Is situate in the hundred aforesaid, and hath upon the north, Crowan;
west, Germow; east, Sithney; south, the British Channel. Of the name
and titular guardian of this church I have spoken before. By the
Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, to the Pope’s annats, 1294,
ecclesia Sancti Breuc in decanatu de Kerryer, was rated 16_l._ Vicar
ejusdem 36_s._ It is now the mother church of Cury, Germow, and
Gunwallo, and goes in presentation and consolidation with them, though
at the time of the inquisition aforesaid they were taxed separate. In
Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, they are valued
together in first fruits 33_l._ The patronage in the crown, the
incumbent Trewinard. This parish was rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land
Tax 1696, 230_l._ 4_s._ temp. William III. At the time of the Norman
conquest, if this parish was not taxed under the jurisdiction of
Lanmigall, i. e. Michael’s Temple or Church, (now St. Michael’s Mount,)
the priors whereof, or the king or duke, endowed it, together with
those other before named, it was rated under the district of Treskeaw,
that is to say the skeawe, or elder-tree town, a place, as I am
informed, well known and still extant there.
In the pleas of the crown in the Exchequer, 12th Edward I., I found it
thus written of Pengelly in this parish.
“Johannes de Treveally tenet in Pengelly, in comitatu Cornubiæ,
dimidium acram terræ Cornubiensem, (above a hundred English,) per
sergiantiam recipiendi unam capam de grisando ad Pontem de Penleton,
cum Rex fuerit inveniendus versus Cornubiam; et intrando Domino de
Cabilla, qui eam in adventu domini Regis ibidem deferre debet, et eam
tradere eidem Johanni, qui quidem Johannes eandem capam ferre debet
cum domino Rege pro totam in Cornubiam;” which Mr. Hals interprets,
that the half acre Cornish is held by the duty of its owner receiving
a great coat from some one in Devonshire at Penleton Bridge, and to
carry it about for the King’s use, so long as he remains in Cornwall.
In this parish stands the barton and manor of Good-ol-gan, also
God-al-gan, synonymous words, only varied by the dialect, meaning a
place that was altogether a wood down, a name anciently given and
taken from the natural circumstances thereof. Otherwise, if the name
consist of English-Cornish, God-ol-gan signifies a place that was
altogether God’s downs. As for the modern name Good-ol-phin,
God-ol-fyn, it, in like manner as the former, admits of no other
etymology or construction than that it was a place that was altogether
a wood, fountain, well, or spring of water, or altogether God’s
fountain or spring of water. But because the words god, gud, good, in
Cornish, Belgic, and British, are always taken and adopted in the
first sense, to signify only a wood, and the words Du, Due, and Dyu,
are the proper appellations of God, and no other in Cornish, I cannot
apprehend how that sacred name is concerned in the initial part of
this word, Godolphin, which refers, as I said before, to the
circumstances of the place, viz. that no table, fountain, well, or
spring of water here, that passeth beneath the house, through the
gardens, and the woods and groves of timber that still surround the
same.
Contrary to this etymology, Mr. Carew, in his “Survey of Cornwall,”
page 153, says that godolphin signifies a white eagle, than which
nothing can be more untrue; for, in all those compound words, there is
not one particle or syllable relating thereto, or any other than the
British language whatsoever: for wen erew, wen eryr, wen eriew, and by
contraction wen-er, is a white eagle in the Welch, Little-Britannic,
and Cornish tongues. [See Dr. Davis’s British Lexicon, and Floyd upon
Aquila.] In like manner Verstegan tells us, that, in the Saxon tongue,
blond erna is a white eagle; as also in the German and Dutch tongues;
and the French dictionaries inform us that blanch ægle, or aegle, is a
white eagle; ἀετος [aetos] in Greek; aquila, in Latin; nesher in the
Hebrew; from whence our British erew, erier, eryr, eriew, is derived.
In opposition to all those etymologies of the word godolphin, Mr.
Sammes in his Britannia, and the author of the additions to Camden’s
Britannia, tells us that godolac in the Phenician tongue signifies a
land of tin, from whence they apprehend the name of godolphin is
derived, especially because tin is found in the precincts thereof, but
surely not comparable in quantity to what is made in forty other
places in Cornwall, that yet come not under that denomination of
godolphin, as being tin land.
