Is situate in the hundred of Eastwellshire, and hath upon the north
Northill; south, Quethiock; west Menhynyet; east, St. Mellyn. For the
modern name of this parish, it is taken from the tutelar guardian of
the church, not St. Eve, that is to say, life or living, the first
woman created by God, whose history is to be seen in the third chapter
of Genesis; but, as the parishioners tell us, St. Eve is a corruption
of St. Ivonis, in British St. John, viz. St. John Baptist, to whom the
same is dedicated. And suitably in the Inquisition of the Bishops of
Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, this church is called Ecclesia Sancti
Ivonis in Decanatu de Eastwellshire, and valued to First Fruits
iiii_l._ xiii_s._ iiii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition and Valor
Beneficiorum 26_l._ The patronage heretofore belonged to the preceptor
of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John Baptist, at Jerusalem, who
endowed it; now to Coryton. The incumbent Holden; and the parish rated
to the 4_s._ in the pound Land Tax, by the name of St. Ive, 1696, that
is to say, St. Ivonis or John, 170_l._ 8_s._ 8_d._
At the time of the Domesday Tax, 20 William I. 1087, this district was
taxed under the jurisdiction of Bicketone, id est, little town, then
and long before, by prescription, the voke lands of a manor, barton,
and court leet; the same now extant by the name of Tre-bighe, or
Tre-bicke, that is town little; but not so little but that it was a
kind of franchise royal, exempted and privileged in some respects
against the common law, and within its precincts held pleas of debt
and damages before the steward thereof, life, land, and limb,
excepted, and had its prison and bailiff for the public service, as
the hundred courts have. Now the writ to remove an action at law
depending in this court must be thus directed: Senescallo et Ballivo
Manerii sui de Trebiche, alias Trebighe, in comitatu Cornubiæ salutem.
This lordship was either by King Stephen or King Henry II. given to
the Knights Hospitallers of St. John Baptist of Jerusalem, about the
year 1150; (who endowed this church as aforesaid), where they had
their preceptory or commandery, a corporation under a preceptor or
commander, who took care of all their revenues, lands, and tenements,
churches, chapels, and tithes; and those, their churches, were wholly
appropriated to them, though they were not in holy orders, to preach
or administer the Sacraments. These followed the rules of Augustine
and Bernard.
This order originated in the time of the first Crusade, about the year
1100, when the members were called Knights of the Military Hospital of
St. John Baptist of Jerusalem. They were most amply endowed throughout
Christendom, and especially from the spoils of the Knights’ Templars.
The prior of the order for England, had his residence in St.
John-street, London, and was accounted the first Baron of the land.
When the Franks were driven from Jerusalem and the whole of Palestine,
this order of monastic warriors took refuge in the Isle of Rhodes,
where it continued to rule till the Turks expelled them in 1523. The
Island of Malta was then given to them by the Emperor Charles the
Fifth, where they have remained as Knights of Malta, opposing an
impenetrable barrier against the progress of the Turks.
In the 31st year of Henry the Eighth, all the possessions of the
Knights of Malta in England were seized, together with all other
monastic property; and the last prior of the English, William Weston,
is said to have died from grief.
This lordship of Trebich, or Trebigh, passed from Henry the Eighth to
John Wrey, Esq., and from him to John Wrey, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall
28th of Elizabeth, that married Killigrew, and had issue by her
William Wrey, Esq. afterwards knighted, that married Courtney of
Powderham, Sheriff of Cornwall 41st of Elizabeth; and had issue
William Wrey, Esq. created the 209th Baronet of England, that married
and had issue Sir William or Sir Chichester Wrey, Bart. that married
Frances daughter of Richard Bourchier, the fifth Earl of Bath, who by
her had issue Sir Bourchier Wrey, Bart. that married Rolle of
Stephenston, now in possession thereof; who also, for that his uncle,
Henry Bourchier, sixth Earl of Bath, died without issue, in right of
his mother is become one of his heirs. The arms of Wrey are, Sable, a
fess between three hatchets Argent.