Bodmin is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north
Helland, south Lanhydrock, west Lanivet, east Cardinham. In Domesday
Roll 1067, or 1087, it was rated by the name of Bod-ran, id est,
command, authority, or jurisdiction share, or division. In some other
ancient manuscripts, Bod-man.
[Mr. Hals gives here a long detailed account of the supposed Bishopric
of Bodmin, and of the Bishops themselves, with a great variety of
collateral incidents; but the late Mr. Whitaker has shown, in his
learned work on “The Cathedral of Cornwall,” that the whole is devoid
of any foundation whatever. It is therefore omitted; and the reader
desirous of information and entertainment is referred to that curious
production of our learned antiquary.]
Algar Earl of Cornwall, successor of Ailmer, (as the Monasticon
Anglicanum, tom. i. p. 213, and tom. ii. p. 205, informs us,) at his
own proper cost and charges re-edified the church of St. Peter at
Bodmin, as it now stands; consisting of three roofs, each sixty
clothyards long, thirty broad, and twenty high, so that for bulk and
magnificence it is parallel to the cathedral of Kirton, and little
inferior to that of Exeter. Earl Algar gave the church to a society of
Augustines or Black Canons.
Afterwards, if Leland’s manuscripts may be credited, those Black
Canons were displaced, and succeeded by St. Benedict’s monks; and then
again those monks were displaced, and succeeded by a nunnery of
Benedictine nuns. Then again, saith he, those nuns were displaced, and
succeeded by secular priests; who also were again displaced, and
Canons Regular, or Black Canons Augustine, restored to their places;
under which circumstance of religious men Leland found it when King
Henry the Eighth sent him into Cornwall, to inspect the orders and
revenues of the religious houses therein. And in this state it was
found by the Commissioners, 26 Henry VIII. when dissolved, at which
time its revenue yearly was valued at 270_l._ 11_s._ Dugdale; 269_l._
11_s._ 11_d._ Speed. Now this value, the reader must observe, was only
the conventionary or annual rent reserved on leases of the priory
land, set out to tenants for 99 years, determinable upon lives, and
the common way of valuing those old rents was after the rate of ten
per cent.; so that 270_l._ rent was then worth 2,700_l._ now worth
6,000_l._ per annum: which lands and rents are now chiefly in the
hands and possession of Godolphin, Buller, Robarts, Morrice, Prideaux,
Vivian, Rashleigh, Nicholls, Moyle, Molesworth, and many others.
The churches appropriated to this priory were, 1. Bodmin, 2. St. Wenn,
3. Withiel, 4. St. Kew, 5. St. Breock, 6. Little Pederick, 7. Padstow,
8. St. Ervan, 9. Crantock, 10. Cubert, 11. St. Colomb-minor, 12.
Tregony, 13. St. Minver, 14. Lanhydrock, and some others, whereof the
priors were either patrons or founders.
The Prior of this church of St. Peter kept his treasurer, his steward,
almoner, hospitalarius, et infirmarius, that took care of sick and
weak beggars and travellers. The priory-house wherein he dwelt is yet
extant, though his domestic chapel and burial-place be dilapidated and
demolished, all contiguous with the church aforesaid.
The jurisdiction and royalty over the river Alan, from Camelford to
Padstow Rock, was given to this Prior by Algar Earl of Cornwall, in
right of his manor of Helston, in this hundred, excepting the right of
free fishing to the tenants thereof; a river famous for infinite
number of those kings of fishes called salmon, which between Midsummer
and Christmas are taken there, reputed, by such as are skilled in the
gusto or palate, the best of that kind in Cornwall (except the salmon
of the Val river, in this county). But, since the dissolution of this
priory by King Henry the Eighth, this royalty is disjointed, if not
dismembered from it, and enjoyed in co-partnership by such as are the
now owners of its lands and revenues, and by some others whose lands
are contiguous with that river; though the now Duchy tenants of the
manor of Helston aforesaid still pay barbe-agu, or bar-ba-gut money,
id est, barbed-spear money, annually to the Duke of Cornwall, who is
Lord thereof, for free fishing with salmon-spears.
