Near this tomb stands a handsome marble sarcophagus, erected over a
stoned vault, with the following inscriptions:
On the south side:
In memory
of Henry Davies, of Tredrea, Esq.
a Lieutenant in the Cornwall Militia.
He was a dutiful son, an affectionate brother,
an obliging relation, a sincere friend,
and in all repects a worthy gentleman.
He died of the smallpox at London,
December 10, 1760, aged 36,
justly lamented by all his friends and acquaintance.
* * * * *
On the north side:
Here lyeth interred the remains
of John Davies, Gent.
who departed this life May the 29th, 1737,
in the 51st year of his age.
And of Mary and Philippa, his daughters.
Mary Davies died Jan. 2d, 1740, aged 8.
Philippa Davies died at Bristol Wells,
August the 18th, 1755, in the 25th year of her age.
* * * * *
On the northern end:
Elizabeth Davies,
widow of Mr. John Davies,
and daughter of Matthew Phillipps,
of Tredrea,
died April the 21st, 1775,
aged 80.
* * * * *
On the west end:
In memory of
the Rev. Edward Giddy, M.A.
during 43 years an active and most useful Magistrate,
who departed this life March the 6th, 1814,
in his 80th year.
Also of
Catherine, his wife,
sister and heir of Henry Davies, Esq.
who died February the 3d, 1803, aged 75,
leaving one son and one daughter:
Davies Giddy,
and
Mary Philippa Davies Guillemard.
The Editor is desirous of preserving a short memorial to a relation,
whose kindnesses to him were unceasing from infancy to the fifty-fifth
year of his age; and to a servant whom he has ever regarded with
gratitude as the one whose precepts and instructions he imbibed with
the utmost pleasure and delight, and whose tales of the times of old
remain deeply impressed upon his mind.
To the memory of
Mrs. Grace Jenkins,
born at Treloweth, 1734,
died April 7th, 1823,
having passed the greater part of her life
in this parish, universally
esteemed and respected.
* * * * *
This memorial,
in gratitude for her long and faithful service,
is inscribed to the memory of
Jochebed Hoskin,
who died March the 23d, 1814, aged 86,
by Davies Gilbert.
She came to live with Mrs. Elizabeth Davies,
at Tredrea, in 1750,
and continued in the family ever afterwards.
Time rolls his ceaseless course! the race of yore,
That danced our infancy upon their knee,
And told our wondering childhood legends store
Of strange adventures happ’d by land or sea,
How are they blotted from the things that be!
There is a vault belonging to the family of Hawkins; and Mr.
Christopher Hawkins, in 1767, and his widow, Mrs. Mary Hawkins, in
1780, are laid in it, I believe with some of their children; but there
is not any inscription.
* * * * *
Perthcolumb presents some appearance of antiquity. There is a
tradition of its once having given a sheriff to the county. The place
now belongs to Mr. Andrew Hoskin, descended from a very ancient family
in the adjoining parish of Lelant.
Gear has a good house, once the seat of another branch of the
Davieses, but bought by the Editor’s father.
Tregethes belonged for several descents to the Penroses. It is now the
property of Mr. Ellis, who resides in it.
About the year 1782, a mill was constructed on a part of Trewinnard,
for rolling copper and iron, by a company established at Hayle thirty
years before, on the supposed patriotic principle of smelting our own
copper ore; but, after many years of competition against the
smelting-works in Wales, it was discovered that one shipload of copper
ore required three shiploads of coal, and that by importing coal from
Swansea to work the steam-engine, and by exporting the ores to be
smelted there, vessels were enabled to obtain cargoes in both
directions; and, in consequence, the works at Trewinnard and at Hayle
are no longer employed for their original purposes.
The rage for importing coals to reduce our own ores at home, which was
epidemic about the middle of the last century, seems to have
originated from a confusion of ideas in the application of analogies,
the most abundant source of error. It would be absurd to send our food
across the seas to be roasted or boiled; therefore the same principle
was extended to copper ore.
These establishments were, however, maintained for some considerable
time by the genius and the abilities of one man. Mr. John Edwards had
been taken as a clerk for general business by Mr. Hawkins, just at the
time when he and other Cornish gentlemen set on the copper-works. Mr.
Edwards soon forced himself into the chief management, became a
partner, and continued the works during the whole of his life; not
being distinguished merely as a merchant or manufacturer, but as a
scholar and a gentleman.
Gurlyn is said by Mr. Lysons to have been the residence of various
considerable families. It has, for perhaps a century, been the joint
property of Messrs. Gregor and Harris. About the year 1760, Mr. John
Millett, possessing a lease of this place for lives, built an entirely
new house there; but the lease has been bought in by the gentleman
seised of the freehold, and the house taken down.
Treloweth is a manor heretofore the property of the Tredreas. On a
part of this manor stands a tin-smelting house. Tin, by the laws of
the Stannaries, must be reduced to the metallic state in Cornwall; and
much less quantities of coal are required than in the case of copper.
Till about the commencement of the last century, all the tin ores of
Cornwall were smelted in small blast furnaces, by means of charcoal or
of peat. At that period some Germans introduced the reverberatory
furnace, and with it the use of coal. Several smelting-houses were
immediately constructed by the gentlemen of the county, and although
not among the first, that at Treloweth. I have ascertained the exact
period of its building, from this circumstance, that the workmen were
interrupted by the total eclipse of the sun, which happened about 15
minutes before nine on the 22d of April, 1715, O. S.
Mr. Henry Davies, the Editor’s great-uncle, was among those who
contributed to the building, and the crest of his arms, a lamb
carrying a flag, was adopted as a mark to distinguish the slabs of
this house; all the different smelting and blowing houses having
always used specific marks. The crest, had, I presume, been originally
taken in allusion to the Welch and Cornish sound, at least of his
name; _davas_ being Cornish for a sheep, or perhaps a shepherd. This
mark, however, conveyed to the minds of persons in Catholic countries
some idea of consecration, and procured a preference for the Lamb Tin,
although it never claimed to have the slightest superiority; and
finally, all the other houses have taken the same, or similar marks.
Among the Germans who introduced the reverberatory furnace, was the
celebrated Becker. His son became a bricklayer, and his grandson’s
widow died about twenty-five years ago in the poorhouse at St. Earth.
The Rev. John Ralph, Vicar of Ingatestone, son of the Vicar of St.
Earth, gave in 1754 a hundred pounds towards founding a school at St.
Earth, to be applied as Mr. Collins, the then Vicar, and Mr. Hawking,
of Trewinnard, should direct. Some portion of the 100_l._ was expended
in repairing a small house in the church-yard. The remainder, together
with another hundred pounds, given by Mr. Hawkins, remain in aid of
the schoolmaster.
This parish measures 3,791 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4,708 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 558 2 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1122 | 1317 | 1604 | 1922
giving an increase in 30 years of 71 per cent.
The feast is the nearest Sunday to all Souls, Nov. 2.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Punnett, collated in 1835 by the Right
Rev. Henry Phillpotts, present Bishop of Exeter, on a lapse from the
Dean and Chapter. Mr. Punnett has wonderfully improved the house and
the vicarage generally, which had previously been considered one of
the best in Cornwall.