Mr. Tonkin has written much more on this parish than on most others,
but the details relative to families, and to individuals long since
forgotten, and never of any distinction, are quite uninteresting.
Mr. Lysons has abridged it to the following effect, intermixed with
additions of his own.
Tonkin says that Mevagissey, lately a poor fishing village, contained
in his time two hundred houses; that a pier had been constructed at
the expense of the Trewolla family; that it was the most convenient
place on the coast for the pilchard fishery; that on an average twelve
thousand hogsheads were cured annually. The present number of houses
is about 370. The eastern part of the town, which in old deeds is
called Porthilly, belongs to the Hoblyns; the middle part to the
Grenvilles, of Stowe in Buckinghamshire, as parcel of the manor of
Trelevan; the western part is included in Mr. Tremayne’s manor of
Penwarne.
Ships of 100 tons burden may ride securely in the pool. The fishing
cove of Porthmellin is partly in this parish.
The manor of Trelevan belonged for several generations to the family
of Trewolla, of Trewolla in St. Goran. It was by them sold, about the
year 1667, to Walter Vincent, Esq. of Truro, who in 1680 was appointed
one of the Barons of the Exchequer, but died on his way to London
before he had been sworn into that high office. His grandson Nicholas
Vincent, who died in 1726, mortgaged this estate, the manor of
Tregavethan in Kenwyn, and the greater part of his property, to John
Knight, Esq. of Gosfield Hall in Essex. This gentleman’s widow married
Lord Nugent, whose only daughter and heiress carried the whole to the
Grenvilles, now Dukes of Buckingham.
The barton of Trelevan was successively the seat of the families of
Croome and Stevens, as lessees under the Trewollas. The Vincents,
having bought in the lease, made it their residence; and, after the
decease of the last of the Vincent’s, Mr. Tonkin resided there for
some time, being the heir-at-law, but the property was too much
incumbered for him to retain the freehold.
The manor of Pentuan was the property and its barton the chief seat of
the Pentires, after they removed from Pentire in Endellion. The
heiress of Pentire married Roscarrock, from whom this estate passed by
a marriage to the Darts, of Dart Ralph in Devonshire, who sold it to
Robarts, of Lanhidrock; and the last Earl of Radnor bequeathed it to
Mr. James Laroche, a merchant of Bristol, afterwards created a
Baronet. This gentleman becoming insolvent, sold the manor, together
with a large property scattered over Cornwall, to a friend, who soon
afterwards dying restored the whole by his will; but in a little
while, and as it would seem with the intention of guarding against the
possibility of a similar occurrence, the estate was sold a second time
in parcels; when this manor of Pentire was purchased by the late Mr.
Tremayne, of Heligon, and the barton, which was reserved by Mr. Dart
when he sold the manor, has descended to Mr. Tremayne from that
family.
The manor of Penwarne belonged to an ancient family of that name.
Vivian Penwarne, who died in the reign of Henry the Seventh, left
three daughters, coheiresses, married to Cosworth, Penhallow, and
Penwarne, of Penwarne in Mawnan. The elder daughter inherited this
manor, which passed in marriage with the heiress of Coswarth to Alan
Hill, Esq. There is a monument in the church to his son Otwell Hill,
of Penwarne; after his death the estate passed to a nephew, Mr. John
Carew, second son of Richard Carew, of Anthony, the Historian of
Cornwall.
Mr. John Carew distinguished himself at the siege of Ostend, in 1601,
where he lost his right hand by a cannon ball. His only son John died
in 1640, leaving five sisters, one of whom married Fortescue, in whom
this property continued till within recent times: it is now, however,
sold in lots.
The barton of Trewincy, sometime a leasehold seat of the Sprys, is now
a farmhouse, the property of Mr. Tremayne.
The vicarage is endowed with the great tithes of about one third part
of the parish. The remainder of the great tithes has gone with the
manor of Treleven to the Grenvelles. The patronage of the vicarage
belongs to the Edgcumbe family, of Mount Edgcumbe; the whole were
formerly appropriated to the college of Glaseney at Penryn.
Mevagissey is one of the principal stations for taking of pilchards by
seine nets, if it is not the very first. The bay is sheltered, free
from rocks, and of a depth which allows the leads on one edge of the
net to rest on the smooth sand at the bottom, while the other edge is
raised to the surface by corks.
All fish are by custom in this parish liable to tithes, which are
payable to the vicar, and amount in some years to much more than the
ordinary income of the living.
The vicarage house is very pleasantly situated in a valley rising from
the town, and the whole glebe received great improvements from the
late vicar, Doctor Lyne, a gentleman of much respectability, but most
distinguished by his singularities; among other fancies, he
entertained such strong apprehensions and fear of contagion, as not to
touch even gold coin till it had been flung into water; but this
caution seems to have been compensated by a subsequent attachment to
the precious metal, as several thousand pounds in specie were found in
his house.
A market is held in Mevagissey on Saturdays.
This parish measures 1222 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4,589 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 1,383 6 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 2052 | 2225 | 2450 | 2169
giving an increase of not quite 6 per cent. in 30 years.
But there appears an extraordinary decrease of population in the
last ten years. In twenty years the increase was 19½ per cent.
very nearly, which, continued for thirty years, would have given
30½ per cent.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Arscott, presented in 1824 by the Earl
of Mount Edgcumbe.