The church at Probus is large, but not remarkable for any thing beyond
other churches in the neighbourhood. In it are some monuments, and
especially one to Mr. Thomas Hawkins of Trewithon, sometime member for
Grampound, who died in 1766. This gentleman not having passed the
small-pox, and resolving on being inoculated, thought it was his duty
to extend the same benefit to all his neighbours in the parish.
Several scores had in consequence this dreadful disease communicated
to them in its mitigated form, and all recovered except the benevolent
individual himself, who thus extensively introduced inoculation, at
that time a novelty in Cornwall among the great mass of the people. He
is supposed to have carried too far the asthenic system for
counteracting fever, and perhaps to have taken the contagion, in what
is termed the natural way, previously to the artificial communication.
Although the church is not superior to others around it, the tower is
on the whole more magnificent than any other in the county. The tower
at Weck St. Mary, near Stratton, is said to be somewhat more lofty;
and several exceed that at Probus in elegance and lightness of
proportions, but this combines massiveness, altitude, and elaborate
decoration; moreover, it has been built since the Reformation, and
according to tradition, by the voluntary contributions of the
unmarried inhabitants of the parish; but the same is said of a lofty
tower at Derby; and of the windows of St. Neot’s Church, one is given
by the unmarried men, and another by the single women of that parish.
It is quite clear that this church was collegiate, having a dean and a
certain number of prebendaries, founded in very early times before the
Norman Conquest, and probably by St. Edward. The Deanery became
attached with its share of the endowments to the Church of Exeter, but
in a way which Mr. Whitaker himself has not succeeded in clearly
making out. The prebendaries or some of them remained till the general
dissolution, when the prebends were given or sold, and have passed
through the Williams’s, by purchase to the Hawkins family, with some
fairs. One fair, however, is the grant of King Charles the Second. Few
gentlemen’s houses in the west of Cornwall were without the honour of
receiving Prince Charles during his residence in Cornwall, about the
middle part of the civil wars; and he is said to have remained for a
time longer than usual with Mr. Williams, who, after the Restoration,
waited on the King with congratulations from the parish; and on being
complimented by him with the question whether he could do any thing
for his friends, answered that the parish would esteem themselves
highly honoured and distinguished by the grant of a fair, which was
accordingly done for the 17th of September; this fair coming the last
in succession after three others, has acquired for itself a curious
appellation derived from the two patron saints, and from the peculiar
pronunciation in that neighbourhood of the word last, somewhat like
_laest_:――
Saint Probus and Grace,
Not the first but the last,
――and from this distinction it is usually called Probus and Grace
fair.
It is utterly impossible now to give any account of these two
personages, except that they were in all probability missionaries from
Ireland. Nor is the Roman name of Probus any objection against this
supposition, since such names were frequently assumed. The apostle of
Ireland has a Roman name, and many of the religious must have been
foreigners.
On repairing the east wall of the chancel some few years since, two
skeletons were found in different niches, and one of these was
declared by anatomists to have been a female. These were supposed to
be the relics of St. Probus and of St. Grace, which may have been
true, although the present church cannot be less than eight hundred or
a thousand years later than their time.
No obvious indication can be discovered of the ancient college;
perhaps the prebendaries ceased to reside after the deanery became
absorbed at Exeter.
Mr. Whitaker has left several pages of memoranda on this parish,
evidently notes made at the time of his visit there, and not arranged
in any order. The Editor thinks it therefore most expedient to adopt
such parts only as seem to explain the etymologies, or to give
information respecting facts.
Mr. Whitaker observes, that, although the dedication of this parish is
to St. Probus alone, yet assuredly St. Grace should be adopted also as
a patron saint. The parish feast kept in the early part of July, is
always designated by their joint names. No notice is taken of either
in Bede.
On Carvean, Mr. Whitaker says, that it means the Little Marsh, as cars
is a bay, a marsh, or a moor, corsen a reed, cors-hwyad in Welsh, is a
fen-duck, a moorhen.
