to the
west, north, and south, by Lanlivery; to the east it has Fowy river
between it and St. Winnow. As for the name, I take it to be a
corruption of Les-uchel, i. e. the lofty place, as having been from
all antiquity the chief seat of the Dukes, &c. of Cornwall. Mr. Camden
in Cornwall saith, “the Uzella of Ptolemy is seated, and has not yet
quite lost its name, being called at this day Lestuthiell, from its
situation. Now uchel, in British, signifies the same as _high_ and
_lofty_.” But of this more when we come to describe the town. As for
Mr. Carew’s derivation, who calls it Lostwithiel, from the Cornish
Losswithiall, which in English, saith he, signifieth a lion’s tail, it
is so ridiculous, as not to be worth repeating; neither doth the word
carry that sense. This parish is a vicarage, valued in the King’s
books at £2. 13_s._ 4_d._
The Duke of Cornwall is patron. The incumbent Mr. Baron, who succeeded
Mr. Whiteford.
This church is not valued in Tax. Benefic. anno 1291; and was then
appropriated to the Priory of Bodmin.