THE
PAROCHIAL HISTORY
OF
CORNWALL.
J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, 25, PARLIAMENT-STREET.
THE
PAROCHIAL HISTORY
OF
CORNWALL,
FOUNDED ON THE MANUSCRIPT HISTORIES
OF
MR. HALS AND MR. TONKIN;
WITH ADDITIONS AND VARIOUS APPENDICES,
BY
DAVIES GILBERT,
SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, F.A.S. F.R.S.E. M.R.I.A. &c.
&c. AND D.C.L. BY DIPLOMA FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.
_IN FOUR VOLUMES._
VOL. II.
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY J. B. NICHOLS AND SON;
AND SOLD BY
J. LIDDELL, BODMIN; J. LAKE, FALMOUTH; O. MATTHEWS, HELSTON; MESSRS.
BRAY AND ROWE, LAUNCESTON; T. VIGURS, PENZANCE; MRS. HEARD, TRURO; W.
H. ROBERTS, EXETER; J. B. ROWE, PLYMOUTH; AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS IN
CORNWALL AND DEVON.
1838.
HISTORY
OF THE
PARISHES OF CORNWALL.
FALMOUTH, ALIAS VAL-MOUTH, ALIAS VALE-MOUTH.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north Budock;
east, the haven or harbour of Falmouth; south, the Black Rock and
Pendennis Castle; west, Budock, and the British Channel. For the name,
it is taken from the Vale river’s mouth, which here empties itself
into the British Ocean. And the river itself takes its name from its
original fountain in Roach, under Haynes-burrow, called Pen-ta-Vale,
Fenton, or Venton; that is to say, the head or chief, good or
consecrated, spring or well of water, or river Valley, from thence
called the Vale river. This place, in Cornish, is called Val-genow, or
Fal-genne; in Saxon, Val-mune; in English, Vale-mouth, synonymous
therewith.
This harbour of Falmouth, as mariners tell us, is in all respects the
largest and safest haven for ships that this Island of Britain
affordeth. Its mouth or entrance from the British Ocean, between the
Castles of St. Mawes and Pendennis, situate in St. Anthony and
Falmouth parishes, is about a mile and a half distant, the centre or
middle thereof above a league, from the said mouth or entrance up the
Vale river, by the Rock Island aforesaid, to Carike Road, King’s Road,
and Turner’s Wear, south-east about two leagues from thence, still on
the Vale river, a navigable arm or channel of the said harbour,
extendeth itself up the country, by Trejago Creek and Castle, towards
the incorporate town of Tregony, to the Bridge Place of which it
formerly was navigable. [See CUBY.] And it is overlooked on the
south-east side, by St. Anthony, St. Just, Philley, Ruan Langhorne,
and Cuby parishes. Within the said parishes of St. Just and St.
Anthony are also two navigable creeks or channels. Near the castle and
incorporate town of St. Mawes, (where formerly stood a monastery of
Black Canons Augustine, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, called St. Mary
de Vale, for that it was situated on the Vale harbour or river, as its
superior monastery is from the Plym river, in Devon, called St. Mary
de Plym, whereon it is situate,) from the north-west part of this
harbour of Falmouth, between the parishes of Budock, Gluvias, and
Milor, another navigable channel extendeth itself up the country to
the incorporate town of Penryn. And towards the north another channel
or arm thereof, higher up, extendeth itself through the country from
the centre about a league, and is navigable to Peran Well and Carnan
Bridge. Further up, north-east, another arm or channel of Falmouth
Harbour extends itself to the incorporate and coinage town of Truro,
and the manor of Moris, and is navigable there about nine miles
distance from the Black Rock, or island aforesaid. Lastly, another
branch of this harbour extendeth itself to Tresilian Bridge, where it
is navigable between the parishes of St. Erme, Probus, and Merther,
about ten miles from the mouth of the haven, all which members or
branches of the harbour of Falmouth are overlooked with lofty and
pleasant hills and vales of land, and within the memory of man
abounding with flourishing woods and groves of timber; and before that
time Leland the antiquary, in his Itinerary, tells us that this river
Vale in his days was encompassed about with the loftiest woods, oaks,
and timber-trees that this kingdom afforded temp. Henry VII. and
therefore was by the Britons called Cassi-ter, or Casse-ter, viz. wood
land, from which place and haven the Greeks fetching tin, called it in
their language κασσιτερος, _cassiteros_, stanum, and the island
aforesaid the Cassiteridan Island. But, alas! now this commodity tin
hath made such havock of woods and timber-trees, in searching for and
melting the same, that scarcely any of them are to be seen in those
places; for, the woods and trees being eradicated, the hills and vales
aforesaid have submitted to agriculture, and are made arable lands,
which abound with cattle, sheep, corn, and pastures.
From the premises I suppose it is evident what Mr. Carew, in his
Survey of Cornwall, saith of this harbour of Falmouth, that 100 sail
of ships may lie at anchor within the same, and none of them see the
others main tops, by reason of the steep hills and long windings of
the several channels thereof. In further praise whereof take these
rhymes:
In the calme south Valubia Harbour stands,
Where Vale with Sea doth joyne its pure hands,
’Twixt whome to shipps commodious port is shewne,
That makes the riches of the world its owne;
Ike-ta and Vale, the Britons’ chiefest pride,
Glory of them, and all the world beside,
In sendinge round the riches of its tide;
Greeks and Pheniciens here of old have been,
Fetchinge from thence furs, hides, pure corne, and tynn,
Before greate Cæsar fought Cassibelynn.
The parish of Falmouth is a dismembered part of the old parish of
Budock, taxed in the Domesday Roll 1087, and separated from it by
virtue of an Act of Parliament made 15th Charles II. whereby that
church is deprived of its rectory, the great and small tithes, as far
as the boundaries of this new parish extends, on the humble petition
of Sir Peter Killigrew, of Arwinike, Knt. who by his own bounty, and
the charitable benevolence he had begged of others (by leave of the
King and Bishop of Exeter), had built on his own land a church and
cemetery, at the south end of Falmouth town, whereof he was lord and
high lord, for convenience of himself, his servants, and tenants, that
were far off from Budock church. This church, so built, he endowed
with the tithes aforesaid, as a rectory,[1] and so became patron
thereof, or had _jus patronatus_; reserving to himself and his heirs
the right of presenting to the Ordinary a Clerk to be Rector thereof
when the same should become void; and the first Rector, as I take it,
that he presented to this church was Mr. John Bedford. Thus, it is
evident by what ways and means men became patrons of churches, viz.
patronum faciunt dos, ædificatio, fundus; the patrons of churches were
either founders, builders, or benefactors thereof. Jus patronatus est
potestas præsentandi aliquem instituendum ad beneficium ecclesiæ
simplex et vacans. (Statute of Westminster, 13th Edward III.) This
patronage or advowson Sir Peter Killigrew annexed to his manor and
barton of Arwinick.
This church of Falmouth being thus built and endowed, it was
consecrated according to the rights and ceremonies for consecration of
a church in England by Dr. Seth Ward, Lord Bishop of Exeter, 1664.
Within the chancel of which church afterwards was laid, in a vaulted
grave, the dead body of its patron and founder, Sir Peter Killigrew,
Knt. The present incumbent Quarm. Sir Peter Killigrew also gave the
first Rector thereof, and his successors for ever, a house and garden
to dwell in, for profit and pleasure; as also a very rich
pulpit-cloth, with gold fringes, whereon in needlework of gold was
placed the letters I. H. S. Whether it be a contraction of ΙΗΣΟΥΣ
Jesus, or to be construed as being the initial letters of Jesus
Hominum Salvator, or Servator, let others resolve.
Ar-win-ike [I above said is] in this parish, [and signifies] the
beloved still lake, creek, cove, or bosom of waters, according to the
circumstances of the place; on part of which manor formerly stood the
insular island Iktam, or Ictam, of Diodorus Siculus, before mentioned.
Otherwise, if the name of this place be Ar-wynn-ike, it signifies the
victorious or conquering still lake, cove, or busom of waters; perhaps
to be so construed with reference to Pendennis Castle, contiguous
with, and built upon Arwinick lands.
This place is the chief mansion of that ancient and famous family
surnamed de Killy-grewe, Killygreu, or Killy-greue, from a local place
in St. Herme, called Killygrew barton, downs, and hill, now in
possession of Jago in fee, where Henry, the son of Maugan de
Killygrew, held three parts of a knight’s fee of lands, and at
Trewince in Gerance, 3d Henry IV. [according to] Carew’s Survey of
Cornwall, p. 44. Of this family further speaks Mr. Carew, p. 150. The
stock is ancient, and divers of the branches have grown to great
advancement in calling and livelihood by their greater deserts.
Sir John Killigrew, knight, 1571, built the greatest part of the old
house now standing here. He married Wolverston of Wolverston, and had
by her issue John Killigrew, Esq.; that married Monk, who had issue by
her William Killigrew, Esq. created the 585th Baronet of England,
patent 22d December, 12th Charles II. 1660, with limitation to Peter
Killigrew, Esq. son of Sir Peter Killigrew aforesaid, Knt. This Sir
William Killigrew, Bart. by ill conduct wasted his whole paternal
estate, which was valued at about 3,000_l._ per annum; and lastly,
sold this manor and barton of Arwinick to his younger brother, Sir
Peter Killigrew, Knt. aforesaid, who had issue Sir Peter Killigrew,
Bart. aforesaid, who married one of the coheirs of Judge Twysden, and
had issue by her George Killigrew, Esq. that married Ann, daughter of
Sir John Seyntaubyn, Bart. and had issue by her one daughter.
This Mr. George Killigrew was afterwards, in a drunken humour, at a
tavern in Penryn, slain in the chamber, in a duel, by Walter Vincent,
Esq. barrister-at-law, who was tried for his life at Launceston for
the fact, and acquitted by the petty jury, _through bribery and
indirect acts and practices, as was generally said_; yet this Mr.
Vincent, through anguish and horror at this accident, (as it was
said,) within two years after wasted of an extreme atrophy of his
flesh and spirits, that at length at the table whereby he was sitting,
in the Bishop of Exeter’s palace, in presence of divers gentlemen, he
instantly fell back against the wall and died.
Sir Peter Killigrew had issue also two daughters, the one married to
Richard Erisey, Esq. and another married to Martin Lister, Esq. of
Liston, in Staffordshire, a captain or lieutenant in Pendenis Castle,
under John Earl of Bath; upon whose issue by her Sir Peter settled
much of his lands, on condition he should assume the name of
Killigrew, and is now in possession of this lordship.
The country people here about will tell you, (as such are
superstitious enough to do,) that this murder or manslaughter of Mr.
Killigrew by Mr. Vincent, whereby the male line of that family is
extinct, was a just judgment of God; for that Jane Killigrew, widow of
Sir John Killigrew, Knt. aforesaid, his great-grandmother, in the
Spanish wars in the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, went
on board two Dutch ships of the Hans Towns, (always free traders in
times of war,) driven into Falmouth Harbour by cross winds, laden with
merchandize, on account (as was said) of Spaniards, and with a
numerous party of ruffians, murdered the two Spanish merchants or
factors on board those ships, and took from them two barrels or
hogsheads of Spanish pieces of eight, and converted them to her own
use.
Now, though Fleta, Liber 1. chap. iii. temp. Edward II. tells us that
it is no murder except it be proved that the party slain was English,
and no stranger, yet afterwards, by the Statute 4 Edward III. his son,
chap. 4, the killing any _foreigner under the King’s protection_, out
of evil design or malice, is made murder, upon which Statute those
offenders were tried and found guilty at Launceston of wilful murder,
both by the grand and petty juries, and had sentence of death passed
accordingly upon them, and were all executed, except the said Lady
Killigrew, the principal agent and contriver of the barbarous fact,
who, by the interest and favour of Sir John Arundell, of Tolverne,
Knt. and his son-in-law, Sir Nicholas Hals, of Pengersick, Knt.
obtained of Queen Elizabeth a pardon or reprieve for the said lady,
which was seasonably put into the Sheriff of Cornwall’s hands.
This Lady Jane Killigrew afterwards gave a silver cup to the Mayors of
Penryn for ever, in memory of some kindness in her troubles received
in that Corporation, 1612. Sir Henry Killigrew, Knt. temp. Elizabeth,
was a younger brother to Sir John Killigrew aforesaid, and followed
the Court for advantage, and to raise his fortunes (according to the
constant genius of his family). He, as Mr. Carew in his Survey of
Cornwall saith, “after embassies and messages, and many other
profitable employments, both of peace and war, in his prince’s
service, to the good of his country, hath made choice of a retired
estate, and was reverently regarded by all sorts, and places his
principal contentment in himself; which to a life so well acted can no
wise be wanting.” He married Katherine, daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke,
of Giddy Hall, in Essex, Knt. who had issue by her a daughter, married
to Sir Jonathan Trelawny, of Poble, Knt.
This Sir Henry Killigrew, by the favour of Queen Elizabeth, as a boon
procured Gervase Babington, Lord Bishop of Exeter, 1594, by lease and
release, fine and recovery, to dismember from the church and bishopric
of Exeter, the great manor, barton, and lordship of Kirton, in Devon,
worth 1,000_l._ per annum, rents of assize, which had been in the
possession of the Bishops of Kirton and Exeter, from the time of
Edulphus, the first Bishop thereof, anno Dom. 907, being 687 years to
that time; but long since this manor of land is gone out of the name
and possession of Killigrew. In like manner, about that time John
Coldwell, Lord Bishop of Salisbury, passed the manor of Sherburne to
the Crown, by whom it was given to Sir Walter Ralegh, Knt. which is
also long since gone out of his name and family.
The arms of Killigrew are, within a field Argent, an imperial eagle
with two necks, within a bordure Bezanté Sable. Which arms and bordure
seem to inform us that this family was indirectly descended from
Richard Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans, by that concubine Jane
de Valletorta, widow of Sir Alexander Oakeston [see ST. STEPHEN’S BY
SALTASH]. For that, as this bordure Bezanté Sable was the proper arms
of Richard Earl of Cornwall, viz. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, the imperial eagle
was the cognizance of the said Earl of Cornwall as King of the Romans.
Within this parish also now stands the borough town of Falmouth, which
compound word is etymologized before. It was incorporated 14th Charles
II. by the name of the Mayor and Aldermen and Magistrates of the
Borough of Falmouth, with the jurisdiction of a Court-leet, wherein
plea of debt and damage is tried within its precincts. But, alas!
notwithstanding its present grandeur, neither this town nor its modern
name is of any great antiquity, neither being extant 500 years past;
for long since that time it was known by no other appellation than
that of Smith-ike, that is, the Smith’s creek, leat, or bosom of
waters, from a smith that lived at the creek, or cove, now in the
centre thereof. And verily, I have been told by some aged persons
lately living, that they remembered not above five houses standing in
this place; though now, I suppose, they are increased to five or six
hundred. And for its name Falmouth, it was not recorded till, at the
request of Sir Peter Killigrew, it was inserted in its charter of
incorporation as aforesaid. Which thing I do not mention to disparage
this really good name, but to let the inhabitants of this place, and
many other families now flourishing in Cornwall, know that many of
them are mistaken in their antiquity and former appellations, if truly
examined.
Moreover, concerning the first buildings of this town by John
Killigrew, Esq. In 1613, happened a notable controversy between him
and the Corporations of Penryn, Truro, and Helston, which suggested,
by a petition to James the First, promoted and backed by the interest
of the Burgesses thereof, viz. Sir Richard Robartes, Bart. and John
Arundell, Esq. for Truro; Sir Francis Godolphin, Knt. for Helston;
Richard Penwarne, Esq. for Penryn; and others, “that the erecting of a
town at Smith-ike would tend to the ruin and impoverishing of the
ancient coinage-towns and market-towns aforesaid, not far distant from
thence; and therefore humbly prayed the King’s Majesty that the
buildings and undertakings of Mr. Killigrew might be inhibited for the
future.” Who, upon receipt and hearing of this petition in Council,
ordered the Lords thereof, Egerton, Buckhurst, Hume, Marre, Sir Robert
Cecil, Principal Secretary of State, and others, to write to Sir
Nicholas Hals, of Fentongollon, Knt. then Governor of Pendennis
Castle, to be better informed of the true merits of this case, and to
know his own particular sentiments about it. Which gentleman, as soon
as he received this letter, made answer, that he well approved of Mr.
Killigrew’s project for building a town and custom-house at Smith-ike,
as being near the mouth of the harbour of Falmouth; and briefly,
amongst many others, for these reasons especially:
1. For the quick and necessary supply of such ships whose occasions,
or contrary winds, brought them in there, without being obliged (as
then they were) to go up two miles the river to Penryn, or nine miles
to Truro, in order thereto, or to take in and out their cargoes or
lading, and make entries at the custom-houses at such distance, by
reason of which delays of time they many times lost the opportunity of
a fair wind to prosecute their intended voyages, longer than was for
their advantage.
2. For the speedy supplying or reinforcing the Castle of Pendennis,
contiguous therewith, with men, ammunition, and provisions, in case of
any enemy’s sudden invasion, or endeavouring to take the same by storm
or surprise, before the country militia could be raised, or recruits
brought in for that purpose.
3. For that other castles for the same reasons were built near towns,
or towns erected near them, as Dover, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Newcastle,
Gravesend, and many more.”
As appears more at large from the letters and reasons of Sir Nicholas
Hals to the Lords of the Council aforesaid, whereof, by fees to the
Clerk of the Council, or Secretary of State, copies were privately
taken forth, at the special instance and request of the said Richard
Penwarne, and other Members of Parliament then in London, who
transmitted them, by the hands of Mr. Anthony Mundye, to the
Corporation aforesaid, where the writer of these lines hath had a full
view of them, amongst the papers and records of the borough of Penryn,
then lodged in the chest of its town-hall. Whereupon King James, upon
a full hearing of this controverted matter between the parties
aforesaid, and what could be alleged on either part, gave his opinion
(with which all the Council agreed) that the erecting a town at
Smith-ike by Mr. Killigrew, could in no sense be prejudicial to the
coinage and incorporate towns aforesaid, they standing at such
considerable distances from it; but especially for that every man
might lawfully do what he would for the utility and advantage of his
own proper goods or lands, without the licence or approbation even of
the King, or any contiguous neighbour, who had no public or private
nuisance thereby done him: how much more reasonable was it, therefore,
when the owners of such lands converted them to such uses as tended
not only to his own, but the public good and advantage of the king and
country together.
Whereupon Mr. Killigrew proceeded with his intended buildings, and his
tenants, the inhabitants thereof, quickly grew rich by trade and
merchandize both at home and abroad: so that in about twenty years’
time the town became notably famous in respect thereof, and is now,
for wealth, trade, and buildings, scarcely inferior to any town in
Cornwall. It is privileged also with a weekly market on Thursdays, and
with fairs upon July 27 and October 30. The chief inhabitants of this
town are Mr. Russell, Mr. Tresahar, Mr. Corker, Mr. Hill, Mr. Gwyn.
In this town his Majesty hath his custom-house collector, comptroller,
customer, surveyor, sea and land waiters; and from this town the
packet-boats from the Groyne, Lisbon, and America, receive their
despatches from their agent, to the great advantage of this place in
times of peace and war: since, as I am informed, removed to Flushing,
in Mylor parish, opposite thereto.
This town also was the honorary title of Charles Lord Berkeley,
Viscount Fitzhardinge, created Lord Bottetourt and Earl of Falmouth,
17th March, 16th Charles II. 1664. He was slain in the Dutch wars
1665, without legitimate issue, and gave for his arms, Gules, a
chevron Ermine, between ten crosses patée, 6 and 4, Argent.
Afterwards it became the honorary title of George Fitz-Roy, third son
of Barbara Duchess of Cleveland by King Charles the Second, by whom he
was created Earl of Northumberland, Viscount Falmouth, and Baron
Pontefract in Yorkshire; and giveth for his arms, the imperial shield
of England, with a baton sinister, gobonée, Ermine and Azure. This
Barbara Villiers was one of the daughters of the Lord Viscount
Grandison, of the Kingdom of Ireland, and was married to Roger Palmer,
Esq. created Earl of Castlemaine, in Ireland; but afterwards, when
Charles the Second took a liking to this Countess, he sent the Earl
her husband, with his own good liking, Governor of a Castle and Colony
of the English at Surat, in the East Indies. His lady King Charles
further created Countess of Southampton and Duchess of Cleveland,
during life. After the death of George Fitz-Roy, in the year 1722,
Hugh Boscawen, of Tregothnan, Esq. Lord Warden of the Stannaries, was
created by King George, Lord Boscawen of Tregothnan, Baron Boscawen of
Boscawen Ros, in Burian, and Viscount Falmouth.
In this parish, on the lands of the manor of Arwynick (the Icta and
Island of Diodorus Siculus aforesaid), upon a lofty peninsula or
promontory of land, stands the famous and impregnable Castle of
Pendennis, for which the Crown pays annually to the lord of the manor
aforesaid, out of the Exchequer, about 13_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ rent, as I
take it. For the compound name Pen-den-is Castle, it is British, and
signifies that it is the head or chief man’s castle, viz. the King or
Earl of Cornwall. Otherwise, if the true name thereof be Pen-dun-es
Castle, it signifies that it is the head or chief fort or fortress
castle. This castle of old consisted only of a treble intrenchment of
turf, earth, and stones, after the British and Roman manner, upon the
top of the highest hill in those parts, abutting upon the west side of
the mouth or entrance of the harbour of Falmouth, and containeth about
twenty statute acres of ground within the lines. Repaired and
indifferently fortified by Henry the Eighth, in the latter end of his
reign, in the French war, with allowance of a petty garrison, whose
daughter, Queen Elizabeth, in her Spanish wars, raised the new fort,
and bettered the old fortification, as they are now extant; so that it
is looked upon as one of the most invincible castles in this kingdom,
having had in it above one hundred pieces of cannon mounted, and some
thousands of foot arms. After Queen Elizabeth had thus fortified and
munified the Castle of Pendennis, she placed therein a band of 100
soldiers, and over them placed as her Governor Sir Nicholas Parker,
Knt. (a Devonshire gentleman, as some say, though his arms, a fess
fretty or chequey,[2] differs from the arms of Parker of Burrington,)
of whom thus speaks Mr. Carew in his Cornish Survey, p. 150: “He now
demeaneth himself no less kindly and frankly towards his neighbours
for the present, than he did resolutely and valiantly against his
enemies when he followed the wars, where-through he commandeth not
only their bodies by his authority, but also their hearts by his love,
to live and die in his assistance, for their common preservation and
her Highness’ service.” He died without issue, anno Dom. 1608, and
lies buried in Budock church. His successor in the government of this
castle was Sir Nicholas Hals, of Fentongollan, Knt. (a domestic
servant to Prince Henry, eldest son of James the First,) son of John
Hals, of Efford, Esq. in Devon, who died Governor thereof in 1637; and
was succeeded in that dominion by Sir Nicholas Slanning, of Marstow,
in Devon, Knt. who was slain on the part of his master Charles the
First against the Parliament army at the battle of Bristol, 6th July,
1643. After his death his widow (daughter of Sir James Baggs, of
Plymouth, Knt.) was married to Richard Arundell, of Trerice, Esq. son
of John Arundell, of that place, Esq. commonly called John of Tilbury,
for that he was an officer under Queen Elizabeth when she was encamped
there with her army, in expectation of the Spaniards landing, 1588.
Which gentleman, (John Arundell,) was by Charles the First made
Governor of Pendennis Castle; during whose command there happened a
tragical siege thereof by the Parliament army under Colonel Fortescue;
wherein the besiegers and the besieged showed unparalleled valour and
conduct for about six months’ space, when at length it was surrendered
upon honourable conditions, the soldiers going forth with their arms
mounted and colours flying, more consumed with sickness and famine
within the walls than destroyed by their enemies from without, having
been driven to that extremity that the governor, soldiers, and many
other gentlemen and ladies therein, were forced for some time to eat
horseflesh, for want of other victuals; as being hemmed in by the
Parliament frigates at sea on the one side, and surrounded with their
army at land on the other, so that no relief of men or provisions
could be brought into the garrison, whereby it was forced to
capitulate and surrender as aforesaid 1647, (before which time all
other castles in England, except Ragland in Wales, were yielded up to
the Parliament,) and the hunger-starved soldiers of Pendennis, that
came out thence, feeding too freely on victuals and drink, brought
themselves into incurable diseases, whereof many died; so that here,
as in many other places, it was observed that more men and women died
by two frequently putting their hands to their mouths, than by
clapping their hands to their swords; as the Jews did on surrender of
Jerusalem to the Romans, after the siege and famine there.
After the surrender of this castle, as aforesaid, by Colonel John
Arundell, he was succeeded in that dignity by Colonel Fortescue, and
he was succeeded by Captain Fox; as after the restoration of Charles
the Second, Fox was succeeded by Richard Lord Arundell, and he by the
Earl of Bath.
One Mr. Thomas Killigrew, of this Arwinick family, was Jester or
Master of the Revels to Charles the Second, who, (to give but a single
instance of his wit and humour,) having been at Paris on business,
went to Versailles to see the French Court for diversion; where, being
well known to many French courtiers who had been in England, he was by
them introduced into Louis the Fourteenth the King of France’s
presence, who had a long time had a desire to see him whom fame
reported the wittiest man in England. But at that time Killigrew was
politically out of humour, and spoke very little, out of a desire he
had to hear the wisdom of the French Court, and what little discourse
he had it was trivial and of no consequence; whereupon King Louis told
the noblemen that gave him such encomiums of his wit, that he looked
upon him as a very dull fellow. Whereupon the courtiers told him,
notwithstanding what his Majesty’s opinion was, assuredly he was a
most ingenious and witty man. Whereupon, soon after, the King resolved
to make a further trial of him, and therefore led him into a long
gallery, where were many fine pictures, and asked Killigrew what they
were? And amongst the rest of those draughts showed the picture of our
Saviour upon the Cross; and then again asked Killigrew if he knew what
it was? To which, as to the former demands, he pleaded ignorance, and
answered, “No.” “Why, then,” said King Louis, “Monsieur Killigrew, “I
will tell you what they are. The picture in the centre is the draught
of our Saviour on the Cross, and that on the right hand of him is the
Pope’s picture, and that on the left hand of him is my own.” To which
Killigrew replied, “I humbly thank your Majesty for the information
you have given me, for though I have often heard that our Saviour was
crucified between two thieves, yet I never knew who they were till
now.” Which sharp repartee convinced that King of his wrong opinion of
Killigrew’s wit in satire and ridicule, especially it being at the
time when the Pope and French King grievously persecuted the French
Protestants, and either dragooned them to mass or drove them out of
France.
Mr. Thomas Killigrew is further said to have put under the candlestick
where Charles the Second supped, five small papers, on which he had
written the word ALL. The King, on sight thereof, asked him what he
meant by these five words of one signification. “Your Majesty’s pardon
granted, I will tell you, sir,” said Mr. Killigrew; which being
promised, he said, “The first All signified that the Country had sent
all; the second, the City had lent all; the third, that the Court had
spent all; the fourth, if we did not mend all; the fifth, that it will
be worse for us all.”
This was reflected on the royal family of William the Third, “That he
was William Think-all; his Queen Mary, Mary Take-all; Prince George of
Denmark, George Drink-all; and the Princess Ann, Ann Eat-all, which
ill habit diminished her health and hastened her death.”
TONKIN.
Sir Henry Killigrew, Knt. married Katherine, the second daughter and
coheir of Sir Anthony Cooke, of Giddy Hall, in Essex. Her other
sisters married Sir William Cecil, Lord Treasurer, Sir Nicholas Bacon,
Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Hobby, and Sir Ralph Howlet, Knts. Which
ladies were all accounted of the most learned in the kingdom,
eminently skilled in the Latin and Greek tongues. To give an instance
for the whole:
Sir Henry Killigrew being appointed by Queen Elizabeth, ambassador to
Henry the Fourth of France, lately turned Papist, was not very fond of
that employment, and would have excused himself, but knew not how:
whereupon his lady wrote a letter to her sister Mildred, wife to Sir
William Cecil, to try her interest with his lordship to get the Queen
to excuse him, and that some other person might be appointed for that
employment. The letter was these words:
Si mihi quem cupio cures, Mildreda! remitti,
Tu mihi, tu melior, tu mihi sola soror;
Sin male cunctando retines, vel trans mare mittes,
Tu mala, tu pejor, tu mihi nulla soror:
It si Cornubiam, tibi pax sit, et omnia læta,
Sin mare――Cœcile! nuncio bella.――Vale!
Which I find thus translated by Dr. Fuller, in his Worthies, though
much abated of their elegancy in Latin:
If, Mildred! by thy care he be sent back, whom I request.
A sister good thou art to me, yea better, yea the best;
But if with stays thou keep’st him still, or send’st where seas may part,
Then unto me a sister ill, yea worse, yea none thou art;
If go to Cornwall he shall please, I peace to thee foretell;
But, Cecil! if he set to seas――I war denounce.――Farewell!
Whether this letter did procure Sir Henry Killigrew’s stay, and
dismission from the intended service, I am unable to resolve, although
well assured I am that his daughter by this Catherine Cooke was
married to Sir Jonathan Trelawney, of Poole, Knt. Sheriff of Cornwall
36th Eliz.
As for the harbour itself, it is agreed by all mariners to be one of
the best for safe anchorage, large circumference, and good riding for
ships, that this kingdom affords. The mouth or entrance, between the
castles of Pendennis and St. Mawes, is about two miles over. The body
of the harbour, from St. Mawes to Falmouth town, is about a league.
From Falmouth to Turner’s Weare, upon the river Vale, two leagues;
from whence an arm of it goes up towards Tregony, another towards
Tresilian Bridge, a third towards Truro; all which places the salt
water visits every tide. Beneath Turner’s Weare, on the north, another
channel goes by Restrongar Passage to Carnen, and St. Perron
Arworthal. From Falmouth town goeth up another creek to Penryn.
Lastly, on the south there go into the country two creeks towards St.
Mawes and St. Anthony. All these members or branches of the harbour
are overlooked by lofty and pleasant hills, and are supplied with deep
water, so that boats, ships, barges, and lighters every day, one where
or another, carry and recarry goods and merchandizes to the remotest
parts thereof. Hence it is that Mr. Carew says, “a hundred sail of
ships may lie at anchor within the harbour of Falmouth, and none of
them see the other’s topmast,” because of the steep hills and windings
of the river.
The Killigrews are also lords of the land whereon the Castle of
Pendennis stands, and receive yearly out of the Exchequer for the same
13_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ Of all which premises take the following rhyme:
In the calm south great Falmouth’s Harbour stands,
Where Vale with Sea doth join its peaceful hands;
’Twixt whom to ships commodious port is shown,
That makes the riches of the world its own.
Falmouth, or Vale, the Britons’ chiefest pride,
Glory of them and all the world beside,
In sending round the treasures of her tide,
Killigrew’s the Lord both of the Fort and Town:
Speak these the rest, to make them better known.
Arwinick signifies upon the marsh; ar being the same as war, upon, and
winick, a marsh, exactly suitable to the situation of the place.
Sir John Killigrew, of this place, ought not to be forgotten; who,
seeing the Parliament Army to prevail every where, with his own hands
set fire to his noble house here, that they might not find shelter in
it when they came to lay siege to Pendennis Castle, as they did soon
after: an action which was well rewarded by Charles the Second;
although the house hath not been rebuilt, a few rooms only having been
fitted up just to receive the family, who have not much resided in it
ever since.
THE EDITOR.
Falmouth Harbour, situated within thirty miles of the Land’s End, is
without all comparison the most advantageous station for packets,
maintaining a regular communication with Lisbon, the West Indies, and
the Mediterranean. It has also been found admirably adapted for
receiving smaller ships of war; a squadron of frigates, under the
command of Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour, of Admiral Pellew, &c. cruised
from hence against the French during a part of the great contest
following the Revolution; but, although the largest ship may enter the
port, and anchor there in safety, yet it is very inferior for their
accommodation either to Plymouth or to Portsmouth.
Falmouth is also a great resort of vessels coming from foreign
countries, to receive orders as to their ultimate destination; and
this is not only owing to the western situation of the harbour, but,
in a very considerable degree, to the residence of a family which has
maintained the highest reputation through a long series of years, as
merchants, as men of integrity and of talent. They are said to be
lineal or collateral relatives of the patriarch George Fox. On their
first arrival in Cornwall, this family settled themselves at Par, near
St. Austell; but afterwards removing to Falmouth, they have mainly
contributed towards the prosperity of the whole county, as merchants,
as manufacturers, as spirited and enlightened adventurers in mines,
and in the fisheries. Among many so eminent, it would be absolute
injustice not to mention particularly Mr. Robert Ware Fox, who has
most successfully employed his leisure in the philosophical
investigation of geology and of chemistry, in connexion with
mechanics, not only by his own exertions, but as the judicious and
liberal encourager of similar pursuits in others.
Many individuals have acquired wealth in Falmouth by a very peculiar
species of commerce, carried on with Lisbon by means of the packets.
The interchange of various commodities was legally prohibited, but at
the same time practically allowed, by both Governments; and to such an
extent did this half-contraband trade arise, that a Mr. Nowell, who
kept a retail shop at Falmouth, is said to have made a fortune, by
which his son became Sheriff of the county in 1787, chiefly as a
carrier of these goods to and from London on packhorses; and a fortune
still larger has been made by Mr. Russell, of Exeter, by conveying
increased quantities in waggons over improved roads, through
Devonshire and Cornwall.
It is quite impossible for such an harbour as Falmouth to have escaped
the knowledge of the Phœnicians, when they came to Cornwall for tin,
and strangely mistook it for a cluster of islands. The Greeks must
also have known this port; and the Romans not merely encamped in
various parts of the county, but having fixed stations within it, and
on the very banks of the Fall, cannot have failed of noticing the
longest and best roadsted and navigable river within the limits of
Cornwall: but so vague and uncertain are all the descriptions
transmitted to us either by geographers or by the writers of
itineraries, that we are utterly unable to discriminate most places
within certain limits of each other except by conjecture. It is truly
a matter of astonishment that nations having made such ample progress
in abstract geometry, and in astronomy itself, should have altogether
disregarded latitudes which were within their reach; and even
approximations towards longitudes, which might have been obtained
through the medium of lunar eclipses.