On Trewithgy.――In English a house surrounded by trees, and lying in
the water. Trewithgy, Trenowith, and Treworgy, are different parts of
the same manor. Trenowith signifies the New Town, and Treworgy a local
name, remarkably common, as it is sure to be from its signification,
being the town upon the water, or rather perhaps, upon the running
stream.
Mr. Whitaker says, the manor of Probus appears from Domesday Book to
have been possessed by St. Edward the Confessor; it was therefore one
of the demesnes of the Crown at that time, and probably one of those
belonging to the sovereigns of Cornwall previously to the conquest by
the Saxons. Then I presume that an English family settled on those
lands, and held them of the Crown; probably the Walvedons, who held
them with Gowlden.
On this barton is an angular fort, says Borlase, p. 313 of his
Antiquities, second edition, “on the barton of Wolvedon, alias Golden,
in the parish of Probus, which has a wide deep ditch, the entire edge
or counterscarp of which was faced upwards with masonry of thin stones
in cement, which had round turrets or buttresses (such as neither
Saxons, Danes, nor Britons had, as far as ever I can find) of the same
masonry, interspersed with the straight lines of the ditch. This is
very singular in our county, where most of our ancient fortifications
are of a circular plan, without any projections (angular or circular)
from the master line. I can judge this, therefore, neither to be
British, Saxon, nor Danish, as being like no other work of these
people, and from the artful fence of this ditch, as well as from the
polygon which the whole forms, I guess it to be a Roman work. There is
a large avenue or way from the north, rising from an adjoining valley.
This fortified ground I examined in August 1792. It is an earthwork
denominated Warren, containing six Cornish acres, as the farmer told
me, or about seven statute acres. It has a high and broad rampart
twelve or fourteen feet high, and a deep ditch fourteen or sixteen
feet wide. The whole forms a long square, the greatest length from
east to west. It has two gateways on the north, and two on the south,
one on the east, and one on the west, each answering to the other, and
having a raised avenue across the ditch. I therefore conclude it to be
a Roman camp, made at the period when that people subdued Cornwall,
and calculated for the reception of a large detachment. The revetments
mentioned by Dr. Borlase do not appear, nor the projecting turrets.
About a mile to the north of this, beyond a deep gully, may be found
what is noticed by Mr. Tonkin as Caer Voza, and noticed by Doctor
Borlase in his Natural History, p. 324, as Caerfos or Caerfosou. This
is an estate, called so from a field close to the house, which has a
strong and lofty rampart upon the north side, and a large deep ditch
upon the north of that. These continue all along the northern side of
the field, and have a slight return on the east and west towards the
south; but then they cease, nor can any traces be found of them
afterwards. Perhaps this imperfect work may have been a camp of the
Britons opposed to that of the Romans, or one commenced at least for
that purpose.
Thus far Mr. Whitaker.
* * * * *
Trehane, with a considerable property around it, were given, as Mr.
Tonkin has stated, by the last Mr. Williams of that place, to his
eldest daughter Mary, who married the Rev. William Stackhouse, D.D.
Rector of St. Erme, the adjoining parish. Doctor Stackhouse was from
the county of Durham, a brother of the Rev. Thomas Stackhouse, Vicar
of Beenham, Berks, well known by his learned works.
A complete body of Divinity――A fair statement of the controversy
between Mr. Woolston and his adversaries,――and various others; but
above all by an History of the Bible from the beginning of the World
to the establishment of Christianity, in two volumes folio, first
printed in 1732, a work that has gone through various editions, and
may be found in every good library.
Doctor Stackhouse left two sons, William and John. His eldest son
William, married one of the Miss Rashleighs of Menabilly, and settled
at Trehane, where he lived universally esteemed and respected till
June 1830, when he departed this life in his 90th year, leaving
Trehane to his eldest son, who resides there at present. Mr. John
Stackhouse, whose son Edward William Wynne Pendarves represents the
county in Parliament, is noticed under Cambourne.