The church of Maddern stands on a commanding elevation, and retains
indications of its former connexion with the Knights Templars, who are
believed to have had a preceptory or provincial establishment at
Landithy, immediately adjoining.
In the church and churchyard are monuments to various distinguished
families resident within the parish: Borlase, Nicholls, Arundell,
Harris, Pearce, Jenkin, Heckens, Clies, Pascoe, &c.; and some in
memory of strangers, who too long delayed availing themselves of the
mild climate and salubrious air of the Mount’s Bay. One of the more
ancient monuments has these lines:
Belgium me birth, Britaine me breeding gave,
Cornwall a wife, ten children, and a grave.
Castle Horneck is thought to be the site of a castle denominated
Hornec, or iron, from its supposed strength, and built by the Tyers,
who were lords of this district early in the times of the
Plantagenets.
This place was the residence during a long life, of the Rev. Walter
Borlase, Doctor of Civil Law, Vice-Warden of the Stannaries, and Vicar
of Maddern for more than fifty-five years, who died April 26, 1776,
aged 81 years and six months.
Doctor Borlase appears to have been universally respected, as a man of
ability and learning, and for firmness and decision of character. He
was the eldest son of Mr. John Borlase, of Pendeen in St. Just,
sometime Member of Parliament for St. Ives, and brother of the Rev.
William Borlase, also Doctor of Civil Law, and Rector of Ludgvan, our
justly celebrated historian.
Doctor Walter Borlase married Margaret, daughter of the Rev. Henry
Pendarves, vicar of the adjoining parish of Paul; and he is said in
consequence of this marriage to have quitted the law, in which
profession he could scarcely have failed of attaining some
considerable distinction. They had a very numerous family of sons and
daughters; but, none of the sons having left a son, the family estate
has passed, under an entail, to the descendants of Doctor William
Borlase, and now belongs to his great-grandson.
Doctor Walter Borlase built the house at Castle Horneck. The family
arms are, Ermine, on a bend Sable, two hands issuing at the elbows
from as many clouds Proper, and rending a horseshoe Or.
Trereife has been long the residence of the Nicholls’s, of whom the
most distinguished person was Frank Nicholls, M.D. Physician to King
George the Second, and son-in-law of the celebrated Dr. Mead. His life
has been written in Latin by Dr. Lawrence, sometime President of the
College of Physicians, with his portrait. It appears from this work
that Dr. Nicholls was born in 1699, that he became a member of Exeter
College, Oxford, in March 1714, took his degree of Doctor of Medicine
in 1729, and was chosen a Fellow of the College of Physicians in the
following year, being previously a Fellow of the Royal Society. Nine
different communications from Doctor Nicholls are printed in the
Philosophical Transactions, and he published a separate work: “De
Anima Medica,” to which is added a treatise, “De Motu Cordis et
Sanguinis in Homine Nato et non Nato.”
His reputation stands deservedly very high as an Anatomist. Several
dissections of the viper’s head and poisonous fangs, engraved for Dr.
Mead’s work, are believed to be his; and to him is attributed the
invention of what are termed corroded preparations. He died in January
1778, having completed his 79th year.
This gentleman’s elder brother married in London, but finally settled
at Trereife, with one son and two daughters. The two daughters
married, the eldest Mr. Love of Penzance, the second William Harris,
of Kenegie, Esq. but neither left any family. The son, William
Nicholls, married Miss Ustick, of Penzance, and died leaving one son.
Mrs. Nicholls subsequently married the Rev. Charles Valentine Le
Grice, of Bury St. Edmunds, then Lecturer of Penzance, and bore him a
son, who, together with Mr. Le Grice, now hold the estate as tenants
in remainder, and by the courtesy, under the will of Mr. Nicholls,
Jun. who lived to the age of twenty-three or twenty-four years.
Trengwainton appears to have been inhabited by branches of the
Arundell family, for a long series of years, and finally the last Mr.
Arundell, of Menadarva, removed there, having in a great measure
rebuilt the house. Soon after his decease it was sold, and Mr. Praed,
of Trevethow, became the purchaser. Trengwainton was thus chiefly used
as a farm-house till the late Sir Rose Price, wishing to form a seat
in that neighbourhood, obtained it as an accommodation from the late
Mr. Praed, and under his hands it has become a splendid residence.
It appears that a gentleman of the name of Price accompanied Venables
and Penn in their successful expedition against Jamaica, during the
Protectorate, and obtained an extensive grant of land, which his
descendants lived on and improved, till early in the last century one
of the sons was sent to England for education and health. It is
understood that Doctor Nicholls was consulted as a physician, and that
he recommended the climate of Penzance; perhaps Mr. John Price may
have been the first invalid ever sent from a distance to breathe the
soft air of this all but island in the Atlantic. At that time Mr.
Henry Badcock, from the parish of Whilstone, in the north-eastern
extremity of Cornwall, held the office of Collector at Penzance, where
he had married Parthenia Keigwin, daughter of Mr. John Keigwin, of
Mousehole. The young patient was received into their house by Mr. and
Mrs. Badcock, who had several daughters. Mr. Price married in the year
1736 Margery, one of their daughters; but having gone back to Jamaica
he died there three years afterwards, leaving her with an only son,
also John Price.
This gentleman, having gone through the usual stages of education,
ending with Trinity College, Oxford, went also to Jamaica, and there
married Elizabeth Williams Bramer, daughter of John Bramer, a
physician. They had only one son, who lived to a mature age, and
succeeded his father in January 1797.
Mr. Rose Price, in the subsequent year, married Miss Elizabeth
Lambert, a young lady from the county of Meath, born on the 12th of
April 1782, by a singular coincidence on the very day that Admiral
Rodney’s victory saved Jamaica from being captured by the French, and
therefore about sixteen at the time of her marriage. Mr. Price served
the office of Sheriff for Cornwall in the year 1814, as his father had
done forty years before, in the year 1774. In this year also he was
made a Baronet, in consequence of a promise from King George the
Fourth, then Regent.
Lady Price died early in life, leaving a large family; and Sir Rose
Price died on the 29th September 1834, having nearly completed his
65th year.
And here I would add a few lines to commemorate a gentleman whose
progress through life was mainly guided by his connexion with this
family, and whose conduct reflects credit on them for their choice.
In compliance with a custom evidently derived from the Catholic times
of our forefathers, when every thing relating to the church was
transacted in the language of ancient Rome, all boys whose parents
were raised above the lowest state in society, went for six or twelve
months to a Latin school. Mr. John Vinicombe was among the number, but
his progress exhibited so great a superiority above other scholars of
his age, that Mr. Perkin, the Lecturer and schoolmaster, prevailed on
his father to allow of his staying an additional year. Just at that
moment Mr. John Price placed his son at the same school; and, at the
suggestion probably of Mr. Perkin, Mr. Price was induced to purchase
at some small premium a further continuance of Mr. Vinicombe at the
school, that he might assist, instruct, and be in some degree the
companion of Mr. Rose Price.
A connexion thus formed naturally went on; Mr. Vinicombe became a
member of Pembroke College, Oxford, where he obtained a Fellowship;
attended Mr. Rose Price to the school at Harrow, and acted as his
private tutor when he became a gentleman commoner of Magdalen; made
with him the tour of Europe; and finally, attended his friend and
former pupil to Jamaica, where, by a residence of about two years,
they nearly doubled the value of the estate. Soon after their return
to England Mr. Vinicombe went to his Fellowship, and became not only a
college tutor but one of the Public Examiners, under the then recent
statute, and he had confident expectations of preferment in the
church; but a premature death terminated his useful and honourable
career, occasioned (or hastened at least) by a fall from his horse. An
excellent picture of Mr. Vinicombe, by Mr. Opie, has gone to Pembroke
College, under the will of Sir Rose Price.
