Is situate in the hundred of Kerrier, and hath upon the north, part of
Stithians; west, Gwendron; south, Hayleford channel and Mawnan; east,
Mabe and Budock. It is also commonly Cus-ten-ton, i. e. wood-stone
town, a place heretofore notable for woods and stones, and I take it
an unpleasant strag of moor-stones and rocks are still visible upon a
great part of the lands here. Perhaps it is the Crostedeton mentioned
in the Domesday Roll. Otherwise it was taxed under Trewardevi or
Penwarne. The name Constantine is derived from the Latin Constantia.
In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294,
Ecclesia de Sancto Constantino, was valued to first fruits 10_l._
Vicar ejusdem 40_l._ in Decanatu de Kerryer. In Wolsey’s Inquisition,
1521, Constantine Vic. was taxed to first fruits 19_l._ 8_s._ 10½_d._
The patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Perry;
the rectory in Robert Quarme of Creed; and the parish rated to the
4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 168_l._ 16_s._ 8_d._ by the old name
of Constenton. The titular guardian of this church, St. Constantine,
Emperor of Rome, was the first emperor in the world that professed
Christianity. He was the son of Constantius Chlorus Emperor of Rome;
first an officer of war under the Emperor Aurelian, against Coill or
Coillus, King or Duke of Colchester in Britain, (called by some
writers Caer-Collyn, Caer-Col-lyn, i. e. the city or castle on the
neck of the lake, or bosom of waters, it being situate on the
confluence of the Medway river), which Coil, having refused to pay the
tribute due to the Senate of Rome, caused that province to revolt; but
Constantius forced him into a submission, when soon after he died; and
Constantius is said to have married his only daughter and heir Helen,
by whom he had all her father’s lands and territories, Anno Dom. 289.
By her he had issue Constantine, who followed the wars in his father’s
time against Maxentius; and lying on his bed, before a battle, a dream
or vision appeared to him in shape of an angel, holding in his hand a
shining red cross, and calling to him with a loud voice “Constantine!
Εν τουτῳ νικα, _in hoc signo vinces_, i. e. under this sign or banner
thou shalt have victory.” Whereupon he commanded a red cross to be
pourtrayed in all his banners, called the labanum, and soon after gave
battle to Maxentius at Pont Milvium, in Italy, where his [the
latter’s] army was routed, and himself drowned in that river. The
success of which battle so wrought upon Constantine that he forthwith
turned Christian, and was baptized by Pope Silvester, Bishop of Rome.
In this parish, at Tre-warde-vi, as taxed in Domesday Roll, (i. e. the
shining or flying guard town, or the indignation, or wrath guard
town,) is the dwelling of John Trewren, Esq. i. e. the wren’s town,
who married Vyvyan of Trelowarren; his father Rice; and giveth for his
arms, Azure, three Besants. The present possessor ―――― Trewren, Esq. that
married Prisk of Helston.
In this parish is the dwelling of Edward Chapman, Gent. that married
Bligh of Botadon.
This gentleman received from God’s holy angels a wonderful
preservation in the beginning of the reign of William III. when
returning from Redruth towards his own house about seven miles
distant, with his servant, late at night, and both much intoxicated
with liquor, (as himself told me,) nevertheless having so much sense
left as to consider that they were to pass through several tin mines
or shafts near the highway, on the south-east side of Redruth town,
alighted both from their horses, and led them in their hands after
them. The servant went somewhat before his master, the better to keep
the right road in those places, which occasioned Mr. Chapman’s turning
aside somewhat out of the way, whereby in the dark he suddenly fell
into a tin mine above twenty fathom deep, at whose fall into this
precipice his horse started back and escaped; in this pit or hole Mr.
Chapman fell directly down fifteen fathoms without let or
intermission, where meeting a cross drift (above six fathom of water
under it), he in his campaign coat, sword, and boots, was miraculously
stopped, where coming to himself, he was not much sensible of any hurt
or bruises he had received, through the terror and horror of his fall;
when, considering in what condition he was, he resolved to make the
best expedient he could to prevent his falling further down, (where,
by the dropping or reesing of stones and earth moved by his fall, he
understood there was much water under,) so he rested his back against
one side of the mine, and his feet against the other, athwart the
hole, and in order to fix his hands on some solid thing, drew his
sword out of its sheath and thrust the blade thereof as far as he
could into the opposite part of the shaft, and so in great pain and
terror rested himself.
