The leasehold property of this manor, purchased by Mr. Philip Hawkins,
remained in his family till his great grandson, the late Sir
Christopher Hawkins, acquired the freehold in the year 1804 or 5,
under the authority of parliament, for redeeming the Land Tax from the
See of Exeter.
The other portion of the Borlase property, sold to Sir William Scawen,
has not remained so permanently in the possession of any family.
Treludra, and its appendages, had certain incorporeal rights, which
made them objects of peculiar attention. Mr. Scawen, who inherited
this property from the original purchaser, sold it to Mr. Basset,
afterwards Lord de Dunstanville; and about the year 1798 it was
finally sold to Sir Christopher Hawkins, who thus united again the
Borlase property in this neighbourhood.
It is now needless to investigate the constitution of the little
borough of Michell, further than to state that the right of voting for
Members of Parliament had been determined to reside in five
individuals, holding certain nominal tenures within the borough, and
denominated mesne lords, and in such persons living within the
borough, as paid scot and lot. These last were in latter times reduced
to four, so as to constitute the five mesne lords a majority.
Nothing could primâ facie appear more absurd, or bear more the
appearance of a childish mockery of representation. But in point of
fact, this and other close boroughs had nothing to do with
representation at all, in the sense usually applied to that word: they
were fortuitous contrivances giving weight to property, and
restraining an assembly partly delegated, and thereby possessing a
strong spirit of freedom, within such bounds as allowed distinct
branches of government to co-exist with this otherwise all powerful
body. They are now swept away, and new institutions seem fast arising;
but whether these shall prove advantageous to the happiness and to the
welfare of mankind, or the contrary, our posterity will be more able
to decide. They may perhaps discover that the apparent obstacles in
our Constitution, really contained the secret springs which gave a
regulated motion to the British Government, when it was esteemed the
wonder and the admiration of the world.
A large extent of waste ground, belonging to the Treludra purchase,
having been enclosed, and efforts made to bring it into cultivation by
various methods, and among these by folding sheep, it received the
name of Shepherds. The late Sir Christopher Hawkins continued with
eagerness what he found commenced; and trying the expedient of
ploughing deep, to remove the stratum of shattered siliceous spar,
which occurs immediately under the peaty turf of all such lands
throughout Cornwall, lead ore was brought to the surface; when this
spirited individual, who is said to have expended five thousand pounds
a year in wages for a considerable length of time, began a mine at his
own expense, and encouraged by its first efforts he brought in an
adit, erected more than one steam engine, and wrought the mine to a
very considerable depth. The quantity of lead raised from the mine
proved sufficient to pay all the expenses, and in addition, the lead
was found to be rich in silver, much above the general average of such
as are usually tested.
All the operations were conducted on the place. The ores were smelted,
silver to the amount of some tens of thousands of pounds value was
extracted from the lead, and the litharge again revived.
In all these matters Sir Christopher Hawkins was mainly assisted by
one whose name I am happy to record.
His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani
Munere.
Mr. John Giddy was born in January 1760, and having received the
common school education, he found himself compelled to waste the
greater part of his life in an inferior situation at a tin smelting
house. He had however the advantage of much leisure, which he employed
in the cultivation of his mind and in the acquirement of knowledge;
and without any apprehension of my judgment being warped in favour of
one, whom I have esteemed more as a brother than a relation,
throughout a period exceeding fifty years, I will venture to say that
in matters connected with chemistry and practical science, few
excelled him; that in honour and integrity he was excelled by none;
and that in more recondite studies, even in the acquirement of foreign
literature, his progress much more resembled what might be expected
from persons having every artificial advantage in life, than from him
who had been in a great measure deprived of them all. He never
married, and died suddenly in last January (1835), at Shepherds,
having just completed his seventy-fifth year.
I am myself approaching the age of man, and but that children, and
grandchildren, carry our views forward and enliven old age, I should
acquiesce in the sentiment of Juvenal:
Hæc data pœna diu viventibus, ut renovata
Semper clade domus; multis in luctibus, inque
Perpetuo mœrore, et nigra veste senescant.
And, darker as it downward bears,
Is stained with past and present tears.
Mr. Lysons says that a manor, called the manor of Newlyn, belonged to
the other branch of the Arundells――that of Lanherne. It may, however,
be remarked that a manor bearing the name of a parish is frequently
limited to a very small part of that with which it would seem to be
co-extensive: in such cases the manor probably derives its name from
the church having been built on it.
Sir John Arundell, who was Sheriff of Cornwall in the 10th year of
Edward the Fourth, lost his life in an attack on St. Michael’s Mount,
then recently seized by Richard de Vere, Earl of Oxford. This
gentleman had removed his residence from Efford, on the coast near
Stratton, and amidst the sands, to Trerice; and these circumstances
gave origin to one of the thousand idle tales invented on such
occasions, and which the diffused intelligence of the present time has
scarcely yet eradicated,――that some foreteller of future events had
warned him of dying in the sand, that he went from Efford to
counteract the will of fate, which became accomplished however at the
foot of St. Michael’s Mount.
The Sir John Arundell, mentioned by Mr. Tonkin as known by the name of
“John for the King,” and as living to a great age, defended Pendennis
Castle with the utmost bravery, after he had passed his eightieth
year; and his son, Sir Richard Arundell, distinguished himself at
several battles in the Civil War. This gentleman, soon after the
Restoration of King Charles the Second, was created Lord Arundell, of
Trerice; his grandson, the last heir male, died in 1773.
The house retains the appearance of a splendid mansion in times passed
by. The south-western wing has been repaired and beautified internally
by Sir Thomas Acland.
Tresilian, improved of late years into a handsome seat, is now the
residence of Richard Gully Bennet, Esq.
The parish feast is kept on the last Sunday in April.
Newlyn measures 7683 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 6,663 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 451 9 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 735 | 798 | 1045 | 1218
giving an increase of 65½ per cent. in thirty years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. Henry Pooley, collated by Bishop Pelham in
1815.