Rosecadgwell has been for a considerable time in the family of
Borlase. Mr. John Borlase, father of the two Doctor Borlases, removed
there from Pendeen in the latter portion of his life; and Samuel
Borlase, Esq. representative of this ancient and respectable family,
resides there at present.
Nanceolvern almost adjoins Rosecadgwell. This was the residence of Mr.
Carverth. After building there an excellent house, Mr. Carverth died
in very embarrassed circumstances, which gave rise to an unusual
extent of litigation. This place, however, was purchased by one of the
Mr. Urlicks, and it now belongs to Mr. Scobell, who married the
heiress of that branch of the family.
Poltare has a large and decorated house, built by the late Mr. Richard
Heckens, of St. Ives, who married one of the daughters and coheiresses
of Mr. George Veale. That place has passed by purchase also to the
Scobell family.
Trenear was formerly a seat of the Olivers. The last of this family,
Doctor William Oliver, a physician, died at Bath in 1764; and another
William Oliver, M.D. had the honour of accompanying King William in
the expedition which placed him on the throne, to preserve the civil
and religious liberties of England. Trenear was sold soon after the
younger Dr. Oliver’s decease, and purchased by Mr. Robyns, who built
there a good house, and made it a gentleman’s seat. It afterwards
became the property and residence of the Rev. Anthony Williams,
sometime Vicar of St. Kevern, and it has passed with one of his
daughters and coheiresses to Henry Pendarves Tremenheere, Esq. late
Captain of one among the first-rate ships in the East India Company’s
Service, where he merited and obtained the approbation, esteem, and
respect of every individual with whom he had the slightest connexion,
and the same effects of honour, ability, and kindness of heart, have
followed him into retirement.
Rose Hill has a good house, built about the commencement of this
century by Richard Oxnam, Esq. who served the office of Sheriff in the
year 1810. It has since become the property and residence of the Rev.
Uriah Tonkin, recently appointed Vicar of Lelant.
Lariggan is remarkable for the beauty of its situation; having been
selected, and a neat house built there, by Mr. Thomas Pascoe, a worthy
and respectable magistrate. And just above the town of Penzance stands
a house having almost the appearance of a palace, built some years
since by an individual of the name of Pope.
Mr. Pope was originally from Camelford; he conducted business for some
time at Bristol, and then emigrated to the United States, where he
accumulated a large fortune, unknown and forgotten by his family; till
on a sudden he appeared at Penzance, recognised some relations, and,
having purchased a few acres of ground, he built this magnificent
house, which instantly became known by general acclamation as the
Vatican, a name suited at once to its splendour, to its elevated
situation, and to its founder’s name. Mr. Pope scarcely lived to
inhabit this mansion; but left it to his nephew Mr. Vibert, to whose
patriotism, skill, and perseverance, as a member of the corporation,
Penzance is mainly indebted for several of its improvements, and
especially for its new church. The house is now inhabited by Mrs.
Rogers, widow of the late Mr. John Rogers, of Penrose, near Helston,
and her daughters.
Lanyon was in former times the residence of one branch of the ancient
and respectable family bearing that name. It now belongs to Mr.
Rashleigh, of Menabelly; the farm, however, possesses one of those
monuments in comparison with which all family records are modern.
In a croft near the side of the road leading from Penzance towards
Morva, stands the Cromleigh or Coit described by Doctor Borlase, in
pp. 230, 231, of his Antiquities, 2d edition. It fell down and has
been replaced, (see the Logging Rock under St. Levan). Dr. Borlase
mentions another Cromleigh at Malfra, in this parish, and two others
in the adjoining parishes of Morva and Zennor, all within a few miles
of each other. These monuments, scattered over a large portion of
Europe, bear all the marks of great antiquity. Their construction is
rude as well as simple, a flat but unhewn stone, laid on three
columnar stones, also in their natural slate, and all of Cyclopean
dimensions. The flat stone at Lanyon has been estimated at twenty ton.