The list or catalogue of the names of the Priors of this church is
lost, except Thomas Vivian, the last save one;[15] a man famous in his
days for his piety and charities, as his benefactions make him still
memorable in ours; for he built the rectory-house at Withall, the
mansion-house at Ryalton, the south roof at Edleshayle church, and the
lofty spire and steeple lately upon his prioral, now parochial church
of Bodmin aforesaid, which was all struck down with lightning and
thunder anno Dom. 1699, and since again re-edified as it now stands,
without a spire, at the proper cost and charge of the inhabitants of
Bodmin town and parish.
This Prior Vivian was by the Pope consecrated Bishop of Megara, in
Achaia, a city of Greece. He lies entombed with his bust or skeleton
within a costly and curious stone chest or monument, about seven feet
long, and three feet high above ground, on the top of which is cut at
full length his portraiture as a man, and on this figurative body his
episcopal robes, his mitre on his head, his staff or crosier in his
hand, his face encompassed over with the wings of two cherubim
standing by: somewhat defaced in the interregnum of Cromwell, as a
superstitious monument. This tomb is also adorned round with crosses;
the arms of his Bishopric of Megara, viz. in a field Gules, three
human thigh-bones saltirewise Or, or Proper; the arms of his priory
aforesaid; the arms of England, France, and Ireland; and lastly, that
of his own or his ancestors’ arms, viz. in a field Argent, on a
chevron Azure three annulets, between three bears’ heads erased and
muzzled Sable, on a chief Gules three martlets Or; which are arms of a
strange confused bearing, according to the rules of heraldry, composed
or consisting of two of the honourable ordinaries, a chevron and a
chief, and the same charged with martlets and annulets, of colours
yellow, white, red, blue, and black, charge upon charge, and colours
upon colours; all which monument is surrounded with an ancient and
broken inscription to this purpose:
Hic tumulatus venerabilis Pater Thomaus Vivian, Megarensis
Episcopus, hujus domus Prior; qui obiit tertio die Junii,
anno Dom. 1533. Cujus animæ propitietur Deus. Amen.
This church of the Prior’s, after dissolution of the priory aforesaid,
was converted to a parochial church for the parish and town of Bodmin,
and the secular church of Beni left to fall into utter ruin and decay,
as it now stands; and is discontinued either for use of living or dead
human creatures, the tower only standing, and cattle daily depasturing
in the same, and the cemetery thereof, as in other places.
Also this prioral rectory church, long before its dissolution, was
converted by the Prior into a vicarage church; for in the Inquisition
of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester before mentioned, anno Dom.
1294, Eccles. de Bodmin, in Decanatu de Trigg minor, was taxed to the
Pope’s annats vi_l._ xiii_s._ 4_d._ Vicar ibidem nihil propter
paupertatem. The rectory or patronage now in Prideaux, the Incumbent
Wood (Key), and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax,
1696, 89_l._ 1_s._ per annum; the borough of Bodmin 178_l._ 12_s._; in
all 267_l._ 13_s._
In Bodmin churchyard is a well-built school-house, built over a very
spacious charnel-house or grott, where are piled up the dry bones of
such men and women as are found in new-made graves, to put the
scholars and townsmen in mind of mortality; and is now commonly called
the Bone-house. This school Queen Elizabeth endowed with about 16_l._
13_s._ 4_d._ per annum revenues out of the Exchequer for ever.
The name Bodmin anciently comprehended no more than the town or
borough itself, as it is now taxed in the Exchequer; for in the
Domesday tax Beni, Lanlaran, now St. Lawrence, and Lantallan, were
districts rated by themselves, though now consorted under that name of
Bodmin parish and town. It is called a burge, or burghs, from the same
Japhetical original as the Cornish word purguse, πυργος [purgus],
turris, a tower, castle, fenced or fortified place, from whence the
Latins had their word burgus, of the same import; and suitable
thereto, notable it is, this town hath in it still a place called
Tower-hill; as also, that every considerable town or burg in Cornwall
heretofore had near it, for its defence, some castle, tower, or
citadel, to defend it from the invasion of enemies. And agreeably to
this interpretation and custom, Bodmin town, upon the east part
thereof, upon a high-mounted hill, hath still extant the ruins and
downfalls of a treble British entrenchment, containing above twelves
acres of ground, formerly and still called Castle Kynock, alias
Cunock, synonymous words, i. e. the King’s, or the supreme and
sovereign castle. (See Truro, Launceston, Saltash, Helston, &c. for
the like.)
Hence it is in the Cornish-British we have πυργες, purges, Anglice
burgess, or a citizen (from whence the Latins had their word
burgensis), which signifies an inhabitant of such a place as kept a
tower, castle, fort, or hold, or had a college-court of purgesses (now
burgesses) in it. And I doubt that, long before the Norman Conquest,
or bishopric here was erected, this town of Bodmin by prescription was
invested with the jurisdiction of a court-leet, (id est, a court that
kept a law-day, or festival,) though the same was not confirmed by a
charter or incorporated before King John, A.D. 1216, granted one
thereto; whereby he privileged the same with the tribunal also of a
mayor, recorder, town clerk, twelve aldermen, and twenty-four
common-councilmen, or assistants, who have power to nominate and elect
a new mayor annually by the majority of voices, as also members of
parliament. The mayor and town clerk, and last preceding mayor,
justices of the peace for one year after within the said borough; the
town clerk during life. This town and borough is held of the King of
Great Britain, and pays annually to the King’s Audit at Launceston
between five and six pounds per annum rent, beyond the records of
time.
By the same charter it was made also one of the towns for coinage of
tin, though long since discontinued (see Lostwithiel for the Tinners’
Charter); and made also the only staple town in Cornwall where in a
public market merchants might carry their goods for wholesale, and
whereby the mayor and town clerk also were authorized to take the
acknowledge of statute staple bonds between party and party as the law
directs.
Now to remove an action depending in this court-leet of Bodmin to any
superior court, the writ must be thus directed:
Majori et Communi Clerico Burgi sui de Bodmin, in comitatu
Cornubiæ, salutem.
The chief men within this town, and within the circumstances
aforesaid, are Mr. Philipps, Mr. Bullock, Mr. Hobbs, Mr. Bligh, Mr.
Wymond, Mr. May, Mr. Smith, Mr. Tomm.
The precept for electing members of parliament is thus directed:
Majori et Burgensibus Burgi sui de Bodmin, &c.
This town, for number of inhabitants (as in Mr. Carew’s time, 1602)
far exceeds any other town in Cornwall; which is also privileged by
its charter with keeping a weekly market on Saturdays, wherein is
vended of all creatures both living and dead, corn, fish, and fowl,
and all other things necessary for the life of man, in such great
abundance, and at a moderate price, as the same equals if not exceeds
the markets of Tavistock and Exeter, in Devon. It is also
appurtenanced with fairs, upon January 25th, December 6th, Saturday
after Mid-lent Sunday, and on Wednesday before Whitsun-day. There is a
street in this town called Cassiter-street, that is to say,
Woodland-street. (See Falmouth, for Cassiter and Cassiteros.)
I have been told that, within the memory of sixty years last past,
there was extant within this town and parish the remains, ruins, and
dilapidated walls of no less than 13 churches or free chapels, wherein
heretofore God was duly worshipped, perhaps first erected by those
religious persons mentioned by Leland, who had so often been displaced
or turned out from the priory as aforesaid.