From the name I proceed to the matter or thing itself, viz. the manor
and barton of Godolphin; which lands, in the time of Edward III., were
the lands of Sir John Lamburne, Knight, of Lamburne in Peransand,
whose daughter and heir was afterwards married to Sir Renphry, or John
Arundell, of Lanherne, Knight, one of whose posterity, viz. Edmond
Arundell, Knight, tempore Henry VI. sold the same to one Stephens,
upon condition of a kind of domineering, lording, or insulting tenure,
and reservation of rent to his manor of Lamburne in Peransand, viz.
“that once a year for ever the Reeve of the said Manor should come to
Godolphin, and there boldly enter the hall, jump upon the table, or
table-board, and there stamp or bounce with his feet or club, to alarm
and give notice to the people of his approach, and then and there make
proclamation aloud three times, ‘Oyes! oyes! oyes! I am the Reeve of
the Manor of Lamburne in Peransand, come here to demand the old rent,
duties, and customs, due to the lords of the said Manor from the lands
of Godolphin.’ Upon which notice there is forthwith to be brought him
2_s._ 8_d._ rent, a large quart of strong beer, a loaf of wheaten
bread worth sixpence, and a cheese of the like value; which the Reeve
having received, he shall drink of the beer, taste the bread and
cheese in the place, and then depart, carrying with him the said rent
and remainder of those viands, to the lords of the Manor aforesaid, to
whom they are still duly paid, which at present are Sir John
Seyntaubyn, Bart. and others, who claim it in right of the two
daughters and heirs of the said Edmund Arundell, which were married to
Danvers and Whitington, as Whitington’s heirs were married to St.
Aubyn and others.
After Stephens purchased those lands of Godolphin from Arundell, and
came possessed thereof, his only daughter and heir was married to
Ralph Knava, or Nava, of ――――; which name or word is of quite
another signification in the British tongue than what it signifies in
the English; for knava, nava, nawe, naue, signifies the same as
servus, servulus, famulus, minister, administer, ministrator, in
Latin; hence it is that in Trevisa’s and Tyndale’s translation of the
Bible into English, the word is used in this sense by them; Titus i,
v. 1, “Paul a knava of Jesus Christ;” and the like, 2nd Timothy, chap.
i. v. 1, “Paul a nava of Jesus Christ;” which words, in the
translation of the Bible in James I.’s time, the translators have
rightly rendered into new English, by the names of “Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ;” and “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ;” that is, a
messenger, an ambassador, or servant, sent, as apostolus; in the
original Greek δουλος (doulos), servus και et αποστολος (apostolus);
and in all other places in the Old and New Testament, where they met
with the Greek words doulos and apostolus, they are by them so
rendered.
From the British names nave, nava, nawe, knawe, the old name or
distinction of this tribe or family may be plainly inferred, for that
the first ancestor or progenitor thereof was of a mere British
extraction; a servant, steward, ambassador, minister, or messenger of
God, Christ, his king, prince, or other master, (for those words are
all synonymous, only by the dialect varied with the transposing of a
vowel,) and is a name of office of one that is a substitute or
vicegerent, and acts under another.
But more certain I am that John Knava, of Godolphin, Esq. was struck
Sheriff of Cornwall by King Henry VII., 1504, who declared his great
liking of that gentleman in all circumstances for the said office, but
discovered as much dislike of his name after the English, not
understanding the import thereof in Cornish, and so further said,
that, as he was pater patriæ, he would transnominate him to Godolphin,
whereof he was lord; and accordingly caused or ordered that in his
letters patent under the broad seal of England, for being Sheriff of
Cornwall, he should be styled or named John Godolphin, of Godolphin,
Esq. and by that name he accounted at the year’s end with that king
for his office in the Exchequer, and had his acquittance from thence,
as appears from the record in the Pipe Office there.