Their use is much less certain. They are generally supposed to be
sepulchral monuments; but the flat surface of the upper stone always
inclined at a small angle from the horizon, would seem to countenance
the opinion of their being meant for religious observances, probably
for sacrifices, which is further countenanced by the etymology of the
name, if it means in Celtic the Holy Hearth.
Landithy, the college or preceptory of the Knights Templars, belonged
for several generations to the Flemings, a family now quite extinct,
and their property alienated.
The great tithes of this parish belonged to the Knights Templars,
under a gift from Henry de Pomeroy, one of the great family of the
Pomeroys, Lords of Bury Pomeroy Castle. They were given by Henry the
Eighth to some private person, and have belonged for a considerable
time to the family of Nicholls, now Le Grice.
The Vicarage has passed through other hands. It is related by Hals and
Tonkin to have belonged to Fleming and to Harris, and then by purchase
to the corporation of Penzance, from which body it passed by sale to
the family of Borlase, and is now vested in the heir-at-law, or in the
devisee of the late Samuel Borlase, Esq.
But at a remote period the baronial residence of an extensive lordship
was at Alverton, held by the Pomeroys; and Mr. Lysons says that it
passed successively through the Tyes, Lisles, and Berkeleys, till
reverting to the Crown it was granted to Whitmore and others, and has
been divided and subdivided. Scarcely a trace can be seen at Alverton
of its former magnificence. The portion still claiming the nominal
distinction of Manor of Alverton, Penzance, and Mousehole, was bought
of the Keigwins by the late Mr. George Veale, second son of Mr. Veale,
of Trevaila, who acquired a considerable fortune at Penzance by the
practice of the law; afterwards divided between his three
daughters,――one married to Mr. Hickens, of Poltair; another to Mr.
Baines, a Captain in the Navy; and the third to Mr. Jenkin, an officer
in the army. These ladies, or their families, have since disposed of
Alverton, and the whole is now vested in James Halse, Esq. M. P. for
St. Ives.
Maddern Well is one of the numerous springs of water almost revered in
former times on account of imputed supernatural virtues; and it has in
reality, from time out of mind, diffused health and comfort over the
thousands of persons inhabiting Penzance, the stream having been
conducted there by a winding channel of some miles in extent, and
arriving at the highest part of the town, it is enabled to flow down
to the sea through every street.
Penzance, the most western market town in Cornwall, is one of the most
flourishing. It appears to have been in former times no more than a
small village, occupying the promontory now distinguished as the Quay,
where stood a chapel, dedicated to St. Anthony, the Patron of
fishermen, which in all probability gave it the name of Pen-sance, or
the holy head (land), and it seems further probable that the new
church or chapel yard may have been an ancient fortress for the
protection of the place. Houses however gradually extended beyond this
narrow limit; and the place had acquired some magnitude, when, in the
year 1595, on the 23d of July, a predatory squadron of ships from
Spain, stood into the bay, and landing about two hundred men,
destroyed Mousehole, burnt Paul Church, and did much injury to
Penzance; see Carew, Lord Dunstanville’s edition, p. 381. But, as
appears from history to be very usual in such cases, the town arose
with increased splendour from its ashes, and a charter of
incorporation having been soon after, in 1614, granted by King James
the First, measures were taken by this new body of trustees for
insuring the increase and prosperity of the district committed to
their charge. The most material of these were purchasing the
seignorage of the harbour, and of the market, and of fairs, which
according to the rude policy of former times had been vested in
private persons, for individual benefit; the first of whom was Alice
de Lisle, lady of the manor of Alverton, about the year 1332.