But, above all others, there is still extant in this town the stately
church of the Franciscan Friars, dedicated to St. Nicholas, and their
cells, consisting of one roof twenty clothyards high and fifty long,
with two stone-windows, admirable for height, breadth, and
workmanship; which, after the dissolution of their house and order by
King Henry the Eighth, the justices of the peace of this county
appointed for a house of correction for such vagrant and idle persons
as the same afforded, by the name of the Friary and Shire-hall; which
the townsmen taking notice of, soon after converted or profaned it
further to a common market-house, for selling corn, wool, and other
commodities weekly; yea, and within the same is kept yearly several
fairs for selling all sorts of merchandize, the altars being pulled
down, and in the churchyard, or burial-place, a fair for cattle. It
also lately made the tribunal or hall for the judges of assize yearly,
and the justices of the peace in their sessions, and is undoubtedly,
except Westminster Hall, the fairest and best in England.
The stone font of this church for baptizing infants is now converted
to a measure for corn in this hall, which also, as I said, is the
weekly market-house. On the same is an inscription in old characters,
which I leave for abler capacities than mine to interpret.
The founder of those Cordelier or Franciscan Friars was Francis of
Assium, in Italy, who was born about the year 1140. His parents placed
him to school for some time to study the liberal arts and sciences,
and afterwards placed him to the trade and occupation of a merchant,
which in Italy still, as anciently it was amongst the Jews, is so
reputable an employment that even princes themselves are merchants:
which trade or occupation Francis followed, with small gain or
advantage, in a fair and righteous way, for some time, but growing
discontented thereat, and not knowing thereby well how to subsist, he
resolved, as others did, to follow indirect arts and practices to get
more riches, by stealing the duties of such goods and merchandize as
he bought and sold, which then was, and still is, a capital crime in
Italy; and accordingly put the same in practice, and much enriched
himself thereby, though at length his fraud was detected, himself
indicted, tried for his life, and condemned to death for the same.
Whereupon, in order to prevent the sentence inflicted upon him, and to
avoid the halter, he gave the greatest part of his goods and estate to
his prince, to grant or procure his pardon, and the other part to
pious uses, in relieving the poor, and re-edifying and endowing three
churches. Afterwards he fell into such great horror and trouble of
conscience for those facts, and that he was fully informed from Hosea
xii. 7 and 8, that a merchant cannot be without guile, nor a
victualler without sin, it so wrought upon him, that he did not only
renounce his trade of a merchant, but also forsook all worldly
affairs, and took upon himself the vows of obedience, poverty, and
chastity; and under the habit of a grey cover, or scapula, and a coat
of the same, surrounded or girded in the middle with a twisted rope,
cord, or halter, in memory of his deliverance from it and the gallows,
as aforesaid, with naked legs and discalceated feet, he forsook his
house, and went about the country preaching the Gospel gratis,
subsisting only on the alms and charity of his hearers, and what was
wanting in that particular was made up by downright beggary. And in
short time he so far prevailed with the people by his predicatements,
that divers brethren went about with him, following the same manner of
life, under the rules and habit aforesaid, which gave him occasion or
opportunity to lay the foundation of the first convent in Christendom
of his order at Assissium aforesaid, and obtained a confirmation of
his rule from the Pope; and two years after his death, 4th Aug. 1228,
was by him canonized for a saint.
However, let it be remembered here, that afterwards St. Bonaventure,
being at the 18th year of his age entered of this order of St.
Francis, and in the general chapter of Narbonne chosen minister
general of those friars, he then so altered and regulated his rule and
order, or rather reformed it, that ever since it might more aptly be
called the order of St. Bonaventure than that of St. Francis. Which
St. Bonaventure afterwards being made a Bishop, and one of the
Cardinals of Rome, wrote the Life of St. Francis in Latin, and therein
recounted so many stories of his conversion as aforesaid, of his
perfection, religion, reparation of three churches, his sincere,
mortified life, and the manner of preparing creatures for his
refection, his humility, obedience, condescension, and bowing
downwards of himself, his love of poverty, the wonderful supply of his
wants, his affections towards piety, his desire of martyrdom, his
study, and virtuous orations, his skill in Scripture and spirit of
prophecy, his efficacious predicatements, his sacred marks, and holy
chastisements of his body, his patience in undergoing the pangs of
death, 4th Oct. 1226, that in this place I have only room to name
them. And as a surplusage thereto, St. Bonaventure, as also Alosi
Lepomani, Bishop of Seville, ascribe to St. Francis, before and after
his death, the doing of no less than 113 miracles, or supernatural
acts, which, I think, are more than are recorded by the sacred
writings to be done by our Saviour Jesus.
