Is situate in the hundred of Eastwellshire, and hath upon the north,
Calstock; east, the Tamar river; south, part of Landulph; west, St.
Mellen. For the modern name of this parish and church, it is derived
from St. Dominick the monk of Spain, presidual saint and tutelar
guardian of this church, who instituted that religious order of men
called Ordo Prædicatorum, or the Order of Preaching Monks or Friars,
(who taught the Gospel without hire or reward, except what was given
them of charity or alms, as the Franciscans did); he flourished anno
Dom. 1215. At the time of Domesday Roll 20 William I. 1087, this
district was taxed under the name of Halton. In the Inquisition of the
Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia Sancti Dominici, in
Decanatu de Estwellshire, was rated to first fruits or annats iii_l._
vi_s._ viii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was valued at 23_l._
11_s._ The patronage in Clarke, the incumbent Clarke, and the parish
rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 164_l._ 8_s._
History of St. Dominick, abridged from Hals:
He was born at Calarvega in Spain, about the year 1167. His father was
Don Felix de Gusman, his mother Donna Giovanna Deza, both well
descended and faithful servants of God. Dominick early distinguished
himself by his great ability, diligence, and proficiency in learning.
He first studied at the University of Placentia, and from thence he
was removed to Salamanca by Frederick the Second, King of Castille. He
here obtained a reputation so far above all the other students as to
induce Don Diego, Bishop of Osuna, to select him as the most proper
person to become a canon in his church. Dominick was soon after
appointed by Don Alonzo, King of Castile, to accompany his ambassador
to the Court of France. On this journey the saint first encountered
some of the Albigenses, and to the extinction of their heresy he
chiefly devoted the remainder of his life, by instituting his
celebrated order of Dominican Preaching Friars A.D. 1215, in imitation
of the Franciscans, established about six years before. St. Dominick
did not, however, implicitly rely on his own exertions, or on those of
his order, suited as it was to the ignorance and abject slavery of
those times; but called loudly to their aid the secular arm, and
established the Inquisition, so that after thousands had been
converted from their heresy, and tens of thousands massacred, the
conquerors enjoyed in the possession of their plundered property the
additional conscious satisfaction of having freed the church from
heretics so audacious as to deny that wheaten[40] flour was entirely
changed into the body of Christ.
Dominick departed this life in the odour of sanctity on the 6th of
August 1221, having completed his fifty-first year. Having performed
various miracles, and even raised people from the dead, he was
canonised by Gregory IX. in 1234. Before the close of his short life,
a great number of houses were founded throughout Europe for his
disciples, and, faithful to the original object of the new order, he
bequeathed to their charge the Tribunal of the Inquisition.
The Dominicans and Franciscans for a long time supported the power of
Rome, according to the dream of Pope Innocent III. in which he saw the
Lateran Church in danger of falling down, and St. Dominick sustaining
its weight. But finally, the sale of indulgences, through the medium
of this order, excited the resentment or the envy of others, and Friar
Martin Luther, assisted by the growing genius of the age, crumbled to
pieces a spiritual authority, of which it was fondly believed that
destiny had said with more truth than of its temporal predecessor,
His ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono;
Imperium sine fine dedi.
Hall-ton, in this parish, id est, either a town notable for a hall, or
a moor-town; wherefore, the natural or artificial circumstance of the
place must be considered to determine which. By this name the now
parish of St. Dominick, as aforesaid, was taxed in the Domesday Roll
20 William I. 1087, which place gave name and original to an old
family of gentlemen, surnamed De Halton, who flourished here in gentle
degree from the Norman Conquest to the ninth year of Edward the
Second, at which time Joan, the only daughter and heir of Richard de
Halton, Lord also of the Manor of Hardfast, in this county, was
married to Robert Wendyn, of Compton Gifford, in Devon, who had issue
by Joan de Halton, one only daughter, that became his heir, married to
John Whiteleigh, of Efford, in Devon, father of Richard Whiteleigh,
Sheriff of Devon 9 Richard II. grandfather of Richard Whiteleigh, Esq.
Sheriff of Devon 6 Henry VII. whose two daughters and heirs were
married to Roger Grenvill, of Stowe, and Richard Hals, of Kenedon,
from whom the writer of this book is lineally descended. Of this
family was John de Halton, Bishop of Carlisle, who died 1318.
The 19th of Elizabeth, Anthony Rous, Esq. then Sheriff of Cornwall,
was possessed of this place; as was also his son Anthony Rous, Esq.
Sheriff of Cornwall 44th Elizabeth. But ―――― Rous, Esq. the last
possessor of this barton, dying without issue, as I take it, passed
these lands to his widow for payment of debts, who afterwards married
―――― Cossens, and then sold it to her brother Henry Clerk, gent, that
married ―――― Sescomb, of St. Kevorne, now in possession thereof. Mr.
Clerk’s father came into those parts as steward to the Lady Drummond.
Rous’s arms are, Or, an eagle displayed Azure, pruning her wings,
langued Gules.