St. Earth, now invariably written without the a, is supposed to derive
its name from St. Ergan, one of the female missionaries from Ireland.
The church stands at the side of what must have been an estuary in
former times, pretty much like Egleshayle, near Wadebridge. The church
is neat and plain, with three ailes of equal height, the roof has
wooden ribs with bosses, and the whole was plastered about the year
1747. The tower is not inferior to most others, and the south porch is
remarkable for its beauty. The whole eastern extremity of the south
aile is said to have belonged exclusively to Trewinnard, but for want
of asserting it, the right has been lost.
The walls of the church were covered with sentences, and the windows
were ornamented by stained glass, but in the great repair bestowed on
the church in 1747, all these were removed, as it is said, by the zeal
of Mr. Collins, at that time Vicar, against all vestiges of the
religion professed by our forefathers. A few small panes of glass only
remain, and the cross engrailed Sable, on a field Or (the arms of
Mahon), can alone be distinguished. The south wall of the church is
supported by a continued buttress, added about the year 1760.
On a slab stone, just before the communion table, is the following
inscription:
Here lyeth the body of the below named
John Ralph,
who ended this life the 10th of Feb. anno Domni 1729,
in the 85th year of his age.
The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
Here lyeth the body of Loveday, the wife of
John Ralph, Vicar of this parish,
by whom he had three children,
Mary, John, and Loveday;
the last died in her infancy.
The other two were alive at their
mother’s death.
She was a virtuous and prudent wife,
a loving and indulgent mother,
a friendly and prudent neighbour,
and very charitable to the poor.
She exchanged this life for a better
the last day of November, in the year
of our Lord 1715, and in the 82d year
of her age.
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, yea, saith the spirit,
that they rest from their labour.” Rev. xiv. 13.
John Ralph, son of the above, obtained the living of Ingatestone, in
Essex, and died there in 1755.
Adjoining to this stone is another, with an interesting inscription:
Underneath is deposited,
in hopes of a joyful resurrection,
the body of Elizabeth, wife of Edward Collins,
Vicar of this parish, whose filial piety and obedience,
conjugal love and fidelity, maternal care and affection,
unfeigned charity and benevolence, uniform and constant
perseverance in all the duties of Christianity,
have been equalled by few, excelled by none.
She was the daughter
of Nicholas Kendall, of Pelyn, Clerk,
Canon Residentiary of St. Peter’s, Exeter,
and Archdeacon of Totness,
by Jane, daughter of Thomas Carew, of Harrabear, Esq.
son of Sir Alexander Carew, of East Anthony, Bart.
She was born Aug. 19, 1701; married July 22, 1731;
died Nov. 30, 1749.
M.
Conjugis opt. dilectissimæ
H. M. L. M. P. C.
Maritus amantissimus
juxta cum Deo visum deponendus.
The six letters stand for, Hoc Marmor Loco Monumenti Poni Curavit.
* * * * *
Mr. Collins died in October 1755, and was buried under the same stone,
but without any additional inscription. Mr. Edward Collins was the
eldest son of John Collins, Esq. of Treworgan, in St. Erme, and
brother of Mr. John Collins, Rector of Redruth. He studied for some
years at the Temple, with the view of being called to the bar, and it
is said that he became a clergyman from principles of conscience.
Mr. Collins retained uniformly through life the respect of all around
him; he appears to have been a man of learning and of taste, but of
austere manners. I have heard from one who was present, that Mr. and
Mrs. Collins meeting accidentally, at a neighbouring gentleman’s, a
lady who was not of the Established Church, they refused to hold any
conversation with her.
Their only son, Mr. John Collins, Vicar of Ledbury in Herefordshire,
supported the reputation derived from his father. He distinguished
himself as a man of letters on various occasions; one of the editors
of Shakspeare left his library to Mr. Collins, in gratitude for
assistance afforded him, and there may be found a very curious note at
the conclusion of Troilus and Cressida, in the edition by Johnson and
Steevens, with Mr. Collins’s name subscribed.
The next Vicar of St. Earth was Mr. Symonds, who acquired the living
through a curious combination of circumstances. Mr. John Stephens, the
principal merchant at St. Ives, and agent for the Earl of
Buckinghamshire in the management of the borough, was a zealous
Presbyterian. The living of St. Ives with Lelant, had been designed
for some young man of the town, who indiscreetly, and probably in
joke, declared that when he succeeded to the church he would preach
furiously against Presbyterians, and teach that Hell itself was
strewed over with their bones. This was said in a garden, in defiance
of the Cornish proverb, Nynges gun heb lagas, na kei heb scover.