But, notwithstanding all that is done and said by St. Bonaventure in
praise of St. Francis, he did not much rely upon the merit of him or
any other Saint, since it is an established sanction at the end of all
his hymns pertaining to this order of Franciscans,
Soli gloria tibi, Domine, qui natus es de Virgine.
Now though this Order of St. Francis, after convents were erected and
endowed, for the most part lived in convents under these rules as
aforesaid, without alms or begging, yet a particular sort of them went
abroad to preach the Gospel in parochial churches and free chapels,
where the rector, vicar, curate, or chaplain was no preacher, and
administered the sacraments as occasion required; having, moreover,
committed to their charge or jurisdiction, by the Pope, the
commutation of penance for sins committed; and, because by their rule
they were not to take money, they took the same in corn, wool, fruits,
fields, goods, and chattels, for their Superior. Those kind of
missionaries were called Friars Observants, and went at large as
supervisors, who pretended to a stricter observation of their rule
than the master conventuals that went not abroad. What revenues this
stately church of St. Francis at Bodmin had at its dissolution I know
not, neither doth the Monasticon Anglicanum inform me; besides five
quarterly pence, and twenty penee by the year out of every family or
dwelling-house in Cornwall, that was not excused propter paupertatem.
Supplication of Beggars to Henry the Eighth, p. 2.
Those Franciscan friars, Mendicant or Minors, came not into England
till Henry the Third’s days (since which time this church at Bodmin
must be erected) in all but nine in number, who landed at Dover; five
of which went to Canterbury, where, by the King’s leave, they built
the first convent in England of their order; four went to London, and
had a place given them in St. Nicholas Shambles, anno Dom. 1260, to
erect another convent or monastery, by John Jewyn, merchant. However,
let it be remembered that the Black Friars Mendicant, or Augustines,
were founded by William de Paris, and first brought into England in
the time of William the Conqueror, to whom Robert Kilwarby, Archbishop
of Canterbury tempore William I. at the west end of London, on the
bank of the Thames, founded and endowed there a monastery to them. For
White Friars, or Cistersians, see Kilkhampton; for Dominicans, St.
Dominick. Carmelite Friars were founded at Carmellus, a town in Syria;
as also a latter order of those discalceated friars were founded by
St. Mary de Theresa, of Jesus, of the blessed Lady of Mount Carmel,
1540. She was a native of Castile, and died 4th October, 1582, in the
68th year of her age, and 47th of being religious. She was canonized
by Pope Gregory XV. 12th March 1622. The Friars of St. Francis of
Paula, in Italy, were founded by him 1414; little different from those
others. Finally of these friars: Bishop Usher, in his Discourse of the
Primitive Church, fully demonstrates that, before the Reformation of
religion, besides monks there were in this land, of the five orders,
above thirty thousand begging friars.