The Corporation also acquired a piece of ground called the
three-cornered spot, on which a spacious market house was constructed,
and buildings proper for shops and for merchandize, were raised on the
three faces of the triangle. Penzance acquired also the privilege of
being a coinage town. From this period it continued gradually to
increase in size, in wealth, and in consideration, notwithstanding
some adverse events in the Civil War, till the progress received an
almost unlooked-for acceleration by another effort of the faithful
trustees for the place, the body corporate. They, by a series of
judicious efforts, continued for many years, at last completed a Pier,
so extensive and well placed as to afford shelter for perhaps a
hundred vessels, to admit several of the largest size used for
traders, and to afford every accommodation and facility for the
shipping or unshipping of merchandize. From the completion of this
great work in 1813, up to the present period, Penzance has flourished
beyond example; and though much may be imputed to the general
prosperity of the times, and to the diffusion of knowledge, yet by far
the greater part must be ascribed to the management of an
unappropriated fund, by a body of honest and disinterested trustees,
for the public benefit; and the Editor is especially disposed to bear
this testimony to one Corporation, at a period (1835) when all
municipal bodies are about to be remodelled, on the alleged ground of
their insufficiency for useful purposes.
Penzance, for all ecclesiastical matters forming a part of the parish
of Maddern, has long had a chapel of ease, with a lecturer appointed
for life by the corporation, on an endowment made in 1680 by Mr. John
Tremenheere, at that time a merchant residing in the town, and either
the direct or collateral ancestor of the very respectable family of
that name still remaining in the town and neighbourhood.
It has since been augmented by Queen Anne’s Bounty; but, the chapel
having become wholly inadequate to the population, a church has been
built in its place, accompanied by a lofty tower, and all constructed
of granite, so as to add, in a most extraordinary degree, to the
beauty of the town, and at the same time to afford every convenience
that the space could possibly admit; and it is pleasing to add, that
the work has been conducted and executed by all the parties concerned,
in a manner highly creditable to their taste, to their judgment, and
to their care in the expenditure of public money. But among the
gentlemen who have exerted themselves in different ways, it would be
unfair not particularly to mention Mr. Vibert, whose general skill,
ability, and accurate knowledge of details have been most conspicuous
throughout the whole undertaking; and the Editor hopes that the ties
of consanguinity will not be thought of a nature to preclude him from
referring here to the late Mr. Edward Giddy, who, in the situation of
chief magistrate, conferred on him, over and over again, in every
other situation, on all occasions, and especially in regard to this
splendid and useful building, proved himself the active, zealous, and
intelligent friend of the town and of all its inhabitants; and it is
further gratifying to state, that the existing members of the family
of Tremenheere, in emulation of their ancestor, to whom the chapel is
indebted for its original endowment, have added the splendid
decoration of painted glass over the whole east window of the chancel.
The new church will be opened for divine service in the present year;
and in this year also, as perhaps the last act of a select corporate
body, which, in the administration of an income little short in its
gross amount of two thousand pounds a year, may challenge the most
minute investigation, the town and neighbourhood will receive the
benefit of a new, commodious, and extended market-house, with the
usual appendages, fully adequate to the still increasing opulence and
commerce of the place.
Penzance may justly be proud of the many distinguished families and
individuals connected with it: Clive, Fleming, Borlase, Tremenheere,
Tonkin, Veale, John, Pellew, Batten, Carne, Davy, Boase, Colston,
Giddy. It would require a volume to give even a slight history of each
family, and of its individual members.
The Tonkins were long represented by Mr. Uriah Tonkin, who, through a
life extended far beyond the period usually assigned to human nature,
obtained universal regard and esteem. This gentleman had several sons;
from one of whom is descended the Reverend Uriah Tonkin, now Vicar of
Lelant. Another son, Mr. John Tonkin, pursued the practice of medicine
till he succeeded to the family estate. He was distinguished for
ability, good nature, and for quaintness of expressions in the form of
apophthegms; but the most remarkable incident in Mr. John Tonkin’s
life was his adoption of Humphry Davy, with the intention of educating
him to the medical profession, and making him his successor. Davy,
having succeeded to a small fortune on the decease of his father,
soared above the narrow limits of a country practitioner, and was
preparing himself for Edinburgh, when the Editor most fortunately
directed his course to Clifton, where Dr. Beddoes was then engaged in
applying pneumatic chemistry in aid of the Bristol waters for the cure
or alleviation of incipient consumption; from thence he fought his way
to the pinnacle of honour attached to experimental science.
