This parish presents very little worthy of notice except Tremayne,
which gave origin to both branches of the honourable and respected
family, which flourished at Sydenham in Devonshire, and at Heligan in
this county. The place is situated on the southern bank of Helford
river. Mr. Lysons states that it passed with an heiress from the
family of Tremayne to Reskymer. It has been frequently sold in recent
times.
Mr. Hals mentions a Nunnery at a farm in this parish, called
Hellnoweth, which Mr. Lysons says did belong to the Monastery of St.
Michael’s Mount; but there is not the slightest trace to be found in
any authentic work of a separate establishment having ever existed
there; although Mr. Hals is so confident of it, as fancifully to
derive the word Meneage from Menales, a supposed appellation of the
nuns. All the parishes in the Lizard district, bounded by the Helford
River and the Looe Pool, are said to be in Meneage, although no such
division is recognised for any civil or ecclesiastical purpose. Under
a supposition that this parish might be dedicated to St. Martin, pope
and martyr, Mr. Hals has given his history at great length, which is
omitted as being wholly uninteresting, as well as irrelevant, since
the parish feast is kept on the nearest Sunday to Nov. the 11th, the
well-known festival of St. Martin of Tours. Some notice is taken of
this Pope under Gulval, where he is honoured as the patron Saint. He
was not born till about an hundred and fifty years after the death of
St. Martin of Tours.
This parish measures 2023 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2306 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 193 11 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 336 | 391 | 504 | 508
giving an increase of 51 per cent. in 30 years.