Of the three sisters of Mr. John Speccot Long, one remained single.
Another married Mr. Charles Phillipps, of Camelford, eldest son of Mr.
John Phillipps, attorney-at-law. This gentleman represented Camelford
in Parliament, and was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Cornwall Militia. He
survived his wife, and acquired through her a third part of the Long
property, which, with all his other possessions, he bequeathed in
equal portions to his two brothers, Mr. Jonathan Phillipps, a Captain
with him in the militia, and the Rev. William Phillipps, Rector of
Lanteglos, the parish including Camelford. These two brothers came to
some arrangement with the two sisters, by which this share of Penhale
at least reverted to them.
The third sister, Margaret Long, first married Mr. Charles Davie, of
the family settled at Orleigh, in Devonshire. He carried on, however,
some business in Bristol, and is said to have been in very bad
circumstances. He died after a few years, and in her old age the widow
was induced to marry Mr. John Bridlake Herring, a Major in the army,
who resorted to all possible methods for extorting money from the old
lady; one that will scarcely be credited, by terrifying her with
supposed apparitions. The three sisters are reputed to have excelled
in beauty of person, but to have been so utterly neglected in their
education, as scarcely to possess the common acquirement of reading.
The Editor remembers to have seen Penhale and the old lady in 1788.
Her appearance, then near eighty, justified the report respecting her
youth, and the house seemed to rank among the very finest specimens of
ancient buildings in Cornwall, as well for size as for architectural
decoration. Near the entrance stood a very curious dial, probably
placed there by Mr John Speccot, who founded a mathematical school.
The barton of Penhale is again divided; one portion belonging to a
grandson of Major Herring, who has taken the name of Cloberry, and
another to the Rev. Charles Sweet, of Kentisbury, in Devonshire.
This parish measures 2,829 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 181 2195 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 301 17 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 307 | 395 | 436 | 537
giving an increase of 74 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Serjeant, instituted in 1826.