This living, which is stated in the Liber Valorum to be a rectory, was
consolidated with Boconnoc in the year 1742, and the clergyman’s
residence has recently been removed to Bradock. The united parishes
are now in the presentation of Lord Grenville.
Bradock down was the scene of two important events in the civil war.
First, a victory obtained by the King’s forces early in 1623 under the
command of Sir Bevill Granville, Sir Nicholas Glenning, Sir Ralph
Hopton, Arundell, Trevanion, and other gentlemen of the county, over a
much larger force commanded by Ruthven, Governor of Plymouth. The
victory was so complete that Ruthven with difficulty reached Saltash,
accompanied by a few only of his troops, from whence they were
speedily driven across the Tamar; and this advantage mainly
contributed to the more splendid victory at Stratton, obtained on the
16th of May of the same year; a victory which, rolling on its tide of
success through Devonshire and Somersetshire, over Lansdowne and
Bristol, might have swept the whole of England but for the recoil of
its waves from the walls of Gloucester.
The second event was on a more extensive scale.
Lord Essex having conducted a large army into Cornwall, was followed
by the King in person, till they approached so near that the King had
his head quarters at Boconnoc, and Lord Essex at Lanhidrock, when,
after various skirmishes and proposals for negotiation on the part of
the King, Lord Essex at last, on the 30th or 31st of August 1644,
accompanied by Lord Robartes, and some other officers, abandoned his
army, and reached Plymouth by sea; and on the same day Sir William
Belfour, with Col. Nicholas Boscowen, Lieut.-Col. James Hals, of
Merther, Henry Courtenay, of St. Bennet’s in Lanivet, Col. John
Sentaubyn of Clawanar, his Lieut.-Col. Briddon, Col. Carter, and
others of the horde of two thousand five hundred cavalry, forced their
passage through the King’s army, over St. Winnow, Boconnoc, and
Bradock Downs, to Saltash, and from thence to Plymouth. Their escape
is said to have been mainly owing to the negligence of General Goring,
whose ill conduct and exactions in Cornwall, have left his name as a
term of severe reproach up to the present time.
After these discouraging events, Major-Gen. Skippon found himself in
command of the infantry, for whom he obtained a favourable
capitulation, the particulars of which may be seen in Lord Clarendon’s
History, and they are given by Mr. Hals, from whose statement the
above is chiefly abridged.
Mr. Hals adds a circumstance illustrative of the animosity excited by
internal dissensions; and, as his feelings and opinions were all on
the royal side, the narrative may be esteemed deserving of credit.
Notwithstanding the articles, the disarmed soldiers of the Parliament,
as they marched by the King and his army on Boconnoc and Bradock
Downs, and elsewhere, were barbarously slaughtered and shot upon by
the King’s soldiers, so that many perished thereby, others were
stripped comparatively naked, and robbed of their money, others had
their horses taken from them; whereupon Major-General Skippon, with
undaunted courage, rode up to the King’s troop, and told him
personally of the injury and violence offered, and the slaughter of
his men, contrary to the articles, which in such cases were kept
inviolable by all nations of men; and therefore prayed the King to be
just, and to prohibit those barbarities of his soldiers for the
future, which the King forthwith commanded to be done. But his word
and authority were little regarded while his army were in sight of the
Parliamentary soldiers.
This total discomfiture of Lord Essex’s army left the King without an
enemy in arms through the whole of Cornwall, and a letter is preserved
in the hands of Lord Dunstanville from his ancestor Sir Francis
Basset, respecting the last words addressed to him by the King: “Mr.
Sheriff, I leave the county entirely at peace in your hands.”
Bradock contains 2935 statute acres.
The annual value of the Real Property, £. _s._ _d._
as returned to Parliament in 1815 1025 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 83 18 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 173 | 188 | 235 | 301;
being an increase of 74½ per cent. in 30 years.