Sheviock is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north
St. German’s Creek, east Anthony, west St. German’s, south the British
channel.
At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was taxed under the
jurisdiction of the Abbey town, now St. German’s. In the inquisition
of the Bishop of Lincoln aforesaid 1294, Ecclesia de Sevyock, in
decanatu de Est, was rated cvi_s._ viij_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition
1521, at £26. 14_s._ 6_d._; and the parish rated to the four shillings
per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, at £166.
This church was founded and endowed by those knightly gentlemen, lords
of the barton and manor aforesaid, surnamed Daunye or Dawney. Mr.
Carew tells us in his Survey of Cornwall, that the funeral monuments
of two of those knights are yet extant in this church, though the
inscriptions about them are worn out by time. Certes, this was a very
famous and flourishing family on the barton of Shevyock aforesaid, for
several descents, till the time of King Richard II. when the sole
daughter and heir of Sir John de Dawney, knight, named Emelyn, was
married to Edward Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon, 1380, by whom he had
issue Edward Courtenay, surnamed the blind, the 12th Earl of Devon,
and Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccomb, knight; the which Edward, at the
request of his said mother, by his deed bearing date the 2d of King
Henry Fifth, settled upon the said Sir Hugh Courtenay his brother, the
manors of Gotherington, South Allington, and Stancomb Dawney in Devon,
which were the lands of her ancestors the Dawneys. Afterwards, the
said Edward died, 7th Henry V. 1418. (See Brooke in his Catalogue of
Devon Earls.)
By this Emelyn Dawney, as traditions amongst the family of the
Courtenays have it, Boconock came first into their tribe, though
others say that it came to Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccomb, by
Lerchdeacon’s heir, but more truly that his said mother settled it
upon him on his marriage with Lerchdeacon of Haccomb’s heir.
One Nicholas de Dawney, 3 Henry IV. held in the hundred of East, by
the tenure of knight service, two knight’s fees and a half. (Survey of
Cornwall, page 41.) Of the arms of those gentlemen thus speaks
Nicholas Upton in his Latin manuscript, before printing was invented
1440. Monsieur Gwilliam Dawney port d’Argent, oue trois popinjays en
bend oue deux cottises. Again, Monsieur John Dawney port d’Argent, en
une bende Vert trois rose de Or, oue deux costs de Azure; from whence
I infer there were either several families of those Dawneys, that gave
different arms, or that in those days they had no positive record of
their bearings.
One Sir John Dawney, knt. of Cowick, in Yorkshire, Sheriff of that
county 35 Henry VIII. gave for his arms, in a field Argent, on a bend
cottised Sable, three annulets of the Field, which is the recorded
arms of Dawney.