Various names derived from ancient authors have been applied to
Falmouth. VALUBA is the one most commonly received. The Ocrinum
promontory being taken for the Lizard, and Bolerium for the Land’s
End.
The late Sir Christopher Hawkins seems to have established, with the
full degree of certainty applicable to such subjects, that the ICTIS
of Diodorus Siculus must have been St. Michael’s Mount, and not the
hill occupied by Pendennis Castle.
The British name of Falmouth was Smithick. The last syllable, ick, has
doubtlessly some reference to water.
The few houses standing at Smithick before Mr. Killigrew built the new
town, are said to have been called Pen-y-cum-quick; and an idle story
is related of some old woman having brewed ale for a public meeting,
and having apologized to the people when they assembled for all her
stock being gone, by stating that foreign sailors coming to her house
drunk the whole, and that “Pennies came so quick” she could not resist
the temptation for parting with it.
But the Right Hon. Charles Williams Wynn, M.P. for Denbighshire, has
informed me that Pen-y-cwm-cuick is, in good Welch, the head of the
contracted valley or dingle. Cuch signifies contracted, or knit
together, as knitting the brows. This corresponds with the valley
going up from the strand by the new market-house. Sir George Clark’s
seat, near Edinburgh, situated in a similar manner in respect to a
narrow vale, is written Pen-y-cuick, and pronounced Pennyquick, the
Celtic PEN-Y being always corrupted by Saxon lips into penny; as
Pen-y-darran, on the Taff.
The church at Falmouth is dedicated to King Charles the First, with
the proud additions of Saint and Martyr. It evidently suited with the
views and with the interest of those in power after 1660, to identify
Charles the First with the Established Church, and to inculcate that
he died in its defence. The new church at Plymouth is dedicated in a
similar manner to St. Charles; and in this instance the pleasure of
outraging the feelings of their adversaries may have acted in aid of
political expediency.
Mr. Hals does not seem to have treated the very distinguished family
of Killigrew in a manner that might have been expected, from his
attachment to aristocracy in general, or from his prejudices as a
Cavalier. The horrible story of Jane Killigrew cannot possibly be
true, in the manner or to the extent in which it is related, and the
whole should have been omitted, were there not reasons for believing
that it rests on some foundation.
If the lady is exonerated from the most atrocious part of the tale,
representing her as actually boarding the vessels and participating in
the destruction of foreign merchants, and for which mere popular
tradition at the interval of two centuries cannot form an adequate
proof, we must not too rigidly apply the manners and feelings of our
own times to a period so dissimilar. Many exploits performed by the
great Sir Francis Drake, would now create very different impressions
from those stamped on men’s minds at the time; and the more gentle and
courteous, though not less brave, Sir Walter Raleigh, would now hardly
escape without blame.
No one seems to have suffered greater degradation, from common report,
than Mr. Thomas Killigrew. He is usually represented as the Jester, or
even licensed fool, of Charles the Second; and the anecdotes given by
Mr. Hals contain much more of rudeness than of wit.
His history is thus related in the Biographical Dictionary of 1784:
“THOMAS KILLIGREW, descended from the ancient Cornish family of that
name, was a younger son of Sir Robert Killigrew, and born in 1611. He
was distinguished by uncommon abilities. He was page of honour to King
Charles the First, and groom of the bedchamber to King Charles the
Second, with whom he had suffered many years of exile. During his
abode beyond the sea, he took a view of France, Italy, and Spain, and
was honoured by his Majesty with the employment of Resident at the
State of Venice. In his absence from this country he applied his
leisure hours to poetry, and to the composition of several plays, of
which Sir John Denham takes notice in his poem on our author’s return
from his embassy. Though Denham mentions but six, our author wrote
nine plays in his travels, and two at London; all which were printed,
with his picture before them, in 1664. There is, besides, “A Letter
concerning some Nuns in the Nunnery of Tours,” dated from Orleans in
1635, and printed in three folio sheets. Mr. Killigrew died in 1682,
and was buried in Westminster Abbey. He had been twice married.
“He was a man of a very droll and uncommon vein of humour, with which
he used to divert that merry monarch Charles the Second; who on that
account was fonder of him than his best Ministers, and would give him
access to his person when he denied it to them. It was usually said of
him, that when he attempted to write he was nothing near so smart as
he was in conversation: which was just the reverse of Cowley, who
shone but little in conversation, although he excelled so much with
his pen. Hence Denham, who knew them both, has taken occasion thus to
characterize their respective excellences and defects:
“Had Cowley ne’er spoke, Killigrew ne’er writ,
Combin’d in one, they’d make a matchless wit.”
Another brother, Henry Killigrew, is mentioned in the same work,
Chaplain to James the Second while he was Duke of York, and a
Prebendary of Westminster. He is there stated to have written a
tragedy at the age of seventeen, called “The Conspiracy,” which
obtained the high approbation of Ben Jonson.
He had a daughter, Ann Killigrew, recorded as
A Grace for beauty, and a Muse for wit.
This young lady was maid of honour to the Duchess of York, but died of
the smallpox at the early age of twenty-five.
The elder brother, William, was also a poet and an author. The
representative of the Killigrew family is Lord Wodehouse, in right of
his late wife, Sophia Berkeley, niece of Lord Berkeley of Stratton.
Falmouth has now outgrown the property of those who originally built
the town, and is extended northward, at Green Bank, into the land of
Lord de Dunstanville, where the houses have all the convenience and
decoration suited to modern times. The older part of Falmouth,
although it dates no further back than about two centuries, is
unfortunately distinguished by its narrow, crooked streets, and by
every defect usually found in the smallest fishing-towns. It is,
however, surrounded by beautiful villas.
Falmouth has been associated, in 1832, with Penryn, in the privilege
of sending two Members to Parliament.
This parish measures 621 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815
The parish 10,029 0 0
The town 11,534 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 569 1 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
Parish { 1165 | 1374 | 1982 | 2523
Town { 3684 | 3933 | 4392 | 4761
---- ---- ---- ----
Total 4849 5307 6374 7284
giving an increase on the population of the parish of 116 per cent.,
on the population of the town 29 per cent., in 30 years; on both
together 50 per cent. in the same period.
The latitude of Falmouth is given in the best tables at 50° 8′. The
longitude has been ascertained by Dr. Tiarks with the greatest care
(see Philosophical Transactions for 1824): the flag-staff at Pendennis
Castle 20ᵐ. 11.5ˢ. west. Times of high water at the new and full moon
51ʰ. 15′.
Present Rector, the Hon. and Rev. W. Wodehouse, instituted 1828.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
Hornblende rocks, both schistose and compact, such as occur near the
junction of the porphyritic and calcareous series, constitute this
little parish. The Castle Hill appears to belong to the latter series.
[1] The Mayor of Falmouth, by Act of Parliament, pays yearly
at Michaelmas three pounds to the Vicar of Budock, for the
small tithes.
[2] The arms of Parker of Rathon, in Sussex, were, Azure,
fretty Or, over all a fess of the Second. And in the
pedigree of that family Sir Nicholas Parker, Knt. is styled
Captain of Pendennis Castle, Cornwall. EDIT.
ST. FEOCK.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and has upon the north St. Kea,
east and south the harbour of Falmouth towards the Vale river, west
Restrongat creek, or Carnan river. As for the name Feock, or Feighe,
Veage, Feage, it signifies the top of a house, or high mountain, as
this parish is on, and there is still extant the lofty local place
called Le Feock, Le Feage. At the time of the Domesday Tax, 20th
William I. (1087), this parish was taxed by the name of Ros-carnon,
now part thereof. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and
Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Sancto
Feoko was valued xl_s._ in Decanatu de Powdre; Vicar ejusdem xiii_s._
iiii_d._; in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, the
Vicarage of Feock was valued in 11_l._; the patronage in the Bishop of
Exeter, who endowed it. The incumbent Ange; and the parish rated to
the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 126_l._ 12_s._
St. Feock, the presidual guardian of this church, in all probability
lived at the local place aforesaid, called Le-Feock, i. e. Feock’s
place and dwelling; but who or what his parents were, when or where
born, &c. I must plead _non sum informatus_.
In the glass windows is the figure of a man in priest’s robes, with a
radiated or shining circle about his head and face, and under his feet
written ST. FEOCK; beneath whom, also in the glass, were painted,
kneeling and bending forward, in way of adoration, the figures of a
man and woman, and behind them several children, out of which
figurative man and woman’s mouths proceeded a label, with this
inscription――“Sancte Feock, ora pro bono statu S. Trewonwoll et
Elionoræ uxoris ejus.” From whence I was fully satisfied that he was
indeed the tutelar guardian of this church.
At Le-Feock aforesaid, temp. Charles II. was the dwelling, by lease,
of Captain Thomas Penrose, whose father married Verman; originally
descended from the Penroses of Penrose in Sythney. This gentleman
having in his youth, temp. Charles I. been bred at sea, in the study
and practice of the art of navigation, it appears from his journal
that, in the year 1650, he was by the Admiral of the States of England
made Captain or Commander of the Bristol frigate or man-of-war, in
which he fought, together with the English fleet under command of
General Blake, near Dover, against the Dutch fleet, under their
General Van Tromp, who was shrewdly worsted by Blake. He was also in
the engagement against the Dutch fleet under Sir George Ayscough,
1652, before Plymouth, where the victory inclined to neither side, but
great losses on both. He also, 28th of October, the same year, fought
in General Blake’s squadron against the General of the States De Witt,
who was then worsted, on one side of the North Foreland, in the Downs.
Captain Penrose was also in that engagement between General Blake and
Van Tromp wherein the English Fleet was worsted, and came off with
great loss, so that Van Tromp sailed into the Downs in great triumph,
with a broom on his main-topmast.
But, maugre his success, pride, and insolence, the States of England
fitted forth their shattered ships sooner than was expected, to the
number of eighty sail of men-of-war, when Captain Penrose was removed
from the Bristol to the command of the Maidstone frigate. Then also
were Penn and Burne discharged from command of particular squadrons,
and the supreme command of the fleet was put into the hands of General
Blake, General Monk, and General Dean; when soon after happened that
bloody and tremendous sea-fight betwixt the English and the Dutch
fleets, before Weymouth and Dungeness, wherein General Monk declared
(upon the sudden death of General Dean, killed at breakfast on the
deck of their ship by Monk’s side, with a defiance gun-bullet shot at
random by the Dutch to his destruction) that this fifth battle should
put an end to the war one way or other, and gave forth strict order
and command to the officers of the English fleet upon penalty of
death, that they should neither take from nor give quarter to the
enemy; which commands in the engagement being for a considerable time
kept and observed by the English, the terror thereof so amazed the
Dutch, that, after great losses of men and ships by them sustained,
they declined to fight, and bore or ran away with their fleet, leaving
the victory and British Channel wholly to the English fleet. In this
fight, as appears from Penrose’s Journal, he lost above fifty men out
of the Maidstone, besides had many more wounded. Afterwards the
English fleet, coasting westwards in pursuit of the vanquished Dutch
fleet, were by cross winds forced into Falmouth harbour, where also
for some days, as appears from Penrose’s Journal aforesaid, he
entertained at his house in this place of Le-Feock (opposite the
harbour aforesaid) General Monk, General Blake, Sir George Ayscough,
and many other officers and gentlemen of the fleet, to good content
and satisfaction.
Afterwards they sent him many letters concerning the war, fleet, and
ship he sailed in, and the course he should take; and in particular,
amongst others, thanked him for his great valour and conduct in the
several engagements aforesaid. From some of which it appears General
Blake was a better soldier than scholar, as being very badly able to
write the letters of his name to the letters his secretary had formed,
as yet may be seen; which is not to be wondered at, as I am credibly
informed he was at first but a man of no higher education than that of
a petty mechanic, viz. a ribbon and galloon weaver in Taunton;
whereof, at last, for his valour in the siege, in opposition to
Charles the First, he was made governor thereof by the Parliament.
Captain Penrose fought also in the Maidstone frigate under General
Monk, in the sixth and last engagement of the English at sea against
the Dutch fleet, wherein Van Tromp their general was slain, and his
fleet extremely shattered, sunk, and disabled, to the great terror of
the United Provinces. Then also the Maidstone frigate underwent the
loss of many seamen; and the Captain continued his post till the
restoration of Charles the Second, when he was dismissed from his
command, and another commander placed in his room; after which he
retired to his country-house of Le-Feock aforesaid.
It also appears from Penrose’s Journal whilst he commanded the
Maidstone, that she was one of the five ships under Sir George
Ayscough that was ordered by the then Parliament of England to sail
into the Sound, or German Sea, to assist the King of Sweden against
the Danes. But a peace being concluded betwixt those nations, soon
after the arrival of those ships, nothing of action was performed by
them. Nevertheless, the King of Sweden rewarded the five captains of
those ships in this expedition, with so many medals and neck-chains of
gold, with the King of Sweden’s face on one side of the medal, and the
several arms of those gentlemen on the other, weighing about eighteen
ounces each together with the chain. Penrose’s medal is yet to be seen
with his daughter.
In the year 1664, when another Dutch and French war broke out between
them and Charles the Second, and able sea-officers were wanted for the
fleet, Penrose (who as aforesaid for several years had been displaced)
had divers letters sent to him from James Duke of York, and the Duke
of Albemarle (formerly General Monk), by order of Charles the Second,
requesting in this time of need that he would come up to London,
accept of the command, and take the charge of the Monk frigate, in the
Dutch war; which at length with some reluctance he accepted. In which
post he discharged the place with such care and faithfulness as before
he had done in the Parliament service. And, moreover, in the three
sea-fights which the Duke of York and the Duke of Albemarle had with
the Dutch fleets, (in all which he was commanded, though but a
third-rate ship, to follow the admiral or general’s ships,) he behaved
himself with such prudent valour and conduct (though with the loss of
several hundreds of his men) that he preserved his ship, to the
admiration of all that saw her, from destruction, though often boarded
and surrounded with enemies.
In brief, those matters are so abundantly set forth in the several
letters of thanks, after those engagements, from the said Dukes and
their Secretaries to Penrose, that if I should take the pains to
transcribe them, they would only be thought a romance, as containing
in them almost unparallelled adventures and dangers, which he most
valiantly and successfully passed through, in the midst of seas,
slaughter, fire, and bullets, were not the originals yet extant, and
to be seen.
Lastly, it appears from letters, and his Journal, which he kept daily
for eighteen years’ space, which he spent at sea in the public service
of his country, that in the year 1667 he was by Charles the Second
made Admiral of a squadron of ships of sixteen men-of-war, which were
ordered to cruise between Harwich and Newcastle towards the coasts of
Holland, to watch the motion of the enemy. Where he received many
letters by King Charles’s order from the Secretaries of State, War,
and Admiralty, as also from the Dukes aforesaid (yet to be seen),
containing thanks for his good service, and further desiring the
continuance of his care, conduct, and watchfulness against the enemy,
whensoever they should put out to sea again: in the mean time to
observe such further orders as should be sent him.
In this kind of post he remained till his death, 1669, King Charles
then owing him for his salary or pay above 1,500_l._ of which neither
he nor his heir or executor ever received a farthing. His death was
thought to be hastened through grief and vexation (being scarcely
fifty-six years old when he died), and the occasion thus:――His ship,
the Monk, being all manned with Cornish men in those three last
engagements with the Dutch, who for the love and respect they bore
him, their countryman, were all volunteers without being impressed for
the public service; now it happened that, in the year 1668, peace
being concluded betwixt King Charles and the States of Holland, the
greatest part of our English fleet were hauled up, the officers,
seamen, and soldiers disbanded, without satisfaction, wages, or pay
for their service; and amongst them Captain Penrose’s ship and
squadron underwent the same fate. So that soon after, he happening to
be at London upon some occasions, his disbanded company of Cornish men
from the Monk, being far from home, were very troublesome and
tumultuous with him about their pay, and so clamorous as to tell him
that he, by his fair promises, had cajoled them into the public
service, and that now they could get nothing for their labour and the
hazard of their lives.
The Captain answered for himself, as well as he could, that it was his
own case, as well as many other officers’ and theirs, at this exigence
to want his money, and therefore desired their patience till the King
was better provided with cash for their satisfaction. But the Cornish
men being more and more dissatisfied with him by those delays, and
their wants and necessities pressing hard upon them, they formed a
petition, setting forth the premises, to his Majesty, and with the
same came to the Captain’s chamber, and endeavoured (after words would
not prevail) to constrain or compel him in person to present it to the
King’s Majesty, which he refusing to undertake, a scuffle happened at
the top of the stairs between him and the petitioners; in which
conflict one Lampeer, of Truro, by thrust of Penrose’s hands, his feet
and hands failing, was thrown over the stairs, and so much bruised
with the fall that soon after he died.
Whereupon Penrose was apprehended, held upon bail, and afterwards
indicted before the grand jury of Middlesex or Westminster, and found
guilty of murder or manslaughter, and afterwards was tried for his
life, and by the grand and petty jury found guilty of manslaughter:
that is to say, the unlawful killing of a man without premeditated
malice, (which is felony, because wilful――but admits of the benefit of
clergy for the first crime,) whereupon Penrose was condemned to death,
and put into Newgate, where forthwith he received a reprieve or pardon
of this offence from Charles the Second, under the broad seal of
England, yet to be seen. Nevertheless, for the drawing, sealing, or
procuring this pardon, the clerks and officers through whose hands it
passed extorted from the Captain 200_l._ before he could get out of
their hands to show it to the Sheriff of Middlesex.
This unhappy accident so troubled Penrose, that, to put off the
thoughts thereof, he kept company more than ordinary with gentlemen
and officers of the fleet and others; so that at length, by excess of
drinking healths, and otherwise, he fell into a malignant fever,
whereof he died, leaving issue one only daughter, his heir, named
Martha, married to James Hals, of Merther, Gent.
Tre-gew, alias Tregue, in this parish, synonymous words, signifying
the spear or javelin town, is the dwelling of Henry Edmunds, Gent.
originally descended from the Edmunds of Middlesex, whose ancestor,
being a person well qualified for the purpose, temp. James I. was sent
from London by the Company of Pewterers to inspect and try the Cornish
tin, then corrupted by the blowers thereof, before it was coined, that
so the bad metal might be examined and taxed before it was coined,
proportionable to the badness. In which assay-master’s office he
thrived so well, that at length he became a tin-factor himself, grew
rich, and bought this place, and other lands near, as also the manor
of Truro, of Sir Bevill Grenvill, Knt. But he and his security failing
in paying the consideration money, he was cast into prison, where he
died without further satisfation to his said creditor; notwithstanding
which, those lands descended to his heir, now in possession thereof,
except the manor of Truro, sold to Samuel Enys, Esq.
The Cornish tongue was retained in this parish by the old inhabitants
thereof, till about the year 1640. Mr. William Jackman, then Vicar
thereof, Chaplain of Pendennis Castle, at the siege thereof by the
Parliament Army, was forced for divers years to administer the
Sacrament to the communicants in the Cornish tongue, because the aged
people did not well understand the English, as himself often told me.
Now because it may not be unacceptable to the curious to know the
Cornish words then used in administering the bread and wine to the
communicants, I will here set them down, for their satisfaction:
The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given
_An Gorfe ay agan Arluth Jesus Chrest toan fe ry_
for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto eternal life;
_rag thy, gwetha tha gorfe hag eneff, warthe Ragnaveffera;_
take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died
_kemera hag dybbery henna en predery may Chrest marnans_
for thee, and be thankful.
_rag thy, hag be grassylen._
Again:
The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for
_An goyse ay agan Arluth Jesus Chrest toan the fowle rag_
thee, preserve thy body and soul unto eternal life, drink
_thy, gwetha tha gorfe hag eneff warthe Ragnaveffera; evah_
this in remembrance that Christ’s blood was shed for
_henna in prederry may Chrest’s goyse be towle rag_
thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith and
_tha, hag dybbery wor ren en tha gollon ryb creignans hag_
thanksgiving.
_grassylen._
Mr. John Lanyon, of this parish, a sea sand-barge daily labourer, had
a son named John Lanyon, who having had his education under Hugh
Boscawen, Gent. Master of Arts, who kept a school at St. Michael
Penkivell Church, became afterwards a steward to Trefusis, St. Aubyn,
Coryton, and lastly came into the service of Brook Lord Chandos, and
having by these services accumulated considerable riches, he gave
lands, and built and endowed an almshouse for poor people.
TONKIN.
Mr. Tonkin does not make any addition to the history of this parish,
except by stating that James Hals, who married Martha Penrose, the
only child of Captain Thomas Penrose, was “an elder brother of the
author; and that their eldest son, then about fourteen years of age,
was engaged in the pursuit of his grandfather’s profession, by serving
as one of the King’s scholars, or gentlemen volunteers, on board the
Sunderland, Captain Tudor Trevor commander, receiving about 30_l._ per
annum of his Majesty.”
THE EDITOR.
Trelisick is now the most splendid feature of this parish. The
situation, beautiful in all other respects, commands a view of the
whole inland sea constituting Falmouth Harbour. The House was built
about the middle of the last century, by Mr. John Laurence, a captain
in the county militia, during the Seven Years’ War, still remembered
for his good-nature, convivial habits, and wild eccentricities. It is
perhaps deserving of notice that the architect was Mr. Davy,
grandfather of the celebrated chemist.
The property became divided on Mr. Laurence’s decease; and it was
purchased, about the year 1800, by the late Mr. Ralph Allen Daniell;
other lands were added to the domain, and the whole became a handsome
seat suited to the natural advantages of the place.
Still further additions and decorations have been made by his son, Mr.
Thomas Daniell; but this gentleman choosing to quit Cornwall, has sold
the whole to Lord Falmouth, the proprietor of Tregothnan, a still more
magnificent seat, and removed from Trelisick only a few miles further
up on the Truro river.
Mr. Thomas Daniell, the grandfather, was chief clerk to Mr. Lemon, and
having married Miss Elliott, niece of Mr. Allen, of Bath, he found
himself enabled to take the whole of Mr. Lemon’s great concerns off
the hands of his executors in 1760; and soon after to build the house
in Truro, remarkable not only on account of its being the largest and
most decorated mansion in that very splendid town, but as being
constructed of Bath Oolite, the gift of Mr. Allen, from Prior Park.
Mr. Daniell continued throughout his whole life to conduct most
extensive concerns as a general merchant, as a tin smelter, and, above
all, as a spirited adventurer in mines on the largest scale. He left
one son and one daughter.
The daughter married the Rev. John Napleton, a dignitary in the church
of Hereford, and previously tutor at Brasenose college, Oxford; where
he is well known as the author of a work (“Elementa Logicæ, subjicitur
Appendix de Usu Logicæ et Conspectus Organi Aristotelis”) which has
been adopted into the lectures of every college throughout the
University. The son, Mr. Ralph Allen Daniell, continued most of his
father’s concerns, adding to them a large smelting-work for copper in
Glamorganshire; and so successful were his mining speculations, that
he is said to have gained, in the course of a very few years, above a
hundred and fifty thousand pounds from Wheal Tower alone.
Mr. Daniell was twice Member for West Looe. He married the only
daughter of the Rev. Mr. Pooley, Rector of Ladock, and has left a
numerous family. His eldest son has married Miss Osbaldeston, and they
have several children.
Killiganoon, probably the grove by the downs, is next to be noticed in
Feock.
The place was entirely created by Mr. Richard Hussey. This gentleman
was the son of an attorney at Truro, who died insolvent, leaving a
widow with one son, and three or four daughters. The son is
represented to have exerted himself with efforts proportional to the
embarrassments in which he found the affairs of his family, and he
became in consequence one of the most distinguished lawyers of the
time. He had the honour of being appointed Attorney General to the
Queen; and he was Counsel to the East India Company, and Member of
Parliament, I believe, for Michael. Mr. Hussey died in the year 1770,
under sixty, and divided his fortune among his sisters. One had
married the Rev. Mr. Vivian, and her grandson is the distinguished
officer, General Sir Hussey Vivian. Another sister married Mr. Walker,
of Lanlivery, and left an only son, the Rev. Robert Walker, Vicar of
St. Winnow. A third sister married Mr. Ustick, of Penzance.
Mrs. Mary Hussey, widow of Mr. Hussey of Truro, married, secondly, Mr.
William Davies of St. Earth, a half-brother of the Editor’s
grandfather, where she continued to reside; and her funeral appears on
the parish register September 18th, 1750.
Killiganeen was sold after Mr. Hussey’s decease, and passed into the
hands of Mr. Dagge. Two brothers of that name went to London from
Bodmin to seek their fortunes. One became the manager of Covent Garden
Theatre; the other pursued the law, to which both were probably
educated, and ultimately retired to this place. It has since become
the property of Admiral Spry, who improved and enlarged the house and
the plantations; and it belongs at this time to his son, Samuel Thomas
Spry, Esq. M.P. for Bodmin.
A coarse part of this parish remained uninclosed till within a few
years, and was known by the name of Feock Downs. The surface appeared
to be more smooth and even than any other piece of open ground in the
west of Cornwall; consequently, when local political dissensions were
at a great height, about sixty years ago, this place was selected by
one party for establishing races, in rivalship of others conducted by
their opponents at Bodmin. These races fell, however, with the
temporary feeling which gave them birth, and the ground is now
inclosed.
A small village in this parish is distinguished by the name of
“Come-to-Good;” a name probably given to it at first in ridicule,
because there was established the earliest Quakers’ meeting in that
part of Cornwall. And, for some reason now quite forgotten, the first
Sunday in August became designated all over that populous mining
district as “Come-to-Good Sunday,” when several thousand persons
continued to assemble, till the very prudent Society to whom the house
belongs, adopted the expedient of discontinuing their meeting on that
particular day.
This parish measures 2,580 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2871 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 457 19 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 696 | 968 | 1093 | 1210
giving an increase of 74 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY.
Dr. Boase remarks on this parish, that the rocks are similar to those
of Falmouth.
FOWEY, FOY, or FOYS.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north Glant,
east the haven or harbour of Fowey, south the British Channel. For the
name, it is taken from foys-fenton, i. e. the walled well or spring of
water, rising about Alternun, St. Cleather, or Temple Moors.
In the Domesday Tax, 20th William I. (1087,) this place or parish was
rated under the jurisdiction of Tywardreth. Neither was there any
endowed church here extant at the time of the Inquisition of the
Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester (1294), unless (what can hardly be
supposed) Ecclesia _de Funum_ appropriata domui de Tywardreth, in
Decanatu de Powdre, be a corruption of Faoi, or Foy-town. In Wolsey’s
Inquisition, and Valor Beneficiorum, the Vicarage of Foye is rated
10_l._ The patronage formerly in the Prior of Tywardreth, who endowed
it, now Treffry. The incumbent Trubody. The parish and town rated to
the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 195_l._ 14_s._ The rectory, sheaf,
or impropriation, in ――――.
In the ancient chapel at Foy, now the minister’s chancel, was
inscribed temp. Edward III. the name of Fisart Bagga, a famous sea
commander in the then French wars, a native of this town of Foy.
[Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 135.] This church and town I take to
be under the tutelary guardianship of St. Catherine, whose history is
misplaced under Lanteagles by Fowey.
[Mr. Hals’s history of St. Catherine is lost. It may, therefore, be
sufficient to give the following short statement of her legend.
In the Μηνολογιον, the _Menology_, (the Monthly Register, synonymous
with Martyrology,) of the Emperor Basil, said to be composed by
himself, but certainly written under his own inspection, St. Catherine
is stated to have sprung from one of the families which in those times
obtained a transient possession of the imperial throne.
She was probably born at Alexandria, and suffered martyrdom there
under the reign of Maximus the Second, about the year 310.
Her learning, abilities, and zeal were so great, that, having been
ordered to dispute with several of the most able philosophers, she
confuted them all, and even converted some among them to the Christian
faith. These new proselytes are said to have been instantly hurried to
the flames, but that the Saint herself was reserved for a still more
cruel fate, the persecutors of religion having contrived a wheel set
round with hooks and spikes, for the purpose of tearing and lacerating
its victim. The legends, however, go on to say that this horrible
engine was dashed in pieces by angels, just as the tormentors were
about to use it against the Saint, whom they nevertheless decapitated,
unawed by the recent miracle, and no longer interrupted by any
supernatural interference.
The body of St. Catherine was found five hundred years afterwards,
when the Saracens had possession of Egypt, although it is not recorded
by whom the discovery was made, nor how the identity was proved. A
subsequent great event, however, placed that most important
circumstance beyond all doubt; for it having been resolved to
translate the body from the immediate power of the Mahometans to a
monastery built on Mount Sinai by St. Helena, and augmented by
Justinian, a company of angels, probably the very same who destroyed
the wheel, conveyed the relics to Mount Sinai through the air.
Some recent martyrologists have endeavoured to explain away the latter
miracle, by asserting that angels meant monks, who on account of the
purity of their morals, the sanctity of their divine duties, and the
eminent utility of their lives, are frequently confounded with the
inhabitants of heaven.――It is almost needless to add that St.
Catherine’s Wheel has uniformly reference to the intended instrument
of her martyrdom, and never to a spinning-wheel, of which the Saint is
sometimes supposed in England to have been the inventor. EDITOR.]
But for the church and tower of Foy, as it now stands, it was built
about the year 1466, towards which Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick,
was a great benefactor; as appears from his badge, or cognizance, viz.
ragged staves, yet to be seen cut in many parts of the stones of the
said church and tower thereof.
The town of Foys is the voke lands of an ancient lordship by
prescription, which the Prior of Tywardreth held of the ancient Earl
of Cornwall’s manor of Pow-vallet-coyt, now Lostwithiel, or Restormel
Castle, under the rent of ――――; from whom also they had their
privilege of sending two members to sit in the Commons’ House of
Parliament. It was incorporated by Charles the Second, by the name of
the Mayor, Recorder, Portreeve, eight Aldermen, and a Town Clerk.
Notwithstanding which, by ancient custom, the members of Parliament
were elected by the freemen, (viz. scot and lot men, that pay rates
and taxes) and the precept from the Sheriff for the writ for election
of them must be thus directed: Præposito et Senescallo Burgi de Foy,
in Comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem, &c. As also the writ for removing any
action at law depending in Foy court-leet to a superior court, must be
directed to the Portreeve and Town Clerk or Steward.
The arms of this town are, a ship in full course, with sails expansed,
on the waves of the ocean. It is further privileged with a weekly
market on Saturdays, and fairs annually, on Shrove Tuesday, May 1st,
and September 10th. This town hath also added to its privileges some
of the liberties and freedoms of the Cinque Ports, which other towns
or harbours have not: what they are, the inhabitants there best know.
Those privileges were first granted only to the ports of Hastings,
Hythe, Dover, Romney, and Sandwich, in Kent, by Edward the Confessor;
afterwards much increased in the days of the three Edwards, the First,
Second, and Third: which in this place are too long for me to recite.
Mr. Carew tells us, that in Edward the Third’s days sixty tall ships
did belong to this harbour; and that the town of Foys did assist that
King with forty-seven sail of men-of-war and transport-ships, anno
Dom. 1347, in order to the siege of Calais; whereupon that King
granted commissions to the chief commanders of those Foy ships to take
French prizes, during his wars with those people, or French nation; so
that in few years those Foy men were grown so rich and formidable, by
taking French prizes, that by force and arms they would enter many
ports of that kingdom, and carry with them all ships they could
conquer, and what they could not, would use means to set them on fire
in the places where they lay. In fine, when French prizes grew scarce,
(I speak upon the authority of Mr. Carew,) they scrupled not to turn
sea-robbers, or pirates, taking, plundering, and destroying all ships
they could master, of what country soever, not sparing the sailors’
lives. By which means the townsmen grew unspeakably rich and proud and
mischievous, which occasioned the Lord Pomier, and other Normans, to
petition John, King of France, to grant them a private commission of
marque and arms, to be revenged on the pirates and thieves of Foy
town, which accordingly they obtained, and carried their design so
secretly that a small squadron of ships, and many bands of marine
soldiers, were prepared and shipped without the Foymen’s knowledge or
notice, who accordingly put to sea out of the river Seine, in the
month of July 1457, in 35th Henry VI. and with a fair wind sailed
thence across the British Channel, and got sight of Foy harbour, where
they lay off at sea till night, when they drew towards the shore and
dropped anchor, and in the night landed their marine soldiers and
seamen, and at midnight approached the south-west end of Foy-town,
where they killed all persons they met with, set fire to the houses,
and burned one half thereof to the ground, to the consumption of a
great part of the inhabitants’ riches and treasures, a vast deal of
which was gotten by their piratical practices; in which massacre and
conflagration, the women, children, and weakest sort of people,
forsook the place, and fled for safety into the hill country.
But others of the stoutest men, under conduct of John Treffrye, Esq.
fortified themselves as well as they could in his then new-built house
of Plase, yet extant, where they stoutly opposed the assaults of their
enemies; whilst the French soldiers plundered that part of the town
which was unburned, without opposition, in the dark. The news of this
French invasion in the morning flew far into the county, and the
people of the contiguous parts as quickly put themselves in arms, and
in great multitudes gathered together, in order to raise the siege of
Foy; which the Frenchmen observing, and fearing the consequence of
their longer stay, having got sufficient treasures to defray the
charge of their expedition, as hastily ran to their ships as they had
deliberately entered the town, and as privately returned into France
as they had clandestinely come into England, with small profit and
less honour.
The town of Foy being thus consumed by fire, and plundered by the
French soldiers and seamen, the inhabitants’ former wealth and glory
reduced to poverty and contempt, they politically cast themselves at
the feet of Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick (aforesaid), who, pitying
their distressed condition, and being Lord High Admiral of England,
granted some of them new commissions for privateering and taking
French ships, on promise of their just and righteous proceedings, and
renouncing the trade of piracy (for which reason their former
commissions were revoked); whereupon in few years they plied their
sea-business so effectually, that they increased their riches to such
degree that they began to repair and rebuild their damnified houses,
and in the stones of many of them, in memory of the Earl of Warwick’s
favour and bounty towards them, there is cut his arms, badge, and
cognizance, as aforesaid.