Everything of importance in the life of this extraordinary man has
been given with accuracy and ability by Doctor Paris, in a Life of
Davy, 1 vol 4to. or 2 vols. 8vo. Colburn and Bentley. 1831.
The family of Batten have been for some time the leading merchants of
Penzance. They have recently lost Mr. John Batten, distinguished by
the intelligence and liberality incident to gentlemen in that
profession; but he has left a family more than promising to support
his reputation and the credit of his ample fortune; and this family
has the honour of possessing the Reverend Joseph Hallett Batten, D.D.
Principal of the East India College.
This gentleman having been placed at Trinity College, Cambridge, by
the Editor’s recommendation, immediately distinguished himself in the
public examinations and by obtaining college prizes; and on taking his
degree Mr. Batten became Third Wrangler. These honours led at once to
a Fellowship, and to the most desirable private tuitions; and, having
married, he was placed at the head of an institution destined to
prepare the minds and the habits of young men for the government of a
vast empire.
Mr. William Carne came to Penzance about sixty years ago, where, by
active and intelligent industry, he has acquired an ample fortune. Of
his son, Mr. Joseph Carne, it would not be an easy task to speak in
terms sufficiently laudatory: I therefore refer to his communications
in the Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall, to his most
ample and valuable collection of natural history, and to his patronage
of every institution established for the diffusion of knowledge.
The late Mr. Boase left Cornwall at an early age, and became the
active partner in a London bank, from whence he returned to Penzance,
and conferred important benefits on the town as a magistrate and
member of the corporation, and by the judicious employment of his
capital. His eldest son Dr. Henry S. Boase supports, as Secretary, the
Geological Society, instituted by Doctor Paris in the year 1814.
Besides papers in these Transactions, Dr. Boase has published,
“Primary Geology,” a separate work, in 1 vol. 8vo. Longman and Co.
1834, which has attracted the attention of natural philosophers
throughout Europe; and although this is not the place to express my
individual gratitude, yet I may say, that the most valuable additions
to Mr. Hals’s and Mr. Tonkin’s parochial histories will be found in
Doctor Boase’s geological description of each separate parish.
I cannot omit here to notice, among the inhabitants who have done
credit to Penzance, my late respected relation Mr. Thomas Giddy, as a
gentleman, a scholar, and a man of unblemished reputation. He came to
Penzance in the year 1774, was chosen Mayor ten different times, and
in his last mayoralty mainly assisted in carrying into execution a
great improvement of the town, by removing the Coinage Hall from a
place adjoining the Market House, to a proper situation near the quay,
permission for which the Editor had the good fortune to obtain from
the Lord Warden and the Duchy Officers. Mr. Giddy died July the 26th,
1825, having nearly completed his eighty-fourth year, and having
somewhat more than completed the sixtieth year of his marriage. His
widow survived him about five years.
Dr. Stephen Luke was also from Penzance. He practised with much
success and reputation at Falmouth, Exeter, and London, where he died
on the 30th of March 1829.
Finally, I may state that the intrepid and successful Admiral Pellew,
although not a native of Penzance, received his nautical education in
this town.
A grammar school has long been endowed by the Corporation; and the
master used formerly to hold in addition the lecturership of the
chapel.
The Reverend James Parkin, afterwards Rector of Okeford in Devonshire,
held both offices for a considerable time; and under his care, for
about eighteen months, the Editor received the only instruction for
which he is indebted to a stranger.
The school is now presided over by the Reverend Mr. Morris, M.A. from
Balliol College, Oxford; and Mr. Le-Grice having resigned the
lecturership, after holding it above twenty years, has been succeeded
by the Reverend Mr. Vyvyan, of Trelowarren.
