Camborne is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the east
Redruth, north Illugan, west Gwynier, south Crowan. For its modern
name, Camborne, which was not extant at the time of the Norman
Conquest, signifies a crooked or arched burne, or well.
This parish is said to derive its name from a holy well situated
within it, to which great numbers of persons resorte from a high
opinion of its great medical virtues, in addition to its sanctity.
Ecclesia de Camborne, in Decanatu de Penwid, 1294, was rated to the
Pope’s annats viii_l._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, and Valor
Beneficiorum, £39. 16_s._ 9_d._ The patronage in Basset, the incumbent
Newcombe; the parish rated to the 4_s._ per £1. Tax, 1696, £203.
16_s._
Pendarves in this parish, I am informed, transnominated a family of
gentlemen from Tresona, i. e. the charm town, in St. Enoder, to
Pendarves, temp. Eliz. William Pendarves, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall
30th Cha. II. 1680, married Adiston, daughter of Edmund Prideaux, Esq.
but died without issue; whereby his estate descended to his second
brother’s son; and he dying without issue, it descended to his third
brother’s son, viz. Sir William Pendarves, knight, now in possession
thereof, who married Godolphin, the widow of Hoblyn of Nanswidon. His
father, Thomas Pendarves, clerk, rector of St. Colomb Major, and St.
Mawgun in Pider, married Hoblyn of Nanswiddon; his grandfather,
Arundell of Menadarva; his great-grandfather Humphrys; and giveth for
his arms, in a field Sable, a falcon Argent displayed, between three
mullets Or.
Menadarva, in this parish, is the dwelling of William Arundell, Esq.
descended from the Arundells of Trerice, to whose ancestor, temp.
Charles I. it was given by the last will and testament of John
Arundell, of Trerice, Esq. (commonly called John of Tilbury, for that
with Queen Elizabeth, at that place, he was an officer under her in
the standing army posted in that place in expectation of and to oppose
the Spanish Armada 1588), in those words amongst other――“Item, I give
to my naturall son, John Arundell, my mannor and barton of Menadarva
in Camburne, and to his heirs lawfully begotten for ever.”
The last gentleman of this family dying without issue male, his
sisters for a time, married to Tresahar and others, became possessed
of this lordship; but it happened that a brother of theirs also, who
was a merchant factor in Spain, who married an innkeeper’s widow
there, in Malaga or Seville, of English extraction, was said to be
dead without issue, but it seems before his death had issue by her an
infant son, which was bred up in Spain till he came of age, without
knowledge of his relations aforesaid; who, being brought into England
with his mother, temp. Will. III. delivered ejectments upon the barton
and manor of Menadarva, and the occupants thereof, as heir-at-law to
Arundell, and brought down a trial upon the same at Lanceston, in this
county; where upon the issue it appeared, upon the oaths of Mr.
Delliff and other Spanish merchants of London, that the said heir was
the legitimate son of Mr. Arundell aforesaid in Spain, and born under
coverture or marriage; he obtained a verdict and judgment thereon for
the same, and is now in possession thereof. He married Tremanheer of
Penzance, and hath issue. The arms of this family are the same as
those of the Arundells of Trerice, with due distinction.[24]
Roswarne, in this parish, gave to its owner the name of De Roswarne,
one of which tribe sold those lands, temp. James I. to Ezekiel Grosse,
gent. attorney-at-law, who made it his dwelling, and in this place got
a great estate by the inferior practice of the law; but much more,[25]
as tradition saith, by means of a spirit or apparition that haunted
him in this place till he spake to it (for it is notable that sort of
things called apparitions, are such proud gentry that they never speak
first), whereupon it discovered to him where much treasure lay hid in
this mansion, which, according to the (honest) ghost’s direction he
found, to his great enriching; after which this phantasm or spectrum
become so troublesome and direful to him day and night, that it forced
him to forsake this place (as rich, it seems, as this devil could make
him) and to quit his claim thereto by giving or selling it to his
clerk John Call; whose son, John Call, gent. sold it again to Robert
Hooker, gent. attorney-at-law, now in possession thereof. The arms of
Call were, in a field three trumpets, in allusion to the name in
English; but in Cornish British, call, cal, signifies any hard,
flinty, or obdurate matter or thing, and hirgorne is a trumpet.
Crane, adjoining Roswarne, gave name to its possessor Cit-crane, who
gave bustards or cranes for his arms; for as Crana, Krana, is as grus
in Latin, so it is a crane in English; garan and cryhyr is in the
Welsh. One of which gentlemen sold this tenement also to Gross, who
conveyed it to Call, as Call hath to Hooker aforesaid.
Treswithan, or Trease-withan, in this parish, compounded of
Tres-with-an, was of old the seat of the De Brayes, gentlemen
heretofore of great antiquity, good note, and considerable revenues in
those parts; though in the time of Charles I. their estate was much
impaired, so that the last gentleman of this family dying much
indebted, and no heir appearing, occasioned a memorable lawsuit
between Sir Francis Basset, knight, lord of the manor of Tyhiddy, of
which those lands of Treswithan were held, and the creditors of Mr.
Braye, then in possession of the premises: when in fine, upon the
issue at law at Lanceston, the jury gave it in escheat, for want of
issue, to Sir Francis Basset, in right of his manor aforesaid, the
verdict passing against the creditors; whereby the posterity of Sir
Francis are possessed of it to this day.