This place, at an early period, belonged to the Bodrigans. Sir Henry
de Bodrigan gave it as a marriage portion with his daughter to Henry
Champernowne. The heiress of this branch of the Champernownes married
Polglass Herle. Sir John Herle the younger, who died without issue,
settled the reversion of Trelawn on Sir William Bonville, the last of
an ancient Devonshire family (summoned to Parliament Sept. the 23d, in
the 28th year of Henry the Sixth, as Baron Bonville, which barony in
fee became forfeited by the attainder of his great-grandson Henry
Grey, Duke of Suffolk, in the first year of Philip and Mary. Ed.) It
was a very remarkable circumstance attending this family, that the
havoc of Civil War annihilated three generations within the space of
two months. At the battle of Wakefield Lord Bonville witnessed the
death of his son Sir William Bonville, and of his grandson William
Lord Harrington, who enjoyed that title according to the custom of
those days, as having married Elizabeth, the daughter and heiress of
Lord Harrington, of Harrington, possessed of a barony in fee. This
battle took place on the last day of December 1460. And in the month
of February following the aged grandfather, Lord Bonville himself, was
taken prisoner at the second battle of St. Alban’s, and although his
life had been promised, he was beheaded by the order of Queen
Margaret, who bore resentment against him, as being one of those who
had custody of the king’s person after the battle of Northampton.
Elizabeth Lady Harrington, after the accession of Edward the Fourth,
had a large dower assigned her out of Lord Bonville’s estates in
Cornwall. Her only daughter by Bonville brought Trelawn, and other
estates, to Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset. On the attainder of his
grandson Henry Duke of Suffolk, they were seized by the Crown. Queen
Elizabeth, in the 42d year of her reign, sold the manor of Trelawn and
the lands of Hendersich and Portello, in Talland prrish, to Sir
Jonathan Trelawny. The old and famous family of Trelawny take their
name from the barton of Trelawny, in the parish of Alternun. The arms
of this family are Argent, a chevron Sable, sometimes charged with
three oak-leaves Proper.
It is said that Sir John Trelawny was so eminent in the wars of
France, that King Henry the Fifth, on the 27th of September, in the
seventh year of his reign, at Gison in Normandy, granted him £20
yearly for life, as a just recompense for his signal services; and
that Henry the Sixth was pleased to confirm it to him in the first
year of his reign, and granted to him an augmentation to his arms, the
three oak-leaves. He was certainly the first of this family who bore
that addition. Under the picture of Henry the Fifth, which stood
formerly on the gate at Launceston, was this rhyme:
He that will do aught for me,
Let him love well Sir John Trelawnee.
There was an ancient saying in Cornwall, That a Godolphin was never
known to want wit, a Trelawny courage, or a Glanville loyalty.
Mr. Lysons says, Lord Bonville built a castellated mansion at
Trelawny, a part of which, with two towers, remain on the eastern side
of the present house. Sir John Trelawny nearly rebuilt the house, soon
after his purchase of the estate. It was again nearly rebuilt by
Edward Trelawny, esq. Governor of Jamaica, after a fire, which
happened about the middle of the last century. There are several
family portraits in the house, two of the Bishop of Winchester; he
built a chapel there, on the site of a former one, and the following
inscription remains:
“This Chapel was consecrated by the Right Rev.
Father in God, Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bart. Lord Bishop
of Exeter, on Monday, 23d day of November,
Anno Dom. 1701.”
Without adverting to ancient times, two members of this family have
been distinguished in times more recent, Doctor Jonathan Trelawny, and
one of his sons, Edward Trelawny, esq.