At Lan-car, in this parish, (rest-rock, or rock-temple, if ever any
church or chapel was extant here, otherwise, by the rock may be
signified some notable stone-quarry found in those lands,) was the
dwelling of John Mountstephens, Esq. sometime member of parliament for
West Looe, who purchased the same from Mr. Bullock. He was the son of
Mounts or Stephens, alias Mountstephen, of St. Mabyn, and had his
first education under Mr. Stephens, sometime schoolmaster of Bodmin,
to whom at length he became usher; afterwards was clerk or servitor to
William Lilly, Esq. and so became an undergraduate in Oxford; and,
being recommended by him to the notice of the Earl of Sunderland, Lord
President of the Council temp. James II. he made him one of his clerks
or secretaries, which circumstance further brought him to the
knowledge of Jonathan Lord Bishop of Bristol, by whose interest he
obtained a burgess-ship at West Looe for the parliament, and was
afterwards made one of the Commissioners for the King’s Tin-farm in
those parts; by which ways and means he got himself considerable
wealth and reputation.
But, notwithstanding all those his prosperous successes of fortune, in
the month of December, or beginning of January, 1706, aged about 60
years, when he was at London, a member of parliament as aforesaid, and
in his own house till eleven of the clock, one day upon some
discontent went from his company, and so into a more retired
apartment, where he took a razor and cut his own throat, and instantly
fell dead on the spot, the razor by his side all bloody, to the great
terror and amazement of his domestics, who found him in that posture.
Various were the reports and sayings of people upon occasion of this
sad accident; some said it was for that he made addresses of marriage
to a gentlewoman above his degree, who rejected his amours, upon
account of some concubine, or bedfellow, he kept at Truro; others,
with more probability, gave out that he was detected by the Earl of
Sunderland (who raised him) for eighteen years’ space to have been a
French pensioner, and to have received a great sum of money annually
for communicating the secrets of the Queen and Parliament to the
Secretary of the French King, which as soon as he understood, by a
letter shown him under his own hand, he instantly went home to his
lodgings, burnt all his papers, and committed the felo-de-se
aforesaid.
Bo-carne,[16] in this parish, id est, cows, kine, cattle, and white
spar-stones, comparatively rocks, is the dwelling of William Flammock,
Gent. that married Reynolds, and giveth for his arms, out of a
supposed allusion to their name, Argent, a chevron between three
estoiles Sable, (that is, in a wavy or flaming posture,) for flammock,
after the Cornish-British, must be interpreted a flame and smoke;
since the Latin words _flamma_, or flame, or bright burning
fire-sparkle, and _flammans_, burning, flaming, are both derived from
the British word flam; for _exæstuo_ is the proper and native word, to
burn, or flame.
Again, this family indifferently wrote their name Flam-mank,
Flam-manc, id est, in Cornish, flaming or burning glove, sleeve, or
gauntlet; so called, perhaps, for that some of this family was a
notable soldier, and famous in the combat at sword and gauntlet, (viz.
military glove,) or a sleeve and gorget of mail, as the above name.
And flammock may relate to some soldier of this tribe that was as
renowned in his charge with the fusee or firelock, soon after the
invention of guns: for Camden, in his Remains, tells us that in Edward
the Third’s French wars gunaria, or gunarii, had its pay; which was
before the invention of guns in Germany.
But if flammeck, flammeg, flammock, be a monosyllable, and not a
compound or conjugated word, it signifies in British blear-eyed-ness,
or one that hath a sparkling or flaming eye, either by natural or
accidental infirmity, an obstruction of sight.