Nevertheless (so hard it is for those to do well who are accustomed to
do evil, as for a blackmoor to wash himself white) those Foy men, not
content with lawful privateering, fell again to their old trade of
piracy, robbing and killing the seamen of all nations whose ships they
could conquer; of which they were again detected 18th Edward IV. 1478,
who thereupon sent a messenger or serjeant-at-arms to Foy, to
apprehend some of those delinquents, and bring them up to London to be
tried for those crimes, in order to receive condign punishment. But,
instead of obeying the King’s command and officer, in contempt of his
authority they barbarously cut off his ears, and so dismembered sent
him back to his master King Edward; at which affront the King was so
distasted, that soon after he sent down Commissioners to Lostwithiel,
under pretence of raising able seamen to go in war against the French,
and that such amongst them as appeared most fit and able should have
command of some of the King’s best ships. At this news a great part of
the freemen and seamen of Foy were drawn to Lostwithiel; where they no
sooner came, but immediately they were apprehended and taken into
custody for the crimes aforesaid, their ill-gotten goods and chattels
seized by the Sheriff and King’s officers, and one Harrington, a most
notorious pirate, executed; and the chain of their harbour was removed
to Dartmouth. (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 135.)
The harbour of Foy aboundeth with deep and navigable waters for ships
of the greatest burthen, overlooked with winding and lofty hills, and,
though narrow, extends itself in several branches three or four miles
up the country, and is navigable to Lanlivery and Lostwithiel, St.
Wenow and Laranbridge, and abounds with all sorts of fish proper to
that country, as salmon, peal, trout, plaice, soal, millet, bass,
eels, congers, pullocks, &c. here daily sold at a cheap rate. At the
mouth or entrance of this harbour, are two petty bulwarks, or
blockhouses, the Polman, or Porth-Eran on the Lanteglos side, the
other at St. Catherine’s, under Foy town, most famous for a fight they
had with a Dutch man-of-war of seventy guns, doubly manned, that was
sent from their main fleet of ships of eighty sail, that lay at anchor
and cruised before this haven, 16th July, 1666, then in pursuit of our
Virginia fleet of eighty sail, which, escaping their cognizance,
safely got some hours before them into this harbour, and, on notice
given of the war, sailed up the branches thereof as far as they could,
and grounded themselves on the mud lands thereof.
Notwithstanding which, this Dutch frigate resolved to force the two
forts or fortresses aforesaid, and to take or burn our said Virginia
fleet. Accordingly, it happened on that day, a pretty gale of wind
blowing, this ship entered the haven, and as soon as she came within
cannon-shot of those forts, fired her guns upon the two blockhouses
with great rage and violence; and these made them a quick return of
the like compliment or salutation. In fine, the fight continued for
about two hours’ time, in which were spent some thousands of
cannon-shot on both sides, to the great hurt of the Dutch ship, in
plank, rigging, sails, and men, chiefly because the wind slacked, or
turned so adverse, that she could not pass quick enough between the
two forts up the river, so as to escape their bullets, but lay a long
time a mark for them to shoot at, till she had opportunity of wind to
tack round, turn back, and bear off at sea to their fleet, to give
them an account of her unsuccessful attempt and great damage as
aforesaid, to the no small credit and reputation of Foy’s little
castles, manned out with gunners and seamen from the ships of the
Virginia fleet for that purpose, who all, by reason of the walls and
intrenchments thereof, were preserved from death, notwithstanding the
continual firing of the cannons of the Dutch man-of-war upon them;
whereby the contiguous lands by the bullets were ploughed up, to the
terror and astonishment of all beholders.
After this engagement, the cargo of the whole Virginia fleet was
landed at Foy, (its owners at London fearing the hazard of the sea in
time of the Dutch war, to transport it there by water,) and gave
opportunity to the townsmen to buy much tobacco at a very cheap rate,
which instantly, upon the conclusion of the peace between England,
France, and Holland, was sold in this kingdom, France, Spain, and
Holland, at a dear rate, and much enriched the townsmen thereby, as
Mr. Major, one of those merchants, informed me.
The chief place in this town is Plase, in British a palace, which is
the dwelling of John Treffrye, Esq. so called from some of the many
local places passing under that denomination in Cornwall, and
compounded of treu or tref frye, synonymous words, signifying the free
or manumitted town. He was the son of John Treffrye, of Rooke, Esq.
that married Vivian of Truan; the which John Treffrye succeeded to the
patrimony or lands of the Treffrys of this place, more for similitude
of name than consanguinity or affinity of blood, by the will, devise,
or entail of the last gentleman that died without issue in this house.
The present possessor, as aforesaid, is John Treffrye, Esq. my very
kind friend and kinsman, Member of Parliament for the town of Foy,
whereof comparatively he is lord and high lord. He married Stephens.
His predecessors in this place were gentlemen of great fame and
estates, and have served their country in the several capacities of
Parliament men for this town, justices of the peace, and sheriffs of
Cornwall; particularly John Treffrye, Esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall 1st
Richard III. 1482. He was a great benefactor towards building the
present church of Foy, as appears from his arms being cut in divers
places of the stones and tower thereof. Sir John Treffrye, Knt.
(probably his son), was Sheriff of Cornwall 5th and 15th Henry VII.;
William Treffrye, Esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall 16th Hen. VII. 1501,
when Richard Whiteleigh, of Efford, was Sheriff of Devon. The arms of
those gentlemen are, Sable, a chevron between three hawthorns Argent
(i. e. summer thorn, hau, haw, in British is summer).
The chief inhabitants of this town, besides Mr. Treffrye, are Mr.
Pomeroy, Mr. Goodall, Mr. Major, Mr. Toller, Mr. Tyncombe, and others.
In this town Philip Rashleigh, Esq. temp. Charles I. built and endowed
a hospital with the garb or tithe sheaf of the parish of St. Wen for
ever, towards the relief of six poor widow women, two of the said
parish and four from another parish, who receive weekly 15_d._ in
money, and suits of apparel yearly, with other privileges, but are
prohibited from begging the country, or any parish stipend. [See
TYWARDRETH.]
This gentleman got great riches by trade and merchandize, and sea
adventures; more particularly by a small ship or frigate, of about
eighty tons, bearing about sixteen cannons or demi-culverins, besides
small arms, and 60 men, for defence thereof; the commander of which
ship had a commission from Queen Elizabeth as a privateer, in her wars
with the Spaniards, to take all Spanish ships it should meet with at
sea, and make them prizes for him, his adventurers, and the Queen’s
advantage, which said privateer, or man-of-war, was so successful and
fortunate in its adventures at sea for some years, and in traffic, and
merchandizes, and prizes, that those gentlemen accumulated and laid up
great riches thereby; and in remembrance and memory of this ship,
caused the figure in memory of it to be perpetuated in a small ship,
about five feet long, made and formed by a ship carpenter, of timber,
with masts, sails, ropes, guns, and anchors, and figures of men
thereon; which is hanged up to the roof, or planking, with an iron
chain, in their old house in this town, of which ship those gentlemen
have often given me ocular observation, as well as told me the above
history of the premises, in the time of Charles the Second.
TONKIN.
Mr. Tonkin has not any thing of the least importance but what is
copied from Mr. Hals.
THE EDITOR.
I have retained the whole of what is stated by Mr. Hals respecting the
proceedings at Fowey, in the periods of its greatest prosperity and of
its subsequent fall, given partly on the authority of Mr. Carew, (p.
313, &c. of Lord Dunstanville’s edition,) and in part from what he
himself had heard. It must, however, be remembered that tradition
always exaggerates facts, more especially such as bear unfavourably
either on individuals or on communities, and that the times of Edward
the Third were essentially different from those of order, protection,
and impartial administration of justice, in which we have the
happiness to live; nor can the license or excesses imputed to some
adventurers at Fowey, be more abhorrent to our feelings than the mean
artifice of a feeble government, practised to entice men from Fowey to
Lostwithiel, under a pretence of enabling them to assist their country
in the prosecution of a war, but really with the view of arresting
them as criminals.
The fact of this port having sent forty-seven ships, with seven
hundred and seventy mariners, to the siege of Calais in 1346-7, would
exceed all belief, were it not established by national records; and
Mr. Carew relates their vanquishing, in a private feud, the naval
armaments of Winchelsea and Rye, two members of the Cinque Ports (p.
315). But these two ancient towns, and the Five Ports themselves,
exhibit a contrast scarcely less remarkable than Fowey, between their
actual appearances and the relative importance they must have once
attained; except that Hastings is enlarged for the temporary residence
of strangers, and Dover from the like cause, in addition to its being
the well-known station for packets.
It is quite certain that the Priory of Tywardreth exercised
considerable feudal authority over Fowey, which, however, not only
fell into disuse after the general dissolution of monasteries, but, in
all probability, was greatly diminished by the subsequent
incorporation of the town.
The right of voting for Members of Parliament, up to the period when
it discontinued to send any, in 1832, was vested jointly in resident
payers of scot and lot, and in copyhold tenants of the manor taken
from Tywardreth by Henry the Eighth, and annexed by him to the Duchy
of Cornwall.
This manor was purchased by the late Mr. Philip Rashleigh, about the
year 1800, under the powers created by the Land Tax Redemption Act.
This gentlemen and his ancestors had long represented Fowey, and he
was succeeded by his nephew, Mr. William Rashleigh, who subsequently
sold the manor, and the whole borough property, to Mr. George Lucy, of
Charlecot, near Stratford-upon-Avon. Mr. Lucy, in consequence,
represented Fowey, and retained what he had purchased till in 1832 it
became quite useless for all election purposes.
Mr. Joseph Thomas Austen is the present representative of the ancient
and distinguished family of Treffry, one of the most spirited
adventurers in mines, and of the most judicious and enlightened
managers, that Cornwall has witnessed for many years. Mr. Austen has
diverted a river for the use of machinery; and he has sat the first
example of bringing a canal to mines, for the purpose of conveying
coal and other heavy articles, from the sea-coast, and of taking down
the ores, which are then exported from a harbour of his own
construction.
Mr. Lysons gives an account somewhat different from that of Mr. Hals,
respecting the final repulse of the French from Fowey. He attributes
the achievement to one of Mr. Austen’s female ancestors; and, quoting
from Leland, adds that after this event “Thomas Treffry builded a
right fair and strong embattled tower in his house, and embattling the
walls of the house, in a manner made it a castle, and even to this day
it is the glory of the town buildings in Fowey.” The present possessor
has, however, added considerably to the beauty of this “right fair”
mansion, by completely restoring whatever might be defective in the
existing parts, and by completing, or perhaps by improving, the
original plan.
The late Mr. Philip Rashleigh, who represented Fowey during the
greater part of a long life, added to his character of a most
respectable country gentleman, the well-deserved reputation of a
skilful and zealous naturalist, more especially in the department of
minerals, to which, as a Cornish man, his attention would be more
particularly directed. Mr. Rashleigh led the way in Cornwall as a
collector, on a large scale, of the interesting and curious products
of the mines, and left at his decease perhaps the most valuable
collection of minerals belonging to any individual throughout England.
Geology had not acquired the semblance of a regular science when Mr.
Rashleigh directed his attention to the metallic ores, and to the
chrystallography, not of Cornwall alone, but of all parts of the known
world. He has given to the public two volumes of coloured engravings
from his choicest specimens.
Mr. Rashleigh attained a good old age, with the satisfaction of
witnessing the progress through life, in various lines, of the younger
branches of his family, with the highest credit to themselves, and of
leaving his ample property to a nephew in all respects worthy of
receiving it.
For various further details respecting Fowey, the Editor must refer to
the recent Histories of Cornwall.
Mr. Lysons gives an ample account of the descents or alienations of
manors; and a very curious letter from Lord Thomas Cromwell to the
Prior of Trewardreth, dated on the 21st of May, but without the
insertion of any year, probably, however, not long before the
dissolution. See p. 109 of Lysons’s Magna Britannia, vol. iii.
Cornwall.
A considerable property was accumulated about the middle of the last
century by two brothers, natives of this town, of the name of Lamb.
One filled the office of Collector of the Customs at Fowey, the other
practised medicine at St. Austell; both left their fortunes to an only
sister, who after their deaths, and late in life, married Mr. Graham,
a gentleman from London; through whom the property has passed to his
nephew, Thomas Graham, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall in 1806, a magistrate
for the county, and resident within the limits of Fowey, where he has
built a new and handsome house.
The parish of Fowey measures 1,726 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4,856 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 473 16 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1155 | 1319 | 1455 | 1767
giving an increase of 53 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Kempe, instituted 1818.
Latitude of the Windmill near Fowey 50° 20′ 7″. Longitude 18ᵐ. 30ˢ.
west. High water at the full and change of the moon 5ʰ 20ᵐ.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish appears to be situated entirely in the calcareous series,
near its junction with the porphyritic; and thus its rocks are very
similar to those at the entrance of Falmouth Harbour.
FARABURY.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and has upon the north St.
George’s Channel, or the Irish Sea, east Minster, west Trevalga, south
Lantegles. For the name it is Saxon Fara bury, i. e. the far off
hiding or burying-place, being a promontory of land shooting far out
into the sea. Otherwise Fara-bury may be interpreted as a fair or
beautiful burying-place. (See BURYAN.)
In the Domesday Roll it was taxed either under the jurisdiction of the
Botterell, now Botreaux, or Tollcarne, now Minster. In the taxation of
Benefices made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294,
Ecclesia de Farabury, in Decanatu de Trigminorshire, was valued xx_s._
In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, 4_l._ 12_s._ 8_d._ The patronage
formerly in the Prior of Hartland, Lancells, or Minster, who endowed
it, and passeth in presentation and consolidation with Minster. The
patronage now in Amye; the incumbent Amye; and the parish rated,
together with Minster, to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 98_l._
7_s._ 4_d._; of which parish, in the first Inquisition (1294), I thus
read: Abbas de Hartiland percepit de Eccles. Farabury p’ an. vii_s._
Prior de Morton (percepit) per annum in eadem vis.
TONKIN
thinks that this name means fare bury. The patronage in Edward Amy,
Esq. as heir of Sir John Cotton. The incumbent James Amy, his brother.
THE EDITOR.
This is the least extensive parish in Cornwall. It probably owes its
existence to the monastic establishment in the adjoining parish of
Minster, with which, as a benefice, it has long been consolidated. The
church is situated very near to the sea, and commands an extensive
view of the romantic cliffs forming that iron-bound coast, with Lundy
Island in the horizon. The name is sometimes written, and I believe
always pronounced, Fotherbury.
This parish measures 432 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 859 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 81 10 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 140 | 212 | 223 | 358
giving an increase of 156 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This little parish is formed by a belt of high and precipitous hills,
and is principally composed of a very interesting rock. It is of a
dark colour, does not alter in the streak, and abounds in iron
pyrites; it is a kind of shale, and in the cliff, not far from the
church, contains a layer of some carbonaceous mineral, to the intimate
diffusion of which the colour of this rock appears to be owing. The
section of the hill by the road side, from the church to Valancey
Bridge, exhibits the layers of this rock convoluted and contorted in a
most extraordinary manner; and the same appearance is beautifully
illustrated in the cliffs at the entrance of Boscastle harbour.
GERANS, GERANCE, or GERRANS.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north St. Just
in Rosland, east Verian, west St. Anthony, south the British Channel.
For the modern name, Gerans, whether it be so called in memory of
Geruncius, a king of the Britons, successor of King Rimo, that lived a
hundred years before King Lud, according to Galfridus’ Chronicle, or
if from Ferint ab Erbyn, one of King Arthur’s admirals at sea, I
cannot determine; especially for that, in the Domesday Tax in
Cornwall, 20th William I. 1087, this district, St. Just, and St.
Anthony, all passed under the name of Ros-land, or Tre-gara-due, now
the Bishop of Exeter’s manor of Tregare (of which more under) and
Elerchy.
In the Taxation of Benefices in Cornwall aforesaid, 1294, Ecclesia de
Sancto Gerando, in Decanatu de Penryn, is rated x_l._ porcionis
Rectoris in eadem xlvi_s._ viii_d._; porcionis Prioris Sancti Antonii
in eadem xlvi_s._ viii_d._ From whence it is evident that the Bishop
of Exeter, lord of Penryn, and the Prior of St. Anthony endowed this
church, the one half as a Rectory, the other as a Vicarage, viz. that
of the Prior’s part. For the name of this church in the Inquisition
aforesaid, St. Gerandus, whether it may not possibly relate to one St.
Gereon, a Roman whose feast is October 12. In Wolsey’s Inquisition,
1521, it is valued 15_l._ 6_s._ 0½_d._ by the name of Gerens. The
patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent Fowler; and the
parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, by the name of
Gerance, 156_l._ 16_s._ 4_d._
Tregeare, in this parish, was the voke lands of the Bishop of Bodmin,
now the Bishop of Exeter’s great lordship, so called. In the Domesday
Book for Cornwall, 20th William I. 1087, it is named Tregara-an, id
est, the town of the friend, or lover, of God. Concerning the
possession of this manor, by virtue of the Bishop of Exeter’s lease,
there happened a costly and troublesome suit, both in law and equity,
between Edward Nosworthy, Esq. then in possession thereof, and Hugh
Trevanion, of Treligan, Esq. in the latter end of the reign of Charles
the Second, James the Second, and part of the reign of William the
Third (as I was informed). The case being thus:
The tenure of those lands being copy of Court Roll, or freehold for
life, the Bishop of Exeter, the lessor, grants to the lessee a
fee-farm lease of the said manor, for three lives absolute: and so, by
custom and law, each of these lives named in the said lease are
entitled to the land successively after each other’s death, and have
power successively in like manner to grant copies of court roll to the
under-tenants of those lands absolute for three lives, to succeed each
other. Now it happened that Trevanion bought the remainder of one of
those lives, in reversion, of Nosworthy or some other first life named
in the Bishop’s lease; after the death of whom, Trevanion’s right by
custom commenced; who accordingly delivered ejectments upon the lands
and tenements of the said manor, by consent and approbation of the
Bishop of Exeter for the time being, and brought down a trial at
Launceston on the same, where the issue passed for Trevanion.
Thereupon Nosworthy filed his bill in chancery, prays a writ of
injunction to stop further proceedings at common law, and to be
relieved in the premises; where, after many commissions for
examination of witnesses, and hearing of the merits of the cause in
favour of Nosworthy’s title, it passed for him. The plaintiff
Trevanion thereon prays that another issue at law might be directed
out of Chancery to try this matter; which accordingly being granted,
upon the issue it again passed for the plaintiff, and afterwards, as
before, upon all hearings in Chancery it passed against him, by the
universal opinion and judgment of the Lord Chancellors and Lord
Keepers for the time being: “That it was contrary to equity and good
conscience that any person, who was only named a life on the bishop’s
lease, to the farmer of the manor, or the lives named on the farmer’s
lease, or copy of court roll, to under-tenants, without ever paying a
farthing consideration of money, should sell or carry away the
original lessee’s estate, who pays a valuable consideration for it, or
from his heirs or assigns after his death.” So that, in fine,
Nosworthy’s title was confirmed by a decree in Chancery. But, as I
said before, the cost of this controversy pro and con lasted so long,
and proved so chargeable, as was very conducing to the ruin of both
those gentlemen’s estates, (vide Cargoll in Newland,) Nosworthy
absconding into Holland, and Trevanion procuring himself to be made
one of the Poor Knights of Windsor.
It was the happiness of Cornwall, in the latter end of the reign of
Charles the Second, to behold Mr. Justice Dolben, appointed for two or
three Assizes one of the Judges Itinerant for this county, who so
discouraged the injustice, delay, and frivolousness of many Cornish
law-suits, and so uprightly and succinctly, upon proof of matters of
fact and law, directed the jury as to their verdict, that there was
little or no occasion for the wrangling and jangling arguments of
counsel at the bar. He further told the people in general, that he
admired how they should be so weak in judgment, as to be persuaded
into so many lawsuits in this province, wherein was nothing but pride,
heat, mistakes, or malice, by the advice and direction of lawyers and
attornies, whose trade and occupation was only to get money, without
regard had to the merit or success of their causes longer than their
client could dispense with cash. Upon those and the like arguments of
this upright and conscientious judge, the number of our Cornish trials
was much abated, and fell from a hundred and sixty _venire facias_
brought to about seventy; so that it was generally hoped by this means
we should have had as few lawsuits depending in this as in other
countries, or that all controversies would be ended by references
amongst ourselves, and that it would be said of the Court of Common
Pleas by commission transmitted to Launceston, as was said of the
Court of Chancery when Sir Thomas More was Lord Chancellor thereof,
tempore Henry VIII., who by his upright judgment, and discouragement
of trivial Chancery suits, had ended all causes depending therein, so
that the clerks and counsel had no more business there to do;
whereupon one made this rhyme:
When More some time had Chancellor been,
No more suits did remain:
The like will never more be seen,
Till More comes back again.
But, alas! this good Judge Dolben soon after, by the attornies and
lawyers of the Western Circuit all in confederacy together, as the
shrine-makers of Diana at Ephesus against St. Paul, prompted a
petition to Charles the Second against him, suggesting that the
overhasty proceedings of this judge, and his discouraging lawsuits,
tended not only to the damage of his Majesty’s revenues proceeding
from lawsuits in those parts, but to their great prejudice, hurt, and
damage, in point of their support and livelihood, as having little
else besides their profession and practice of law to subsist by; which
petition Charles the Second taking into further consideration, against
the next assizes he ordered the clerk to leave Judge Dolben’s name out
of the commission of oyer and terminer, and then he was never more
seen in those parts. Since which time the judges that come this
circuit are content to hear with great patience the loud, reflective,
perplexed arguments of counsel upon trials of small moment and
concern, if not to suffer themselves to be at some times imposed upon
in point of law and evidence therein, by the importunate arguments of
topping serjeants-at-law, according to the magnitude of the fees they
receive from their clients; so that it is become a proverb among those
men in this province, it matters not what the case be so the client
hath store of money.
Tre-ligan, or Tre-ligon, in this parish, (i. e. the legate, nuncio, or
ambassador’s town, perhaps the rector’s,) is the dwelling of the said
Hugh Trevanion, Gent. a branch of Caryhaye’s family. He married
Crossman, the relict of Courtney of Penkivell, and had issue by her
―――― Trevanion, Gent. his son and heir, whose estate being greatly
depressed by his father’s debts and lawsuits aforesaid, hath sold his
patrimony, and is by Hugh Boscawen, Esq. Privy Councillor to William
the Third, promoted to be one of the Poor Knights of Windsor as
aforesaid.
Ros-teage, in this parish, (i. e. the valley house, or fair valley,)
is the dwelling of Nicholas Kempe, Gent. that married Sprye; his
father Williams of Probus; his grandfather Budge. Ther arms, Gules,
within a bordure engrailed three garbs Or.
At Tre-wince, (i. e. the under town, or town exposed to the weather,)
is the possession of Nicholas Hobbs, Gent. that married Kempe; his
father Prouse; and giveth for his arms, three eagles displayed Purple.
TONKIN.
Most of the lands in this parish, if not the whole, are either part of
the manor of Tregear, or are held from it. This hath been, ever since
the first erection of the see, in the Bishop of Cornwall, and in the
united bishopric seated at Exeter. It has for many ages been held by
different gentlemen under the Bishops, on leases for lives.
The family of Nosworthy held it for some time; the last of which
family, Edward Nosworthy, Esq. assigned it, a few years before his
death, to Henry Vincent, of Trelevan, Esq. but Mr. Nosworthy, who was
the last life, dying suddenly at Dunkirk in 1701, it fell into the
Bishop’s hands, then Sir Jonathan Trelawny, who granted a new lease of
it in trust for his own family, with whom it now resteth. But the
barton was separated from the manor and granted apart, as it was in
the time when Nosworthy held the manor, to the Trevanions of Trelegar,
between whom and the Nosworthys arose a great lawsuit, as is related
by Mr. Hals.
Near to this barton is Trewithian, that is, the town of peace. In this
village Mr. Edward Cregoe hath lately built a good house. He married
Sarah, the daughter of John Foot, of Treleyassick, Gent. and is lately
dead, leaving a young widow and three sons, of which the eldest is
christened Friend.
To the south of this is Trelegar, the downy town. This is likewise a
large village, at one end of which stood the seat of a younger branch
of the Trevanions of Carhays. Hugh Trevanion, who was engaged in the
expensive lawsuit with Mr. Nosworthy, had a son, Hugh Trevanion. This
gentleman was so reduced as to become Governor of the Poor Knights of
Windsor. The father sold Trelegar, in the latter end of Charles the
Second’s reign, to Stephen Johns, Esq.
Between Trelegar and Trewithian is a double round Danish intrenchment,
which being very high, the middle serves for a beacon, by which name
of Beacon it is called.
To the westward of Trewithian is Tregalravean, that is the small miry
dwelling; and such it really is. This place has recently been leased
by copy of court roll from the manor of Tregear, to Edward Hobbs,
Gent.
Roseteage. This is rightly interpreted by Mr. Hals, the fair or
beautiful valley; and its delightful situation doth fairly entitle it
to this appellation.
This place, in the reign of Elizabeth, and of James the First, was the
seat of Reginald Mohun, Esq. a younger brother to Sir William Mohun,
of Hall, and a captain under Sir Walter Raleigh. This gentleman never
marrying, sold the barton (which is held from the manor of East
Greenwich, in Kent, by the payment of three peppercorns yearly when
demanded,) with the royalty of wreek, and in November 1619, the 19th
year of James the First, to Nicholas Kempe, Gent. who was the younger
brother of Humphrey Kempe, of Lavethan, in Blisland, Esq. who is the
chief of that name in Cornwall.
THE EDITOR.
Since the splendour of the Bishop’s residence has disappeared, if it
ever existed, Roseteague has been, without all comparison, the leading
place in this parish, and indeed few more beautiful situations can any
where be found. It continued in the family of Mr. Kempe from the year
1619 till about 1780, when Roseteague was purchased by Mr. Harris, of
Rosewarne, in Camborne, aad given by him to Mr. Richard Harris, one of
his younger sons; but this gentleman having remained single, the
estate has reverted to the only daughter and heiress of the eldest
son, William Harris, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall in 1773, married to
Henry Winchcombe Hartley, Esq. of Berkshire.
Trewince, situated on a hill northward of Roseteague, and separated
from it by a deep valley, is also a place well deserving of notice. An
extremely good house was built here about the year 1750, by the
grandson or great-grandson of the gentleman who made the purchase of
Trelegar from Mr. Trevanion, and it is now inhabited by his grandson.
The church commands an extensive prospect from an elevated piece of
ground, and contains a splendid monument to the family of Hobbs; and
near the church still exists a public bowling-green. Bowling appears
to have been the favourite amusement of gentlemen residing in the
county up to a later period than the middle of the last century. A
weekly meeting used to be here numerously attended during the summer,
but as most landed proprietors then occupied a portion of their own
estates, it was an invariable rule to discontinue their pastime when
the appearance of a single Arrish Mow, indicated the more important
avocations connected with harvest.
Mr. Hals has noticed that a Bishop of Exeter endowed this church, the
one half as a rectory, the other as a vicarage. This division was
effected in a very unusual manner, although in one not quite without
example. Instead of apportioning the tithe of corn to the rector, and
all other portions, as small tithes, to the vicar, the whole has here
been divided into equal shares; so that Mr. Johns, of Trewince, the
lay impropriator, is entitled to one-twentieth of every thing
titheable, and the incumbent to another twentieth.
On the coast eastward of the church town is a village called
Polskatho, or Porthskatho, the boat-harbour; and here an extensive
fishery is carried on, more especially for mackarel. This place, with
the manors of Pettigrew and Nanquitty, belongs to J. S. Enys, of Enys,
Esq. and they have been long possessed by this very ancient and
respectable family.
The barton of Tregeare was purchased in 1712 of the Hoblyns of
Bradridge, by Samuel Kempe, Esq. of Carclew. In 1765 it was leased by
Frederick Bishop of Exeter, on lives, to Nicholas Kempe, Esq. of
Rosteague, of whom it was purchased in 1767 by his cousin Nicholas
Kempe, Esq. of Chelsea, and it remained in 1823 in the possession of
John Kempe, Esq. of Newington, Surrey. The Kempes sold Rosteague to
John Harris, Esq. in 1780.
Trewithian is now vested in Matthew Garland Cregoe, Esq. who married
Anna Coryton Kempe, eldest daughter of the late Arthur Kempe, Esq.
Admiral of the White.
The Kempes of Cornwall were derived from the knightly family of Kempe,
of Olantigh, in Wye, in Kent; Richard Kempe, Esq. grandson of Sir
William Kempe, Sheriff of Kent 20 Henry VIII. is the first of the
family recorded to have settled at Lavethan, in Blisland.
Gerans measures 2,460 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 3487 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 387 9 0
Population, {in 1801,| in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 771 | 698 | 732 | 766
giving the unusual result of a diminution, although extremely
small, on the population, 5 on 771, or about ⅔ per cent. in
30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The rocks of this parish belong to the same series as those of St.
Anthony in Powder. On the eastern side of Porthskatho Cove the blue
slate is very much curved and contorted; and is intersected by
innumerable quartz veins, which are exceedingly irregular, and partake
much of the same arrangement as the laminæ of the slate. Here also
occur, interstratified with the slate, beds of a compact blue rock,
which is very hard, and effervesces with acids, occasioned by
particles, and minute veins or strings, of calcareous spar. In the
cliff also may be seen a small patch of conglomerates, and red
sandstone of the most recent formation, such as is common on these
shores.
ST. GERMAN’S.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Eastwellshire, and hath upon the east
Landrak and Saltash, north Menhynet, west Morvall, south Shevyock, and
the British Channel; as for the name of this parish it is derived from
the tutelar guardian of the church, St. German, Bishop of Anticiodorum
in Gallia, now France, anno Dom. 425. Whether this name be derived
from the Latin Germanus, i. e. come of the same stock, very like or
natural; or the adverb Germaine, brother or a very brother; or from
Garnan or Gernan, Saxon German, signifying altogether a man, or a
complete and entire man; I must leave to others to resolve.
At the time of the Domesday Tax 20 William I. 1087, this district was
taxed either under the jurisdiction of Abbe one, i. e. Abbey Town, or
Cudan-woord, of which more under. In Liber taxationum omnium
beneficiorum in Cornubia, folio 148, Ecclesia Sancti Germani, in
Decanatu Sancti Germani, by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester
1294, was valued towards the Pope’s Annates 10_l._; Vicar ejusdem
xl_s._ But before the statute 15th of Richard the Second, against
wholly impropriating vicarages, the revenues of this church were
wholly impropriated by the convent, and only 14_l._ _per annum_
deducted towards maintenance of two vicars to serve the cure, for
which reason it is not named in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521. The
patronage formerly in the King of England, afterwards in the Abbat and
Prior of St. German’s. The incumbent Kendall, the rectory or sheaf in
possession of Glanvill, and the parish rated to the 4_s._ in the pound
land tax 1696, 649_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ The now minister’s chancel of this
church was a chapel, founded and endowed by King Athelstan, at such
time as he was in Cornwall, anno Dom. 930 (see BURIAN and BODMAN) and
dedicated to St. German, of which fact thus speaks Roger Hoveden, a
priest of Oxford, in his Annals of the Kings of England, anno Dom.
1200, p. 160.
“Rex Athelstanus in potestatem Anglorum dedit unum mansionem Deo, ad
fundandum monasterium pro monachis, et Sancti Germani fratribus
canonicis ibi famulantibus in Cornubia, anno Dom. 930,” i. e. King
Athelstan, being in full possession of all England, gaue to God one
mansion, tarrying, or abiding place, for laying the foundation of a
monastery of monks, and for St. German’s canonical brothers and
servants in Cornwall. He also enriched with jewels, money, or lands,
every considerable abbey in this land. Baker’s Chron. p. 10.
This Abbey of St. German’s was afterwards endowed with larger revenues
by King Canute, anno Dom. 1020, who turned it, after ninety years
continuance in monkery, to a collegiate church of secular canons,
which might marry wives, converse in the world, as not tied to a
monastic life, first introduced by St. Berinus, Bishop of Dorchester,
anno Dom. 635; that is to say, a society or corporation of religious
men, under the government of a dean, warden, provost, and master, to
whom belonged clerks, chaplains, singing men, or choristers. Of those
men, the gloss upon the Canons Clementine tells us, that secular
priests have no certain order or fashion of apparel appointed them,
forasmuch as there is no express mention made in any canon, neither of
the colour or form thereof, by which two differences the other several
orders of religious men and women are distinguished or discerned.
In this Abbey of St. German’s, anno Dom. 986, Bishop Stidio placed the
see or seat of his Cathedral Church, (for Bodman was before burnt by
the Danes,) which he and his successors enjoyed till the year 1032, at
which time Livignus, first a monk of Winchester, afterwards Abbat of
Tavistock, then made Bishop of Kirton, by King Canutus, who after the
death of Berwoldus, the thirteenth Bishop of Cornwall, prevailed with
that King to annex the bishopric of St. German’s, thus translated
there, to his bishopric of Kirton, and turned this college of secular
priests into a priory of Black Canons Augustine, from whence
afterwards Leofrick, chaplain to King Edward the Confessor, 1049, by
licence, consent, and approbation of that King, removed both those
bishoprics to Exeter. And this fact of Kirton is more manifest from
the missal or mass book of the said Leofrick, given to the church of
Exeter.
This Monastery or Abbey of St. German’s, founded by King Athelstan,
was as aforesaid by King Canute turned into a collegiate church of
secular canons, over which a prior was governor or ruler, who, after
he had endowed the same with lands and revenues, King Ethelred the
Second having before given Bishop Stidio, to recompense his loss by
the Danes, the great lordship of Cunan Boake, still pertaining to the
Bishop of Exeter (see Prince’s Worthies of Devon, p. 9) he ordained
many good laws which sound thus in English:
“We will and command that God’s Ministers, the Bishops, Abbats,
Priors, &c. do in especial manner take a right course and live
according to rule, that they call to Christ night and day much and
oft, and that they do it earnestly: and we further command that they
hearken to God, and love chastity; full truly they wit that it is
against the right to meddle with women.” Canute’s Laws, No. 6.
The word abbat is derived from the Hebrew abba, pater, for that he is
the father or governor of his monks, who together make up a spiritual
society or corporation. Some abbats were elective by the convent,
others presentative, and under this title also was comprehended other
corporations spiritual, as a prior and his convent, friars, canons,
and such like; and as there were lord abbats so there were lord
priors, who had exempt jurisdiction, and were lords of parliament, and
what consecration is to a bishop, the same is benediction to an abbot
or prior, but in different respects, for a bishop is not such before
consecrated, but an abbat or prior, being elected or confirmed, is
properly such before benediction.
