Manack-an, Manuc-an Rectory, is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and
hath upon the north St. Martin’s, east Haylford harbour, south St.
Anthony, west Mawgan, and Cury. For the modern name it signifies Monk
the, or the Monk, so called in memory perhaps of some religious monk
or monks that had a convent or abbey in this place.
In the Domesday Book, 1087, this district is not named, neither can I
tell under what jurisdiction it was then taxed, unless Lizart, or
Leschell, which latter may be a corruption of Kestell; neither is the
name Manackan Church of any great antiquity, for in the Inquisition of
the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish
Benefices, 1294, Ecclesia de Minster, in decanatu de Kerryer, (which
is now called Manackan) is rated £4, but in Wolsey’s Inquisition,
1521, it is called Manackan, and valued £4. 16_s._ 0½_d._ The
patronage in the Bishop of Exon; the incumbent Archer; the rectory in
possession of ―――― and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land
Tax for the year 1696, £98. 13_s._
However to the 15th of the Clergy, 24 Henry 6, it was rated, then by
the name of Minster Church, £1. 4_s._ 6_d._ afterwards abated by the
name of Minster 6_s._ (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 95.) And
lastly Manacan, as aforesaid; by both which names it is evident that
heretofore there was some abbey or religious house of monks in this
place or parish, wherein God was served with a minister; viz. vocal or
instrumental music in time of divine service, as that appellation in
British implies. And of this place we further read, (Carew’s Survey of
Cornwall, page 46,) the 12th Edward I. its revenues was rated for
twelve Cornish acres of land, that is to say, seven hundred and twenty
statute acres; in that book, page 44, that the Bishop of Exeter held
by tenure of knight service, in Minster in Kerrier, half a knight’s
fee of land, 3 Henry IV.; probably this Minster was some alien
monastery or priory, subjected to some abbey beyond the seas, as many
others were in this land, all dissolved by Act of Parliament, temp.
Richard II. and Henry V. for transmitting the secrets of the State to
their superior house aforesaid, in the French Wars; for which reason
perhaps it is not mentioned in the Monasticon Anglicanum, 26 Henry
VIII. when other religious houses were dissolved; neither for the like
reasons are St. Neot’s, Lancells, or St. Benet’s in Lanyvet, which I
take to be those three abbeys or priories mentioned by Dugdale and
Speed to have been dissolved in Cornwall, the value of whose revenues
they do not set down, but saith they were Black Monks of the Angells,
for Black Monks of the Augustines.
Moreover, let it be remembered that Manack is also a glove in British,
and Manackan signifies the glove.
Kes-tell, id est, a castle, probably the Reschell in the Domesday Book
aforesaid, in this parish, so called from some British camp,
intrenchment, or fortification, formerly upon the lands thereof, or
contiguous therewith, on the sea-coast, gave name and original to an
old family of gentlemen now in possession thereof, surnamed de
Kestell; and in particular John Kestell, Esq. sometime Commissioner of
the Peace and Taxes, that married Gregor of Tredenick; and giveth for
his arms in a field Or three castles Gules. Since the writing hereof
the male line of this tribe is quite extinct; and those lands, much
incumbered with debt, fallen between the two daughters of the said Mr.
Kestell, married to Penrose and Trevinard, as I am informed.