I take this gentleman to be the lineal descendant of that Mark Le
Flemanc who was possessed of 16_l._ rents in lands and tenements in
Cornwall, 40th Henry III. (Carew’s Survey,) that were held by the
tenure of knight’s service, and was no knight; who was obliged by his
tenure to send into the King’s army a man and horse armed with lorica,
capello ferri, gladio, et cultello, a breastplate, a brigandine, an
iron headpiece, a sword and cuttler. As was also that Thomas Flammock,
a lawyer, in the reign of King Henry VII. 1496, who, together with
Michael Joseph, a smith of these parts, stirred up the Cornish people
to a rebellion against that prince, under the pretence of the severity
of a land tax, though it was but a subsidy of an hundred and twenty
thousand pounds, charged by Act of Parliament for one year of the
thirty-seven shires of England, towards the Scotch war; which, after
the severest imposition, could not amount to above 2,500_l._ on this
county. But really the ground and design of this insurrection was to
depose King Henry from his crown and dignity, and in his stead to set
up Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, the true heir male of the House
of York, sister’s son to King Edward the Fourth. Which being well
understood by the inhabitants of Cornwall, gave Flammock and Joseph
opportunity to raise such an army, as thereby to become so formidable
that John Basset, of Tehidy, then Sheriff, with his posse comitatus,
dared not encounter them. Whereupon they marched with their army,
consisting of about six thousand men, from Bodmin to Launceston, and
from thence into Devon; where also they appeared so tremendous that
Sir William Carew, Knight, then Sheriff thereof, with his posse
comitatus, would not venture a battle with them, but suffered them
(either through fear or affection) to pass through his Bailiwick into
Somersetshire, and so Taunton there; in which place they slew the
Provost Perrin, a commissioner for the subsidy aforesaid, and then
advanced to Wells; where James Touchet, Lord Audley, knowing the
mystery of their design, confederated with them, and became their
general. Soon after, they published their declaration of pretended
grievances, chiefly concerning the said land tax, and wholly laying
the blame of that exaction upon John Martin, Archbishop of Canterbury,
and Reginald Bray, Knt. two of the King’s Council, whom they would
have removed from that station.
Upon which pretence (and the secret reserve aforesaid) the people,
being better affected to the House of York than to that of Lancaster,
suffered these rebels quietly to march from Wells to Salisbury, from
Salisbury to Winchester, and from thence into Kent, where they
expected great aid and assistance; but when they came there, contrary
to promise and to expectation, no person came to their help: but on
the contrary, for the King there appeared in arms against them, with
the Earl of Kint, the Lord Abergavenny, Sir John Brook, Lord Cobham,
and divers other gentlemen, with great forces, to stop their further
proceedings that way. Upon which disappointment, the rebels turned
their march towards London, and encamped upon Blackheath, about four
miles from thence; where they had not long been before they were
encountered by Giles Lord Daubeny, King Henry’s general, who, after a
short conflict with them, and the loss of three hundred soldiers on
the King’s part, and two thousand on the Rebels’ side, the remainder
of them fell into despair, threw down their arms, craved mercy, and
yielded themselves prisoners. The King pardoned many; but of the chief
authors of the insurrection none. The Lord Audley was committed to
Newgate, and from thence drawn to Tower-hill in his coat-armour
(painted on paper), reversed and torn, where he was beheaded. Flammock
and Michael Josepp the smith, were hanged, drawn, and quartered, and
has their heads and quarters pitched upon stakes set up in London and
other places, June 26, 1496. [See Lord Bacon’s History of King Henry
the Seventh. An opinion is still prevalent in Cornwall, that after
themselves the people of Kent are the most brave in England.]
This town and parish of Bodmin is also notable for the rendezvous of
Perkin Warbeck’s army from St. Michell’s Mount, which he had also
raised to the number of six thousand in opposition to King Henry the
Seventh, anno Dom. 1498, as the pretended Richard of Shrewsbury,
second son to King Edward the Fourth; where he was proclaimed King of
England and France, and Lord of Ireland, by the name of Richard the
Fourth: but he and his army at length underwent the same fate as the
former rebels did. (See St. Michael’s Mount, in this our History.)
Here also was the rendezvous of the Cornish rebels under Humphrey
Arundell, Esq. anno 3 Edward VI. who pitched their camp upon Castle
Kynock aforesaid, and imprisoned such gentlemen as would not willingly
ride with them, till the King’s forces vanquished the one, and
delivered the other, at and near Exeter. (See St. Hillary.)
Now Sir Anthony Kingston, Provost Martial of the King’s Army, coming
from Exeter to do justice in Cornwall according to the law of arms
against such rebels as had escaped thence, executed Thomas Boyeer, the
mayor of this town, and the miller’s man, is set forth in Mr. Carew’s
Survey of Cornwall, p. 124 (p. 292 of Lord Dunstanville’s Edition).