“There is no downs without eyes, nor hedge or wall without ears.” And
Mr. Stephens walking in a garden adjoining overheard this declaration,
and in consequence exerted his influence with the patron to obtain the
living from the Bishop of Exeter for one who might prove less
unfavourably disposed towards his sect, the only one at that time
considered as formidably hostile to the Established Church; and to
ensure this object Mr. Symonds was selected, because his father, who
exercised the trade of a barber at Cambridge, discharged also the
office of clerk to a Presbyterian meeting-house.
Mr. Symonds was received as a friend at St. Ives, and elected into the
Corporation. But in the course of a few years a violent struggle arose
respecting the election of a Recorder, when Mr. Symonds most prudently
considering that nothing further was likely to be obtained from those
who had already given him a living, sold himself to the opposite
party, carried the election for them by his casting vote, and received
the living of St. Earth. See various Essays in the London Magazine,
with the signature Y. Z. for 1767, pp. 225, 456, 464, 628; for 1768,
pp. 25, 199, 575; for 1769, pp. 18, 235, 578.
Mr. Symonds died in 1775, and was succeeded by Mr. George Rhodes, of
Devonshire, some time a Fellow of Exeter College. This gentleman
having obtained preferment near his immediate connections, resigned
the living in 1781, and was succeeded by Mr. Mayow, of Bray near Looe,
who never resided, and died in the year 1800, when the benefice was
given to Mr. Samuel Gurney, recently deceased (1833) and to whose
memory a marble slab has been immediately placed over the chancel door
by his mother, in her ninety-fourth year.
The glebe land is more extensive and of greater value than in most
other parishes, and the vicarage house is one of the best in Cornwall,
a new front having been added by Mr. Collins, and some improvements
made by Mr. Rhodes. There is also a rectorial glebe; and a large house
near the eastern end of the bridge, stands on the spot where formerly
was a barn for receiving the tithe corn.
There is a third slab stone in memory of Mr. Richard Shuckburgh,
brother to the well-known mathematician and astronomer of
Shuckborough, in Warwickshire. Mr. Humphrey Williams, then the
resident curate, had married Miss Sarah Bate, his half-sister, who is
also buried in St. Earth’s church.
The church-yard is still too small for the parish, notwithstanding its
being enlarged in the year 1817, chiefly at the expense of the Editor,
and by virtue of a general Act of parliament which he brought into the
House of Commons for that express purpose, 56 Geo. III. c. 141.
The bridge is said by Leland to have been constructed two hundred
years before his time, or about five hundred years ago. The causeway
is very long, but there were originally only three small arches. A
fourth, somewhat larger, has been added at the eastern end. The
roadway was so narrow that a single carriage had, at one part, great
difficulty to pass, and the whole created a large expense to the
county, occasioned by accidents to the walls, and by wheels always
running in the same track. In the year 1816, the Editor procured a
grant of fifty pounds, and, expending somewhat more than an equal sum
himself, he got the road widened sufficiently for all useful purposes,
more especially as in the year 1825 a causeway was made across the
river, about a mile further down. St. Earth adjoins to no less than
seven parishes: Lelant, Ludgvan, St. Hilary, Breage, Crowan, Gwinear,
and Phillaek.
Trewinnard has been, without all comparison, the principal place in
this parish.
I have not any means of affirming or of contradicting the relation of
Mr. Hals, as to the tragical event imputed to the last Trewinnard:
some indistinct tradition of a murder was handed down to within my
remembrance. The transactions of this gentleman’s grandfather with the
House of Commons are given by Mr. Hatsell, as derived from authentic
sources, in his Parliamentary Precedents, vol. i. p. 59, of the
edition of 1796, and p. 60 in the last edition. I apprehend that he
was then Member for Helston. One of the family resided till very
lately in the Strand, London; for, struck by the name “Trewinnard,”
the Editor was induced to call at the house. Mr. Trewinnard said that
his family came, as he had heard, from a town so called in Cornwall,
and that he had some old deeds in his possession. These were
exhibited, and proved to be leases of various farms in St. Earth
parish. The Mohuns appear to have made this place a principal
ressdence, for the cross engrailed exhibits itself not only on
fragments of painted glass preserved in the church, but also on the
seat or pew, quartered or impaled with various arms, and in one
instance with the fleur-de-lis and the lions, of England and France.