Some abbats were mitred from the pope, and so exempt from the bishop’s
jurisdiction, as having granted them from him episcopal authority; and
if either abbats or priors were called by the King’s writ as barons to
parliament, they were called abbats and priors sovereign; see statute
9th Richard II. chap. 4. But, alas! neither this Abbat of St.
German’s, nor the Prior of Bodmin, nor any other in this province, was
either a baron of Parliament or a mitred man, but were all subject to
the visitation and spiritual government of the Bishop of Exeter, till
23d Henry VIII. when all those orders of religious men were dissolved.
In this abbey of St. German’s, anno Dom. 1040, in the time of Lurginus
Bishop of Kirton, lived Hucarius, commonly called the Levite, as Bale
and Pits, in their writings of Britain, tell us; either for that he
assisted the priest at the altar as the Levites of old did, and was
more excellent, or did excel all others in that particular; otherwise,
by the appellation Levite we must understand him a priest, and that he
was universally famous in performing his function of preaching and
divine service. Certain it is, he was a holy and learned man,
(according to the laws of King Canutus aforesaid,) as the 110 homilies
or sermons, and many other books which he wrote, declare; but whether
he was a native of this province or not, I know not.
This Priory of Canons Augustine was dissolved 26th Henry VIII. and its
revenues valued per annum 243_l._ 8_s._ according to Speed and
Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum.
This borough town of St. German’s, as Mr. Carew saith, mustereth many
inhabitants, and sundry ruins, but little wealth; occasioned either by
abandoning their fishing-trade, as some conceive, or their being
abandoned of their religious people, as others imagine. It appears to
have been the voke lands of a manor before the Norman Conquest; since
it is rated in Domesday Roll, 20th William I. 1087, by the name of
Abbytone, i. e. abbey-town, (for that before that time it was a
monastery or abbey of monks,) and consists of a Portreeve and forty
Censors; and the Portreeve yearly chosen, in the manor court, by the
major part of the Censors. And the Members of Parliament are in like
manner elected by the major part of them, and the precept from the
Sheriff for their election, (as also to remove any action at law
depending in this to a superior court,) must be thus directed:
“Præposito et Seneschallo Burgi nostri de St. Germanᵒ, in Comitatu
Cornub. salutem,” &c. Note, that in old British, reve, reeve, is rent,
tithes, or revenues. Port-reeve is the bearer or gatherer of the gate
or borough rent.
The arms of this priory are only the letters G. P.
It is further privileged with a weekly market on Friday, and a fair
yearly, August 1.
_The history of St. German._ He was a native of Gaul, about the year
of our Lord 380, born of wealthy, rich, and Christian parents, by whom
he was bred up and baptized into the Christian religion. After which
he followed the study of the liberal arts and sciences, and so
profited therein that he was generally noted for a very learned man.
But that which made him most famous was his piety and virtue; wherein
he so far excelled most other men of his time, that he could not be at
rest, or have peace in himself, till he made known his propensions to
a religious course of life. Whereupon he was admitted into deacon’s
orders, then into priest’s, and lastly advanced to the dignity of
Bishop of Antiscidorum, or Auxerre, in France, anno Dom. 425.
After he took upon him the office of a bishop, he discharged the same
with great justice and piety, admitting none into orders within his
jurisdiction, but such as were men of great learning and sound faith,
but especially such as were neither Arians nor Pelagians. For about
that time the Christian church was grievously pestered with two
heretics; the one Arius, born and bred at Constantinople; the other an
inhabitant of Britain, viz. Pelagius.
But the doctrines of Pelagius manifesting themselves throughout this
land, to the great disturbance of the orthodox faith and churches
thereof, after great heats and animosities between Catholics and
heretics about those doctrines, it was at last agreed upon between
those parties that a General Council of the Clergy in Britain should
be convened at St. Alban’s, in Hertfordshire, and those tenets further
examined and discussed. But the British Catholics, knowing the
interest, skill, and subtlety of the heretics to be great, thought it
not safe for religion, and the orthodox faith, in this convention to
trust alone to their own skill and learning, therefore concluded on
this expedient, viz. against the day of meeting to send for some
foreign divines for their coadjutors or helpers in this controversy;
and accordingly applied to St. German, Bishop of Antiscidorum
aforesaid, or Auxerre, in Gallia, now France, a city situate upon the
river Auxona, now called Le Disne, and Lupus, Bishop of Troyes, in
that country, for their counsel and assistance, who gladly granted
their request; and accordingly against the day, and at the place
appointed, met the British Clergy on both sides; where the tenets and
doctrines being heard, and particularly examined, chiefly by the skill
and learning of St. German, were all refuted and condemned, according
to the sense of the General Councils, as impious and heretical, to the
great satisfaction of the orthodox clergy.
After this dispute and council ended, St. German, as a good bishop,
resolved, though out of his country and diocese, whilst he stayed
here, to preach the Gospel publicly, and to that end caused a pulpit
to be set up in an open place at St. Alban’s, (so called from St.
Alban, the Briton, martyred there under Dioclesian, anno Dom. 303,)
anciently Verulam; where on set days he preached to the multitude
there assembled, and first began to handle the doctrine of Pelagius
against original sin, taking for his text the words of St. John the
Evangelist: “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us.” Upon which subject he shewed that the
doctrine of Pelagius was contrary to the writings and doctrines of
Moses and the Prophets.
These and the like words and preachings of St. German seemed so
angelical and full of power to the Britons, that generally they were
convinced of Pelagius’s errors, and abandoned their former opinions;
and in testimony of their unfeigned respect and remembrance of him, in
the very place where he preached at St. Alban’s, they erected a
chapel, and dedicated it to the honour of God, in the name of St.
German; which chapel was extant (and still bears his name) tempore
James I. though misapplied to profane uses. (See Camden, in
Hertfordshire.) After St. German had thus preached down Pelagianism at
St. Alban’s, he travelled through Britain, Wales, and Scotland, on the
same account, as our chronologers tell us; and that, in the place
where Oxford stands, he preached six months against the heresies
aforesaid. That he was in Cornwall upon the same account I doubt not,
since there is still extant in this parish whereof I treat, a large
church bearing his name. He was in Wales, for Camden, in Flintshire,
informs us a field bearing his name, called Mars Garman, i. e.
German’s field, in memory of a battle there obtained by the Welch over
the Picts, on the prayers of St. German, and by crying Hallelujah! To
him also is ascribed the building or augmenting Landaff cathedral
there, and dedicating it to St. Delyan, if there be not a mistake in
the chronology thereof, St. German, as appears to me, being dead
before Delyan.
That he preached in Scotland, is evident from his meeting and converse
with Patrick, born at Bluisdale, in that country, who became his
disciple, and afterwards the apostle of Ireland.
This priory-house, before its dissolution, was called Porth-Prior, or
Port-Prior, synonymous words, signifying either the prior’s creek,
cove, or haven. It is now, after the name of its owner, transnominated
to Port or Porth-Eliot, who derives his title thereto from
Champernowne, as he did by a boon from King Henry the Eighth.
These gentlemen I take to be of Scots original, and so denominated
from the local place of Eliot, near Dundee, in Scotland, and their
descent of later time from the Eliots of Devonshire, Berkshire, or
Cambridgeshire, of which last county one Sir Thomas Eliot, Knt. was
Sheriff 24th Henry VIII. also in 36th. This gentleman wrote a book
called Defensorium bonarum Mulierum, The Defence of good or virtuous
Women. But that which made him most famous was, (to the disgrace of
the critics and clergy that get their livings by the liberal arts and
sciences, he being only a layman,) he wrote and composed the first
Latin and English Dictionary that ever was seen in England, about the
year 1540. Upon whose stock and foundation Bishop Cooper and others
built and grafted all the Latin and English dictionaries now extant in
Britain. He died in Suffolk, 1546; and upon the foundation, rules, and
observation of this my Parochial History of Cornwall, it will be very
easy for any other person to make a better and more perfect History
thereof.
Those gentlemen settled here about the middle of Queen Elizabeth’s
reign, and there ever since flourished in this place in genteel and
worshipful degree, serving their king and country in the several
capacities of Justices of the Peace and Members of Parliament for
their Borough of St. German’s; and amongst them, in particular, it
were great injustice to forget the memory of that worthy patriot Sir
John Eliot, Knt. for his bold asserting the prerogative and privilege
of Parliament, the freedom and liberty of the subject, in the House of
Commons, against the arbitrary and despotic power of the British
Monarch, then exerted and setting up by the Attorney-general Noye and
others, temp. Charles I. as before it had been done by Cecil Earl of
Salisbury temp. James I.: for which reasons and arguments of law he
was committed prisoner to the Tower of London by order of that King,
where he died, without payment of the 2,000_l._ fine laid upon him,
but not without suspicion of poison, about the year 1638.
Edward Eliot, Esq. is now in possession of this estate. He married the
daughter of Craggs.
Bake, in this parish, is the dwelling of the ancient and gentle family
of the Moyles; so called, I presume, from the local place of Moyle, in
or about St. Minvor, who have flourished here for several generations
in worshipful degree, ever since they married with the sole inheretrix
of this name and place; originally descended, as I am informed, from
the Moyles of Tresurans, in St. Colomb, or the Moyles of Bodmin. The
present possessor, Sir Walter Moyle, Knt. son of John Moyle, Esq.
Sheriff of Cornwall 22 James I. that married Morrice, giveth for his
arms, in allusion to their name, Gules, a moyle (or mule) passant
Argent.
I take Thomas Moile, Esq. Speaker of Parliament 34th Henry VIII. 1543,
ancestor of the Moyles of Oxford and Kent, whose name, blood, and
estate is terminated in the Finches, to be a younger brother of this
family, or those of his.
Colt-dryn-ike, in this parish, i. e. dry neck lake, leate, or riveret
of waters, (perhaps so called from some lake or leate that intermits
its current in summer season,) is the dwelling of Jonathan Trelawney,
Esq. one of his Majesty’s Commissioners of the Peace, a younger branch
of the Trelawneys of Poole and Trelawne houses, and therefore giveth
the same arms which they do. Since the writing hereof this gentleman
is dead without issue; and his second brother, my very kind friend,
Major John Trelawney, Fort Major of the royal citadel of Plymouth,
succeeded to his estate.
Millin-ike, alias Melin-ike, i. e. the mill lake, leate, or bosom of
waters, (so called from some river and a mill heretofore thereon,) was
the dwelling of William Scawen, Esq. that died without issue.
The name Scawen is local, and signifies a place where skawan or elder
trees grow, (as I have said before,) and is derived from the
Japhetical Greek, σκοβιεμ, sambachus, ebulus, the elder-tree, who,
suitable to his name, gives for his arms, Argent, a scawen or
elder-tree Vert. This is an ancient and mere British family of
gentlemen, as their name implies.
Hendre, in this parish, (i. e. the old or ancient town,) is the
dwelling of the gentle family of the Hancocks; particularly William
Hancock, Esq.
Catch-French, in this parish, was the seat of the Keckwitches,
originally descended from the Keckwitches of Essex, gentlemen
heretofore also of considerable estates in those parts, now by ill
conduct wasted, so that this barton was sold by John Keckwitch, Esq.
temp. Charles II. to Hugh Boscawen, Esq. who settled it upon his
daughter Bridget, married to Hugh Fortescue, of Filley, Esq. now in
possession thereof. George Keckwitch, Esq. of this house, was Sheriff
of Cornwall 17th of Elizabeth, as was also his son George Keckwitch,
Esq. 33d of Elizabeth. He was also a Commissioner of the Peace temp.
James I. who gave for his arms, Argent, two lions on a bend Sable,
coticed Or.
TONKIN.
The town of St. German’s lieth to the southward of Port Eliot, but
adjoining with it, and between that and Cuddenbeck: but as Browne
Willis, in his Notitia Parliamentaria, has given a particular
description of this town and parish, of which he was the most capable,
having married his lady out of it, I shall here insert what he has
said thereof:
“Its first return of Members to serve in Parliament, was in the
session held by proclamation in the 5th year of Queen Elizabeth, A. D.
1562, at which time their having Representatives was questioned;
however, Mr. Speaker declared in the House that the Lord Steward
agreed that they (i. e. the two Members) should resort there with all
convenient speed to show their letters patent, whereby they be
returned. In this indenture the returning officer is called the Mayor,
but in the next, and in all other records, the Portreeve; which
magistrate is yearly nominated and chosen at the lord’s court-leet,
held about Michaelmas by his steward, who impannels a jury for that
purpose. As to the choice of Members of Parliament, all the inhabitant
householders have votes, that have lived a year within the borough,
the bounds of which do not extend very far, and only comprehend about
fifty or sixty houses lying near the church, and not the whole vill of
St. German’s, great part of which is without the borough, as is the
rest of the parish. It is styled in some writings Cuddenbeck Borough;
a privilege which it might perhaps have obtained from Walter Bishop of
Exeter, temp. Henry III. when Penryn seems to have been made a
borough; and from this example the Prior, with the assistance of the
Bishop, might also have dignified in like manner the vill of St.
German’s, though neither of them, anno 30th Eliz. when they certified
respecting their liberties, and claims of privilege, as of markets,
fairs, &c. styled this place otherwise than the manor of St. German’s;
nor have I met with it under any other denomination than till Queen
Elizabeth’s time, or seen any record mentioning its incorporation, nor
any other charter of privileges granted thereunto; though the
inhabitants have a tradition that they had an ancient charter, which
was unfortunately stolen from them by a person imprisoned by the
Portreeve, who is by prescription bailiff of the town, and may make
what house he pleases within the borough, his prison. As to a
description of this borough, called by Carew ‘a church town,’ it
mustereth, as that author tells us, sundry ruins, but little wealth.”
Browne Willis gives the following account of the Priory:
“After the removal of the bishoprics from Crediton and from this
place to Exeter, A. D. 1050, Leofric, the first Bishop of Exeter,
changed the seculars of this collegiate church, founded by King
Athelstan, and endowed by King Canute, into Black Canons, between
whom, and his new-erected episcopal see, the manor of this town
was divided; and it stood upon that establishment at the time of
the Norman invasion, as appears from Domesday Book, which informs
us, that the manor or parish of St. German’s consisted of
twenty-four hides, whereof the Bishop of Exeter had twelve, and
the Canons of that place twelve also. What belonged to the Bishop
was valued at 81_s._ per annum, and what belonged to the Canons
at 100_s._ Domesday also shews us, that in this manor there was
then a market on the Lord’s Day; but it became reduced to
nothing, by reason of that of the Earl of Morton’s being very
near, which I conceive might have been kept at Trematon, that
Earl having privilege of a market at his castle there. That such
was the state of this town and parish at the time of the
Conquest, is plain from the above-stated record; and the division
into two manors continues to the present day, the Bishop’s moiety
being held by lease for three lives by Edward Eliot, Esq.
proprietor of the other manor; whose predecessors have probably
ever since the dissolution of the monasteries been farmers, or
lessee tenants, to the See of Exeter, by virtue of which lease,
as this manor is vested in them, so the other, belonging to the
Priory, has thus descended since the surrender thereof, dated
March the 2d, anno 30th Henry VIII. when Robert Swimmer, the last
Prior, with seven Monks, yielded up the same into the King’s
hands, who not long after, by letters patent dated March the
10th, anno regni 33, A. D. 1542, granted to John Champernoun,
John Ridgeway, and Walter Smith. Among other lands, the site, &c.
of this priory, upon partition, came to John Champernoun’s share,
whose heir sold it, about thirty or forty years afterwards, to
Richard Eliot, Esq. my wife’s ancestor, in which family both
those manors yet continue: which place, soon after Mr. Eliot had
made the purchase, was named Port Eliot, since when this
appellation has so far prevailed that Port Eliot has been
inserted in maps, as if it was a particular vill. This family
flourished for eight or ten generations in Devonshire, before
their transplanting themselves hither, and had matched into
several considerable families in that county, as the Sigdons,
Cotlands, Bonvilles, Sumasters, Fitzes, Careswells, &c. Walter
Eliot was returned among the gentlemen of Devonshire anno 1433,
temp. Henry VI. And to this family, as it should seem by the
arms, was allied Sir Richard Eliot, made by King Henry the Eighth
one of the Justices of the King’s Bench, who was, as I take it,
father to the famous Sir Thomas Eliot. Richard Eliot seated
himself here, where he lived (as Carew tells us) in great
hospitality. He left issue John Eliot, born and baptized here
April 20, 1592. This John, A. D. 1607, became a gentleman
commoner of Exeter College, Oxford, which place leaving about two
or three years after, he went to the Inns of Court, and May the
10th, 1618, received the honour of knighthood, and was all his
lifetime after a member of the succeeding Parliaments, in one of
which, 3d Charles I. he was chosen knight of the shire for
Cornwall. He was a very plausible speaker in the House of
Commons, as his speeches published testify, but, being a virulent
enemy to the Court, often suffered confinement, and died in
custody in the Tower of London; and, as appears by the
inquisition on the 27th of November, 8th Charles I. A. D. 1632,
leaving issue John, his son and heir, then twenty years old. This
John was born at Port Eliot, and baptized October 18th, 1612,
where he died and was buried March the 25th, 1685, leaving an
only son, Daniel Eliot, my father-in-law, who departed this life
about the sixtieth year of his age, and was buried among his
ancestors October 28th, 1702. This gentleman, in regard that he
had only one daughter, named Katherine, bequeathed his estate, in
order to keep up the name of his family, to Edward Eliot,
grandson to Nicholas Eliot, fourth son to Sir John Eliot, Knight,
aforesaid.”
Mr. Browne Willis then goes on to state respecting the remains of the
monastery.
“The Priory fronts the river, now called, as above noted, Port Eliot.
It is a handsome large building, containing several spacious rooms,
and has a court before it, adorned with a strong pier by the present
proprietor, Edward Eliot, Esq. who has much beautified the whole
building.” Since Mr. Willis wrote the above, almost the whole of the
ancient building has been taken down, so that except the refectory,
now called the gallery, very little remains.
In the 26th year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, this place had
an honour bestowed on it (little taken notice of, if not altogether
forgotten), by being established by Act of Parliament the see of a
suffragan bishop for the county of Cornwall, in the diocese of Exeter.
The advowson of this church, together with the impropriate rectory,
late the possessions of the priory, valued at 61_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ per
annum, were granted by King Edward the Sixth to the Dean and Chapter
of Windsor, in whose hands they now continue.
THE EDITOR.
St. Germanus is among the most celebrated saints of the fourth and
fifth centuries, having gained his reputation by furiously opposing
the unpopular doctrines of Pelagius; at the same time that he adopted
all the brutalizing austerities, which in those days conveyed power,
influence, and reputation to all who practised them.
Pelagius maintained that Almighty God has been pleased to bestow on
mankind, from their births, power and inclination to execute his will,
and to render themselves acceptable in his sight; while the orthodox
supported, on the contrary, a doctrine more analogous to the practices
of earthly despots and tyrants, by declaring that such powers were
capriciously given, by little and little and from time to time,
branding their opponents with an accusation, well suited to the
understanding of those from whom distinction could then be obtained,
namely, that Pelagius set up man as independent and in opposition to
God; forgetting or concealing that the free gift was and must have
been the same in both cases, differing only in the manner after which
it is bestowed. Perhaps the arbitrary disposition of fiefs, commencing
about that period, afforded an additional analogy for assimilating the
practices in heaven to those on earth, while appeals to the capricious
exercise of arbitrary power afforded evidently the most ample field
for vehement declamation. The saint is stated in his legend to have
sprung from an illustrious family, and, while the appellation implied
a real office, to have been made Duke of a Roman province, and in that
capacity to have been leader of the troops, with whom he obtained
repeated victories, and acquired the just reputation of an able
warrior. He also excelled in the chace, but neither his skill in
military stratagems nor in the devices of the field, could protect him
against falling into an ambuscade laid by St. Amator, Bishop of
Auxerre, who, having learnt from a dream, that the young Duke should
succeed to the bishopric, enticed him into the church, and then,
securing the doors and passages, imposed on him the tonsure, with the
order of a deacon. Germanus appears to have submitted with perfect
resignation to this important change in the whole tenor of his life,
and adopting the line afterwards pursued by Sir Thomas of Canterbury
in regard to spiritual matters, and that in respect to his wife, which
enrolled King Edward the Confessor in the list of saints, he soon
obtained a reputation so high as to point him out as the most proper
person, first to succeed St. Amator, as Bishop of Auxerre, in
fulfilment of the dream, and then to go on a spiritual crusade against
the Pelagians of Britain. He accordingly embarked, accompanied by St.
Lupus, in the midst of winter, and soon encountered a violent storm,
raised, it would seem, on purpose to evince the divine mission of
these two saints, for, on their throwing some holy water into the sea,
it immediately subsided.
Saint Germanus and St. Lupus not only preached with such power as to
astonish and to convince whole congregations, too large for any
building to contain, but they gave sight to the blind, cast out
devils, and raised the dead. St. Germanus was even induced to assist
the faithful in the way of his original profession; for a Pagan army
of Northmen and Picts invading the Christian provinces, the saint took
the command of such persons as he found willing to defend their
country, and having selected a place suited to his purpose, either by
naturally possessing an echo, or by receiving it miraculously from his
prayers, he there awaited the enemy, and on their approach shouting
three times ALLELUIAH, and the whole army joining with their utmost
might, the divine sounds, repeated and enforced by the reverberation
on all sides, so terrified the assailants as to drive them into
immediate flight, with the casting away of their arms, who were, in
consequence, readily and safely pursued with great slaughter, through
the whole space separating them from their fleet, none being spared
but such as had the grace instantly to acquiesce in a method of
conversion so clear, so powerful, and so coercive.
St. Germanus and St. Lupus soon afterwards left Britain, in the full
confidence of having suppressed the heresy; but so obstinate and
perverse were the people, that it broke out with increased violence,
the circumstance of Pelagius being their countryman having probably
more weight with the inhabitants than the arguments on either side, as
in modern times all German Protestants are followers of Luther, as
those of France are invariably of Calvin.
On receiving this intelligence, St. Germanus made a second voyage to
Britain, armed with a small box of relics, suspended round his neck by
a leathern string, which acting in aid of his own inherent sanctity,
produced a train of miracles more wonderful even than those of the
first expedition. Success of course attended him; and when the work of
conversion was complete, he deposited the box of relics in the shrine
of St. Alban, to be preserved for future use, if the seeds of heresy
should again vegetate, taking in exchange some ashes of the British
protomartyr. He then finally left Britain, returning to his diocese of
Auxerre, on the confines of Burgundy; but on the way he encountered a
second Pagan army, employed by the Christian Emperor of Rome to ravage
the saint’s province, in revenge for some popular insurrection. The
saint succeeded, however, in converting the general, with all his
forces, and then proceeded to Ravenna, in Italy, to obtain a pardon
for the offenders. In this he was also successful; but having now
filled the measure of his earthly services, and, as was usual in such
cases, having predicted the hour of his own dissolution, he expired at
Ravenna, in the odour of sanctity, on the last day of July, A. D. 448.
His remains were brought back to France, with all the honours due to
the successful leader of any party, spiritual or temporal, and they
were finely enshrined in the oratory of St. Morice, which he had
founded at Auxerre, and where an abbey has since been built. Various
places in Britain were dedicated to him as to their tutelar saint. Of
these the abbey of Selby was on the largest scale, and the priory in
Cornwall distinguished by his own name, held the next place; although
a chapel near the church of St. Alban, where he had triumphed in a
general disputation with the heretics, became most celebrated,
multitudes flocking there, as to St. Mary of Walsingham, for remission
of their sins.
The ancient Priory of St. German’s has again assumed a new form since
the time of Mr. Tonkin, in consequence of Mr. Richard Eliot having
greatly increased his fortune by marrying Harriet, daughter of James
Craggs, Secretary of State in the time of King George the First. This
gentleman, and still more his son, Mr. Edward Craggs Eliot, who
obtained an hereditary seat in Parliament, after representing Cornwall
in the House of Commons, added so much to the place, by enlarging the
house, by embanking against the sea, and by laying out the grounds, as
to make it one of the first among gentlemen’s seats in the West of
England. The statute referred to by Mr. Tonkin, for conferring the
honour of a suffragan see on this town, in the 26th Henry VIII. c. 14,
passed in the year 1534, by which it is declared that Thetford,
Ipswich, Colchester, Dover, Guilford, Southampton, Taunton,
Shaftesbury, Molton, Marlborough, Bedford, Leicester, Gloucester,
Shrewsbury, Bristow, Penrith, Bridgewater, Nottingham, Grantham, Hull,
Huntingdon, Cambridge, Pereth, Berwick, St. Germain’s, and the Isle of
Wight, shall be taken and accepted for sees of Bishops Suffragans, to
be made in this Realm. This statute appears to have been very little
if at all acted on; but two of the towns, Gloucester and Bristol, as
is well known, became the seats of independent bishoprics.
At Bake lived Mr. Walter Moyle, of whom Cornwall has reason to be
proud. He represented Saltash in the reign of King William; but,
notwithstanding several successful efforts in the House of Commons,
Mr. Moyle retired to his family seat, and past the remainder of his
time in learned leisure, where he died in 1721, not having completed
his fiftieth year. Most of his works were published separately, but in
1727 came out in London, “Works of W. Moyle that were published by
himself; with some account of his life and writings, by Anthony
Hammond, Esq. 8vo.” His works were principally:
An Argument, showing that a Standing Army is inconsistent with a
free Government.
Translations from Xenophon.
The Miracle of the Thundering Legion explained.
A Charge to the Grand Jury at a Sessions in Liskeard.
Letters to Dr. W. Musgrave, of Exeter, on subjects of Criticism
and Antiquity.
A Dissertation upon the Age of Philopatris, a Dialogue commonly
attributed to Lucian.
Letters to and from Mr. Moyle on various subjects.
Remarks on Prideaux’s Connection of the Old and New Testament.
Democracy Vindicated; an Essay on the Constitution of the Roman
Government.
Bake now belongs to Sir Joseph Copley, whose grandfather, a brother’s
son of Mr. Walter Moyle, having married the heiress of Copley, of
Sprotborough, in Yorkshire, assumed her name.
Aldwinnick is the property of Mr. Charles Trelawny, son of Mr. Edward
Trelawny, who acquired it under the will of Mr. Charles Trelawny, who
died in 1764, the last male descendant of their branch of the family.
Mr. Edward Trelawny’s original name was Stephens.
Catchfrench was till lately the residence of Mr. Francis Glanville,
Member some time for Plymouth. This gentleman’s ancestors purchased
Catchfrench from the Fortescues more than a century ago. Mr. Glanville
has given it up to his son, and on quitting the county he has carried
with him the regret of every one in it.
Much obloquy having been cast upon Sir John Eliot, by a misrepresentation
on the part of his political adversaries, of an affair in which sudden
passion very probably caused him to act in a manner different from
what would have been his conduct under other circumstances, I will add
a narrative of the occurrence, taken from Lord Nugent’s Life of
Hampden.
“In a letter in the possession of Miss Aikin, written by an
ancestor of one of the most respectable families in Devonshire,
the cause and course of the quarrel are given, as described by the
daughter of Mr. Moyle himself, a witness not likely to be unjustly
partial to Sir John Eliot.
“Mr. Moyle having acquainted Sir John Eliot’s father with some
extravagancies in his son’s expenses, and this being reported
with some aggravating circumstances, young Eliot went hastily to
Mr. Moyle’s house, and remonstrated.
“What words passed she knew not; but Eliot drew his sword, and
wounded Mr. Moyle in his side. On reflection,” continues Mr.
Moyle’s daughter, “he soon detested the fact, and from
thenceforward became as remarkable for his private deportment, in
every view of it, as his public conduct. Mr. Moyle was so
intirely reconciled to him, that no person in his time held him
in higher esteem.”
The editor cannot induce himself to believe that an English gentleman,
a patriot, and ultimately a martyr in the cause of national freedom,
could have formed and endeavoured to execute a plan for deliberate
assassination; he is, moreover, unwilling perhaps to believe it of one
who married the heiress of his own paternal family. It would be
unfair, however, not to state that Mr. D’Israeli,[3] one of the most
intelligent and candid of modern writers, and of the highest
authority, has found in the course of his miscellaneous researches,
various documents placing this transaction in a point of view much
less favourable to Sir John Eliot, than would be inferred from Lord
Nugent’s account of it. The editor, however, continues to hope that
these documents are coloured, at least, by the party spirit of times
immediately preceding civil war, when all occurrences, private as well
as public, receive their tincture from contending factions.
St. German’s measures 9,029 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 15,283 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 1,822 12 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 2030 | 2139 | 2404 | 2586
giving an increase of about 27½ per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This extensive parish is entirely situated within the calcareous
series. On the northern part it touches the serpentine of Clicker Tor;
and from thence to the sea-shore it exhibits many repetitions of clay
slate, of calcareous schist, and of black limestone. An extensive
quarry of the latter rock, near Trerule Foot, shews the nature of this
limestone. It is of a dark-blue colour, compact, and rather hard; and
in some parts of the mass it is very glittering, in consequence of the
numerous shining facets of calcareous spar disseminated throughout.
This rock abounds also in veins of calcareous spar, and the whole may
be traced passing gradually into the adjacent calcareous schist.
In this tract beds of compact, and of schistose hornblende rocks, are
also found, such as are common in this series of rocks at Saltash, at
Padstow, Veryon, and at various other places.
[3] For the extraordinary “Apology of Sir John Eliot”
regarding this “hasty and unpremeditated act of violence,”
as Lord Eliot has judiciously described it, see Mr.
D’Israeli’s “Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles
the First,” vol. iv. p. 512. It must be also observed, that
the fact was published by Echard, in the life-time of Dean
Prideaux, who had communicated it to that historian. For
other particulars hitherto unknown respecting the
interesting character of Sir John Eliot, the reader may be
referred to an historical pamphlet, entitled “Eliot, Hampden
and Pym,” by the author of the “Commentaries.”
ST. GERMOE, ALIAS GARMOW.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and has upon the north St. Erth;
south and east St. Breage; west St. Hilary. In the Domesday Tax (20
Will. I. 1087), it was rated under the jurisdiction of Lan-migell, i.
e. Michael’s Temple or Church, now St. Michael’s Mount. In the
Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia
de Sancto Gordon in decanatu de Kerryer, is valued viii_l._ In
Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it is valued, together with Breock, Cury,
and Gonwallow, in all 33_l._ The patronage formerly, as I take it, in
the Prior of St. Michael’s Mount, who endowed them. The Incumbent
Trewinard. The rectory or sheaf in the possession of ――――; and the
parish, rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1694, 40_l._
In this parish stands Godolphin-Ball. This is that inexhaustible
mountain, or tin-work, which for some hundreds of years hath afforded
its owners or lord, the Lamburns, Stephens, Navas, now Godolphins, and
other adventurers, several thousand pounds worth of tin.
TONKIN.
In this parish stands Godolphin, or Godolphin-Ball, from whence the
lands thereof were denominated de Godolphin; who for many ages have
had a considerable augmentation of their paternal estate by the
casualties of tin from thence issuing. The same is a barren mountain,
of pretty large extent and great height; and, although wrought for tin
at the least during three hundred years, seems still, like the widow’s
cruise of oil and barrel of meal, to increase in the using, for,
notwithstanding the incredible quantities of tin that have been taken
thence in former ages, it still affords employment, and pays the
wages, with some overplus, of at least three hundred men throughout
the year.
The name of this parish is derived from its patron St. Germow, or
Germach, said to be an Irish king, who came over with St. Breage. St.
Germow is there buried, and his tomb or chair is still to be seen in
the churchyard.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Hals has given the history of St. Gordian at very great length, to
whom, without the slighest authority, he assumes this church and
parish to have been dedicated. I have omitted the whole, as entirely
unconnected with Cornwall, and because the very existence of such a
saint is at the least doubtful. The writers of legends now content
themselves with stating that some one of that name was beheaded at
Rome in the year 362, as appears from the ancient Martyrologies; that
his body lay many centuries in a cave, together with the remains of
St. Epimachus, brought there from Alexandria, and that both relics are
preserved in the Benedictine Abbey of Kempton, in the diocese of
Ansbury.
The tradition of St. Germoe having been a king in his native country,
is cherished by the inhabitants up to the present time, and they point
to his tomb or shrine in the churchyard, with an evident feeling of
their being elevated by his dignity.
But, on whatever grounds the ancient claims of this parish may rest to
a canonized or to a royal patron, the village of Bojil has in modern
times bestowed more real honour on the whole district, than could be
derived from regal missionaries or from legendary saints.
In the parish register of Breage may be seen the following entry:
“William, the son of William Lemon, of Germo, was baptized the 15th
day of November, 1696.”
I have endeavoured, but without much success, to collect information
respecting this very extraordinary man. It appears that his father and
mother, whose maiden name was Rodda, were in a situation of life
raised above the common level, and that they bestowed on their son the
best education easily attainable, who on his part became eminently
distinguished among his companions. If young Lemon ever, therefore,
employed himself in executing the inferior labours usually performed
by mining boys, as some have alleged with the view of increasing the
wonder of his subsequent progress, and others impelled by less
laudable motives, it is clear that they must have been undertaken from
a desire of making himself practically acquainted with all the details
of perhaps the most delicate operations in metallurgy.
His bodily strength and firmness of mind seem to have been
commensurate with those abilities, which displayed themselves most
conspicuously in after life. Within my recollection, the people of
Breage and Germoe were fond of relating that Squire Lemon in his youth
made the foremost link of a living chain, which, connected only by the
grasp of their hands, extended itself into a tremendous surf, and
rescued various human beings from a watery grave.
At a very early age, Mr. Lemon became one of the managers of a
tin-smelting house at Chiandower, near Penzance; and the career which
he pursued with so much ability and success, was traced for him at
this place.
The ancient mining of Cornwall, like that of Banka in the present day,
had been confined for a long succession of ages to merely collecting
diluvial deposits of tin ore, which, from its great specific gravity,
is always found beneath every other debrit, and immediately incumbent
on the solid rock, or unmoved strata, provincially called “the Fast.”
As the first operation invariably consists in washing away the lighter
ingredients, by agitating the whole in streams, which never fail of
gliding through the vallies where alone these deposits are found, the
name “stream-work” has been adopted, to distinguish these sources of
tin from mines which descend on the lodes themselves.
