Minver, or St. Mynfer, vicarage, is situate in the hundred of Trigg,
and hath upon the north and west the Irish sea cliff and Padstow
harbour, south Egleshayle, east St. Endellyan.
In the Domesday Book this parish was taxed by the name of Ros-minver.
In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the
value of Cornish benifices, 1294, Ecclesia de Mynfred, or Mynfer, in
decanatu de Minor Trigshire, was rated £7, vicar ejusdem 20_s._ In
Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, £13. 10_s._ 1_d._ The patronage, formerly
in the Prior of Bodmin, who endowed it, now Prideaux, of Netherton;
the incumbent Lewellen; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound
Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. £385. 13_s._
At Trevill-va, alias Trevellva, there is yet extant an ancient free
chapel for divine service, kept in good repair by the lord of this
place, furnished with an old English Bible, heretofore made use of in
this chapel.
This barton is the dwelling of William Silly, Esq. commissioner for
the peace temp. James II. and one of his corporation regulators. He
married Kekewich, of Trehawke; and had issue Hender Silly, his son and
heir, that died without issue; after her death he married Honour, one
of the coheirs of Carter, and hath issue by her also; his father
married Cotton (sister to Sir John Cotton, of Botreaux Castle). His
grandfather, John Silly, gent. attorney-at-law, of St. Wenn, married
Marks, of that place, where he got a great estate by the inferior
practice of the law, and altered his name and arms from Ceely to
Silly, for what reason I know not; in testimony whereof he and his
posterity ever since gave the arms of Ceely, viz. in a field Azure, a
chevron between three mullets Or.
King James the Second’s regulators of corporations in Cornwall, were
Humphrey Borlase, esq. of Treludrow, Sheriff, William Silly, esq.
aforesaid, William Cood, of Pensiple, esq. Mr. Edward Vincent, of
Truro, and Edward Noseworthy, esq.
Here Mr. Hals’ manuscript is deficient, and several subsequent
parishes are lost.