In this parish is St. Laurence, so called from the chapel dedicated to
his guardianship. The name is derived from the Latin words, laureat
and ensis, that is, a laureat sword, or a sword of triumph. St.
Laurence was a native of Osca, in Spain, born about the year 280. He
received holy orders from St. Xysten, who was raised to the chair of
St. Peter in 257. During the persecution by the Emperor Valerian, St.
Laurence, finding that not even the sacred vestments nor the
decorations of the church were safe from profane hands, availed
himself of the office of chief deacon, which he then held, to dispose
of the whole, and to distribute the wealth thus acquired among the
indigent of his spiritual brethren. This having been made known to the
Prefect of Rome, a man devoted to the worship of false gods, but more,
as the biographer observes, to the adoration of silver and gold, he
demanded from St. Laurence the riches of the church, who promised in
three days to produce them; and on the third day he returned with the
poor persons among whom their value had been divided. When the
Prefect, transported with rage, is said to have ordered his
destruction by the most cruel death. The legend reports him to have
been fastened on an iron bed, and consumed by fire placed under it.
Hence the familiar emblem attributed to this martyr, of a gridiron.
The event is referred to the 10th of Aug. 261.
In this parish the town, or rather village of St. Laurence, is
situated between two hills, and with a pleasant river running through
its street, about a mile and a half west from Bodmin. In it stands a
lawres hospital, that is to say, a hospital for lepers (loure, or
lower, in British is a leper), which hath good endowment of lands and
revenues appertaining thereto, founded by the piety and charity of the
well-disposed people of this county in former ages, for the relief,
support, and maintenance of all such people as should be visited with
that sickness called elphantiasy, in Latin lepra or elphantia, in
English leprosy, in British lowerery; being a white infectious scurf
running all over the bodies of such persons as are tainted therewith.
Which disease heretofore in many families was hereditary, and infected
the blood for generations.
This disease, though common in Asia, was thought to have been first
brought into England from Egypt by seamen and traders, so that
generally it spread itself over this kingdom about the year 1100. Soon
after which, a general collection of charitable benevolences was
gathered throughout the land by one of the Mowbrays, a gentleman
tainted with the disease, for erecting and endowing the lazar-house or
hospital of Burton, in Leicestershire, to which place was made subject
all other hospitals of this sort in England, as the Master of Burton
Hospital was afterwards made subject to the Master of St. John’s
Hospital of Jerusalem, in London, and then, soon after the erection of
lazar-houses throughout this kingdom, was invented that writ called
Leproso amovendo, for removing a leper from his country-house to the
hospital. But the custom in this place was such, that none were to be
admitted by the governors of the same for the time being, unless the
person so brought in paid them 5_d._ a pot for dressing their meat, a
purse and a penny in it to receive alms. At present I hear of no
lepers in this hospital, nor any person visited with this disease in
Cornwall: however, daily in the chapel of Lawrence, by the
townspeople, God is duly worshipped by a chaplain in deacon’s orders,
who reads divine service to them according to the church of England;
and at three several times at least in the year the Vicar of Bodmin,
and Rector of Lannerat, for a small stipend preach and administer the
sacraments to them. Infants baptized, and the dead bodies thereof
buried, at Bodmin church.
The lands, customs, and privileges of this lazar-house,[17] or lower
hospital, were much augmented or enlarged, and also confirmed by a
charter from Queen Elizabeth, in the beginning of her reign, with
the jurisdiction of a court-leet within the precincts of its manor of
Ponteby, (id est, by the ford or bridge whereon the town of St.
Lawrence is situate,) the white-rod erected or held up yearly whilst
the court is sitting. It is also by that charter privileged with a
weekly market, to be kept on Wednesday, within the town of St.
Lawrence, though of late discontinued; as also with fairs yearly on
the 10th of August and the 18th of October.