Since which time his posterity have (ever since) made Godolphin the
hereditary name of their family. His son, William Godolphin, Esq. was
Sheriff of Cornwall 21 Henry VIII.; William Godolphin, Knight, was
Sheriff of Cornwall 29 Henry VIII.; William Godolphin, Knight, was
Sheriff of Cornwall, 3 Edward VI.; William Godolphin, Knight, was
Sheriff of Cornwall 12 Elizabeth; Francis Godolphin, Esq. afterwards
Sir Francis, was Sheriff of Cornwall 21 Elizabeth; Francis Godolphin,
Knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall 2nd James I.; Francis Godolphin, Esq.
afterwards Knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall 13 Charles I., whose son,
Sir William Godolphin, was by Charles II. created the five hundred and
fifty-second Baronet of England 29th April 1661. His younger brother,
Sidney Godolphin, Esq. Member of Parliament for Helston, one of the
Commissioners of the Treasury, who had been sent several embassies to
foreign princes, was by King Charles II. by letters patent bearing
date 8th Sept. 1684, created Lord Godolphin and Baron of Rialton.
Certes, from the time that this family was seised of Godolphin, such a
race of famous, flourishing, learned, valiant, prudent men have served
their prince and country in the several capacities of members of
Parliament, justices of the peace, deputy lieutenants, sheriffs,
colonels, captains, majors, and other officers, both military and
civil, as scarce any other family this country hath afforded, which I
do not mention (for that my great-grandmother on the one side, the
wife of Sir John Arundell, of Tolverne, Knight, was daughter of the
aforesaid Sir Francis Godolphin, Knight, Sheriff of Cornwall 21
Elizabeth,) but as their just character and merit; and I challenge the
envious justly to detract from the same.
This Right Honourable Sidney Lord Godolphin aforesaid, was a
commissioner for the Treasury about twenty years, which trust and
office he discharged with unquestionable justice, fame, and
reputation, during the reigns of King Charles the Second, King James
the Second, and till the latter end of the reign of King William the
Third, when he voluntarily resigned his office. After that King’s
death he was by Queen Anne made sole Lord High Treasurer of England,
1701, in which station he continued with unblamable conduct till the
year 1710, the time of his death, (having been before, by that Queen,
created Earl Godolphin,) a place of such import, trust, grandeur, and
honour, as no Cornishman before him ever arrived to, except the Lord
Benham, (or rather their name of old Cardinham,) temp. Henry VII. Two
such persons perhaps for their skill in accounts, rents, revenues of
the crown, and other matters pertaining to the exchequer, equal to, if
not superior to, any Lord Treasurer of England before them.
The paternal coat-armour of this noble family are, Gules, an imperial
eagle with two necks between three fleurs-de-lis argent.
Pen-gar-wick in this parish, also Pen-gars-wick, id est, the head
word, or command, fenced or fortified place; so called from the
command or authority of the lord thereof heretofore in these parts,
and the strength of the house and the tower thereof, otherwise
Pen-gweras-ike, i. e. the creek, cove, or bosom of waters, head help,
as situate upon the sea, or waters of the British Channel. This barton
and manor, in the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII., was
purchased by one Mr. Milliton, a gentleman of the county of where
having wilfully or accidentally committed murder, or slain a man, in
order to shun or avoid justice he privately made the purchase
aforesaid in the name of his son, and so immured himself in a private
chamber of the tower of Pengarwick, that he was not seen of any person
but his trusty friends, so that he finished the natural course of his
life without detection of his person, or punishment for the crime
aforesaid; but, alas! notwithstanding his concealment, and design of
perpetuating his name and tribe in this place, his son Job Milliton,
Esq. 1st Edward the Sixth, made Governor of St. Michael’s Mount, (in
the room of Renphry Arundell, Esq. executed for rebellion,) who
married Godolphin, and had issue William Milliton, Esq. sheriff of
Cornwall 7th Elizabeth, 1565, that died without issue, and six
daughters, that became his heirs, married 1. to Erisy, afterwards to
Sir Nicholas Parker; 2. to Lanyon; 3. to Trefusis, and Tregothick; 4.
to Trenwith, Arundell, and Herle; 5. to Bonython; 6. to Abbot, from
some of which heiresses, Sir Nicholas Hals, Knight, at his first
coming from Efford in Devon into Cornwall, purchased their parts of
this lordship, with leases from the rest of the coparceners, and for
some time made it and Trewinard the places of his dwelling till he
removed to Fentongollen. This place afterwards, by his unthrifty son
and heir, John Hals, had all its timber cut down that was growing upon
it, and sold, which tradition saith was great store; the lands also
were sold to Godolphin and some others.
The arms of Milliton were, out of a supposed allusion to their name, a
chevron between three millet fishes hariant or erected; whereas
Milli-ton is a mill town.