Mr. Hals states that the estate was divided between the three
daughters of Sir Reginald Mohun; that one of these daughters married
Sir Thomas Arundel, of Talvorne, and that his part was purchased by
Sir Nicholas Hals, of Fentongallon, who had the other two-thirds on
leases for lives; but that John Hals sold the whole. It is probable
that the purchaser must have been Mr. Bellot, of Bochym, whose
daughter brought the one-third freehold, and the two-thirds lease for
lives, to Mr. Thomas Hawkins; yet Reginald Mohun is said by Mr.
Lysons, under Cury, to have given one of his daughters, with Bochym,
to Francis Bellot; through whom Mr. Hawkins, the present possessor,
connects himself with the ancient and baronial family of Mohun.
However Mr. Thomas Hawkins acquired Trewinnard, the property has now
been possessed by his family above a century and a half.
The _first_ of his ancestors who settled in Cornwall was Mr. John
Hawkins, who is said to have come from Kent in the year 1554. He
married a daughter of the officiating Minister of Blisland.
_Second_, John Hawkins, their son, designated merchant, married Jane
Rother or Williams, of Grampound.
_Third_, John Hawkins, gent. married Paschas, daughter of Joseph
Cooke, of Mevagissey.
_Fourth_, Thomas Hawkins, who died in the lifetime of his father,
married Adry, daughter of ―――― Crudge.
_Fifth_, John Hawkins, gent. married Loveday, daughter of George
Trenhayle.
_Sixth_, Thomas Hawkins, their son, married, first, Florence, daughter
of James Praed, esq. of Trevethow, by whom he had one daughter,
married to John Williams, of Helston, merchant. He married, secondly,
Ann, daughter and coheir of Christopher Bellott, of Bochym, and died
in 1716, leaving one son and one daughter.
_Seventh_, Christopher Hawkins, esq. barrister-at-law, married Mary,
daughter and coheir of Philip Hawkins, of Pennance, esq. and
practically his sole heiress, as well as of her brother Philip
Hawkins, D.D. sometime Master of Pembroke college, Cambridge.
They resided during several years in London, where Mr. Hawkins
practised as a lawyer; but, having lost several children, they
determined on removing into the country, and finally settled at
Trewinnard about the year 1750. They had one daughter, Jane, married
to Sir Richard Vyvyan, of Trelowarren. And
_Eighth_, Thomas Hawkins, esq. who married Anne, daughter of James
Heywood, esq. a merchant of London. He represented Grampound in
Parliament, and died in 1766, leaving four sons and one daughter.
Philip died at Eton.
Sir Christopher, Member for Michell, Grampound, Penryn, and St. Ives,
in different Parliaments, and created a Baronet July 28, 1791. He was
a Fellow of the Royal, Antiquarian, and Horticultural Societies, and
published in 1811 “Observations on the Tin Trade of the Ancients in
Cornwall, and on the Ictis of Diodorus Siculus.” He died unmarried in
1829.
Thomas died a young man.
John Hawkins, the present representative of the family, celebrated
throughout Europe for his general knowledge on all subjects, his
science, literature, and travels, especially through Greece, the most
interesting portion of the ancient world, married the only daughter of
Mr. Sibthorpe, Member for Lincoln, and has two sons and four
daughters; the eldest, Mr. John Heywood Hawkins, is a distinguished
Member of the present Parliament. His sister is the widow of Mr.
Trelawney Brereton.
The house at Trewinnard has been so much altered and improved since
Mr. Christopher Hawkins came to reside there, about eighty years ago,
as scarcely to leave a trace of what it had been in former times; but
the garden remains, a pleasing specimen of cut yew, trim box, and
thorn hedges. There was also a building, detached from the house,
supposed to have been the ancient chapel, although, I think,
inaccurately, as it stood north and south. One of the upstairs rooms
has tapestry representing the victory of Constantine, with his
celebrated vision of the Cross. But, above all, here are preserved the
remains of an old coach, suspended on long leathers without springs,
and in general form corresponding with the coach exhibited by the Lord
Mayor of London. I believe, however, that it is much less ancient than
has generally been supposed, and it has been in actual use within
seventy years.
Trewinnard has the advantage of a stream of water, brought with great
art over very uneven ground from a distance of two or three miles,
conducted into almost every field, and supplying the house.
The place of next importance in this parish is Trelisick. Perhaps the
etymology of this word may be tre-lès-ick, the town on the inclosed
water, les, or lis, being an inclosed place; and the river Hayle here
expands itself into the appearance of a lake; and the same
circumstance applies to Trelesick as the head of Falmouth harbour.
The tale related by Mr. Hals respecting the change of name from De
Camborne to Paynter, does not seem very probable. I remember, however,
a man of that family who was a house-painter, and who would be driven
into most violent fits of passion when boys hallooed after him,
“Painter by name and painter by nature.”
