Calstock is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north
Stoke Clemsland, west Kellaton, south St. Dominick, east the Tamar
river.
The rectory of Calstock church seems to be extant before Domesday Tax,
since it passed then by that name, and hath never admitted of any
change of name or alteration since, and was undoubtedly founded and
endowed by the Earls of Cornwall, out of their manor of Calstock,
wherein it is situate; and the Duke of Cornwall, or the King, in that
right, are still patrons thereof. Ecclesia de Calstock, in Decanatu de
Estwellshire, was valued to the Pope’s annats, 1294, c_s._; in
Wolsey’s Inquisition and Valor Beneficionum, 26_l._ 4_s._ 4_d._ The
patronage as aforesaid, the Incumbent Blackburn, and the parish rated
to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. 302_l._
0_s._ 2_d._
It appears from the ancient survey of the Duchy of Cornwall in the
Exchequer, and Blount’s Tenures from thence, p. 122, that the tenants
of this manor had granted them, by the Earls or Dukes thereof, its
lords, the liberty of free fishing on the Tamar river, in his verbis:
“Nativi tenentes de Calstock, in comitatu Cornubiæ, reddunt per annum
de certo redditu, vocato Berbiagium, sine barbague, ad le Hoke-day,
19_s._ 6_d._” Now barbague, barbagyu, is, in Cornish, a bearded or
barbed spear, such as is commonly used for killing salmons in the
Tamar and other rivers. [See Stoke-Clemsland.] The salmon wear, here
built over the Tamar, is, by lease from the Duke of Cornwall, in
possession of Sir John Carew, baronet, and hath formerly been set for
120_l._ per annum. [See Helston in Trigg for Barbiague. Tenants on the
Alan river there.]
Cuthill, in this place, I take it was the most ancient seat of the
knightly family of Edgecombes in Cornwall, and is still in their
possession; and here lived Sir Richard Edgecombe, knight, that
assisted Henry the Seventh against Richard the Third, who was
bountifully rewarded for his services by that prince.