Mines invariably grew out of the stream-works, but with a progress so
very slow as scarcely to be imagined by persons conversant only with
the rapid improvements of modern times. Pits were at first sunk on the
backs of lodes, till the presence of water impeded the work. Shallow
adits, or drains, were obviously used in favourable situations, and
the windlass, with its bucket and rope, must be of great antiquity. To
this succeeded the rack and chain pump, identical with those still
used in large ships; but the span beam and cage, moving on a
perpendicular axis, by which the labour of horses became applicable to
what had previously been done by the human arm, are so very modern,
that the Editor remembers a carpenter who used to boast that he
assisted in making the first whim ever seen westward Hayle.
A new era had, however, now commenced. The steam-engine, which
consists essentially in a piston alternately sliding through a
cylindrical vessel, invented by Mr. Newcomen, of Dartmouth, had been
used at least on one mine, called the Great Work, in Breage, when Mr.
Lemon came forward, gifted with the ability and the energy which
enabled him to anticipate, by nearly half a century, everything that
could add to the wealth and to the prosperity of his native county.
Mr. Lemon first associating himself with Mr. George Blewett, of
Marasion, and with Mr. Dewen, commenced working a mine on a farm
called Trowel, in the parish of Luddvan, the property of Lord
Godolphin, and named Whele Fortune, where the second steam-engine was
used. Capital was of course requisite for the undertaking, and that is
said to have been supplied to Mr. Lemon by his marriage. It appears,
from the register of Gulval, that “William Lemon and Isabel Vibert
were married April the 22d, 1724.” The Viberts were among what are
termed the good lines in Gulval parish, and Mrs. Lemon had recently
succeeded by will to the property of Mrs. Elizabeth Noles her
godmother, and probably relation, who had acquired a fortune by some
business at Chiandower.
But fortune, except perhaps for its timely supply of capital, was the
least of Mrs. Lemon’s recommendations; uniform report has represented
her as entirely worthy of the very extraordinary person to whom she
was united.
Mr. Lemon is said to have gained from Whele Fortune ten thousand
pounds; and, thus enabled to execute more extensive plans, he removed
to Truro, and commenced working the great Gwennap mines, on a scale
never witnessed before, and perhaps never contemplated, in Cornwall.
Cavnon Adit was either actually commenced, or at the least was
effectually prosecuted, by Mr. Lemon; a work unrivalled for extent or
for utility in the mines of England, and his exertions increasing as
his means enlarged, Mr. Lemon soon became the principal merchant and
tin-smelter of Cornwall. But the energies of his mind were not limited
to these undertakings, great as they were; he cultivated a taste for
literature, and, what is extremely unusual, acquired, amidst business,
and at a middle age, the power of reading the Classic authors in their
original language. In the year 1742, we find his name in the list of
Sheriffs. He became one of the magistrates of Truro, and might have
represented the borough in Parliament. He obtained from Government a
drawback of the duty on coal used in mines, when Sir Robert Walpole,
then at the head of public affairs, complimented him on the clear and
able manner in which he had made every statement; and a present of
silver plate from Frederick Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall, is
preserved in his family.
About the same time he was mainly distinguished as “the great Mr.
Lemon;” but, above all, so strongly were the impressions received of
his abilities, his exertions, and general merit, that a progress so
rapid and unexampled does not appear to have excited envy, or any of
those bad passions which usually alloy the enjoyments of prosperity.
Mr. and Mrs. Lemon had but one son, and no daughters. Mr. William
Lemon, Jun. married Ann, only daughter of Mr. John Willyams, of
Cannerton, near St. Colomb, and sister of the late Mr. John Oliver
Willyams, many years Colonel of the Cornwall Militia. He died at an
early period of life, and several years before his father, who lived
to the 25th of March 1760, and is buried in Truro church, where he had
built by far the largest and most decorated house in the town. He had
also purchased and improved Carclew, since become the family seat.
The younger Mr. William Lemon left two sons and a daughter. The elder
of the sons, Sir William, represented the County of Cornwall in
Parliament during fifty years, and commanded the regiment of militia.
The second son, John, became a Colonel in the Guards, represented
Truro, and commanded the Miners’ Militia. The daughter married Mr.
John Buller, of Morval, near Looe.
As instances of the respect paid to the commanding genius of Mr.
Lemon, the people of Truro are said to have drawn back from their
doors or windows as he passed through the street. And the Rev. Samuel
Walker, a respectable although a fanatical clergyman, exhorting the
children to be circumspect in the presence of Almighty God,
incautiously added, “Only think, my dear children, how careful you
would be if Mr. Lemon were looking upon you.”
The parish of Germow measures 1,062 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1,373 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 180 11 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 629 | 735 | 830 | 1175
giving an increase of 87 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The geology of this parish is identical with that of Breage, of which
in fact it forms a part, occupying only a segment of the Godolphin
Hills.
ST. GENNYS.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north the
Irish sea, west St. Juliot, east Jacobstow, south Otterham.
In Domesday Roll, 20 William I. 1087, this district was taxed under
the jurisdiction of Otterham. In the taxation of benefices, made by
the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the value of
benefices in Cornwall, Ecclesia de Sancto Genesy, in Decanatu de
Trigmajorshire, is rated c._s._; Vicar ejusdem £iiii. vi_s._ viii_d._
In Wolsey’s Inquisition and Valor Beneficiorum, St. Genis is taxed £8.
The patronage in ――――. The incumbent Crew. The rectory or sheaf in
possession of ―――― and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land
Tax, 1696, £160. 6_s._
TONKIN
has not added any thing to the little said by Mr. Hals.
THE EDITOR.
It seems to be quite uncertain to whom this parish is dedicated.
There was a St. Genesius, or St. Genes, of Auvergne in France; he
exterminated heresies and founded monasteries. His festival is kept on
the third of June, and he is said to have died in the year 662. Such
were the heroes of those days, and therefore he may possibly have been
selected as patron of this church.
Mr. Lysons states that Treveeg, formerly a seat of the Yeos, is now
the property of Lord Eliot, and that the great tithes, with the
advowson of the vicarage, have passed to him with the priory of St.
German’s.
The Yeos were persons of consequence in the north of Cornwall and of
Devonshire; they bore arms, Argent, a chevron Gules, between three
birds.
Mr. Lysons further states that the manor of St. Gennis was for some
time the property of Treise, from whom it passed by marriage to
Morshead. It must since have been sold in the general wreck of that
family.
Lord Rolle has also a manor in this parish. And another manor, called
Treworgy, (a name common in Cornwall, and meaning a house or village
on a stream,) belonged to the Priory of Canons of the Order of St.
Augustine, founded at Launceston by William Warlewast, Bishop of
Exeter from 1150 to 1159, in the time of King Stephen and of Henry the
2d.
Treworgy appears among the lands of this priory in the roll of 31
Henry VIII. preserved in the Augmentation Office; where it is stated
as then paying the following sums, £4. 13_s._ 7_d._, £3. 17_s._, and
6_s._ 8_d._
This is one of the manors given to the Duchy of Cornwall, in exchange
for the manor of Wallingford, and it has been held for a long time
under the Duchy by the family of Braddon.
One of this family, Captain William Braddon, was an officer of some
distinction on the Parliamentary side in the Civil War. He is buried
in the chancel of this church, where some verses to his memory begin
with these lines:
In war and peace I bore command,
Both gown and sword I wore.
Henry Braddon, his son, or grandson, has the following verses:
In peace I lived, and in peace did die,
And now translated am to peace on high;
Where I in peace perpetual shall remain,
Until the Prince of Peace return again.
This parish is said to afford an excellent specimen of the romantic
scenery distinguishing many portions of the north coast, from
Cornwall, through Devonshire, to Somersetshire. The cliffs are bold,
and the land is intersected by deep narrow vallies.
The parish of St. Gennys measures 5350 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2,562 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 308 2 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 597 | 658 | 680 | 761
giving an increase of 27½ per cent. in 30 years.
The Rev. John Symmons, Vicar, was presented by Sir W. Molesworth in
1783.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The whole of this parish is situated on the massive and schistose
varieties of Dunstone, which are so prevalent in the northern parts of
Cornwall and Devon. The Dunstone is in general very silicious, and it
thus constitutes high and barren hills. A very curious variety of this
rock occurs at Tresparret Down. It is in a state of decomposition, but
when it is broken numerous hard rounded nodules fall out, having
uniformly small crystals of pyrites in their centres. The same rock,
in an unaltered state, forms the cliff on the left side of Crackington
Cave, near the church, where it is inclined at an angle of 40°, having
the entire surface covered with projecting nodules, which give it a
blistered appearance not unlike that of hæmatites.
GLANT, GOLANT, OR ST. SAMPSON’S.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north
Lanlivery, east part of Foye Harbour, south Foye town, west Tywardreth.
At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was taxed under the
name of Tywardreth, or Lan-tine. In the taxation of benefices made by
the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, in this province, the
church is not named, probably it was not then extant, or not endowed;
neither is it mentioned in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, or Valor
Beneficiorum, so that I take it to be wholly impropriated under
Tywardreth. However, 24 Henry VI. St. Sampson’s was rated to the
Cornish clergy’s fifteenths 35_s._ Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page
91. It was endowed by the prior of Tywardreth. The patronage now in
Barret, the curate or vicar Hosken, the sheaf or rectory in Barrett.
The parish of St. Sampson’s was rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax,
1696, temp. William III. £103. 2_s._
Pen-coit, alias Pen-coid, alias Pen-quite, all synonymous words,
signifying head or chief wood, or head of the wood, is a name given
and taken from the once natural circumstances of the place, from
whence was denominated an ancient family of gentlemen, surnamed de
Pencoit. And here lived John de Pencoit, temp. Henry III. and Edward
I. who held one acre of land in Lamellyn of 5_s._ price, (that is to
say a Cornish acre, consisting of 60 statute acres) for making and
keeping the king’s grey coat when he came into Cornwall, due out of
Cabulion, from Peter, the son of Orger. [Carew’s Sur. Corn. p. 45. See
also Pengelly in St. Breock, Pyder, and Warliggan.]
This barton is now the dwelling of John Barret, esq. Sheriff of
Cornwall 3 William III. whose ancestor is said to have come out of
Normandy with William the Conqueror, 1066, an ensign under Colonel
Henry de Ferrers, commonly called Henry Earl Ferrars, son of Wakelyn;
to whom the Conqueror gave the castles of Tutbury in Staffordshire,
and Oncomb in Rutlandshire. Since which time this gentle family of
Barrets have flourished in this county in good fame and reputation for
above twenty descents. The present possessor of Pencoit married
Kendall of Medroff, and giveth for his arms, Gules, a bend Varry.
In this parish is the dwelling of Reginald Couch, gent. Attorney at
Law, that married Vincent of Creed; his father, Hawkey of St. Wenowe.
TONKIN.
How these names of Glant or Golant prevailed over that of St. Sampson
I am not able to determine, unless perhaps it was the primitive name
thereof before the parish church was erected, consecrated, and endowed
to God under the name of St. Sampson. For in Cardinal Wolsey’s
Inquisition, and in Carew’s Survey, it is called St. Sampson.
The name Golant is obviously compounded of Gol, holy, and of lan, a
church. (Mr. Whitaker remarks that Y-Gol, by the Holy One, is still an
oath in Cornwall.)
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Hals has given a very long and uninteresting account of St.
Sampson, the patron saint of Golant, involving a dissertation on the
antiquity of archbishops.
He is reported to have commenced his ecclesiastical career by the
practice of ascetic observances, in due time he became the chief of a
monastic institution, from whence he was taken to be Archbishop of
York; but the north of England being at that time ravaged by the
northern pirates, he was driven from thence, and going over into
Brittany he founded a monastery at Dal, and became the first Bishop of
that place, where a see was created at his request by Pope Pelegius
the First, who honoured him moreover personally with the pallium or
pale. He was present at the Second Council of Paris, held in 557, and
died about the year 564. His remains were enshrined at Dal, but when
the Normans began in the tenth century to invade and pillage Neustria,
these barbarians, equally hostile to the saint alive or dead, obliged
his brethren to remove the relics to Paris, where they are supposed to
have been preserved up to the period of the great revolution.
Penquite was acquired by purchase about the beginning or towards the
middle of last century from the Prestwoods, by Mr. Rashleigh, of
Menwhilly, by whom a perpetual lease was soon after granted in favour
of a relation, which has since passed through various hands.
Mr. Lysons says that the manor of Lentyon in this parish, belonged to
the Montacutes Earls of Salisbury.
It appears from Dugdale’s Baronage that this property was seized by
king Henry VIII., on his judicial murder of the last Plantagenet,
Margaret Countess of Salisbury. It now belongs to Mr. William
Rashleigh, who is impropriator of the great and small tithes, and
appoints the perpetual curate, in right of the monastery of
Tywardreth.
A castle is said to have belonged to this manor, but no traces of it
remain; the appellation seems indeed to have been very loosely applied
in the latter part of our feudal times, so as frequently to indicate
no more than the residence of a chief.
The village round the church, or, according to the expression used in
Cornwall, “the church town,” is always called Golant. The houses are
situated in a romantic cross valley, nearly where it terminates in
Fowey River.
The inhabitants boast that in this village was established the first
boarding-school for young ladies that appeared in Cornwall, and they
call the attention of visitors to these peculiarities connected with
this church:――“That it has a fire-place within it; that a well of
water flows over in the porch; and that a tree in the churchyard
o’ertops the tower.”
This parish measures 1340 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1874 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 185 5 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 164 | 186 | 248 | 314
giving an increase of 86 per cent. in 30 years.
The Rev. Thomas Pearse was presented to St. Sampson’s chapel in
1815, by W. Rashleigh, Esq.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The rocks of this parish are intermediate between those of the
porphyritic and calcareous series: on the northern part passing into
the former, which are better developed as they pass on towards the
granite in Tywardrath; on the southern part the rocks begin to assume
the character of the calcareous series, which is complete in Fowey.
GLUVIAS.
HALS.
Is situated in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north
Peran-Arwothan, east Mylor, west Mabe, south Budock. Here was an
endowed church or chapel, or place of jurisdiction, before the Norman
conquest; for in the Domesday Roll, 20 William I. 1087, Gluvias is
rated as such. In the taxation of benefices in Cornwall, made by the
Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia de Sancto Gluviano,
in Decanatu de Penryn, is rated xl_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521,
it is valued together with Budock, in 21_l._ 16_s._ 9_d._; before
which time it seems those churches were united and consolidated by the
Bishops of Exeter, the patrons and endowers thereof; the incumbent
Collyer; the rectory, or sheaf, in possession of Enys; and the parish
rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 132_l._ 11_s._
Roscrow is the dwelling of Alexander Pendarves, Esq. that married the
Lady Dorothy Burke, daughter of the Earl of Clanricarde, and
afterwards the daughter of Colonel Granville; his father Carew, his
grandfather St. Aubyn, his great-grandfather (Roberts of Truro); viz.
Samuel Pendarves, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall, 19th James I. who gave for
his arms, Sable, a falcon rising between three mullets Or; originally
descended from the Pendarves of Pendarves, or Constenton, as I am
informed.
Roscrow gave name and origin to an old family of gentlemen surnamed
Roscrow, whose heir, about the time of Richard II. was married to one
of the Seneschalls of Holland, where John de Seneschall held by the
tenure of knight’s service part of a knight’s fee of land, 3 Henry IV.
(See CAREW’S Survey of Cornwall, p. 40.) from whence it appears also
that Luke, the son of Bernard Seneschallus, was by letters mandatory,
or a mandamus, made one of the Barons of the Exchequer, by King
Richard I. (See his arms under GWENDRON.)
Innis, Enys, Ennis, is an island or place encircled with water, in
this place to be construed as a river island; where two rivers in
their confluence meet, and shape the land between them in form of a
corner, or triangle; from which place was denominated an old British
family of gentlemen now in possession thereof, surnamed Enys;
particularly John Enys, Esq. that married the inheritrix of Gregor of
Truro, his father Pendarves, his grandfather Winifred, daughter and
coheiress of Thomas Price, of Trewardreva; and giveth for his arms,
Argent, three water enets Vert, creatures frequently seen in the
rivers by which those lands are insulated.
A great number of places, or lands, in Cornwall, under the like
circumstances, are from thence denominated Enys, Ennis, and Ennys in
St. Erme, Roach, Luxsilian, Peransand, taken some times with other
words.
Gosose river, in this parish (the slow-wood river), situate upon
Gosose creek of the sea: from whence was denominated Gosose tenement,
the native place of Captain Henry Carverth (i. e. rock-strength, or
car-veth, rock-grave), who being bred to sea affairs and navigation in
his youth, was taken into the service of King Charles II. in the
beginning of his Dutch and French war, 1665, to whom he gave the
command of a frigate, in the several engagements of the Dukes of York
and Albemarle in their sea-fights with those nations; wherein he
demeaned himself so well in point of valour and conduct, that after
those wars were ended he was chosen one of the standing Captains under
the Earl of Ossory, for which he received about 300_l._ per annum
salary, during his life, which ended about the year 1684, when he had
a military interment in this church: who dying without legitimate
issue, left his brother, Thomas Carveth, of this place, gentleman, his
heir and executor, who giveth for his arms, Argent, a chevron between
three talbots Sable. Those gentlemen, from living at Carveth, or
Carverth, in Mabe, were transnominated from Thoms to Carverth; as
another family of those Thomses, from living at Carnsew, in the said
parish, were transnominated to Carnsew; and there are some deeds yet
extant dated tempore Henry VIII. which will evidence the truth of this
fact, as Mr. Carverth told me.
Between the parishes of Budock and Gluvias, on a promontory of land
shooting into the sea creek of Falmouth harbour, between two vales and
hills, where the tide daily makes its flux and reflux, stands the
ancient borough of Penrin, or Penryn, a name given and taken from the
natural circumstances of the place; and by the name of Penrin it was
taxed as the voke lands of a considerable manor in Domesday Roll, 20
William I. 1087. (See BRIN, BRYN, in WITHELL.)
This place I take to be the Οκρινυμ (Ocrinum) of Ptolemy. The town was
a privileged manor, with a court leet, before the Norman Conquest; and
in the year 1230 King Henry III. granted a charter to William Brewer,
Bishop of Exeter, then lord thereof, as his successors still are, in
right of the bishopric of Bodman, or Cornwall, long before annexed to
Exeter. (See more in LANWHITTON.) It was also incorporated by King
James I. by another charter, consisting of a Mayor, Recorder, and
Portreeve, eleven Magistrates, and twelve Assistants; with liberty to
send two of its members to sit in the Commons’ House of Parliament, to
be elected by the majority of those that are freemen, and pay rates
and taxes. It is also, amongst many other things, appurtenanced with
markets weekly, upon Wednesdays and Saturdays; fairs on May 1, July 7,
December 21; and of old had free warren in all the King’s lands. The
arms of this town are a Saracen’s head couped at the shoulder, and
crowned, or environed, with a laurel.
The precept from the Sheriff on the Parliament writ, as also to remove
an action at law depending in this leet to a superior court, must be
thus directed: “Majori et Burgensibus Burgi sui de Penrin in Comitatu
Cornubiæ salutem,” otherwise, “Proposito, Ballivis, et Burgensibus
Burgi sui de Penryn;” and to remove an action from the court leet of
Penryn foreign: “Senescallo et Ballivis manerij de Penrin forreigne
salutem.”
But, alas! notwithstanding all its privileges, our Cornish historian,
Mr. Carew, in his time, tells us that on the top of a creek Penrin
town hath taken up its seat; rather passable than notable for wealth,
buildings, or inhabitants. Though now, _tempore_ Charles II. I take it
to be much altered for the better in these particulars, and to be
parallel with, or equal therein, with any other town in Cornwall. And,
moreover, I look upon it as the most commodious, pleasantly situated,
and healthful borough within that province, it being situated upon a
hill, and having continually passing through its streets a useful
river of water, and through the gardens and orchards of the town,
behind the street-houses on each side, pass two considerable
mill-leats, or rivers of water, met daily by the flux and reflux of
the sea.
Where, on the south of this town, on one of those rivers, Walter
Brounscomb, Bishop of Exeter, 1260, at a place called Glasnith, or
green-ford, so named from the estuaries, or ebbing and flowing of the
sea under it, founded and endowed a collegiate church of Black Canons,
or Canons Augustine, that could not marry wives, consisting of twelve
prebends and a dean; “Clerici tresdecem, personæ discretæ,” are the
very words of the leger book of its foundation; and then endowed and
confirmed all by a charter in these words, as translated from Bishop
Brounscomb’s original Latin.
“To give to God, the blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Thomas of
Canterbury, in Budock, Penryn, and Glasnith College, and his
thirteen canonical brothers and their successors, all lands,
woods, meadows, waters, pastures, mills, laws, rents, and courts,
and all things to the same pertaining, to possess, have, hold,
and enjoy for ever. This agrees with the register,
ROBERT MICHELL, Register, 1611.”
Afterwards this collegiate church, thus founded and endowed, and
dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of
Canterbury, received a greater augmentation of wealth, lands, and
revenues from John Grandison, Bishop of Exeter, 1358, who had
persuaded all rich priests of his diocese to make him his heir and
executor, in order to build and endow churches with their riches;
which trust, in a great measure, he performed to his lasting credit
and renown; so that at length, amongst others, this collegiate
church’s yearly revenues, at the suppression, 26 Henry VIII. was
valued at 205_l._ 10_s._ 6_d._ according to Speed and Dugdale’s
Monasticon Anglicanum, now worth 1200_l._
This collegiate church is now entirely demolished. Since the beginning
of this century there was one of its towers standing, but it is lately
pulled down, and a dwelling-house built in the place where it stood.
Bishop Brounscomb died 1280, and lies buried in his cathedral church
of Exeter.
The chief inhabitants of this town of Penrin are Mr. Hallamore, Mr.
Worth, Mr. Hearle, Mr. Kempe, Mr. Bloyse, Mr. Melhuish, Mr. Vellhuish.
The Lady Jane Killigrew, of Arwinick (see FALMOUTH), for some
protection and favour shewn her in her troubles by the Mayor of this
town, gave a silver cup and cover to the Mayor of this town and his
successors for ever, containing about three quarts, and about 12_l._
value, whereon is this inscription: “From Mayor to Mayor, to the town
of Penryn, when they received me in great misery.
JANE KILLYGREW, 1613.” (of which before).
TONKIN.
After transcribing, with little variation, what has been stated from
Mr. Hals, Mr. Tonkins adds,
Enis, in this parish, gave name to an old family of gentlemen from
thence, denominated de Enis; that is to say, of this island; for
innis, ennis, enys, signify in Cornish, an island, and also a tongue
of land where two rivers meet.
John Enys, Esq. acquired a great flow of wealth by his marriage with
Ann, only daughter of Mr. Henry Greys of Truro. His son, Samuel Enys,
is the present possessor of the estate; he married Dorothy, daughter
of Thomas Willis, of London, merchant, and has lately succeeded to a
considerable fortune by the decease of her two brothers, Sir Thomas
and Sir William Willis, of Fen Ditton, in Cambridgeshire, Baronets,
the last in the year 1733. This gentleman is in the commission of the
Peace, and was Sheriff of Cornwall, 8 Anne, A.D. 1709. He has expended
large sums of money in the improvement of his seat, as well by
enlarging the house as by making beautiful gardens.
Roscrow means clearly the valley cross; although the house stands on a
very elevated station.
The family of Pendarves settled here, have far outstripped all the
other branches in estates, and have served their country as Members of
Parliament, Commissioners of the Peace, Sheriffs, and Deputy-Lieutenants.
The arms of Pendarves are, Sab. a falcon rising Arg. between three
mullets, Or. I cannot refrain from making some remarks on Alexander
Pendarves, Esq. the last of this family.
He was Surveyor-general of the Crown and Duchy lands in Cornwall to
Queen Anne, and a Member of Parliament the greatest part of his life.
He married Mary, eldest daughter of the Honourable Bernard Grenville,
brother of Lord Lansdowne, a beautiful young lady, but she did not
bring him any children. He died in 1726, very suddenly, at his house
in London, being then a burgess for the town of Launceston. His death
was a great surprise to all his friends, and especially to me, with
whom I had taken a hearty breakfast that very morning at my aunt
Vincent’s, at Chelsea. I must add, that on the Sunday before he and I
bore up the pall to John Goodall, of Fowey, Esq. buried in St.
Margaret’s, Westminster; and that on the Sunday fortnight after, I had
the misfortune to bear up his in St. Mary’s, Savoy. He was the last
male of the family of Pendarves in this place, which, with the rest of
his property, has devolved to his niece, Mary, the only daughter and
heiress of his brother, John Pendarves, clerk, Rector of Drews
Teignton, in Devonshire, and relict of Francis Basset, of Tehidy,
Esq.; and this lady is now the possessor, paying an annuity of £.400
a-year to her uncle’s widow. But before I leave this place I must not
forget to give this just character of my deceased friend, with whom I
had the honour to serve as burgess for Helston, in Queen Anne’s last
Parliament; that for good humour, good sense, for a true and sincere
adherence to the interests of his country, and for a harmless merry
disposition, he hath left not many his equals, and none that exceed
him, in this county.
This parish takes its name from the saint to whom the church is
dedicated.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Hals gives a very improbable etymology for the name of this
parish, deriving it from the Cornish verb, _glewas_, to hear, which he
quotes from the 12th stanza of Mount Calvary.
An ger a Du maga del wrei neb vynno tro glewas.
Lavar Du maga del wrei neb a vynno y glewas.
The word (of) God feed so will do (he) who is willing to hear,
The first line is transcribed from Mr. Hals, the second is the line as
it stands in the MS. from which the editor of this work has printed
Mount Calvary.
The Editor has not been able to find any traces of St. Gluvias, but
these may have easily disappeared amidst the throng of our provincial
hierarchy.
The borough of Penryn, with enlarged limits, has been united with
Falmouth in sending two Members to Parliament under the constitution
of 1832. Of the principal inhabitants noticed by Mr. Hals, the Hearles
had risen into most importance. They were the younger branch of a
family said to have migrated into Cornwall, and to have settled at
Prideaux, in Luxulian, and afterwards at Trelawn, in Pelynt, usually
written Trelawny, since it was purchased by a gentleman of that name.
The last Mr. Hearle, of Penryn, married the heiress of Paynter, of
Trelisick, in St. Erth; and having lost an only son, his daughters
became coheiresses, who married Mr. Rodd, of Trebartha, the Rev. Henry
Hawkins Tremayne, and Captain Wallis of the R. N.
Enys is now the property of John Samuel Enys, Esq. where his family
are ascertained, by authentic documents, to have been seated from
times far back in the reign of the Plantagenets, and probably from
periods antecedent to them. Samuel Enys represented Penryn in the
first Parliament of Charles II. and they appear in every page of our
list of Sheriffs. Mr. Enys has built an excellent new house on the
foundation of the old; and very recently (1834) he has married
Catherine Gilbert, the Editor’s eldest daughter.
The manor of Cosawis, or Gosose, was a part of the large possessions
taken from the Bodrugons by Henry VII. and given by him to Sir Richard
Edgecumbe, whose descendant, Lord Mount Edgecumbe, parted with it to
the late Sir William Lemon.
But a farm called Bohelland has for two centuries continued to excite
great curiosity and attention on account of its having been the place
where events occurred in real life more horrible than the most heated
and gloomy imagination could well invent. Mr. Lysons refers to a small
pamphlet of eight leaves, printed in black letter, and accompanied
with several wood-cuts, entitled, “News from Perin, in Cornwall, of a
most bloody and unexampled Murder, &c.” but not having given any clue
for finding it, the Editor has examined several public libraries
without success. The following narrative has, however, been extracted
from a work entitled “The Reign and Death of King James, of Great
Britain:”
“He had been blessed with ample possessions and fruitful issue,
unhappy only in a younger son, who taking liberty from his
father’s bounty, and with a crew of like condition, that wearied
on land, they went roving to sea, and in a small vessel
southward, took boot from all they could master, and so
increasing force and wealth, ventured on a Turk’s man in the
Streights; but by mischance their own powder fired themselves,
and our gallant, trusting to his skilful swimming, got on shore
upon Rhodes, with the best of his jewels about him; where
offering some to sale to a Jew, who knew them to be the
Governor’s of Algier, he was apprehended, and, as a pirate,
sentenced to the gallies among other Christians, whose miserable
slavery made them all studious of freedom, and with wit and
valour took opportunity and means to murther some officers, got
on board of an English ship, and came safe to London; where his
misery, and some skill, made him servant to a surgeon, and sudden
preferment to the East Indies. There, by this means he got money;
with which returning back, he designed himself for his native
county, Cornwall. And in a small ship from London, sailing to the
west, was cast away upon that coast. But his excellent skill in
swimming, and former fate to boot, brought him safe to shore;
where, since his fifteen years’ absence, his father’s former
fortunes much decayed, now retired him not far off to a country
habitation, in debt and danger.
“His sister he finds married to a mercer, a meaner match than her
birth promised. To her, at first, he appears a poor stranger, but
in private reveals himself, and withall what jewels and gold he
had concealed in a bow-case about him; and concluded that the
next day he intended to appear to his parents, and to keep his
disguise till she and her husband should meet, and make their
common joy complete.
“Being come to his parents, his humble behaviour, suitable to his
suit of clothes, melted the old couple to so much compassion as
to give him covering from the cold season under their outward
roof, and by degrees his travelling tales, told with passion to
the aged people, made him their guest so long by the kitchen
fire, that the husband took leave and went to bed. And soon after
his true stories working compassion in the weaker vessel, she
wept, and so did he; but compassionate of her tears, he comforted
her with a piece of gold, which gave assurance that he deserved a
lodging, to which she brought him; and being in bed, shewed her
his girdled wealth, which he said was sufficient to relieve her
husband’s wants, and to spare for himself, and being very weary
fell fast asleep.
“The wife, tempted with the golden bait of what she had, and
eager of enjoying all, awakened her husband with this news, and
her contrivance what to do; and though with horrid apprehension
he oft refused, yet her puling fondness (Eve’s enchantments)
moved him to consent, and rise to be master of all, and both of
them to murder the man, which instantly they did; covering the
corpse under the clothes till opportunity to convey it out of the
way.
“The early morning hastens the sister to her father’s house,
where she, with signs of joy, enquires for a sailor that should
lodge there the last night; the parents slightly denied to have
seen any such, until she told them that he was her brother, her
lost brother; by that assured scar upon his arm, cut with a sword
in his youth she knew him; and were all resolved this morning to
meet there and be merry.
“The father hastily runs up, finds the mark, and with horrid
regret of this monstrous murther of his own son, with the same
knife cuts his own throat.
“The wife went up to consult with him, where in a most strange
manner beholding them both in blood, wild and aghast, with the
instrument at hand, readily rips herself up, and perishes on the
same spot.
“The daughter, doubting the delay of their absence, searches for
them all, whom she found out too soon; with the sad sight of this
scene, and being overcome with horror and amaze of this deluge of
destruction, she sank down and died; the fatal end of that
family.
“The truth of which was frequently known, and flew to court in
this guise; but the imprinted relation conceals their names, in
favour to some neighbour of repute and kin to that family. The
same sense makes me therein silent also.”
These dreadful events have been wrought into a drama by Lillo, the
author of George Barnwell; and if terror and pity form the essential
bases of tragedy, the “Fatal Curiosity” is built on a most ample
foundation; the sister, of course, changes her character to heighten
the effect, but in other respects the play scarcely differs from the
actual course of events.
The celebrated Mr. Harris of Salisbury, has given the following
account of this drama in his last work, entitled, “Philological
Inquiries.”
“A long lost son, returning home unexpectedly, finds his parents
alive, but perishing with indigence.
“The young man, whom from his long absence his parents never
expected, discovers himself to an amiable friend, his long-loved
Charlotte, and with her concerts the manner how to discover
himself to his parents.
“It is agreed that he should go to their house, and there remain
unknown till Charlotte should arrive and make the happy
discovery.
“He goes thither accordingly, and having by a letter of
Charlotte’s been admitted, converses, though unknown, both with
father and mother, and beholds their misery with filial
affection; complains, at length, he was fatigued (which, in fact,
he really was), and begs he may be admitted for a while to
repose. Retiring he delivers a casket to his mother, and tells
her it is a deposit she must guard till he awake.
“CURIOSITY tempts her to open the casket, when she is dazzled
with the splendour of innumerable jewels. Objects so alluring
suggest bad ideas; and poverty soon gives to those ideas a
sanction. Black as they are, she communicates them to her
husband; who, at first reluctant, is at length persuaded, and for
the sake of the jewels stabs the stranger while he sleeps.
“The fatal murder is perpetrating, or at least but barely
perpetrated, when Charlotte arrives, full of joy, to inform them
that the stranger within their walls was their long-lost son.
“What a discovery? What a revolution? How irresistibly are the
tragic passions of terror and pity excited?”
It is no small praise to this affecting fable that it so much
resembles the Œdipus Tyrannus of Sophocles. In both tragedies, that
which apparently leads to joy, leads in its completion to misery; both
tragedies concur in the horror of their discoveries, and both in those
great outlines of a truly tragic revolution, where (according to the
nervous sentiment of Lillo himself) we see
―――――――――――― the two extremes of life,
The highest happiness and deepest woe,
With all the sharp and bitter aggravations
Of such a vast transition.
It is a very curious circumstance that the name of these wretched
people, having been kept back at first from compassion towards their
relatives, it is now actually unknown.
This parish has been peculiarly fortunate in its succession of
clergymen. The Rev. John Penrose, who died in 1776, after being
thirty-five years Vicar, has left the reputation of learning, of
piety, and of all the virtues which adorn a clergyman. Mr. Temple bore
a very high reputation as a man of letters; Mr. Howell was universally
esteemed; and the present vicar, Mr. Sheepshanks, ranked in the first
lists of science and of literature at Cambridge, and became a
distinguished tutor in a college, which continues to support the rank
bestowed upon it by the greatest of philosophers.
The town, lying on the back of a sharp ridge of land dividing two deep
vallies, has great beauty of situation, and deserves in other respects
the praises bestowed by Mr. Tonkin. To travellers, however, all the
circumstances are quite different; the main street descending with the
ridge is scarcely safe for carriages; and the great road from London
through Truro to Falmouth, passing directly across the ridge, has to
go up and then down through streets so steep and narrow, and in parts
so turned, as to make the safe-passage of the mail-coach a matter of
wonder; these defects have been, however, completely remedied by a
road carried round the point and accommodated with a drawbridge; thus
reducing the road to a level, and preserving the communication by
water; this improvement was made about the year 1830.