Penzance has become, in the last half century, a considerable resort
of invalids; and much benefit has been received in pulmonary cases
from the mildness and comparatively even temperature of the climate,
which has been most satisfactorily established by the observations of
Mr. Edward Giddy, printed in the Journal of Philosophy. For a detailed
account of Penzance and of the Mount’s Bay, in a medical point of
view, the reader is referred to the works of Dr. Paris, who resided
some years in the town, till he left it to acquire one of the most
extensive fields of practice in London.
An event occurred at Penzance in the year 1760, of a nature so curious
as to be well worthy of remembrance. This country was then deeply
engaged in what has since been termed the seven years’ war; and,
notwithstanding the splendid successes of 1759, the nation still felt
alarm from the always threatened invasion by France, and from the fear
of predatory excursions, when in the night following the 29th of
September the town was roused by the firing of guns, and soon after by
the intelligence of a large ship of a strange appearance having run on
shore on the beach towards Newlyn. Great numbers of persons crowded to
the spot, where they were still more astonished and shocked by the
sight of men still stranger than their vessel, each armed with a
scymetar and with pistols. It was now obvious that they were Moslems;
and a vague fear of Turkish ferocity, of massacre and plunder, seised
the unarmed inhabitants, just awakened from their sleep in the middle
of the night. A volunteer company obeyed, however, with alacrity the
beat to arms, and 172 men were conducted or driven into a spacious
building which then stood on the Western Green, and for some reason or
other was called the Folly. Eight men were found to be drowned. Before
morning it was ascertained from themselves, by some who understood the
_lingua Franca_, that the ship was an Algerine corsair, carrying 24
guns, from nine to six pounders, and that the Captain had steered his
vessel into the Mount’s Bay, and run it against the shore under a full
conviction that he was safe in the Atlantic Ocean, at about the
latitude of Cadiz, thus committing an error of thirteen degrees in
latitude. The instant it was known that the sailors were Algerines, a
fear seized the town and neighbourhood scarcely less formidable than
the other of massacre and plunder――namely, of the plague. The
volunteers, however, kept watch and ward to prevent all intercourse.
Intelligence was conveyed to the government, and orders are said to
have been issued for troops to march from Plymouth for surrounding the
whole district; but most fortunately the local authorities ascertained
that no cause whatever existed for such a precaution, and the orders
were countermanded.
When it was found safe to visit the strangers, curiosity attracted the
whole neighbourhood. Their Asiatic dress, long beards and mustachios,
with turbans, the absence of all covering from their feet and legs,
the dark complexion and harsh features of a piratical band, made them
objects of terror and of surprise.
They were on the whole treated kindly; their vessel had totally
disappeared, and consequently after some delay a ship of war took all
the men on board, and conveyed them to Algiers.
The tower of Penzance Church is situated in latitude 50° 6′ 48″;
longitude 5° 31′ 0″; in time 22m. 4s. west of Greenwich, as deduced
from the Trigonometrical Survey.
The establishment of the port, or the time of high water at the new
and full of the moon, is 4h. 30m. very nearly. London Bridge being 2h.
7m.
The establishment of the Lizard is about 5h.; Portbend 6h.; Beechey
Head 10h.; Dover 11h; Margate 12h.; mouth of the Thames 1h.; so that
the tidal wave occupies about 9h. 30m. in flowing from the Land’s End
to London Bridge.
The parish of Maddern measures 5450 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815:
Parish 8,454 0 0
Penzance 10,401 0 0
――――――――――――――――
£18,055 0 0
――――――――――――――――
Poor Rate in 1831:
Parish 593 7 0
Penzance 811 11 0
――――――――――――――――
£1,404 18 0
――――――――――――――――
Population, in 1801, in 1811, in 1821, in 1831,
Parish 1564 1817 2011 2058
Penzance 3382 4022 5224 6563
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4940 5839 7235 8621
giving an increase on the parish of 31½ per cent.; on the town of
94 per cent.; on both of 74 per cent. in 30 years.