The manor of Tybesta, carrying with it the advowson of the rectory,
was purchased from the Duchy by the late Sir Christopher Hawkins.
Grampound is the only place ever wholly deprived of its privilege to
return Members to the House of Commons, previously to the general
dissolution of Boroughs in 1832. Cricklade, Shoreham, and Aylesbury,
had been thrown into adjacent hundreds, that is, the freeholders of
these districts were admitted to a concurrent right of voting with
those previously possessing it; but from Grampound the Members were
transferred at once to the County of York.
The passage referred to in Mr. Carew (p. 328 of Lord Dunstanville’s
edition) is this:
“Grampond, if it took that name from any great bridge, hath
now nomen sine re; for the bridge there is supported with
only a few arches, and the Corporation but half replenished
with inhabitants, who may better vaunt of their town’s
antiquity than the town of their ability.”
The town is said to have very greatly improved, in all respects,
moral, physical, and intellectual, since the minds of its inhabitants
have been directed to other objects than low intrigue and servile
dependence on the exertions of others.
Mr. Philip Hawkins, who purchased and settled at Pennance, was the son
of Mr. Henry Hawkins, whose ancestor in the third or fourth degree, is
said to have come from Kent into Cornwall as Rector of Blisland.
Mr. Henry Hawkins had four sons, the Rev. John Hawkins, Rector of St.
Michael Caerhayes, St. Stephen’s, and St. Dennis, married, but died
sine prole.
Philip Hawkins, who married Mary Scobell, eldest daughter of Richard
Scobell, Esq. made heiress of his whole landed property.
Henry Hawkins, of St. Austell, who married Barbara, younger daughter
of Mr. Richard Scobell.
Joseph Hawkins, a merchant at Falmouth, married Reid, but died sine
prole.
Mr. Philip Hawkins had a very large family.