There is very little in this parish to require attention. The advowson
has fallen to the Molesworth share of the Morice property.
The church and the small church town are situated in a deep valley,
and altogether form a pleasing group of objects as they are approached
on one of the roads leading to Padstow. Tregonnen is the only other
village.
This part of Cornwall abounded with chapels, probably in consequence
of the monastic institutions, so that even this small parish had one
near the church, dedicated, Mr. Lysons says, to St. Ide or Ida, a
pious widow who discharged her duties in this life according to the
opinions entertained in those times; by bestowing her income, arising
as it must have done, from sources of active industry, in premiums for
idleness and vice, and by immuring herself in a cell built within the
inclosure of a church. Her husband is said to have been a favourite of
Charlemagne; and her death is supposed to have taken place about three
years after that of the founder of the French empire. At a farm called
Trevilan traces remain of another chapel.
Mr. Lysons says, that this parish was formerly called Nassington or
Naffeton.
Little Petherick measures 1315 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1357 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 86 2 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 126 | 134 | 217 | 224
giving an increase of 78 per cent. very nearly in 30 years.
The Rev. Richard Lyne died Rector of this parish in 1834; and was
succeeded by the Rev. Darell Stephens, presented by Sir W.
Molesworth, Bart.