Mr. Francis Paynter is said to have married, first, a daughter of ――――
Sutherland, Esq. one of the Clerks of the Admiralty, and to have had
by her one son, who died in his father’s lifetime. I apprehend that
this son, James, too warmly espousing the politics then most popular
in Cornwall, took an active part in proclaiming King James on the
death of Queen Anne; that he was indicted by the victorious party,
acquitted at Launceston, and welcomed by bonfire and by ball from
thence to the Land’s End.
Of the two daughters by his second marriage, with his cousin of
Boskenna, one made a most imprudent match with a foreigner, and
settled in France, leaving many descendants.
The other daughter, Mary, born in 1709, married a very respectable
gentleman, Mr. Hearle, of Penryn. They acquired the other sister’s
share of the property by purchase, and the whole is now equally
divided between the families of her three daughters. One married the
Rev. Henry Hawkins Tremayne, of Heligon; another Francis Rodd, Esq. of
Trebather; and the third Capt. Wallis, of the Royal Navy, well known
for his discovery of Otaheite, in a voyage round the world.
The house at Trelisick has been greatly reduced in size; but the whole
place continues to bear the appearance of a gentleman’s seat, and the
property is much improved by the rapid advance of trade and of
establishments at Hayle.
This portion of the Hearle and Paynter estate has been assigned to Mr.
Francis Hearle Rodd.
* * * * *
The place next of importance in this parish was probably Tredrea. The
name, perhaps, imports the thoroughfare town, as it lies on the way
from Trewinnard to the church.
There was here a large house inhabited by a family of the same name,
who appear in the parish register two centuries ago as Esquires, a
distinction then sparingly applied. The property is said to have
passed, by a mortgage unredeemed, to the St. Aubyns of Crowan, who
granted it on a lease for lives, in the year 1685, to Mr. Matthew
Phillips. One of his daughters married Mr. John Davies, younger
brother of Henry Davies, Esq. of Bosence. Mr. John Davies had a
daughter, Catherine Davies, eventually heiresss of her brother Henry
Davies, and through him of her father and uncle. Her son is the Editor
of this work.
The old house at Tredrea having fallen into a state of decay, Mr.
Henry Davies took it down about the year 1750, and built small a neat
house on the same spot, where the Editor still occasionally resides.
Bosence, in St. Earth, has belonged time out of mind, (certainly from
before the reign of Henry the Seventh,) to the family of Davies. On it
there is a very perfect Roman entrenchment; and various articles of
Roman workmanship, found on removing the earth, are described and
figured by Dr. W. Borlase, in his Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 316,
edit. 1759; and also in a Paper communicated to the Royal Society in
1759, vol. xi. p. 322, of the Abridgment; and the Articles themselves
having been presented by Mr. Henry Davies to Dr. Borlase, were by him
deposited in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, where they are now
preserved. Another Roman intrenchment, but much less perfect, is
situated on the summit of the hill on the south side of the road
leading eastward, at about half a mile distant from St. Earth bridge:
this is mentioned by Leland. The Editor availed himself of an
opportunity for purchasing it about ten years ago, to prevent its
further destruction.
In the church-yard are several monuments to the Davieses, particularly
one to Mr. William Davies, the Editor’s great-grandfather.
* * * * *
A flat stone, lying on a raised grave, having the arms of Davies, a
chevron between three mullets pierced, impaled with the ancient arms
of Noye, Azure, three crosses botony in a bend Argent. The more recent
arms are, Argent, three bendlets and a canton Sable, on the canton a
cross of the Field. There is this inscription round the edge.
Here lieth the body of William Davies, of Bosworgy, in this
parish, Gent. who was buried the 28th day of February, in
the 54th year of his age, anno 1690.
On the middle of the stone:
Virtus post funera vivit.
Must death divide us now, and close thine eyes?
How shall I live, when thou art gone, to hear
Our children’s cries?
Look on, but spare your tears, forbear to weep:
My death’s no death――in Christ a blessed sleep.
O blessed Sleep to me! that art both free
From sting of Death, and from Grave’s victory!
O, Death, where’s now thy sting, or, Grave, thy power?
My soul triumphs in Christ, my Saviour;
Cease, then, your tears for me, who am in bliss――
Tho’ here intomb’d, my soul in Heaven is.
Be sure always t’ observe old David’s song,
And never trust that man that did me wrong.
Survivors will be apt to act their part,
And seek all means they can to break thy heart;
But trust in God, and he will thee defend
From all thine enemies: and love thy friend.
Farewell, dear wife and children! Friends, adieu!
Observe those friends whose promises prove true.