It is universally understood that this parish is not dedicated to the
great apostle of Tarsus; and it is rather a curious circumstance that
the word saint, so generally used as a prefix to the names of parishes
in Cornwall, should invariably be omitted in this instance.
The honour of protecting the parish of Paul has been given by
conjecture to St. Paul de Leon, a native of Cornwall, celebrated as a
founder of monasteries, as a zealous and successful champion of the
faith in converting the Pagans of Britany, where he was made the first
bishop of the town, since called from him St. Pol de Leon; but, not
satisfied with the services that he might render to God and man, in
this important station, amidst newly converted Christians, he
endeavoured to make himself more useful by retiring into a solitude,
where he died on the 12th of March, about the year 573, and nearly in
the hundredth year of his age.
The parish feast is celebrated on the nearest Sunday to October the
10th; and although this saint is generally commemorated on the 12th of
March, the day of his decease, yet in his own city of Leon the very
10th of October is consecrated to his memory: which, together with his
being a Cornish man, seems to fix St. Paul de Leon as the Patron
Saint, in opposition to St. Paulinus the first Archbishop of York, who
was sent by Pope Gregory the Great into England shortly after the
mission of St. Austin; his festival is held on October the 12th.
This church and that of Breage were attached to the mitred abbey of
Hailes in Gloucestershire, as founded by one of the greatest promoters
of monastic establishments on record, Richard King of the Romans and
Earl of Cornwall. He began the building in 1246; and in 1251, when he
had expended ten thousand marks in finishing the monastery, he had the
church dedicated to St. Mary on the 9th of November, in the presenee
of the King and Queen, thirteen Bishops, most of the Barons, and above
three hundred Knights, all of whom he entertained with incredible
state and plenty, letting fall this generous and devout expression: “I
wish it had pleased God that all my great expenses in my Castle of
Wallingford had been as wisely and soberly employed.”
Edmund Earl of Cornwall, son and heir of Richard the founder, having,
in his travels through Germany with his father, obtained a relic
considered to be blood of our Saviour, gave a third part to this
monastery in 1272, thereby causing a great increase in the number of
people resorting to it.
In the return made to King Henry the Eighth, preserved in the
Augmentation Office, of the property belonging to this monastery, are
these entries:
£. _s._ _d._
Com. Cornub. Paulyn firma rectorie 41 0 0
S. Breac firma rectorie 47 0 0
This reign, more unsettled, and more disturbed by domestic wars
throughout its whole extent than any other, was nevertheless most
fertile in the production of monasteries; and the honour and castle of
Wallingford, accidentally united with the Duchy of Cornwall in the
person of Richard Plantagenet, King of the Romans, remained so till it
was taken in exchange by Henry the Eighth for certain manors and lands
in Cornwall, known as the new Duchy holdings.
A great part of the lands surrendered by the Abbey of Hailes are in
possession of the Tracy family; but the impropriated tithes of Paul
belonged, in the early part of the last century, to the family of
Gwavas, since which time they have passed with two coheiresses to
Veale and Carlyon.
The church is placed a little beyond the brow of a lofty ridge
ascending from the sea, so that it is not much seen, but the tower
rising above the ridge is visible from a great distance. The church is
large, and contains several monuments to members of different
families,――Godolphin, Pendarves, Hitchins, &c.
In this parish are situated Mousehole and Newlyn, two towns of pretty
considerable size, although, being very near to Penzance, they have
not any regular market.
MOUSEHOLE, formerly called Porth Enys, the Island Port, on account of
a small island close in upon the shore, had in remote times not the
privilege merely, but the actual possession of a market and fairs, but
having been destroyed by a predatory invasion of some Spaniards in
July 1595, and Penzance rising fast into importance, the practice of
holding them has been discontinued ever since.
Mr. Carew, p. 156 (p. 381 of Lord de Dunstanville’s edition), gives a
detailed account of this invasion, which is said to have occasioned
the capture of Cadiz by a combined English and Dutch squadron in the
ensuing year. In Paul church is the following inscription, recording
the savage conduct of these invaders:
“The Spanyer burnt this church in the year 1595.”
And the parish register commences with this notice:
“Register of St. Pawle in the countie of Cornwall, from the
23 daye of Julie, the year of our gracious Lord God 1595, on
which daie, soon after the sun was risen, the church, tower,
bells, and all other things pertaining to the same, together
with the houses and goods, was burned and spoiled by the
Spaniards in the said parish, being Wensdaie the daye
aforesaid, in the 37th year of the raigne of our Soveraine
Ladie Elezabeth, by the grace of God of England, France, and
Ireland Queene, Defender of the Faith, &c.
“Per me, JOH’NEM TREMEARNE, Vicarium.”
Entries, 1595:
“Jenken Keigwyn, of Mousehole, being killed by the
Spaniards, was buried the 24th of Julie.
Jacobus de Newlyn occisus fuit per inimicos, et sepultus est
26 die Julie.