This parish measures 2,271 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815
The Parish £.3951 0 0 }
The Town 5117 0 0 } 9068 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831,
The Parish 584 3 0 }
The Town 1162 8 0 } 1746 11 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
The Parish { 624 | 714 | 745 | 969
The Town { 2324 | 2713 | 2933 | 3521
{ -------+----------+----------+---------
{ 2948 | 3427 | 3678 | 4490
giving an increase on the Parish of 55⅓, on the Town 51½,
on both 52¼,――per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Sheepshanks, collated by
the Bishop of Exeter in 1824.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The western side of this parish skirts along the boundary of the
granite of Mabe; but it does not extend on this rock, with the
exception of a small triangular space near Chywoon, at its northern
corner. The rest of the parish lies on felspar rocks, both slaty and
massive; some of which contain hornblende, whence it passes into green
stone.
These felspar rocks, when they are disintegrated, afford a soil which
is covered with luxuriant vegetation, forming a striking contrast with
the utter barrenness of the adjacent granite.
GORAN.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north St. Ewe,
east Mevaguisey, south the British Channel. By this name it was taxed
in Domesday Roll, 20th William I. 1087. Also in the Inquisition of the
Bishops of Lincoln, &c. into the value of Cornish benefices, 1294,
Ecclesia Sancti Goran in Decanatu de Powdre, was valued in vi_l._
xiii_s._ iiii_d._ Vicar ibidem, xxvi_s._ viii_d._ In Wolsey’s
Inquisition, 1521, it was rated by the same name of Goran at 20_l._
The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, who endowed it; and when it was
made a Vicarage reserved to him and his successors 100_l._ per annum
rent out of the garb, or sheaf, which is in the possession of
Ratcliff. The Incumbent Shapter. And the parish rated to the 4_s._ per
pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. by the name of Goran, 317_l._
14_s._ This, undoubtedly, was an endowed church before the Norman
Conquest, or, at least, a privileged manor, since it appears from that
time to this it hath not admitted of any mutation of name.
Goran-hoane, in this parish, signifies Goran-haven, bay, winding of
the sea, or harbour. A place much frequented by ships, boats, barges,
and lighters, for fishing and carrying and re-carrying fish, goods,
and merchandizes; and wherein is a convenient quay, or landing-place,
for that purpose, made secure by a considerable promontory of land
that shoots far out into the sea on the west side thereof, commonly
called (for what reason I have not learned) the Dead-man; which forms
a large bay, or winding bosom of the sea, on the east, betwixt it and
Ram Head, twenty miles distant; and such another west, to the Lizard
Point, at a like distance, all notable and well-known places, and
sea-marks to such mariners as navigate the British Channel in those
parts. In this haven town is still extant the ruins of an ancient free
chapel, wherein God was duly worshipped in former ages by the
inhabitants of the place.
The barton of Bo-drig-ham, or Bod-rig-an, also Botrigan (for in
British _d_ and _t_ are indifferently used and pronounced for each
other) gave name and origin to an old family of gentlemen surnamed de
Bodrigham, or Bodrigan, also Botrigan, who flourished here in great
fame, wealth, and reputation for several descents; and in particular
here lived Otho de Bodrigan, temp. 17th Edward II. of whom we read in
Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 51: viz. “Otto de Bodrugan peregrinatus
est ad San. Jacobum licentia Domini Regis;” i. e. Otho de Bodrigan, by
license of our Lord the King, is gone a pilgrimage to St. James; that
is to say, to the apostle St. James’s Church, at Compostella, in
Spain; who had for his fellow-traveller Radolphus de Belloprato, “qui
peregrinatus est cum Ottone de Bodrigan, cum licentia Regis, pro se et
duobus valectis;” that is to say, Ralph of the fair meadow, who by
license of the King for himself and two servants, or young gentlemen,
is gone a pilgrimage with Otho of Bodrigan. And of those it follows,
in the same page, “isti prænominati habent 40 libras terræ et redditus
per ann.;” that is to say, held by the tenure of knight’s service.
This Otho de Bodrigan, Sheriff of Cornwall, 3d Richard II. anno Dom.
1400, gave for his arms (as appears yet on the door of this house),
Argent, three bends or bendlets Gules. And as a further testimony
thereof, Nicholas Upton, in his Latin Manuscript of Heraldry, written
before printing was invented (now in my custody), said of his son,
1440, “Monsieur William Bodrigham port de Argent trois bends de
Gules;” who dying without issue, his two sisters became his heirs; the
one married to Champernowne, of Halewin, or Haleworth, who in her
right held in this place by the tenure of knight’s service, 3d Henry
IV. a Knight’s fee of land (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall).
His other sister, as tradition saith, was married to Trenowith, who
thereupon discontinued his own paternal name and arms, viz. in a field
Argent, on a fess Sable, three chevrons transverse (to the dexter) of
the Field; and assumed those of Bodrigan. He had issue by her Henry
Trenowith, or Bodrigham, temp. Henry VI. who married Jane, sixth
daughter of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, slain 8th Edward IV.
1469, the relict of Thomas Viscount Lisle, and by her had issue. He
was knighted by King Edward IV. or King Richard III. by the name of
Sir Henry Bodrigham; who siding with King Richard III. at the battle
of Bosworth Field (where he, the said King Richard, was slain by the
Earl of Richmond’s soldiers), he was therefore, with many others,
attainted of treason against King Henry VII.; and in order to shun
justice he made his escape after the battle aforesaid, and secretly
repaired to this place, where he was kept close for a season, but not
so private but King Henry’s officers got notice thereof, and at an
appointed time beset the same in quest of him; which he understanding,
by a back-door fled from thence, and ran down the hills to the sea
cliff near the same, the officers pursuing so quick after him that he
could not possibly make his escape. As soon therefore as he came to
the cliff, about a hundred feet high, he leaped down into the sea,
upon the little grassy island there, without much hurt or damage;
where instantly a boat which he had prepared in the cove, attended him
there, which transported him to a ship that carried him into France.
Which astonishing fact, and place, is to this day well known and
remembered by the name of Harry Bodrigan’s leap, or jump. But
notwithstanding his own escape beyond the seas, this lordship and his
whole estate were forfeited and seized by King Henry VII. for
attainder of treason; and the greatest part thereof he settled upon
Sir Richard Edgcumb and his heirs for ever; whose posterity are still
in possession thereof. This Sir Richard Edgcumb, not long before, on
suspicion of being confederated with the Earl of Richmond against King
Richard III. (as tradition saith), was shrewdly sought after and
pursued by means of this very Sir Henry Bodrigan, in order to be taken
into custody, who from his house at Cotehele, made also a wonderful
escape thence, and got into France, to the Earl of Richmond; of which
see more in Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 114 (p. 270, Lord
Dunstanville’s edition), so unavoidable a thing is fortune or destiny.
Tradition tells us that there was great discord and variance between
the families of Bodrigan and the knightly family of the Haleps of
Lammoran, either upon account of private affronts or grudges, or upon
the different interests or factions, and wars between the houses of
York and Lancaster, wherein they were associated and engaged against
each other, so that as often as they met between themselves and
servants some combat or battle ensued, whereby blood was shed and the
peace broken; and they often came to each other’s gates armed in
defiance on horseback.
At Tre-garden lived John de Tregarthyn, temp. Edward I. how long
before I know not; after which his posterity in this place married
with the great inheritrixes of Pever, Chamberlayne, and Hendower, of
Court, in Branell, by which last, by the Cornwalls of that place, they
were lineally descended from Richard Earl of Cornwall, King of the
Romans, by his concubine, Joan de Valletort, widow of Sir Alexander
Oakeston. (Vide ST. STEPHEN’S.) Certainly this was an ancient, rich,
and famous family in those parts, for it appears by their seats, or
pews, in Goran church, they had the precedence or right hand of the
seats pertaining to the great family of Bodrigan, as is yet to be
seen. Thomas Tregarthyn, Esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall, 7 Henry VII.
1492, who married Hendower aforesaid, and removed to Court, in St.
Stephen’s, in Branell. He had issue by her, John Tregarthyn, Esq. and
two daughters; Margaret, the eldest, married to Richard Whiteleigh, of
Efford, in Devon, Esq. Sheriff of that county 16th Henry VII.; from
whose two daughters and heirs the Grenvilles of Stowe, and the Halses
late of Efford aforesaid, and Fentongallan, in Cornwall, are lineally
descended. Catherine, the second daughter of Thomas Tregarthyn, was
married to John Carmenow, of Fentongollan, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall
5th Henry VIII. whose posterity are extinct.
John Tregarthyn, Esq. aforesaid, son of Thomas, married Jane, daughter
of Thomas Trethyrfe, Esq. and had issue by her four daughters that
became his heirs; Mary married to Degory Grenvill, of Penheale, Esq.;
Jane to Tripcony, who passed those lands to Richard Trevanion, Esq.
(ancestor to Richard Trevanion, now in possession of this place);
Margaret, married to George Tanner, of Cullumbton, Esq. to whose share
and partage the manor of Court and Branell, in St. Stephen’s, fell;
Joan married to John Kellaway, of Egge, in Devon, Esq.; after his
death to Wadham of Merryfield, in Somerset, as appears from her
tombstone in Branscombe church, Devonshire, where is to be read and
seen those words:
“Here lyeth the body of a virtuous and ancient gentlewoman, descended
of the ancient house of the Plantagenets, some time of Cornwall,
namely, Joan, one of the daughters and coheirs of John Tregarthin, of
Tregarthyn, Esq.; she was first married to John Kellaway, Esq. who had
by her much issue. After his death she was married to John Wadham, of
Meryfield, in the county of Somerset, Esq. by whom she had children.
She lived a virtuous and godly life, and died in an honourable age, in
the year of our Lord 1581.” Now because this dark phrase, “descended
of the house of the Plantagenets,” needs a clavis to unlock it, let
the reader view the history of St. Stephen’s in Branell, and St.
Stephen’s by Saltash, and he shall find one that will do it
effectually. The arms of Tregarthin, whose name and whole family is
now extinct, were, Argent, a chevron between three escallops Sable.
The present possessor of this barton is Richard Trevanion, Esq. that
married Bond, of Earth; who had issue by her one only daughter,
married to Peter Major, of Foye, merchant, now in possession thereof,
whose names are the same as the Trevanions of Caryhayes.
Trewoola, Tre-wolla, or Tre-wole, gave name and origin to an old
family of gentlemen surnamed de Trewolla; who, in allusion to their
names, gave for their arms, Sable, three owls. This estate, in the
latter end of the reign of Charles II. was sold to Charles Trevanion,
of Cary-Hayes, Esq. for 900_l._ by John Trewolla, gentleman,
attorney-at-law, which was the last parcel of land Trewolla had to
sell of a considerable estate elsewhere, formerly sold by his
ancestors; and this place was so depressed with mortgages, statutes,
and judgments, that the whole consideration-money fell much short of
paying his creditors, and the incumbrances that were upon it; so that,
in order to make a clear title to the purchaser, several of Trewolla’s
creditors came to a loss, and in particular, James Hals, of Merthyr,
Gent. and Martha his wife, who had a statute staple for 700_l._ on
those lands, who, to comply with Trewolla’s bad circumstances, on Mr.
Trevanion’s paying them 250_l._ he and his wife levied a fine thereon,
and executed a deed, then declaring the uses thereof to be for the
only use of the said Charles Trevanion, Esq. his heirs and assigns for
ever.
In this parish, at ――――, was the dwelling of my very kind friend Dr.
James Gibbs, third son of James Gibbs, Vicar of this parish, who had
his education in Exeter College, as a servitor to his kinsman Mr.
Davis, son to Dr. Davis late of Plymouth; where, after he had taken
his Bachelor’s degree, he declared for the study of physic in Oxford;
and soon after, to better his study and experience, went with the said
Mr. Davis into France, and fixed at Montpelier, where he practised
physic (and also surgery in an hospital, as himself informed me) for
several years; afterwards in the College of Physicians there took his
degree of Doctor of that science; and, lastly, returned to this place,
where he practised physic with admirable care, skill, and success, and
through multitudes of patients and moderate fees, hath purchased a
considerable estate. Since the writing hereof this gentleman, to the
great grief and loss of his country, departed this life of the
hemorrhoides sickness; and before his death (who for many years had
been his patient, to the great benefit of my health, by God’s
blessing, after the endeavours of all other physicians proved
ineffectual,) left me this legacy,――that if I myself or friends were
sick, and had occasion to make use of physic, that we should in all
distempers make use only of the common, plain, and natural remedies.
Anthony Wills, of this parish, Gent. farmer of the sheaf thereof,
having by misfortune much incumbered his estate with debts, quitted
the same at such time as the Prince of Orange landed with his forces
at Torbay, and presented himself and his six or seven sons to that
Prince, for soldiers of war in his army; which proposal was graciously
accepted; and they were all posted as officers of command in his
bands, or troops. And after the Coronation of this Prince, King
William III. they followed him in all his Flanders and Irish wars
against King James II. and King Lewis XIV. and discharged their trusts
with such great care, faithfulness, valour, and conduct, that (as I am
informed,) before their deaths they all arrived to the dignities of
Captains, and some of them to the authority or commands of Majors,
Colonels, and one of them to become a standing Major-General of the
field. Who afterwards, about the year A.D. 1714, being made principal
commander of the army and troops of horse of King George the First,
against the Pretender’s (James Henry Edward Stewart,) army at Preston,
in Lancashire, where, after a furious, violent, and bloody battle with
them, he obtained the victory over that pretended Prince’s forces; for
which fact, and other noble deeds, he was created a Baronet of
England, and is since made General of all the land forces in England
next the King, his salary amounting to 7000_l._ per annum, as reported.
TONKIN.
For the name, I take it to be a contraction of St. Gordian, pronounced
in Cornwall St. Gorian, who having been, like St. Paul, a violent
prosecutor of the Christians, became a proportionably zealous convert,
and was beheaded at Rome in the year 341.
A tradition in the parish, nevertheless, assigns the guardianship of
this church to St. Gorien, or Coren, one of the missionaries from
Ireland who accompanied St. Perran.
The name of Trevennen, or Tremenen, probably the town of birth, in
reference to its fertility, belonged to the Priory of Tywardrith, and
formed a part of the lands given by Henry VIII. to the Duchy in
exchange for the manor of Wallingford.
Adjoining to Trevennen, and within the manor, is Trevasens, which was
long the seat of a family of the same name, but passed to the Hoblyns
of Nanswydan, in St. Columb, through an heiress.
Polgorror was heretofore a country residence of the Provost of
Glasnith College, at Penryn, to which the great tithes were
impropriated. This place, with the great tithes and the advowson of
the vicarage, now belong to the bishopric of Exeter.
Adjoining to this is Treveor, the great town, or dwelling, formerly
the seat of Treveors; and the parishioners still talk of Sir Henry
Treveor, who lived here; and a part of his house is yet standing.
Pennore, or Penarth. I take nore to signify the same as in Saxon, a
promontory; and that it is here applied to a point jutting out into
the sea, namely, to the Dead-man, which is separated from the village
by a double intrenchment, yet pretty entire, running from cliff to
cliff, and cutting off about an hundred acres of coarse ground. The
intrenchment is about twenty feet broad and twenty-four feet high in
most places; but the outer wall is the least high. The people call it
Thica Vosa, which is the Vallum, and the Hack and Cast, fabling it to
be the work of a giant, who performed the whole in one night. They
show also a hole in the cliff which opens into a hollow below, formed
by the sea; and the people relate that this giant growing unwell,
applied to a physician, who, that he might rid the world of such a
monster, bled him near this spot, and recommended him to let the blood
flow into this hole till it became full. The giant did so, and bled
himself to death, when his body fell over on a rock, still called the
giant’s house. The hole thus attempted to be filled with blood is
denominated from the immense quantity of ivy growing round it.
The church is placed very conveniently in the middle of the parish. It
is well built, with a handsome square tower of hewn moor stone, with
four tunable bells; and by reason of its high situation this church is
seen from a great distance. It consists of a large lofty nave, one
south aile of the same length, and two cross ailes to the north, of
which one is but small. In the chancel, near the north wall, before
the communion table, is a plain marble stone, on which are seen the
hollows where the figure of a woman kneeling, with arms, inscription,
&c. must have been inlaid. Tradition calls it the tomb of Lady
Brannell, but who this Lady Brannell was is unknown, although some
conjectures are formed of her belonging to the family of Tregarthen.
Against the eastern wall, by the window, is a comely monument of black
marble, to Richard Edgecombe, of Bodrigan, Esq. son of Sir Richard
Edgecombe, of Mount Edgecombe, Knight, who died Nov. 5, 1755.
THE EDITOR.
The manor of Trevascus belongs by purchase to Mr. Slade Gulby, who
resides on the barton of Trevenion, which has been in his family since
the time of the Tudors.
Treveor belonged to the late Rev. Dr. Wynne, and was given by him to
Mr. Pendarves. On this barton may be seen one of those round
entrenchments usually denominated castles in the West of England. It
is at least doubtful in most cases whether any permanent dwelling was
ever connected with them.
The barton of Bodrigan has descended in the family of Edgecombe since
the time of Henry VII.
It is generally apprehended that Sir Henry Bodrigan was present at the
battle of Bosworth Field; and that, having escaped from thence to
Cornwall, he endeavoured to defend his property in a private house
against Edgecombe and Trevenion, who, in despoiling and endeavouring
to take his life, did no more than he would have done, had the fortune
of arms inclined the other way; or than what he actually did against
Sir Richard Edgecombe a few years before at Cotehele. Such are the
effects of civil wars, when――
Lance to lance, and horse to horse!
Long years of havoc urge their destined course,
And through the kindred squadrons mow their way.
Bodrugon’s property was mainly divided between Edgecumbe and
Trevanion, who are also believed to have fought against King Richard
in Bosworth Field, and then to have attacked Sir Richard Bodrugon near
his own house after the defeat at that place. He effected his retreat
to a vessel by the extraordinary effort already mentioned, and left
the shores of England never to return. He had a brother settled in the
north of Devon, but his line became soon extinct.
Goran measures 4,596 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 3487 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 950 0 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1009 | 1116 | 1203 | 1205
giving an increase of somewhat less than 19½ per cent. in
30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. David Jenkins, collated by the
Bishop of Exeter in 1824.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish forms a continuation of the calcareous series of St. Ewe.
At the Deadman point the rock is for the most part siliceous,
affording an example of the quartz rock of Dr. Macculloch.
GRADE.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and has upon the north Ruan
Major, west Mullyan, east Ruan Minor, south Landawidnick. At the time
of the Norman conquest this district was taxed under the jurisdiction
of Lisart.
In the taxation of benefices in Cornwall, towards the Pope’s annats,
made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia Sancti
Grade in decanatu de Kerryer, was valued lx_s._ in Wolsey’s
Inquisition, 1521, 11_l._ 1_s._ 5_d._ The patronage in the Bishop of
Exeter; the incumbent Symons; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per
pound Land Tax, 1696, 58_l._ 12_s._
TONKIN.
This parish takes its name from its titular female saint, St. Grada.
In the taxation of 1294, in the 20th year of Edward I. it is valued by
the name of Ecclesia Sanctæ Gradæ.
THE EDITOR.
The etymologies offered by Mr. Hals appear so very improbable that
they are omitted. If any such person as St. Grade ever existed, she
must have been among the tribe of early missionaries, of whom no
traces are left except that of their names being affixed to churches.
This parish has within its limits the manor and barton of Erisey, the
seat of a very respectable family bearing the same name, who gave for
their arms, Sable, a chevron between three griffins segreant Or. The
name has been extinct above a century, and the barton belongs by
purchase to Lord Falmouth. Several monuments of different members of
the family remain in the church.
The advowson of the living belongs by purchase to Mr. Rogers, of
Penrose. The parish feast is kept on the nearest Sunday to St. Luke’s
day. The family of Lord Wodehouse, through his marriage with Sophia
Berkeley, niece of Lord Berkeley, of Stratton, are supposed to
represent the Eriseys.
This parish measures 2,005 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1357 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 208 2 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 320 | 306 | 355 | 306
giving a decrease of nearly 4½ per cent. in 30 years; but
with unusual anomalies in intermediate enumerations.
Present Rector, the Rev. John Peter, instituted in 1818.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The portion of this parish around the church, and the various
insulated portions, are situated on magnesian rocks; the most abundant
variety of which is serpentine. This rock is generally of a red
colour, but this is evidently in some cases derived from a partial
chemical change. In its perfect state this serpentine is generally of
a dark-green, with shining scales of diallage, which are commonly of a
bronze colour, and at other times of a fine green. The serpentine at
Cadgwith may be seen to pass gradually into a schistose rock of a dark
bottle-green, and very glassy and spangled on the surface of its
lamellæ. This slate is generally called greenstone, but it differs
therefrom, and consequently requires a distinct appellation. At Cagar
there is a quarry in the serpentine; and at Kennick Cove adjoining,
many varieties of these rocks may be obtained.
GULVAL.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north Ludgvan,
south the Mount’s Bay, west Maddaran, east St. Hilary.
In the time of William the Conqueror’s survey of lands, anno Dom.
1087, this parish, I suppose, passed in tax under the jurisdiction of
Ludgvan. In the Inquisition and Taxation of Benefices in Cornwall, by
the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia de Laneseley, in
decanatu de Penwith, appropriata priori Sancti Germani, is valued
lxvi_s._ viii_d._ Vicar ibidem, xx_s._ At which time it seems it was
but a Vicarage church; the garb impropriated, though since restored.
Neither was the name of Gulval then mentioned. However, in Wolsey’s
Inquisition, 1521, it is rated by the name of Gulval, also Laneseley,
6_l._ 11_s._ 0½_d._ The patronage was formerly in the Prior of St.
German’s, now in the crown. The incumbent Penhellick; and the parish
rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, by the name of Gulval,
120_l._
This manor of Laneseley, in this parish, was, in the time of Richard
I. and King John, the lands of the family surnamed De Als, now Hals,
so called from the barton and dismantled manor of Als, now Alse and
Alesa, in Buryan, as tradition saith, or Beer Alseton, Alston, in
Devon, in possession of Trevanion and others, whereof they were lords;
and in particular William de Als, in the beginning of the reign of
King Henry III. that married Mary, the daughter of Francis de Bray,
was possessed thereof; father of Simon de Alls, who lived at Halsham,
in Yorkshire (from him denominated), that married Jane, daughter of
Thomas de Campo Arnulpho (now Champernown), Sheriff of York second,
third, sixth, and seventh years of King Henry III. Anno Dom. 1222, as
appears from the catalogue of those Sheriffs, and the Hals’s allowed
pedigree, 1483; from which also it is manifest, by an authentic deed
or record therein, yet legible, that the said Simon for the health and
salvation of his soul, his wife’s, his ancestors, and other relations,
gave the said manor of Laneseley to the Prior of St. German’s, his
canonical brothers, and their successors for ever, in these words.
In nomine Domini, &c. Ego Simon de Als, pro salute animæ meæ, et Janæ
uxoris meæ, et parentum meorum, dono et concedo manerium de Laneseley,
in comitatu Cornubiæ, Priori Sancti Germani, et fratribus canonicis,
et successoribus eorum, cum dominicis redditibus, &c. et omnibus
ibidem appendentibus, terra, sylva, pratos, et aquam, &c. ut habeant,
teneant, et possideant in perpetuum, &c.; dat vicesimo sexto die
Augusti, anno regni nostri Regis Henrici tertii post conquestum
octavo. Hiis testibus, Thoma de Tracye, Henrico de la Pombre,
Reginaldo de Valtorta, Roberto de Cheni, Radolpho de Esse. This grant,
or donation, was in the year 1266. (See Lelant.)
By virtue whereof the Prior of St. German’s and his successors were
possessed of this manor from that time till the 26th Henry VIII. 1536,
when that Priory was dissolved, and the lands thereof vested in the
crown. At which time King Henry VIII. gave the lands thereof to
Champernown, Beaumont, Barry, and others; and to Beaumont’s and
Barry’s share fell this manor of Laneseley; who parted with it either
by purchase or in marriage with his daughter, to John Tripcony, about
the year 1565; whose son, John Tripcony, having by riot and excess
comparatively wasted his paternal estate, mortgaged this manor of
Laneseley to Sir Nicholas Hals, of Fentongollan, knight, about the
year 1620, who was lineally descended from Simon de Als, aforesaid,
and died seised thereof about the year 1637. After his decease his
unthrifty son and heir, John Hals, became possessed thereof, who
assigned the mortgage thereof for 500_l._ to one Mr. Downes, A.D.
1655; and soon after, having spent his whole paternal estate
elsewhere, went beyond the seas, and was never since heard of to this
day; leaving issue, by Jane Arundel his wife, Major Thomas Hals, of
Hals’s Savana, in Clarendon parish and province, in Jamaica, who had
issue Thomas Hals, Esq. his son and heir.
After the departure of the said John Hals beyond the seas, the said
Mr. Downes assigned over the mortgage of the premises to one Mr.
Collwell, a scrivener of London; who dying soon after, his son, Thomas
Collwell, became seised thereof; and after his death his widow, who by
her last will and testament (as executrix of her said husband,)
conveyed the said manor to Charles Bonython, Esq.――Spur, Longeville,
and others, in trust, now in possession thereof, 1700; before which
time, between the said Downes and Collwell, on pretence of the equity
of redemption reserved in Downes, John Hals being beyond the seas, and
that the mortgage money to Collwell was satisfied out of the profits
of these lands; and a cross bill of Collwell’s against Downes,
alleging the contrary, and to foreclose him; happened so many tedious
and costly Chancery suits as comparatively undid them both. But,
maugre all their endeavours, the old titles of Tripcony and Hals were
foreclosed by a decree in Chancery, betwixt Downes and Collwell, in
Hillary term 1689, yet extant and to be seen.
This manor of Laneseley, for goodness of land, jurisdiction, court
leet, fishing craft, and royalties over all that part of the sea of
the Mount’s Bay, between Longbridge and Chiandower, near Penzance, may
equal, if not surpass, any other manor in those parts of its value,
which is now scarcely worth 300_l._ per annum, though in former ages
it was of far larger extent; for in the survey of Cornish acres,
tempore Edward II. (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 46, p. 131, of Lord
Dunstanville’s edition), it was numbered in the Exchequer to contain
twenty-eight acres, that is, about six thousand statute acres;[4]
every ancient Cornish acre being sixty statute acres of land; the
contents of the whole now not exceeding a thousand statute acres,
which lies in Gulval and Ludgvan.
In Fosses Moor, part of this manor of Lanesely, in this parish, is
that well-known fountain called Gulval Well. To which place great
numbers of people, time out of mind, have resorted for pleasure and
profit of their health, as the credulous country people do in these
days, not only to drink the waters thereof, but to inquire after the
life or death of their absent friends; where, being arrived, they
demanded the question at the well, whether such a person, by name, be
living, in health, sick, or dead; if the party be living, and in
health, the still quiet water of the well-pit, as soon as the question
is demanded, will instantly bubble or boil up as a pot, clear
christaline water; if sick, foul and puddle waters; if the party be
dead, it will neither bubble, boil up, or alter its colour or still
motion. However, I can speak nothing of the truth of those
supernatural facts from my own sight or experience, but write from the
mouths of those who told me they had seen and proved the veracity
thereof. Finally, it is a strong and courageous fountain of water,
kept neat and clean by an old woman of the vicinity, to accommodate
strangers for her own advantage, by blazing the virtues and divine
qualities of those waters.
TONKIN.
After copying from Hals, Mr. Tonkin adds of Lanistley manor:――It
extendeth throughout the parish of Gulval from the Moreps to the
Gundrons; that is to say, from above the sea to the Down Hills; it
extendeth also through a part of the parish of Ludgvan.
At Kenneggy is the dwelling, by lease (the fee being in his elder
brother, William Harris, of Hayne, Esq.), of Christopher Harris,
Gentleman, an attorney-at-law, who married a daughter of John Foote,
of Truro, Esq. His elder brother, who married the daughter of John St.
Aubyn, Esq. of Clowance, in the parish of Crowan, is now in possession
of Hayne, near Lifton, in Devonshire, having succeeded to it on the
decease of Sir Arthur Harris, jun. the last heir male of the elder
branch. On removing to Hayne he leased Kenneggy to his younger brother
aforesaid; who, by reason of the elder brother’s yet want of issue, is
likely to become his heir. The arms of Harris are, Sable, within a
bordure three crescents Argent.
Mr. Edward Llwyd, in his letter to me, would have this parish to take
its name from the inscription on the stone in Maddern parish,
“Riolabran: Cunoval: Fil:” and that Cunoval is turned by corruption
into Guloval, for that he found many such instances in Wales.
I should be glad to agree with so great a critic, but since there is a
saint, or bishop, whose name comes very near to this――St. Gunwall,
whose memory the church celebrates on the 6th of June, I cannot
forbear fancying, especially the humour of the country being
considered, that he is the patron and the namer of this parish.
THE EDITOR.
There cannot be any reasonable doubt of St. Gunwall having bestowed
his name on this parish, more especially when the prophetic well is
taken into account, since saints scarcely ever failed of imparting
some supernatural quality to their favourite streams.
St. Gunwall was, moreover, a Briton, and is stated to have been in
Cornwall.
Saint Gudwall, or Gunwall, was born in Wales about the year 500. Being
entirely devoted to God, he collected eighty-eight monks in a little
island called Plecit, being no more than a rock surrounded by water.
For some reason, however, he abandoned this establishment, and passed
by sea into Cornwall; and from thence he went into Devonshire, where
he betook himself to the most holy, perfect, and useful state of a
solitary anchorite; at length, however, again emerging, he sailed into
Britany, and there succeeded St. Malo, as Bishop of that see, although
he is said even then to have dwelt in a solitary cell, and to have
died there at a very advanced age. His relics have been widely
distributed, and various places in France have been called by his
name.
Mr. Whitaker explains the ancient name of this parish, Lanisley, by
Lan and Ishei, low, or lower, the low church, which appears to agree
very well with the situation.
The great tithes certainly belonged to the Priory at St. German’s, for
in the returns made to Henry VIII. of the property belonging to them,
appears――
Gulval, decimæ Garbarum, £10. 6_s._ 8_d._
These tithes, since the law-suits mentioned by Mr. Hals, have passed
by purchase into the possession of the Beauchamps of Gwenap, and now
belong to the two daughters and coheiresses of the late Mr. John
Beauchamp.
The vicarage, although it has risen into one of the most valuable to
be found in that district, in consequence of modern improvements, and
of its being situated near Penzance, is yet rated under twenty pounds
a-year in the King’s Books, and therefore passes by the presentation
of the Lord Chancellor. Two Mr. Pennerks, father and son, held this
living in succession. It was then given, in 1789, to Mr. John Cole,
afterwards Doctor in divinity and Rector of Exeter College, and his
successor is the present Vicar, the Rev. Robert Dillon.
Kenegie passed from Mr. William Harris, of Hayne, accordingly as Mr.
Tonkin had conjectured, to the family of his brother, Mr. Christopher
Harris; and the family becoming extinct in the male line by the death
of this gentleman’s grandson in 1775, by much the largest part of the
estate went, under the provisions of a will, to Mr. William Arundell,
then resident at Crane, in Camborne, who assumed the name of Harris;
but his grandson choosing to fix his permanent residence at a very
handsome seat of his own creating near Lifton, parted with all his
Cornish property; and Kenegie now belongs, in fee, to the farmer, who
had occupied it at an annual rent. This place having formerly belonged
to the family of ―――― Tripcony, who bore for their arms, Argent, three
rabbits passant Sable, and kynin and kyninger being the Cornish names
for a rabbit, I cannot but suspect that kynneggy, or kenegie, must
have some relation to the name of Tripeney.
Trevailer is the place next of importance in this parish. It has been
long the residence of a very respectable family, the Veales. They are
said to have come from Gloucestershire, their ancestor having been the
first Protestant Vicar of Gulval. The Reverend William Veale, the
present possessor, has rebuilt the house; the second brother of his
grandfather, Mr. George Veale, made a large fortune at Penzance, by
the practice of the law and by success in mines, which became divided
between three daughters who married Hichens, Baines, and Jenkins. Mr.
William Veale has married the only daughter of the Rev. Richard
Gerveys Grylls, of Helston.
But the most beautiful place in this parish, and one of the greatest
ornaments to the whole neighbourhood, is Rosemorron, the Vale of
Blackberries, formed by Mr. George John. This gentleman having married
Jane, the eldest daughter of Mr. Arundall, who assumed the name of
Harris on succeeding to the large fortune of that family, and having
been for many years at the head of his profession in Penzance, has at
length retired to this delightful spot in the summer months. Nor have
his decorations of the country been confined to one situation; he has
shewn, by extensive plantations at Try, that the most elevated and
barren tracts, even on a granite soil, may be rendered useful and
decorative by the growth of trees.
The lower part of the parish, adjoining to the sea, is fertile in the
highest degree, from the village of Chiandower (the house by the
water), through Pendrea to the Church Town. And the vallies, abounding
in trees, rival those of any country. Chiandower is also become a
place worthy of the adjacent scenery, through the taste and the
exertions of Messrs. Bolitho, who, in making ample fortunes, have
benefited the country still more than themselves by promoting every
species of productive industry. The parish feast does not certainly
corroborate the supposition of the patron saint; it is held on the
nearest Sunday to the 12th of November, the day of St. Martin, the
first Pope of that name, a native of Todi, in Tuscany, and elected
Pope in the year 649. He assembled in the same year the sixth council
of Lateran, where the heresy of the Monothelites was condemned; but
the schismatic Emperor, Constans, sent Olympius, his chamberlain, to
Rome, to support the obnoxious sect, who arrived there while the
council were deliberating; and failing in his attempts to divert them
from supporting the orthodox faith, he suborned a person to murder the
Pope, but in attempting to execute the atrocious deed the assassin was
miraculously struck blind. Yet, nevertheless, Constans persevered in
his speculative errors and in his wicked conduct, by causing St.
Martin to be seized, and after suffering many casualties, to be
banished to the Tauric Chersonesus, where he died in 655.
His relics were afterwards brought to Rome, and deposited in the
church of St. Martin of Tours, on the 12th of November, which, from
thenceforward, was observed as a festival to his honour.
The day of St. Martin of Tours, the popular patron of beggars, happens
to be on the day before, and several parishes give their feasts on the
nearest Sunday to November the 11th, but Gulval alone honours the Pope
and Saint.
