The manor of Bodmin was bestowed by the King on the well-known poet
Mr. Thomas Sternhold, for his translation of The Psalms, which may
fairly be considered as a very adequate reward; but almost all the
ecclesiastical possessions were given to the Prideauxes, and were
finally sold about fifty years ago, soon after the decease of the last
representative of the Devonshire branch of that family. Both the
appropriated rectory and the vicarage were purchased by the Rev.
William Sandys.
Mr. Sandys distinguished himself at Oxford, and was in consequence
elected a Fellow of All Souls. He travelled through the south of
Europe with Mr. Francis Basset, afterwards Lord de Dunstanville, and
held the living of Illogan till Mr. John Basset, a younger brother,
received priest’s orders. He married Miss Mary Praed, of Trevethow;
and dying in 1816, he left the larger part of a handsome fortune to
Mr. William Warren, a sister’s son, who married Miss Marshall, another
sister’s daughter, and their son having taken the name of Sandys, is
now the possessor, and resides at St. Minver.
A presentation to the vicarage was given by Mr. Sandys to the Rev.
George Treweeke, the son of a third sister, who has also the rectory
of Illogan.
Mr. Sandys, in consequence of some incident or of some allusion now
forgotten, but not in diminution of the respect most justly due to his
talents and his learning, acquired the appellation of Cardinal,
perhaps from his having worn a scarlet dress at Rome, on some public
occasion.
A monument is placed in the church to Mrs. Sandys, with the following
inscription:
M. S.
Mariæ fil: sec: H. M. Praed de Trevethow in hoc Agro,
et Gul. Sandys, A.M. olim Col: Om: Anim: Oxon: Soc.
Deinde hujus Parochiæ Vicarii
Uxoris dilectissimæ.
Quæ ob. 4^{to} die mens: Aprilis A.D. MDCCCIX ætatis LX.
Amoris ergo et desiderii
Maritus superstes heu! et mœrens
H. M. P. C.
Mr. Lysons says that the manor of Penmear was given by the Black
Prince to Sir William Woodland, usher of his chamber, but that it
reverted again to the Duchy.
Trevernon, or Trewornan, belonged in the reign of king James the
First, to Thomas Clifford, D.D. It afterwards became the seat of the
Howes; from whom it passed, with an heiress, to the Darells. It is now
the residence of the Rev. Darell Stephens, their representative.
There is a monument to Thomas Darell, esq. who died in 1691.
Pentire Point in this parish is the boldest promontory on the southern
side of the Bristol Channel. The barton of which this headland forms a
part, belonged to a family of the same name, till it passed with an
heiress to Roscarrock, and from them by an heiress to Tremayne; and it
belongs at present to John Hearle Tremayne, esq. of Heligon.
Trevelver, once a seat of the Arundells, belongs now to the family of
Yeo.
This parish is divided on the eastern side from St. Kew, by an estuary
dangerous to passengers, and where lives were not unfrequently lost,
till Mr. Sandys took the lead in constructing a bridge across the
ford, which he effected after much exertion, and at a considerable
expense to himself.
Although St. Minver is strictly one entire parish, yet there are two
ancient chapels still remaining with districts assigned to them, out
of which some of the parish officers are annually chosen.
The parish church, with its more appropriate division, is called
Highlands, and the remaining part annexed in some degree to the
chapels, is called Lowlands, subdivided into north and south. One of
the chapels, according to Mr. Lysons, is dedicated to St. Michael;
which, if the fact is so, must be a very unusual circumstance, as the
wings of the archangel appear to have associated his habits, in
popular opinion, with those of birds, which led him to delight in
elevated situations; the other chapel has for its patron St. Enodoc or
St. Gwinnodock.
One of these chapels happening to require repair about the middle of
the last century, the vestry or the parish officers sold the bells to
reimburse the expense, notwithstanding their being tenfold consecrated
by the inscription: