Partly in this parish is the great lordship of Gwairnick, id est, the
Hay River; a name not unsuitable to the circumstances of the place,
for a pleasant river passeth through most fertile meadows beneath the
house.
This place was the seat of the Bevill family, whose ancestor came into
England with the Norman Duke, and was an officer under William Earl of
Morton and Cornwall. One of his posterity married a Gwairnick heiress,
and so it became the seat of the Bevills for about ten descents; and
then, for want of issue male, this lordship, with other fair lands,
descended to the two daughters of the last gentleman of that name, who
were married to Grenville of Stow and to Arundell of Trerice.
The manor of Boswellick, which I take to signify the house by the
mill-river, upon the division of Bevill’s estates between Grenville
and Arundell, this fell to Grenville, who sold it to Sir Richard
Roberts, of Truro. This gentleman, afterwards Lord Roberts, was in
possession of the estate towards the latter part of Queen Elizabeth’s
reign, for his son John Roberts, first Earl of Radnor, was nursed here
by Mrs. Tregeagle, the daughter of Degory Polwhele, Esq. and wife of
John Tregeagle, Gent. who held a lease of this estate from Sir Richard
Roberts. And this was the rise of the Tregeagles; for John Tregeagle,
their son, being foster-brother to the said Earl, was afterwards by
him made his chief steward, and brought forwards in the world. [The
heiress of Tregeagle brought the lease to the Cleathers, who continued
to possess it for several generations. The manor is now the property
of John Thomas, esq. Vice-Warden of the Stannaries, by purchase from
the representatives of the Robartes family. _Lysons._]
Adjoining to this barton is Nancarrow; and this being the first
occasion for noticing the adjunct word “carrow,” I shall be somewhat
the more prolix in discussing of it. Karo, or Caro, signifying in
Cornish a hart or deer, Nancarrow has generally been considered to be
the deer’s valley, and Pencarrow the head of the deer; but how
improperly let any one guess who sees these places. I rather take
Carrow therefore to be softening of Karrog, a brook or rivulet, so as
to signify, in this instance, the valley of brooks; and in Pencarrow,
the head of the brooks. Nancarrow was formerly inhabited by a family
of that name, one of whom was stannitor for Blackmore in the
Convocation of 13th Elizabeth. It passed by sale to the Borlases of
Treludra, and from them to the Scawns. [It now belongs to Mr. Oliver
Adams Carveth. _Lysons._]
Adjoining to the barton of Gwerick, which means simply “on the river,”
is a tenement called the Gerras, that is, “the summit or top,” from
its high situation; which I notice in this place on account of its
lead mines.
Trerice in this parish belonged to a younger branch of the Arundells
of Trerice in Newlyn; from whom it is said to have been wrested not
very fairly, by an attorney, Mr. John Coke. The estate now belongs to
Lord Falmouth.
Near to Trerice is Trefronick, contracted, as I believe, from
Tre-vor-in-ick,――“the dwelling in the way to the rivulet.” This also
belonged to the Arundells; passed to John Coke, from him to Borlase,
and from Borlase to Kempe.
Adjoining is Talcarne――“the high heap of rocks of stones.” Tal
properly signifies the forehead, and hence any high or eminent thing;
whereas Tol, often confounded with it, means a hole.