Gulval measures 3950 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 5170 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 406 8 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1076 | 1224 | 1353 | 1467
giving an increase of nearly 36½ per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The northern part of this parish rests on granite, which is for the
most part a coarse crystalline rock, containing very large porphyritic
crystals of felspar. The granite is, however, in some places very
fine-grained, and near its juncture with the slate abounds in shorl.
The schistose rocks composing the southern part of the parish, have a
basis of compact felspar, assuming various appearances according as it
is more or less siliceous; those rocks are often beautifully marked
with crystalline patches and veins of actynolite, as may be seen in
the rocks on the sea shore, and they are traversed here and there by
beds of felspar porphyry, into which they gradually pass.
[4] Surely sixteen or seventeen hundred. ED.
GUNWALLO.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north the
Loopoole and part of Mawgan, east Cury, south Mullyan, west the
British Channel, or Ocean.
At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was taxed either
under the jurisdiction of Lisart, now Lisard, or Trevery. In the value
of Benefices towards the Pope’s Annates made by the Bishops of Lincoln
and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia Sancti Winwalli, i. e. the church of
the holy, victorious, or conquering Wallo, in decanatu de Kerryer, was
rated iiii_l._ iii_s._ iiii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it goes
in value and consolidation with Breock, Germo, and Cury, by the name
of the Vicarage of Wynnanton, i. e. the conquering, or victorious
town; all doubtless referring to the conquests of King Gunwallo, or
Dunwallo. The patronage, I take it, was formerly in the Prior of St.
Michael’s Mount, or the Duke of Cornwall, who endowed it. It is now in
the King, or Duke; the incumbent Trewinard, and parish rated to the
4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. 53_l._ 9_s._ 8_d._
by the name of Gunwallo.
The manor of Gunwallowinton, a lordship in this parish, claimeth the
royalty and jurisdiction, by sea and land, over the whole parish, and
was formerly the lands of Carmenow, now of Arundell of Lanhearne, by
match with one of the daughters and heirs of that name.
TONKIN.
In this parish stands a circle of rude unwrought stones in the shape
of a wall heaped together, and called Earth.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Whitaker remarks in a note on Hal’s MS. that the name of this
parish is clearly derived from its patron saint, Winnwallo.
I find that Winwallo was the son of a petty Prince in Wales; who,
flying with his family from the Saxons, went into Britany, where he
acquired the habit of undergoing monastic austerities under the
guidance of St. Budock. He ultimately founded a monastery called
Landevenech, about three miles from Brest. He became the first Abbat,
and died on the 3d of March about the year 529. His body was buried at
Landevenech; but in after ages, when the northmen extended their
ravages to this part of the Continent, his relics were removed to
places of greater safety; and as an effectual security against an
entire loss, portions were preserved at St. Peter’s, at Blandinberg,
at Ghent, at Montreuil, and at other places.
The Celtic name has given origin to various pronunciations, and to as
many corresponding orthographies; the G and W at the beginning of
words are well known to take each the place of the other almost
without discrimination. In Picardy, where he is esteemed the patron,
Winwallo is changed into Vignevaley and Walovay; in Britany into
Guignole and Vennole; in other parts of France into Guingalois.
It is the more probable that St. Winwallo may be the patron saint of
this parish, and that he may have given it his name, since a parish in
the neighbourhood stands in that relation towards his teacher St.
Budock. The parish feast, however, is held on the last Sunday in
April, although St. Winwallo is honoured in the Roman calendar on the
third of March.
Mr. Lysons says that the manor of Wynyaton, or Winington, called by
Mr. Hals Gonwallowinton, was given about the year 1235, by Roger Earl
of Cornwall, in exchange for Bossiney, to Gervase de Harnington; from
whom it passed by an heiress to the family of Trevanthians, and again
in the same way to Roskymers. It ultimately belonged to the Arundells
till the general sale of all Lord Arundell’s property in Cornwall,
when this manor was purchased by Mr. John Rogers, of Penrose, near
Helston.
The church is situated among sandbanks, and very near the sea. In
those banks Captain Avery, the celebrated buccaneer, is reported to
have buried several chests of treasure previously to his leaving
England on the voyage from which he never returned. So strongly has
this opinion prevailed, that Mr. John Knill, collector of the customs
at St. Ives, procured, about the year 1770, a grant of treasure trove,
and expended some money in a fruitless search.
This gentleman is still remembered on account of his singularities,
and his having erected a pyramid on a hill near the town where he had
long resided.
In the churchyard of Gunwallo is a tombstone with the following
conceit:
We shall die all,
Shall die all we;
Die all we shall,
All we shall die.
The parish measures 1175 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1,405 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 150 14 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 216 | 206 | 252 | 284
giving an increase of 31½ per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish runs parallel with the sea shore from Poljew Cove to Loo
Bar. The shore, where the land lies low, is covered with banks of
siliceous sand, which near the church form an extensive down. At the
Cove the rocks consist of a blue glassy slate, and of a compost rock
of the same colour which decomposes into a white clay. Nearly the
whole of the cliff is a diluvial mass; the lower part of which, just
above high-water mark, is consolidated into a conglomerate sandstone,
apparently through the cementing medium of a solution of carbonate of
iron, derived from the percolation of rain-water through the bed of
ferruginous clay that forms the upper part of this deposit.
GWENAP.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Keryer, and hath upon the north, part of
Redruth, east Peranwell and Key, south Gluvius, west Stithians. That
this church was extant before the Norman Conquest is plain from the
name thereof, for in the Domesday Tax, 20th William I. 1087, it is
rated by the name of Gwenap. In the Inquisition into the value of
Cornish Benefices made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294,
Ecclesia Sancti Wenap in decanatu de Kerrier, is rated at vii_l._
Vicar ejusdem xxvi_s._ viii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, the
Vicarage of Wenap is valued 16_l._ 18_s._ 9_d._ The patronage in the
Bishop of Exeter, who endowed it. The incumbent Bishop; and the parish
rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 148_l._ 3_s._ by the name
of Gwenap. The garb, or rectory, in Wright or Nicholls.
Trefyns (i. e. the springs of water, or fountains town,) came to
Beauchamp by marriage with the heiress of this name and land, where
they have ever since flourished in gentle degree. The present
possessor, William Beauchamp, Esq. that married Courtney of Trehane,
his father Boaden, his grandfather Tregoze, giveth for his arms, Vairy
Argent and Azure. The first progenitor of the tribe and name of
Beauchamp came into England a soldier under William the Conqueror, and
probably some of his posterity were planted in this province, from
whence those gentlemen are descended; especially if the name, Stephen
de Bellocampo, 40th Henry III. who held in Cornwall by tenure of
knight’s service 15_l._ per annum land and rents, may be interpreted
the same as Beauchamp (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 40), for
otherwise verily I know not from what family of gentlemen those
Beauchamps are descended; since none other of that name give the same
arms as these do; for Guy de Beauchamp, Sheriff of Devon, 12th King
John, gave for his arms, Gules, a fess between three crosses bottony
Or; from whom are descended the Beauchamps of Bletsho and Hatch, in
Wiltshire. Beauchamp Earl of Warwick gave for his arms, Gules, a fess
between six cross-crosslets Or. William Beauchamp, Sheriff of Devon
18th Henry VI. that married the inheritrix of Henry de Ties, lord of
Alverton and Tywarnhayle, summoned to Parliament as a Baron temp.
Henry IV. gave for his arms, Gules, a fess between six martlets Or;
from whence I gather there were diverse families of those Beauchamps
heretofore in England, no way related in blood to each other. Query,
whether the arms of those gentlemen living in this place be not the
arms of Bochym, as I have been informed they are, which is Vaire
Argent and Azure.
Notwithstanding this place of Trefyns was heretofore denominated from
springs of water abounding there in winter season, yet I assure you
now in summer time, by reason of the tin-mines and subterranean adits
near it that carry those springs of water invisibly under ground,
water is very scarce and much wanting in those lands. It is also
called Trevense, and Trewince.
St. Dye chapel in this parish was heretofore a chapel of ease to
Gwenap; the tutelar guardian whereof is St. Dye, of Gaul, very famous
in that country for his piety and holy Christian living about the
fifth century, who held the faith in opposition to Arianism and
Pelagianism, then raging in the church. And there is a church in the
province of Lorraine still bearing his name. If it were as easy for
the Vicar to attend and perform divine service in this remote quarter
of the parish where this chapel is, as it is convenient to his
parishioners in the town of St. Dye, it had been doubtless still
applied to the end and use for which it was erected.
Not far from this place is that unparalleled and inexhaustible
tin-work called Paldys; i. e. the top or head of St. Dye’s Town, which
for above forty years’ space hath employed yearly from eight hundred
to a thousand men and boys, labouring for and searching after tin in
that place, where they have produced and raised up for that time
yearly, at least twenty thousand pounds worth of that commodity, to
the great enriching of the lords of the soil, the bound owners, and
adventurers in those lands.
Of those miners, or searchers for metals, hath Ovid written elegantly
in Latin verse, which sounds thus in English, tempore Augusti:――
Men deep descend into the earth
With mattock, shoul, and spade,
And wicked wealth is digged up,
Which mischiefs all hath made;
Dame Nature did it hide and put
Where gristly ghosts do dwell;
So that the hurtful iron and
The glittering gold from hell
Produced is, more noisome than
The other metal vile,
Through foul desire whereof for aye
Is virtue in exile.
Shame, truth, and faith, are put to flight;
Their place do those uphold,
Both fraud, deceit, fell force, and wiles,
And wicked love of gold,
For which the laws are sold.
_Metamorph._ Lib. i. p. 138-150.
MEMORANDUM.――On Friday, 19th September, 1707, about four of the clock
in the afternoon, happened in those parts divers flashes of lightning
and cracks of thunder, which not only terrified the inhabitants
thereof, but after one of those cracks a ball of fire, or Jupiter’s
thunderbolt (as the Greeks called it), entered by the window into the
house of one John Kent, a carpenter of this parish, where he was
working, the windy force thereof instantly struck him dead on the
place, scalded his wife and two children in that room, then passed out
through the chimney wall, and so shattered the same that a great part
of it instantly fell to the ground.
TONKINS.
In this parish, on the top of a lofty mountain called Carne-mark, are
two or three stone tumuli, under which are doubtless interred the
bodies of some distinguished persons.
The right name of this parish is St. Wenep, a female saint, to whom
the parish is dedicated.
THE EDITOR.
Saint Wenep is, I believe, only remembered by the dedication of this
parish; but St. Dye is a personage of more consequence. He was a
native of France, and in the year 655 became Bishop of Nevres; but St.
Dye happened to live at a period when the prevalent fanaticism induced
persons to believe that the Author of all good was most gratified by
beholding the misery of his rational creatures, accompanied by their
voluntary debasements through ignorance and solitude below the level
of the brute creation. With this persuasion, St. Dye resigned his
bishopric, and founded a house for monks at a place called Jointures,
but retired himself to an anchorite cell. He is said to have died on
the 19th of June, 680.
The chapel, dedicated to St. Dye, in Gwenap, had long been in ruins;
but since the eager contest has grown up between the Establishment and
Dissenters for retaining or acquiring power through the media of
extensive education and proselytism, and Chapels, Meeting Houses, and
Schools have arisen all over England, St. Dye has seen a new and
spacious building displace the ruins that remained from former times.
The Beauchamps had removed from Trewince to Pengreap; where the family
became extinct in the male line about the year 1818, by the decease of
Mr. Joseph Beauchamp, who had lost his only son a few years before,
and the estate is now divided between the two daughters of his elder
brother, Mr. John Beauchamp.
Cornmarth has been already mentioned. Mr. Whitaker says that the true
name is Cornmarke, and that it means the Knight’s barrow.
On the southern declivity of Cornmarth is a large excavation, supposed
by some to have been made long ago for the exhibition of games, but by
others to owe its general form to the accidental running together of
an old mine. It is, at all events, admirably adapted to the purpose of
enabling a speaker to address an extremely large assembly; and the
late Mr. John Wesley has been distinctly heard by many thousands at a
time in Gwenap pit.
Scornier, which a few years since exhibited the appearance of a small
village, has now become perhaps the chief place in this parish. Mr.
John Williams, one of the most extensive and most successful managers
and adventurous miners of the present time, built here an excellent
house, and adorned it with the finest collection of Cornish minerals
ever brought together. Mr. Williams, after making a large fortune, has
retired at an advanced age, leaving several sons engaged in the same
pursuits with equal advantage to themselves and to the public; one of
whom has added a second splendid house to the village.
It is quite impossible for me to enter fully into a description of the
mines, which have continued in work on the most extensive scale from
the period when Mr. Leman commenced the modern system up to the
present time. It is said that no district of the same extent in any
part of the world ever produced so much riches.
Poldice was worked for tin about the commencement of the last century
by Mr. Hearle, of Penryn. The mine happened to have very little water,
and this was exhausted by rock and chain pumps moved by human labour.
Copper seldom appears near the surface, as is the case with tin; but
tin lodes out of granite frequently produce copper in depth. All the
lodes in Gwenap have done so, and in some places the mines have gone
to the depth of two hundred and thirty or forty fathoms from the
surface, more than two hundred fathoms under the level of the sea,
assisted by steam engines having working-cylinders ninety inches in
diameter and ten feet long.
The freehold of the land containing those mines is possessed in
undivided shares between several persons; Mr. Hearle had one-third,
that is now divided again into thirds between the descendants of three
daughters, Mr. Tremayne, Mr. Rodd, and Mr. Stephens.
The church in Gwenap is large in every dimension, but, what is very
unusual, the tower stands apart. One of our late historians very
justly complains of what he terms the “mangling of modern Vandalism,”
in alterations of the church; Venetian frames have been substituted
for stone mullions; windows of painted glass bearing the figures of
saints have been removed; and the screen, or rood-loft, of beautiful
workmanship has disappeared; modern deal seats have been introduced
throughout the church, and a glare of light on the white-washed walls
has completed the overthrow of very thing venerable.
The interior is divided into a nave, a chancel, and two side ailes,
supported on each side by seven handsome columns.
The burial-ground contains a monument of fine marble in memory of the
Beauchamps.
There is a tradition in the parish of monks having been established in
the church tower, and that a house now converted to an inn, was a part
of the building. No notice whatever is taken of such a monastery in
any authentic work. If therefore this tradition rests on any fact, the
house cannot have been more than an hostelry for friars.
The parish measures 5,289 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 18,273 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 3,329 9 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 4594 | 5303 | 6294 | 8539
giving an increase of 86 per cent. in 30 years, and a numerical
increase of three thousand nine hundred and forty-five persons.
Present Vicar, the Rev. W. Marsh, presented by the Dean and Chapter
of Exeter in 1825.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
Gwenap has long been one of the most important mining districts of
Cornwall. Its western part rests on the same patch of granite as the
eastern part of Cornborne, the one stretching to the east and the
other to the west. The slate is also similar to that of Cornborne, and
like that it is traversed by numerous beds of porphyry, some of which,
in the vicinity of Burncoose, are of the most beautiful description,
containing well-defined crystals of felspar and of quartz.
GWENDRON.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north
Camburne, south Maugan in Meneage, east Stithiany, Constantine, west
Sithney.
In the taxation of benefices in Cornwall, as aforesaid, 1294, Ecclesia
Sancte Wendrone (I suppose together with Helston, its daughter
church,) in decanatu de Kerryer, is valued xvii_l._ vi_s._ viii_d._ In
Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it is valued, together with Helston, at
26_l._ 19_s._ 3_d._ The patronage formerly, as I am informed, in the
Hospital and Prior, or Governor, of St. John the Baptist, at Helston,
or the College of regular Canons at Glasnith, or Abbat of St.
Michael’s Mount; now Jago, and the Incumbent Jago. The rectory, or
sheaf, in Boscawen. And the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land
Tax, 1696, 174_l._ 8_s._ 4_d._
Trenithike, in this parish (i. e. the town of the bridge or ford,
leate or lake of waters). It is the dwelling of Sampson Hill, Esq. one
of his Majesty’s Commissioners for the Peace, that married Callmady,
the relict of Silly, and giveth for his arms, Or, a fess between two
chevrons Sable, which is the coat-armour of the ancient family of the
Seneschalls of this place, whose daughter and heir was married to the
gentleman’s ancestor now in possession thereof, as I am informed.
Query, whether these arms are not the same as given by Sir John Lisle,
knight, one of the first founders of the noble order of the Garter,
lord of the manor of Wilbraham, in the county of Cambridge, whose
posterity enjoy, as I take it, those lands and his arms to this day,
viz. in a field Or, a fess between two chevrons Sable.
In this parish, by the post road, or highway, are set up, in
perpendicular manner, about ten feet asunder in a line, nine large
moor stones commonly called the Nine Maids, or Virgin Sisters;
probably set up in memory of so many sister nuns heretofore interred
there.
TONKIN.
This church, although a Vicarage, is endowed with the sheaf over all
the southern part of the parish, which most abounds in grain. It
carries with it Helston in the same presentation. The patronage in Mr.
William Iago. The Incumbent Mr. John Jago. The sheaf not endowed in
the possession of Mr. Hugh Boscowen, of Tregothnan.
At Trenithike is the dwelling of Sampson Hill, Esq. a Commissioner of
the Peace, who married a sister of Joseph Colmady, of Longdon, in
Devonshire, and widow of Heale of Battlesford.
All the lands in this parish lie within the great duchy, lordship, and
manor of Helston in Kerrier, as it is named for distinction from
Helston in Trigg. The church is certainly called Wendron, from its
female patroness.
Bodilly I interpret the house by the church, from ilis, the same as
eglis, a church, from which it is not far distant. There are two
houses adjacent so called, Bodilly Veor and Bodilly Vear, the great
and the little. Bodilly Veor was the seat of Thomas Tresilian, Gent.
descended from the Tresilians of Roughtra, who, having mortgaged it to
Sir Peter Killigrew, sold the freehold to Mr. William Glynn, and
younger brother to Mr. Thomas Glynn, of Polkinhorne.
At Trenere there is an arched vault of moorstone adjoining to the
house, said to have been a cellar, and this place a hunting seat to
the ancient Dukes of Cornwall.
THE EDITOR.
It appears that the vicarage of Wendron, and perhaps the endowed
portion of the great tithes, belonged to Rewley Abbey, near Oxford,
founded by Edmund Earl of Cornwall, in compliance with an injunction
of his father Richard Earl of Cornwall; although Richard himself seems
to have commenced the foundation, for a manuscript history in the
Cotton Library says,
“Frater enim hujus regis (Henrici tertii) Ricardus primus Comes
Cornubiæ, post Rex Alemaniæ et Semper Augustus, fundavit Abbatias
monachorum Cisterciensis ordinis de Royal alias Rewley Oxoniæ, et
de Hayles in Comitatu Gloucestriæ, ubi honorifice est sepultus.
Cor tamen suum Oxoniæ in choro fratrum minorum, sub sumptuosa et
mirandi operis pyramide humatum est.”
The Charter of his son Edmund begins,
“Sciant præsentes et futuri, quod nos Edmundus, claræ memoriæ
Domini Ricardi regis Alemannii filius, et Comes Cornubiæ, dedimus
concessimus et hac præsenti carta nostra confirmavimus Deo, et
ecclesiæ beatæ Mariæ de Regali Loco in North Oseney juxta Oxon,
et abbati inibi commoranti et quindecim monachis capellanis
ordinis Cisterciensis ibi professis, pro anima Ricardi quondam
regis Alemanniæ patris nostri, divino celebrantibus, et eorum
successoribus ibidem commorantibus Deo servientibus et in
perpetuum servituris, omnes terras et tenementa quæ habuimus in
North Oseneye prope Oxon et (inter alia) unam acram terræ,
secundum Angliæ consuetudinem mensuratam, de dominico nostro in
terra de Bel juxta Roslyn, cum advocatione ecclesiæ de Sancta
Wendrova, et aliis pertinentiis suis in hundredo de Kerier in
Cornubia.”
And in the schedule returned to King Henry VIII. after the dissolution
of property belonging to Rewley Abbey,
Com. Cornub.
Wendromo et Stadyon, firma Rector’ … £.22.
This advowson had passed through various hands till it was assigned by
Mr. Matthew Wills, of Helston, on whose decease, in 1782, it came to
his son, Mr. Thomas Wills. This gentleman, although not intended for
the church, had received his education at Winchester and Oxford, and
the living happening to become vacant just at the period of his
father’s death, Mr. Wills was induced to take holy orders, and he is
now (1834) the Incumbent; but the advowson has been transferred to
Queen’s College, Oxford, for its Michell or new foundation; thus
returning almost to the very spot where it was bestowed almost six
hundred years before.
The barton of Trenethick is traced back to the family of Seneschalls,
from whom it came by a marriage to the Hills; the last of whom, Mr.
John Hill, gave it by will, about seventy years since, to a family
long seated in Constantine, of the same name, but, from their bearing
different arms, probably not related.
Nansloe, the vale leading to the lake, is beautifully situated in a
valley near the Loo. It has been for some time the seat of the
Robinsons, since they removed there from Bochim in Cury. The last
representative of this family in the male line was the late Reverend
William Robinson, Vicar of Crowan.
Trelil belonged to Mr. Rowe, steward to Lord Godolphin. His only
daughter and eventual heiress married Mr. William Harris, of
Rosewarne, in Camburne, Sheriff of Cornwall in the year 1773; and
their only daughter, married to Winchcombe Hartley, Esq. of Berkshire,
is its present possessor.
This parish has for ages been one of the most productive of tin in the
whole county; and before the improved operations of smelting had
placed all ores nearly on the same level as to the quality of their
products, the neighbourhood of Porkellis boasted of producing the best
tin in Cornwall.
The church is situated nearly at one extremity of this immense parish,
and has nothing to distinguish it but a monument to the memory of
Warin Penhallinyk, a prebendary of the monastery at Penryn, Rector of
St. Just, in Roseland, Vicar of Wendron and of the adjoining parish,
Stithyans. The Vicarage-house is a mere hovel. The parish feast is on
the nearest Sunday to October the 28th, St. Simon and St. Jude.
Mr. Jago, Vicar of Wendron, was perhaps the last clergyman in the west
of Cornwall supposed to exercise supernatural powers; various
anecdotes were current about him sixty years ago, and then generally
believed; all I apprehend to his credit, being such as laying spirits,
discovering thieves, &c. mixed up, however, with frivolities, as seems
ever to have happened in those popular legends. Whenever parson Jago
got off from his horse he struck the ground with his whip, and a demon
immediately appeared to hold or take care of his horse till he wanted
it again. The Rev. Francis Vyvyan Jago Arundell is descended either
from this gentleman or from his father.
This parish measures (including Helston) 12,317 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815, Helston
included 8870 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831,
The Parish £1766 8 0 } 2656 5 0
Helston 889 17 0 }
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
Wendron { 3006 | 3555 | 4193 | 4780
Helston { 2248 | 2297 | 2671 | 3293
{ ----------|----------|----------|---------
{ 5254 | 5852 | 6869 | 8073
giving an increase on the Parish of 59, on the Town 46½, on both
together 53½,――per cent. in 30 years.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
About two-thirds of this extensive parish is situated on granite,
which is the same as that of Camborne, Crowan, and Sithney adjoining;
the other third, which forms the southern part of the parish, is
composed of slate rocks, which near the granite are felspathic, and
clearly referrible to the porphyritic series; but as the sea is
approached, the character of these slates becomes obscure, such as
they generally are whenever the porphyritic and calcareous series pass
into each other.
GWINEAR.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north
Gwythian, west Phelack, south Crowan and St. Erth, east Camburne.
In the Domesday Tax this district passed under the jurisdiction either
of Caerton in Crowan, Lewellen in Gwythian, or Hella in Camburne. In
the Inquisstion of the Bishops of Winchester and Lincoln into the
value of Cornish Benefices, 20th Edward I. 1294, Ecclesia de Sancto
Winer in decanatu de Penwid, was valued cxiii_s._ iiii_d._ In Wolsey’s
Inquisition, 1521, it is valued 12_l._ by the same name of Winer. The
patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, who endowed it. The Incumbent
Thomas Paynter. The Rectory, or garbe sheaf, in possession of Howell,
under lease from Exeter College, Oxford. And the parish rated to the
4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 147_l._ 7_s._ 2_d._ by the name of
Gwiniar.
Lanyon, in this parish, a seat of the Lanyons, the first propagators
of this family in Cornwall, came, with many other French gentlemen,
into England, with Isabella, wife of King Edward II. and settled
themselves in those parts; amongst which Lanyon’s posterity have ever
since flourished in gentle degree in Cornwall; and for further proof
of this matter, that originally they came from the town of Lanyon,
situate upon a sea-haven, or harbour, in France, they give still the
arms of that town for their paternal coat armour, viz. in a field
Sable, a castle Argent, standing on waves of the sea Azure, over the
same a falcon hovering with bells. The present possessor, Tobias
Lanyon, Gent. that married Pineck; his father Reynolds.
Polkinhorne, in this parish (eminent or notable iron head). From this
place was denominated an old family of gentlemen surnamed Polkinhorne,
who gave for their arms, Argent, three bars Sable; whose only daughter
and heir, temp. Charles II. was married to Thomas Glynn, Gent. a
younger branch of the Glynns of Glynn, whose father giveth for his
arms, Argent, a chevron between three salmon-spears handled and barbed
Sable, two in chief, and one in the base part, with points downwards.
Coswin, in this parish (i. e. the white wood or fair) gave name and
original to an old family of gentlemen surnamed De Coswyn, who lived
reputably in this place for several descents, till John Coswyn, temp.
Charles II. by ill husbandry, wasted his paternal estate, and sold
this little barton to the person now in possession thereof.
TONKIN.
The right name of this parish is St. Wynnier, a corruption of St.
Wymer, its tutelar saint, by which name it is called in the Taxatio
Beneficiorum, Ecclesia Sancti Wymeri.
The great tithes of this parish are believed to have been bestowed on
Exeter College, by its founder, Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter,
A.D. 1318.
A younger brother’s daughter of Coswin, who squandered the property,
married Peter Pendarves, gent. and brought Bodrigge in Thellark into
that family.
THE EDITOR.
The parish of Gwiner has been extremely productive in copper. Herland
Mine, usually called the manor, produced so large a return to Mr.
Hobbin, only part proprietor of the land, as paid for the building of
Nansewidden in St. Columb, about the middle of the last century. It
has been since wrought on a most extensive scale, and to a great
depth.
Whele Alfred, Whele Trelistion, and others, have been very productive;
but at present they are all discontinued.
The family of most consequence connected with this parish is that of
Lanyon.
The first syllable certainly implies an inclosed place, from which it
has become specifically applied to a church, to a castle, and even to
a town. Mr. Hals’ conjectures as to the termination of the name,
appear to be so utterly groundless that they are omitted.
Mr. Whitaker believes that Lanyon in Normandy bears only a castle for
its cognisance, and that the falcon has been added on account of the
similarity in sound of Lanyer to Lanner, the favourite bird in
falconry.
It must be observed however that Lanyon is always in Cornwall
pronounced La-nine.
The Gwinear and Madern branches of the Laryon family were together
possessed of extensive property in the adjacent parishes; combinations
of unfortunate circumstances have diminished their possessions, but
hopes may be entertained that the Lanyons of Gwinear, who have never
lost the sense of what is due to the memory of their ancestors, may
again resume the former station of their family.
The Rev. Malachy Hitchins, Vicar of St. Hilary, held this living for
almost thirty years.
Gwinear measures 3,882 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 5185 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 800 18 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1651 | 1952 | 2383 | 2728
giving an increase of 65 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Thomas Wilgress, collated, by the
Bishop of Exeter in 1813.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish, like those adjoining, Camborne and Crowan, has been long
celebrated for its mines, but it does not resemble them by reposing in
part on granite, being confined entirely to rocks of the slate series.
The porphyritic courses are not so common here as in Gwennap; but they
often assume a very interesting form, occurring as insulated masses,
which in some cases are perfectly granitic, and at the same time
afford every indication of their having been formed contemporaneously
with the slate. The most curious geological phenomenon of this parish
is to be met with in Relistion Mine, where one of the lodes,
(metalliferous veins) at a considerable depth, is composed of rounded
pedules, cemented together in a hard solid mass; at first sight it
would be pronounced to be a decided conglomerate of derivative origin;
but on a more close examination it is found to have the spheroidal
structure, which is common to many rocks, and which in regard to this
mineral was probably coeval with its original formation.
GWITHIAN.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north the
Irish Sea, or St. George’s Channel, and that creek or cove called
Gwithian Bay, east Illigan, west Phelack, south Gwyniar.
The entry occurs, Rex tenet Canardi-tone, in the Domesday tax 20
William I. 1087.
For in this parish is the voke lands of the great and privileged manor
of Coner, or Conner-ton, which claims by prescription not only the
royalties and jurisdiction within its limits, but also over the whole
hundred of Penwith (id est, the head tree). Hence it is that this
manor of Connerton is privileged not only with the jurisdiction of a
Court Leet or Baron for the whole hundred of Penwith, within which two
courts are tried all matters of debt and damage between party and
party within the same, (life, land, and limb excepted,) wherein
heretofore infinite number of causes have been depending, by reason of
its being the most remote part of the kingdom from the Courts of
Westminster; the steward or judge of which courts, (which offices
commonly are vested in one person,) takes his deputation from the now
lord of the manor, viz. Sir John Arundell, of Lanherne, Knight, and
not from the King or Duke of Cornwall’s stewards, as other bailiwicks
do.
For in the time of King Henry III. this manor was the King of
England’s or Earl of Cornwall’s lands, who, by letters patent, yet to
be seen at Lanherne, passed it over, together with the bailiwick of
the said hundred, to Simon Pincerna, or Butler, lord of Lanherne, in
consideration that he the said Simon had enfeoffed the said King
Henry, his heirs and successors, with the lordship and manor of St.
James at Westminster, in the county of Middlesex. After which exchange
or settlement, Pincerna and his heirs enjoyed this manor for several
descents, till Edward III.’s days. At which time one of the two
daughters and heirs of Pincerna was married to Arundell of Trenibleth,
the direct ancestor of Sir John Arundell of Lanherne, Knight, now in
possession of both those lordships. The other daughter to Umphravill.
To remove an action at law depending in those Courts, the writ must be
thus directed: “Senescallo et Ballivo hundredi et libertatis suæ de
Penwith in Comitatu Cornubiæ salutem.”
In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the
value of Cornish benefices, 1294, “Ecclesia de Sancto Gwyth-ran, in
decanatu de Penwidh,” is valued cxiii_s._ iiii_d._ It seems at the
time of this inquisition this church was not consolidated into
Phillack; but before Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it past in
consolidation and value together with it, at 45_l._ 10_s._ 8_d._ The
patronage was formerly in the King of England, who endowed it; now
Arundell of Lanherne. And the parish is rated to the 4_s._ per pound
Land Tax, 1696, 58_l._ 2_s._ by the name Gwith-ran.
TONKIN.
This church is a rectory, daughter to Phillack, together with which it
is rated in the King’s Books, and passeth in the presentation. The
patronage is in Arundell of Lanherne, the incumbent Mr. Jasper
Phillips. This gentleman is since deceased, and has left the next
presentation, held by lease under the Arundells, to his nephew Mr.
Gregory, who has presented his brother-in-law, Mr. Edward Collins, son
of Mr. Collins, of Treworgy in St. Erm (great-grandfather to the
Editor).
This parish takes its name, like many others, from the Saint to whom
the church is dedicated, called by Mr. Carew, St. Gothian.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Hals’s derivation is again so utterly improbable as to be omitted.
The Arundells, being Catholics, leased the advowson of Phillack and
Gwithian on lives, to prevent its lapsing to the University of Oxford,
under an Act of Parliament. On the death of Mr. Edward Collins it did
so lapse, and the University presented Mr. William Glover, of
Worcestershire, first of Balliol College and then a chaplain of All
Souls. A lease was then granted to Mr. Hoskin, of Gwithian, and his
son the Rev. Richard Hoskin succeeded Mr. Glover, who on the general
sale of all the Arundell property in Cornwall, purchased the freehold,
so that his son is now patron and incumbent of the united parishes.
Mr. Lysons says that the advowson of these united parishes belonged to
the Priory of St. James in Bristol, and I find a charter of King Henry
II.
“Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, et Dux Normanniæ et
Aquitaniæ, et Comes Andegaviæ, Archiepiscopis, &c. salutem.
Sciatis me concessisse et præsenti carta mea confirmasse
ecclesiæ sancti Jacobi de Bristow omnia subscripta, quæ
Willielmus comes Gloecestriæ ei rationabiliter concessit et
dedit in perpetuam elemosinam, scilicet inter alia et omnes
ecclesias quæ sunt de feodo jam dicti comitis in Cornubia
cum capellis et cum omnibus pertinentiis suis; scilicet
Ecclesiam de Eglosrek, Ecclesiam de CONORTON, Ecclesiam de
Eglasheil, Ecclesiam de Eglossant, Ecclesiam de
Egloscraweyn, et Capellam de Bennartona, Ecclesiam de
Melioton, et Ecclesiam Sancti Germoch.”
It is understood that the manor of Conorton had in some way been
connected with the honour of Gloucester before the Conquest. William
certainly gave it with that honour to Alan Earl of Britanny. Rufus had
it again to bestow, and under his grant it descended to the Earls of
Gloucester, originating in an illegitimate son of King Henry I.
William, the second of these earls, endowed the Priory of St. James.
Mr. Lysons says that Robert Earl of Gloucester, son of this Robert,
gave Conorton to Richard Pincerna in 1154, but he is clearly mistaken,
for the date proves it to be done by the same William. Pincerna is a
word used by writers mediæ et infimæ Latinitatis for butler. Qui vinum
convivis miscet, a Græco πινειν κιρνα. Ducange.
Mihi sapit dulcius vinum in taberna,
Quam quod aqua miscuit Præsulis Pincerna.
WALTER DE MAPES.
The son of this Pincerna took the name of Conorton, as was usual in
those times, and settled at Lanherne; from this family it passed with
Lanherne to the Arundells, by marriage, in whom it continued till the
general wreck above referred to, when being reduced to a mere royalty
it was bought by the late Sir Christopher Hawkins, and since his
decease in 1829 the royalty has been purchased by an attorney, for the
purpose in all probability of holding the courts.
