It is curious that this parish should have afforded residences to
three families so distinguished as Carminow, Reskymer, and Vyvyan. The
two first have been long extinct; Vyvyan still continues one of the
first in Cornwall.
Sir Richard Vyvyan, mentioned by Mr. Hals, adhered to what was thought
by many in those days to be the good old cause of the Cavaliers and
the Restoration of Charles the Second; and in consequence King George
the First and his ministry, excusing themselves perhaps by the
authority,
Res dura, et regni novitas me talia cogunt Moliri,
not only removed all their suspected opponents from the commission of
the peace, and from places of trust, but committed several to prison.
Among others Sir Richard Vyvyan, who was seized in his house at
Trelowarren, conveyed by water to Pendennis Castle, and removed from
thence to the Tower.
A story is related of a king’s messenger having been detained at an
inn called Hallworthy, east of Camelford, while an adherent reached
Trelowarren, and enabled Sir Richard Vyvyan to destroy many documents,
which might have proved his being adverse, as well as many other
Cornish gentlemen, to the new government.
As the persons then in power failed of being able to prove any overt
acts taken against themselves, they were obliged to discharge this
gentleman out of custody; but not till he had a daughter, Ann Vyvyan,
born in the Tower, whom the Editor well remembers; and Sir Richard
Vyvyan was, as a matter of course, chosen one of the representatives
for the county at the next election, which situation he had however
held in some former Parliaments.
He married Mary, only daughter and heir of Vyvyan of Cosowarth, in the
parish of Little Colan, and left a numerous family.
His eldest son, Vyel Vyvyan, married Mary, daughter and heiress of the
Rev. Carew Hoblyn, and left two sons, Richard, who married Jane,
daughter of Christopher Hawkins, Esq. of Trewinnard, and of Mary,
coheiress of the Hawkinses of Penzance:――they had not any family; and
Carew the second son, a clergyman, never married.
Richard, the second son of Sir Richard Vyvyan, married the heiress of
the family of Piper, and settled at their seat called Modford, almost
in the town of Launceston. Their eldest son Philip, married Mary, the
daughter and heiress of Sheldon Walter, Esq. and through her mother
heiress of the Medlands, of Tremail, in South Petherwin. Their son,
Vyel, succeeded to the family estate, and having married Mary,
daughter of Thomas Hutton Rawlinson, of Lancaster, Esq. has been
succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Richard Rawlinson Vyvyan, of whom it
may be sufficient to say, that, having been very early in life elected
member for the county of Cornwall, he so distinguished himself in
Parliament as to receive an invitation from all the leading gentlemen
of Bristol, to represent their city, when a difference of political
opinion severed him from the constituent body of Cornwall, and that he
has twice obtained the honour of being elected Member for the second
city in England.
Trelowarren alone remains of the seats in this parish, and it amply
compensates for the disappearance of the others. No place in the
county, excepting perhaps Penhale in Egloskerry, comes into comparison
with Trelowarren, as a gentleman’s residence in the style of former
times. The house is believed to be more ancient than the time assigned
to it by Mr. Hals, and that Mr. Francis Vyvyan only repaired and
possibly enlarged a building at the least as old as the possession of
the Ferrers. Sir Richard Vyvyan almost entirely reconstructed the
interior of the house, soon after the year 1750, and great
improvements have been made by the present proprietor, and by his
father. Doctor Borlase has given a view of the house, page 86 of his
Natural History.
The manor of Carminow continued long in the family of Arundell: it is
now by purchase the property of the Rev. John Rogers.
A detailed account of the curious trial before the judges of the Court
of Chivalry, and ultimately before the King himself in person,
relative to the arms borne by the Carminows, has been given in
“Anecdotes of heraldry,” published by a lady about thirty years since.
The decision of the King is there stated to be, that each claimant
should bear the arms without differences. The motto given by Mr. Hals
is literally in Cornish, Cala rag ger da, a straw for a good word.
Mr. Lysons, quoting from “The Scrope and Grosvenor Roll,” another
controversy on the same armorial coat, (and which has been recently
published by Sir Harris Nicolas) notices that testimony was adduced on
behalf of the Carminows, tracing the use of their arms back to the
reign of our renowned King Arthur! To such evidence on armorial
bearings, as Lysons justly remarks, little credit is due.
The church is large, and contains some ancient monuments, believed to
be of the Carminow family, with shields and other decorations.
The advowson of the living belongs to the Trevelyans, of Nettlecombe,
in Somersetshire, and one of that family is the incumbent.
The patron saint is St. Martin of Tours; and the parish feast is kept
on the nearest Sunday to November the 11th, St. Martin’s day in the
Roman Calendar.
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,
{ 363 | 391 | 504 | 508
giving an increase of 40 per cent. in 30 years.
The present rector is the Rev. Horatio Mann, instituted in 1816, on
the presentation of Sir M. Blakiston, Bart.