Similiter Teek Cornall, et sepultus the 26 Julie.”
The cannon ball which caused the death of Mr. Keigwyn, the principal
inhabitant of the place, is still preserved; and to within these few
years an implacable hatred was entertained against the very name of a
Spaniard.
There is said to have been a chapel at Mousehole; and another, on the
island dedicated to St. Clement, served probably for St. Michael’s
Mount, as the island is understood to remain an appendage to that
place.
No satisfactory account has ever been given of the change of name from
Porth Enys to the ludicrous one now in use; there is indeed a cavern
at some distance beyond, spacious, lofty, and strewed with large
rocks, therefore as unlikely to suggest the name as any thing that can
well be imagined. It most likely arose from some trifling circumstance
now forgotten.
NEWLYN is somewhat larger than Mousehole, having annexed to it a
collection of houses called by a mixture of English and Cornish,
“Street Nowan,” the New street.
Both the towns are provided with a pier capable of sheltering small
vessels, and above all of protecting the immense assemblage of boats
employed in the seine fishery, and in driving for pilchards, mackarel,
and herrings; from which large supplies, especially of mackarel, are
sent in the spring to London, and pilchards exported to the amount of
several thousand hogsheads.
The principal family of this parish in early times was probably
Keigwin. To Mr. John Keigwin, born in 1641, we are indebted for the
Translations of Mount Calvary, and of the Creation of the World with
Noah’s Flood, both of which have been printed by the Editor of this
Work, with the original Cornish on the opposite pages; he died about
the year 1710. The affairs of the Keigwins got entangled in family
disputes, accompanied by protracted litigation in the Court of
Chancery, which occasioned their estates to be sold in parcels, and
thus gave rise to the extraordinary number of freeholders in the
parish of Paul.
Mr. Lysons gives the history of several manors, but they do not
contain any thing curious.
The younger branch of the Godolphins, which settled at Treworveneth,
having acquired it by a marriage with the daughter and heiress of John
Cowling of that place, became extinct by the death of Col. William
Godolphin in 1689.
Trungle was the seat of Mr. Hitchens, and afterwards became the
residence of Capt. Clutterbuck, a gentleman from Kent, who came into
Cornwall as commandant of the garrison at Scilly. He married a Cornish
lady, and settled there. His son practised the law at Marazion.
The late Mr. John Price commenced the formation of a pretty retreat in
a small declivity near the ridge of this parish, at a place called
Chi-owne, the house in a croft. Trees were found to flourish there,
and the whole promised so much that his son Mr. Rose Price began to
lay the foundation of a handsome seat on an adjoining farm; and he
went so far as to construct an immense mound to act as a shelter for
trees, and also to give them an elevation on its slope, a work which
the country people named “The Chinese Wall:” the whole was, however,
discontinued for want of sufficient space, which was afterwards
afforded in the adjacent parish of Maddern by the purchase of
Trengwainton.
It is not easy to imagine a more beautiful view than the one obtained
from the summit of the hill above Newlyn; the ascent is, however,
extremely steep, and in consequence a new line of road has been
projected; but the great value and subdivision of land will probably
defeat the execution of a plan having more for its object the
decoration of the country than any facility of communication, although
that would be found important.
Not far from the top of this hill is erected a small stone monument by
the late Mr. John Price, to commemorate a circumstance scarcely
deserving of such attention, which was no more than the finding of a
gold ring with the motto on it, “In hac spe vivo.” Mr. Price indeed
conjectured that it had belonged to some gentleman engaged in the
remote Plantagenet Civil Wars, and with much ingenuity contrived a
series of adventures to suit the occasion and the sentiment.
Another curiosity, discovered much about the same time, is far more
deserving of regard. Of this Mr. Lysons has given an engraved plate
with the following description:
“In 1783, one of the ancient British ornaments of gold, in
the form of a crescent, with a narrow zigzag pattern
slightly engraven on it, and weighing two ounces, four penny
weights, and six grains, was discovered near the remains of
one of the circular earthworks in the neighbourhood of
Penzance. This curious relic is now in the possession of
Rose Price, esq.”
Gold ornaments, similar if not identical with this very curious
remnant of remote antiquity, have been found in other parts of this
island, and also in Ireland. One very like it in bronze, taken from a
stream pool in 1802, is in the possession of Mr. William Rashleigh at
Menabilly.
Objects so interesting have not failed of exciting investigation and
conjecture; and they have been fancied to be a decoration of the chief
priest among the Druids, worn round his head, and indicating by the
crescent shape the exact age of the moon best adapted for ensuring the
greatest possible virtues to the holy misletoe, which was then to be
severed from its parent oak.
Paul measures 2,865 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 7,464 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 785 7 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 2937 | 3371 | 3790 | 4191
giving an increase of 42½ per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. C. G. Ruddock Festing, presented by Lord
Chancellor Eldon in 1826.