The suddenness of this accident, and the horse’s escaping in the dark
as aforesaid, was the reason why Mr. Chapman’s servant, who went
before him, did not so soon find him wanting as otherwise he might,
which as soon as he did, he went back the road way in quest of him,
calling him aloud by his name; but receiving no answer, nor being able
to find the horse, he concluded his master had rode home to his house
some other way, whereupon, giving up all further search after him, he
hastened home to Constantine, expecting to have met him there; but,
contrary to his expectations, found he was not returned. Whereupon his
servants, early next morning, went forth to inquire after him, and
suspecting (as it happened) he might be fallen into some tin-shafts
about Redruth, hastened thither, where, before they arrived, some
tinners had taken into custody his horse (with bridle and saddle on)
which they found grazing on the Wastrell Downs. Whereupon, consulting
together about this tragical mishap, it was resolved forthwith that
some of those tinners, for reward, should search the most dangerous
shafts in order to find his body either living or dead; accordingly
they employed themselves that day till about four o’clock in the
afternoon without any discovery of him. Finally, one person returned
to his company, and told them that at a considerable distance he heard
a kind of human voice under ground; to which place they repaired, and
making loud cries to the hole of the shaft, he forthwith answered them
that he was there alive, and prayed their assistance in order to
deliver him from that tremendous place; whereupon, immediately they
set on tackle-ropes and windlass on the old shaft, so that a tinner
descended to the place where he rested, and having candle-light with
him bound him fast in a rope, and so drew him safely to land, where,
to their great admiration and joy, it appeared he had neither broke
any bone, or was much bruised by the fall; verifying together the
attribute of Divine Omnipotence that nothing is impossible with
God,――and that old English proverb, that drunkards seldom take hurt;
for, as the tinners said, if he had fallen but two or three feet
lower, he must inevitably have been drowned in the water. But maugre
all those adverse accidents, after about seventeen hours stay in the
pit aforesaid, he miraculously escaped death and lived many years
after, and would recount this history with as much pleasure as men do
the ballads of Chevy Chase or Rosamond Clifford.
In this parish is the dwelling of James Trefusis, Gent. that married
Worth; his father Penarth, originally descended from Trefusis of
Trefusis in Mylor, as I am informed.
Moreover, it must be remembered in this place, of St. Constantine,
that he was the first prince that ever endowed Christian churches
beyond the seas with standing rents, lands, and revenues, and also
gave to the church the tenth part of all lands and goods he possessed
himself, whereupon the clergy claimed tithes therein by a law. And
such officers or publicans as gathered it were called Decumani, (as
Appian saith); for before that time tithes were only taken by the
Senate of Rome and Emperor for the supply of the legions and armies in
time of war, and not otherwise. Afterwards, Constantine made a law
that all princes under his dominion should give the tenth part of
their revenues towards the maintenance of churches and temples, as
himself had done.
From this law and example Ethelwulf, the second sole Saxon monarch in
England, Anno Dom. 838, in the year 855 (as Ingulphus, Abbat of
Croyland, in his history of Britain, 1066, informs us), by royal
charter confirmed the tithes of all his lands on the church in those
words: “Decimam partem terræ meæ,” &c.; and this was done (gratuito
consensu) by consent of his princes and prelates. This donation
afterwards was confirmed by King Ethelred. “Nemo auferat à Deo quod ad
Deum pertinet, et præcessores nostri concesserunt,” &c. Afterward King
Athelstan made a law, Anno Dom. 926, that every man should pay tithes
out of all the goods he possessed, as Jacob did; which Edmund Ironside
confirmed under penalty of being accursed, 1016. Afterwards King
Edward the Confessor, 1046, ordained more expressly that all tithes
should be justly paid to the elder or mother churches, viz. de garba,
grege equarum, pullis, vaccis, vitulis, caseo, lacte, vellis,
porcellis, apibus, bosco, prato, aquis, molendinis, parcis, vivariis,
piscariis, virgultis, hortis, negotionibus, et omnibus rebus, quas
dederit Dominus, &c.; which decree or statute was afterwards ratified
by William the Conqueror and his successors. (See more of Tithes under
Keye.)