There is a tradition, supported by the authority of Leland, that a
town so large as to contain two churches stood on this manor, which
has been destroyed by sand; but the tale must at the least be a very
great exaggeration.
The account given by Mr. Hals of the exchange of the manor of Conorton
for St. James’ in Westminster, can scarcely be made to quadrate with
the above account, which appears to be authentic, and it is still
further opposed by the history of St. James’s Hospital, as given by
Tanner and Dugdale, they say:
“At a distance from the city, in the fields near Westminster, some
well disposed citizens of London, beyond the memory of man, and (as
some think) long before the Conquest, founded a hospital for the
reception of fourteen leprous women, to whom were afterwards added
brethren, to minister divine service.” This house was dedicated to St.
James, and rebuilt in the time of King Henry III.
It was under the government of a master (although the Abbat of
Westminster claimed a jurisdiction over it) till King Henry VI.
granted the perpetual custody of it to Eton College, who surrendered
it to King Henry VIII. anno Regni 23, (A. D. 1531) when it was valued
at 100_l._ per annum, in exchange for Chattisham in Suffolk. On or
near the place where this hospital stood has been since built the
present Royal Palace of St James.
Mr. Lysons has been so fortunate as to obtain from the late rector
some information respecting the inundation of sand, which has
devastated a large portion of these two parishes, extending its
ravages wherever the coast is low, throughout the whole northern space
of Cornwall, from the Land’s End to Devonshire. There has always
existed a traditional account of this inundation, corroborated by the
ecclesiastical valuations, which are far too high for the actual
extent of land, and also said to be confirmed by documents preserved
in the Arundell family, carrying back the commencement of the evil
nearly to the period of their acquiring the property.
With respect to more recent inundations, Mr. Hoskin in stated to Mr.
Lysons, that the barton of Upton, one of the principal farms, was
suddenly overwhelmed; that his great-grandfather remembered the
occupier residing in the farmhouse, which was nearly buried in one
night, the family being obliged to make their escape through the
chamber windows; and that in consequence of the wind producing a
shifting of the sand, in the winter of 1808-9, the house, after having
disappeared for more than a century, came again to view.
The rector further stated that he himself remembered two fields lost
at Gwithian, and that they are now covered with sand to the depth of
ten or twelve feet, and that the church-town would have been also
lost, if the parish officers had not promptly resorted to an
expedient, which, simple as it may seem, has every where proved to be
the most efficacious in arresting this gigantic evil, that of planting
rushes; these stop completely the progress of sand, and greatly
facilitate the growth of other vegetation on the surface, so as to
create a thin turf. The hillocks of sand exhibit a model in miniature
of the Alps.
This sand is entirely calcareous, being a mass of comminuted shells,
and immense quantities are carried away for manure, more especially in
the cultivation of strong clay lands; but no method sufficiently cheap
for practice has yet been invented for burning this shell sand into
lime, as the fine powder chokes the fuel in any kiln, and a
reverberatory furnace is much too expensive.
On the opposite coast of Cornwall the sand is siliceous.
Godrery belongs to Lord De Dunstanville, a bold promontory
distinguished by an island beyond it, and by a dangerous reef
extending far into St. Ive’s Bay.
Other lands are much divided. Mr. Hoskin the present rector, and his
relations, are considerable proprietors, and several resident farmers
live on their own freeholds, Mr. Veal, Mr. Phillips, and others.
Notice has been taken of a very large fig tree growing in the
churchyard; the wonder is much diminished by knowing that this tree
was planted by the late rector; but as chalk is of all soils the most
favourable to figs, it is not improbable that calcareous sand may
participate in the same quality.
The parish feast is held on the nearest Sunday to the first of
November, All Saints Day.
This parish measures 2,249 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1,110 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 92 2 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 329 | 372 | 412 | 539
giving an increase of about 64 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The rocks of this parish are well exhibited at Godrery Point, they
consist of a fine blue and fissile slate, and of a thick lamellar and
somewhat compact rock. They are not metalliferous, and resemble those
of Trevaunance in St. Agnes. The greater part of the parish is covered
with hillocks of calcareous sand, as is common on many parts of the
north coast.
HELLAND.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Trigge, and hath upon the north St.
Mabyn, East Blissland, and part of Bodmin parish; south, Bodmin Town;
west, part of St. Mabyn and Egleshayle. The name refers to the church,
and signifies the hall college, temple, or church.
That there was an endowed rectory church here before the Norman
Conquest I make no doubt, since in the Domesday Roll it is taxed by
the name of Henland, and also in the Inquisition of the Bishops of
Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Church Benefices in Cornwall,
1294, “Ecclesia de Hellan in decanatu de Trigminorshire,” is valued
xl_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, 9_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ The patronage
formerly in the Prior of Bodmin, who endowed it; after in Heale and
Bulteel; now in Robins, or Tress, or Trelawny; and the parish rated to
the 4_s._ per pound Land-Tax, 1696, by the name of Helland, 84_l._
17_s._ 4_d._ The incumbent White.
At Bo-cuny-an, in this parish, is the dwelling of my very kind friend
Dr. Robert Heart, who married Molesworth and Hawkey; originally
descended from the Hearts of Tencreek, of Mynhyniet, or St. German’s,
and giveth for his arms, Gules, on a chief Argent three human hearts
Proper.
Note further, that whosoever is possessed in fee of the barton of
Helland, (for Bara-ton, i. e. the Bread Town lands in this parish,) is
legal patron of the same, paying only 40_s._ to the Rector Incumbent
for the time being, in full satisfaction for all the great and small
tithes of the said barton, according to an ancient pact or composition
made between the first Rector thereof and the Prior of Bodmin, who
endowed it. Which sum of 40_s._ per annum at the time of the
Inquisition aforesaid, was the value of the tithes of the whole
parish.
Note further, wherever the word barton occurs in this history, it
being Cornish British, it must be interpreted either as the barred,
bolted, or fenced towne, or as a contraction of the word Bara-ton
aforesaid, for as bara is bread in British, so ton or tone is a town
or village, a manor, parish, tenement, or part thereof; the place
where commonly the lord of the land had a well bolted or barred house
to dwell in; or else a town or house which was notable for keeping or
dispensing freely of bread for support of man’s life.
TONKIN.
The words Hel or Hale are at least the Cornish pronunciation of the
English hall, atrium, and this word was applied to churches as well as
to gentlemen’s houses in various parts of England, as Helldon Rectory
in Norfolk Halling, Kent, &c., and see the 140th stanza of Mount
Calvary.
Pylat eth yn mes ay hell yn un lowarth an gevo
Pylat went out of y^e hall into a garden w^{ch} he found,
But after all, if we may believe the parishioners, the name is a
contraction for Helen’s Land, the church being dedicated to St.
Helena, the mother of Constantine.
In this parish lived the old family of the Giffords, who married one
of the inheritrixes of the Esses, or Vanstorts, in the time of Henry
VI. as Gifford’s heiress was married to Nicholls of Penrose.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Whitaker has observed, in a note on what Mr. Hals says on the word
barton, a term now almost indiscriminately applied to all large farms,
although in former times it was probably restricted to what Mr. Hals
denominates the yoke land of a manor.
Barton in English is Bere-ton, as Berwick, and signifies primarily a
farm-house distinguished by the corn generally raised, once bere, or
barley; and from the house the term has been transferred to the estate
annexed. Baraton here means the same as bara, bread or corn, bara pill
the corn harbour, bara-Llan, barton (Cornish) a cornfield, and barn
(as in English) a corn-house.
Mr. Lysons mentions several manors in this parish, but they do not
appear ever to have possessed any importance or curiosity, except that
the manor of Penhargard belonged to the unfortunate Chief Justice
Trevilian, and that the barton of Brades or Broads was for some time
the seat of a younger branch of the Glynns.
Robert Glynn, Esq. residing there, married in 1711 Lucy Clobery, and
their only son was Doctor Glynn, a Fellow of King’s College,
Cambridge, well known and distinguished for his abilities, learning,
and philanthropy, and in some degree also for occasional
eccentricities. He obtained not merely one of the University prizes,
but great reputation by a Latin Poem on the Day of Judgment, in the
year 1757; and in illustration of other parts of his character, having
attended as a physician on the family of some agricultural labourer
near Cambridge, and restored them to health, the man’s wife lamented
their poverty, but begged of the Doctor to take a tame bird in their
possession, as the only thing in their power to bestow. Doctor Glynn
accepted the present, but declared that he could not keep his bird in
a college room, and that therefore they must keep it for him, at an
allowance of half a crown a week.
To be invited by Doctor Glynn to drink tea at his room was always
considered as an honour by the younger members of the University, and
the Editor remembers to have heard that Mr. Pitt, then at the head of
the government, and just elected into a seat more flattering than any
office the crown could confer, expressed himself pleased by the
repetition of these invitations from Doctor Glynn.
Helland measures 2,053 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1,588 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 102 0 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 221 | 223 | 264 | 285
giving an increase of 29 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. Francis J. Hext, presented in 1817, by
William Morshead, Esq.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The geology of this parish is similar to that of the western part of
Bodmin. It is however worthy of remark that in the road from Bodmin to
Camelford several beds of granitic elvan are exposed to view. The
first at the top of the hill near Smith’s, resembles a coarse granitic
sandstone, and at its junction with the slate both rocks are perfectly
distinct, not having any appearance of transition, which circumstance
is in favour of its being a derivative rock. This subject, however,
requires further examination. The other elvans are more compact and
porphyritic, and contain hornblende, resembling those of Carraton
Hill, near Liskeard, situated within the granite.
HELSTON.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the east Gwendron,
west Sythney and the Loopoole, south Maugan and Gunwallo.
That this was a privileged place, and the voke lands of a manor, with
court leet, before the Norman Conquest, I make no doubt, since the
whole hundred of Kerryer, in King Alfred’s days, was in chief
denominated from it. Besides this testimony, in Domesday Roll 20
William I. 1087, we read that by the name of Henliston, it was then
taxed. Moreover, Brooke, York Herald, tells us temp. James I. in the
Catalogue of Cornish Earls, that the privileges of this town or manor
were concerted into a charter, and incorporated by Richard
Plantagenet, Earl of Cornwall, 3d son of King Henry II. surnamed
Cur-lyon, from his lion-like heart, in the name of Helleston, as
appeared from the charter, which he had then in his custody, to the
seal whereof was affixed a lion rampant. It was also made one of the
four coinage towns by King Edward I. in his charter to the Tinners, by
the same name (See the charter under Luxilian). As also incorporated
into the Duchy of Cornwall, by the same name 1336, when King Edward
III. to his son the Black Prince promoted or translated the Earldom of
Cornwall into a Duchy or Dukedom.
Whereby this town is also confirmed to be the voke lands of the manors
or stanneries of Helston and Kerryer, (id est, Hall, Broad Town, and
Lover,) and privileged with a Court Leet, wherein all pleas of debt
and damage, between party and party, concerning tin matters, are tried
by a jury of six men, before the Vice Warden and Steward of the
Stanneries, (under the Lord Warden thereof,) life, land, and limb
excepted. It is also privileged with a Court Leet before the tribunal
of the Mayor and Aldermen, and Quarterly Sessions of the Peace, and
sending two members to Parliament; markets weekly on Saturday; fairs
on August 29, October 28, Saturday before Midlent Sunday, Saturday
before Palm Sunday, Whitsun Monday, and two fairs before St. Thomas à
Becket’s day. Moreover, these privileges were confirmed and enlarged
by charters temp. Queen Elizabeth and King Charles I. by the name of
the Mayor and Burgesses, who consist of a Mayor (who is a Justice of
the Peace for the Borough, the year succeeding his Mayoralty), and
four Aldermen, who elect as many Common Councilmen as make their
number twelve. Their Members of Parliament are elected by the majority
of the freemen, and returned by the Mayor, to whom the precept on the
writ for election must be thus directed, as well as that for removing
an action depending in the Leet of Helston to a superior Court:
“Majori et Burgensibus Burgi nostri de Helleston in Comitatu
Cornubiæ, salutem.”
Not far from this town stands the ruins of an old camp, or
intrenchment, called Castle Werre, or Wera, an old fort or citadel to
defend it from its enemies’ invasion. The arms of which town are
Argent, a castle, or house, garreted on the top thereof, between two
watch-towers, the Archangel St. Michael fighting with a dragon, or the
devil.
That King Edward I. frequented this place for delight or pleasure, or
designed so to do, upon the death of his uncle Richard Earl of
Cornwall, King of the Romans, when the Earldom of Cornwall reverted to
himself, in right of his Crown of England, Anno Dom. 1272, is evident
from his granting lands by the tenure of grand sergeantry to William
de Treville, on condition of bringing a fishhook and a boat and net,
at his own proper costs and charges, for the king’s fishing in the
lake of Helston, whensoever the King should come to Helston, and as
long as he should tarry there. See the copy of this enfeofment deed in
Sythney parish.
The chief inhabitants of this coinage town for tin are Mr. Penrose,
Mr. Polkinhorne, Mr. Hooker, attorney at law, Mr. Williams, Mr. Rawe,
Mr. Burges, Mr. Pinock, and others.
In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the
value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, the church of Helston is not named,
but passed then under the title of its mother or superior church,
Gwendron, into which it was consolidated, 17_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._; in
Wolsey’s Inquisition, by the names of Wendron and Helston, 26_l._
19_s._ 3_d._; both endowed, I suppose, by the Master or Governor of
St. John’s Hospital at Sythney, who were patrons thereof till the 6th
Henry VIII. when it was dissolved, now Jago; the incumbent Jago; and
the town or parish of Helston rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax,
1696, 181_l._ 9_s._ 4_d._
In the year 1727 happened in those parts astonishing claps of thunder
and lightning, which in fine broke down and tore in pieces the
greatest part of this town’s church and tower, and did it damage to
the value of two or three hundred pounds in repair thereof.
TONKIN.
This church is a Vicarage, endowed, and passeth in the presentation
with Gwendron.
Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, tells us that within this town
was an hospital, but gives no further account of it; so that it is
unknown to me whether it were a spital erected for the relief of
pilgrims from abroad, or for the use of sick impoverished people
within the town. Most assured I am that near this place there was a
priory erected to the name of St. John the Baptist.
THE EDITOR.
I have omitted some paragraphs from Hals and from Tonkin respecting
several derivations of the name “Helstone,” as all the circumstances
of the place seem to point at one so decidedly as to exclude all
consideration of the others. No doubt this one transgresses an
arbitrary rule confining the themes of all derivations to a single
language; but the instances in contradiction are so numerous
throughout all England, as to render this circumstance of no
importance.
The spot long used as a bowling-green is acknowledged on all hands to
have been the site of an ancient castle. It must therefore have been
the nucleus of the town; and the marsh extending from the Loo Pool
along the valley, passes under the scarped rampart of the castle.
Hellas is well known to signify a marsh in the Celtic dialect used in
Cornwall, and the termination Ton, the origin of our general word
town, signified, in the Saxon,――more especially a walled town, or
fortress; Helleston is therefore the fortress on the marsh.
The first charter of incorporation given to Helston, at least from the
supreme feudal chief, is said to have been by King John. It is,
however, highly probable that privileges of guild may have been
bestowed long before by the Princes of Cornwall, vassals from the time
of Athelstan. Various other charters were granted, till, in the early
part of the reign of George III. the number of corporators became so
reduced that the remainder were incapable of performing any corporate
act; a new charter was in consequence obtained, and at the next
general election the individuals named in it returned two members; but
six persons remaining of the former party did the same: and so strong
at that period was the feeling for chartered rights, in consequence of
the conduct pursued by King Charles II. and his successor, that a
committee of the House of Commons determined the right to remain in
this fragment, incapable of performing any other civil act. And songs
were made on the occasion, comparing these heroes with Eustace de St.
Pierre and his companions.
When Edward set down before Calais,
Replete with rage and with malice,
Not the six famous burghers
More courage displayed
Than the six men of Helston.
One, if not two more returns were made in the same manner, till the
number being fallen down to two very old men, they were induced to
wave their privilege, partly, it is said, from an apprehension
entertained that the maxim of Roman law, tres faciunt collegiam, might
be effectually urged against them.
A custom had grown up at Helston, from early times, and by no means
peculiar to that place, in compliance with which the patron, a well
known and definite appellation, paid all the parochial rates; but an
opinion may be formed of their small amount at no distant period, from
the following statement. The Editor being on a Committee of the House
of Commons, to consider and report on the poor laws soon after the
conclusion of the late war, laid before the Committee a copy of a poor
rate made for a parish in the west of England in the year 1704: it
amounted to four pounds and some few shillings, while in the current
year it exceeded six hundred pounds.
This practise in Helston became the ground of a petition after the
general election of 1812; and, opinions having now changed, the matter
was taken up so seriously in the House of Commons, as to induce the
passing of a bill for disfranchising the borough. The other branch of
the legislature, however, considered the practice, although wrong in
itself, yet a delictum sine crimine, in this particular instance, as
it most clearly appeared that some leading gentlemen, possessed of
such influence as would have enabled them to make great lucrative
advantages for themselves other ways, were benefited in so slight a
degree by these payments, as to make it quite evident that
self-interest had not been the motive of their conduct. The bill did
not pass into a law, and the town became regularly assessed like other
places. The well-known connection usual in such cases had long
subsisted between this town and the neighbouring family of Godolphin.
At the period of the last heraldic visitation in 1640, the signatures
to the return of arms, &c. were,
The mark × of John Roe Moyes.
Thomas Seyntaubyn.
William Robinson.
Thomas James.
John Herbert.
Dated October 9, 1640.
And the members of the corporation are stated to be,
BURGESSES.
John Rowe Moyes.
Thomas St. Aubyn, Gent.
William Robinson.
Alexander Bolytho.
John Harbert.
John Alexander.
Thomas Godolphin, of Godolphin, Esq. Recorder.
Thomas James.
Robert Cock.
William Penhaluwick.
Daniel Bedford.
William Trewin.
Patrick Pesseme.
John Cock.
Thomas Randall, Steward of the said Town and Corporation.
In the Parliament preceding that, the Editor’s great-great-grandfather,
William Noye, afterwards Attorney-General, represented Helston; and he
himself had the same honour in the Parliament following the Union with
Ireland. On the total change of the parliamentary constitution in
1832, the limits of Helston were extended so as to include a large
portion of Wendron and the entire parish of Sithney. And the whole was
reduced to sending one Member, or, according to a familiar expression,
it was placed in Schedule B.
On that occasion a letter was addressed to a gentleman of the town, in
return for a present of some delicacies, so full of wit and humour
that the Editor, having been favoured with a copy, is induced to
insert it.
“Your very obliging present made its appearance this day,
together with your note of the 2d instant; pray, accept my best
thanks for the same, the quality of which will, I have no doubt,
on trial fully justify the favourable impression already made by
their fragrance.
“Under the melancholy circumstances of affliction in which your
town must be plunged by the announcement of the intended
spoliation of a moiety of its electoral privileges, it is most
pleasing to recognise a disposition in the leading citizens to
impart of their good things to others; and although I should at
all times have been much delighted by any mark of your friendly
remembrance, yet it is doubly gratifying at a period like the
present, when public embarrassments might naturally be supposed
to absorb every other feeling, and to leave little room for
indulging a spirit of individual philanthropy.
“Allow me, however, to express the hope, that as, when Hercules
broke off the horn of the river god Achelous, it became the
medium through which the golden gifts of the Genius of Plenty
were showered down, so the ancient and patriotic borough of
Helston, although shorn of a part of its long-enjoyed honours,
and mutilated as to one of its protectors, may still flourish
with a cornucopia of abundance and of prosperity.
2671. (φυε, φυε, οττοτοι, παπαι, αι, αι) 2671.
“quoth the Population Return for 1821.
“For which slight numerical deficiency, and for no earthly
offence imputable to the inhabitants, save that of a practical
application of the principle ‘non numero, sed honore valemus,’
the long-standing privileges of loyal men are scandalously
invaded, and a body of independent electors declared incapable of
exercising more than one half of their prescriptive rights.
“I seem to hear an indignant voter of Helston exclaim, ‘Why this
measure of penal severity, accompanied at the same time with an
apparent mitigation and leniency?’ Political annihilation had been
a milder doom; extermination from the lists of suspected
corruption had been far better than thus to suffer mutilation
from the pruning knife of reform, beneath the wound inflicted by
which the gangrene of dissatisfaction will still lurk and fester
for ever.
――――Mene Iliacis occumbere campis
Non potuisse!
“Happier were it to have sunk amidst the ruins of Sarum, or to
have perished in the plains of Gatton,
Sævus ubi Æacidæ telo jacet Hector, ubi ingens
Sarpedon――――
“than to be thus sent adrift, single-masted and disabled, on the
doubtful sea of political adventure. They who now fall,
Sumptis apud Ilion armis.
“will meet no inglorious fate; under the banners of Peel, or the
shield of Wetherall, it will be honourable to be conquered; and
the page of history will supply a never-dying splendour for the
illustrious patriots whose destinies were sealed by the
Parliament of 1831. But to be denied this noble privilege, to
remain a still-enduring monument of the wrongs inflicted, and of
the mercies awarded! to be held up as an example of the wisdom of
half-measures, and the policy of semi-destruction! to be denied
the consolation of despair! and to be snatched from the gulph of
ruin to an acuter sensation of helplessness!
Σκληροκαρδιος αρ’ ειῃ
Ὁτῳ ταδ’ ου μελησεἰ.
“The remainder of this classic dirge, or ælinon, no less
remarkable for the purity of its diction than for the fine flow
of feeling and tone of patriotism by which it is characterised,
is intended to form a part of a great national work, to be
printed at the Clarendon press, and to be sent forth into the
world,――Iliadum lachrymas inter[5] justasque querelas.
“But I find that I must come to a hasty conclusion; trusting
therefore that you will pardon my adventuring to meddle with any
thing so sacred as a venerable borough in affliction, and begging
you will present my unfeigned condolence to all parties
interested to whom I have the honour of being known, I remain,
&c.”
The old church is said by Mr. Hals to have been greatly injured by a
thunder-storm in 1727. It appears never to have been thoroughly
repaired; and in 1763, Lord Godolphin, the patron, built a large
church and a lofty tower, nearly on the site of the former. The church
is without pillars, and capable of containing a numerous congregation;
but the whole is strongly characteristic of the bad taste prevalent at
the period when it was erected.
Just over the bridge leading to the westward stood the hospital
dedicated to St. John, and founded by a member of the Killegrews. The
spot is still marked by a large upright stone near the bridge, bearing
the sword with its crosletted hilt, the cognizance of the military
order of St. John. Little, however, is known about it. Dugdale states
that at the dissolution in the 26th of Henry VIII. the total annual
revenue of the house amounted to 14_l._ 7_s._ 4_d._ and the actual
receipts to 12_l._ 16_s._ 4_d._
About the year 1805 the town received a very considerable improvement
by the removal of the Coinage Hall from the middle of the principal
street leading south-west from the middle of the town. The Editor at
that time represented Helston, and had the good fortune to assist
materially in promoting the negociation with the Duchy officers, in
consequence of his acquaintance with Mr. Sheridan, and with others
whose consent was necessary to be obtained. The Market-house is a
venerable monument of former times; yet, if this also could be
removed, the improvement would equal that effected by the former.
Helston, in great measure unconnected with trade or with a sea port,
little of a thoroughfare before the turnpike road was made, surrounded
by the residences of ancient, respectable, and wealthy families, and
inhabited by gentlemen of a similar description, has ever been
celebrated for the superior quality of its social manners, and at the
same time for an easy and familiar intercourse between all the people
in their various stations; the inferior experiencing the truth of what
all the histories of all nations have confirmed from the earliest
periods of Greece to the recent events of our own time,
Αρχαιοπλουτων δεσποτων πολλη χαρις·
Ὁι δ’ ουποτ’ ελπισαντες, ημησαν καλως,
Ωμοι τε δουλοις, παντα και παρα σταθμην.
And the reverse of
Απας δε τραχυς, ὁστις αν νεον κρατῃ.
These circumstances account for the continuance of old manners and of
old customs longer here than in other places.
All towns appear to have adopted, on one day at least in the year,
practices similar to the Roman Saturnalia; in most places, the lines
of society having become broad and strongly impressed, their
observances descended to the more vulgar, or rather perhaps to the
vicious; and changing their character from harmless amusements to
practices of outrage and violence, they have been discontinued or
suppressed: but in Helston an ancient observance of this kind,
refining with the refinement of the age, still continues in activity.
The origins of all these customs are obscured or totally lost in their
remote antiquity. That of Helston corresponded, however, precisely
with its name――“a foray,” locally corrupted into furray; the young
people rushed out of the town into the country early on the eighth of
May, when, entering all houses without leave or ceremony, they
appeared to seize whatever they wanted, and from the real nature of
the transactions, whatever they wanted was sure of being found; and
ultimately they returned to the town in triumph, dancing and decorated
with flowers, where the scenes of the morning were, in some degree,
repeated. All these practices, however, are less and less persevered
in from year to year, so that the whole is rapidly tending towards the
single entertainment of a ball; and if the ladies had succeeded in a
classical fancy, which, some how or other, got possession of their
minds, the very memory of this festival would have been lost.
Not intimately acquainted, one may presume, with the true history of
the patroness they had selected to sanction their gaieties, the
goddess Flora was made to preside over a foray, instituted, as some
assert, before the Norman conquest, and in commemoration of a victory
obtained over the Saxons, who had landed at a cove still called
Perthsasnac; but the utter absurdity of the substitution, and the
popularity given to the word FORAY by Sir Walter Scott’s Poems, have
restored the ancient and true appellation.
Causes similar to those which have retained the foray, have also kept
up the practice of bowling; so that in Helston alone can one now see
the principal gentlemen of the town assembled on the bowling-green,
enjoying at once exercise, fresh air, and agreeable intercourse, free
from any spirit of gambling and from the slightest indulgence of a
habit more common and less excusable.
The word faddy is used to express the dance, the air, or both, used in
celebrating the foray; the origin of this term is quite unknown.
The air is preserved by Edward Jones in his Musical and Poetical
Relics of the Welsh Bards. He has also printed some lines which were
sung by the dancers; they are, however, so entirely devoid of sense,
or even of antiquity, that I shall not transcribe them.
The air is supposed to be a remnant of British music; one very like
it, if not identically the same, has been found in Ireland, and
according to report in Scotland. It may therefore be justly esteemed a
curiosity.
The measurement of Helston is included in Gwendron; and the value
of Real Property is not distinguished in the returns to Parliament
from the parish.
The Poor Rates and Population have been given under Gwendron
(Wendron), but they are here repeated.
Poor Rate in 1831, £889. 17_s._
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 2248 | 2297 | 2671 | 3293
giving an increase of 46½ per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The northern part of this parish, approaching the granite of Wendron,
is composed of felspar and hornblende rocks; the southern so much
abounds in some parts with siliceous varieties of rock as to form
barren downs, which stretch from Love Bar to the vicinity of Gweek.
[5] “An old scholiast upon this passage proposes to read
meritas; but says little in defence of his suggestion,
beyond adverting to divers suicidal acts of the ultra
Tories, as he calls them, which are said to have been
perpetrated by them on various occasions.”
ST. HILARY.
Mr. Hals begins his account of this parish with a long history of the
patron saint, including all the controversies or disputed points of
doctrine in which he was engaged; all this, extending through many
pages, is omitted.
St. Hilary was born at Poictiers, in France, about the end of the
third or the beginning of the fourth century.
He was descended from an illustrious family, and received an education
suited to his station in life, by which he was initiated into all the
secular learning of those times; but finding the Pagan mythology
utterly absurd, and the prevalent system of philosophy quite
unsatisfactory, he examined the Christian writings, and became a
convert. He seems never to have adopted the brutalizing austerities so
prevalent in those ages, but to have employed his talents, his
acquired eloquence, and his learning, against the Arians and in
defence of the Nicene creed. Several of his works are extant, and have
gone through many editions. The whole were printed by the Benedictine
Monks of Paris, “St. Hilarii Opera omnia per Monachos Benedictinos
edita; Gr. et Lat. Parisiis, 1693, Fol.” Erasmus published the works
of St. Hilary in 1544, and says in his Preface, “Quicquid ingenio,
quicquid eloquentia, quicquid sacrarum literarum cognitione posset;”
and his contemporary, St. Jerome, says of him, “Hilarius, meorum
Confessor temporum, et Episcopus, duodecim Quintiliani libros et
titulo imitatus est et numero;” referring to his twelve books on the
Trinity.
In the judgment of modern critics his style at least is not thought
worthy of all the praise bestowed on it by St. Jerome; for, although
it is stated to be lofty and noble, and moreover beautified with
rhetorical ornaments and figures, yet it is too much studied and
lengthened in many periods, so as to be obscure and even
unintelligible.
The following passage on singleness of heart, has been cited by
various authors.
“Christ teaches that only those who become again, as it were, little
children, and by the simplicity of that age cut off the inordinate
affections of vice, can enter into the kingdom of heaven. Those follow
and obey their father, love their mother, are strangers to
covetousness, ill-will, hatred, arrogance, lying, and are inclined
easily to believe what they hear. This disposition of affection opens
the way to heaven. We must therefore return to the simplicity of
little children, in which we shall bear some resemblance to our Lord’s
humility.” From his commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew.
St. Hilary, previous to his conversion, had married, and his family
consisted of one daughter; he immediately separated himself from them;
his wife retired into a religious society. And after the saint had
been consecrated Bishop of Poictiers in the year 355, he learned with
the utmost horror and affright that his daughter was about to take on
herself the unholy bonds of matrimony. His prompt and impassioned
remonstrances conveyed in a letter which is printed among his works,
conjuring her by the God of heaven not to act so unworthy a part, were
successful; the marriage was broken off, and he had the gratification
of seeing his daughter, a spouse of Christ, expire not long after at
his feet.
St. Hilary composed a treatise which might in ordinary times have
conciliated him to every sect then in existence. He there maintained
that errors on speculative points of abstruse doctrine, were more
sinful in the sight of God than any conduct the most atrocious; but
controversy ran so high, and St. Hilary had taken a part so violent
against the Arians, that even this merit could not save him from
banishment, when that equally poised division of the church obtained
some temporary preponderance in a synod, or succeeded in acquiring to
their party the temporal chief; who, without using the form of words,
practically evinced that he was “over all persons and over all causes,
ecclesiastical as well as civil, within those his dominions supreme.”
The saint, however, died at Poictiers in the year 368. St. Augustine
relates many miracles wrought at his tomb; but the relics are said to
have been removed to the Abbey of St. Denis, near Paris; and his
festival is kept on the 14th of January, although it is not certain
either that he died, or that his relics were translated on that
particular day.
HALS.
Hilary is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north
St. Earth, west Gulval, [Ludgvan EDITOR,] east Germow, south and west
the Mounts Bay and Peranuthno. As for the name Hilary, it is derived
from the tutelar guardian and patron of this church, viz. St. Hilary,
Bishop of Poictiers in Gaul, the maul and hammer against the Arians,
whose fame is eternized in the Roman agonals and festivals, though his
memory and day is not celebrated as a martyr, but as one of the
principal confessors of the Roman church; that is to say, one of those
that suffered great persecution for the name and Gospel of Christ
Jesus.
In Domesday book this district, or parish, was taxed under the
jurisdiction of Lanmigall, i. e. Michael’s church or temple; now St.
Michael’s Mount and Tremarastell, i. e. the market hole or cell, of
which more under.
In the Taxation, or value, of Cornish Benefices aforesaid, made by the
Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia de Sancti Hilary in
decanatu de Penwith, appropriata Priori Sancti Micaelis, is rated to
first fruits lxxiii_s._ iiii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition and Valor
Beneficiorum, St. Hilary Vicarage is valued 11_l._ 6_s._ 0_d._ The
patronage formerly in the Abbat or Prior of St. Michael’s Mount, who
endowed it. After its dissolution, 26th Henry VIII. it fell to the
crown, and was sold to Militon, whose six daughters and heirs invested
their husbands and purchasers therewith; the patronage now alternately
in Erisey, Godolphin, Buller, and others (or Roberts); the garb, or
rectory, in possession of Pennock. The parish of St. Hilary was rated
to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, of 1696, at 120_l._
Tregumbo, also Tregimbo, is the dwelling of Captain John Pinneck,
Deputy-Governor of the Island of Scilly, under Sir William Godolphin,
Knight, salary about 13_l._ per annum; who married Davies.
Treveneage, in this parish, was formerly the lands of Sir Thomas
Arundell, of Tolverne, Knight, who sold this barton and manor to Sir
Nicholas Hals, of Fentongallan, knight, whose son and heir, John Hals,
sold it to Walker of Exeter; from whose heirs it came by purchase to
Sir Joseph Tredinham, Knight, now in possession thereof.
On the confines of this parish is situate the ancient manor and
borough of Marazion.(_a_)
In Domesday Roll, 20th William I. 1087, this place was taxed by the
name of Tremarastoll; that is to say, the cell, chapel, or hole
market-town; situate in a remote corner, vallum, or pit, upon the
seashore of St. Michael’s Mount. At which time, no doubt, the Abbat or
Prior of St. Michael’s Mount (as they were afterwards till 26th Henry
VIII. when that Abbey was dissolved), were lords and high lords
thereof; when it was privileged with the jurisdiction of a court leet;
as afterwards, temp. Henry II. with sending two of its members to sit
in the Commons’ House of Parliament. But, as appears from the
Parliament Rolls in the Tower of London, after the dissolution of the
Abbey or Priory aforesaid, this town neglected to send its Members,
“for that it could not conveniently pay its burgesses their daily
wages, propter paupertatem,” which are the words of the record.(_b_)
It is also privileged with a fair, or mart, on July 11th, November
30th, Good Friday, and Palm Monday; and a market weekly on Saturdays.
And as a further mark of its ancient grandeur, I take it still to be
an incorporate mayor or portreeve town; but more sure I am, that, as
some other petty corporations’ names in Cornwall are adjectives merged
or fallen in or upon the parishes wherein they are situate, as
Camelford, Mitchell, &c. this town is a noun substantive, and stands
charged by itself in the Exchequer to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax,
1696, by the name of the borough of Maraszeyan, 76_l._ 12_s._ 6_d._
In the beginning of the reign of King Henry VIII. (1514) when war had
been proclaimed against the French King, a fleet of French men of war,
consisting of thirty sail, with some marine regiments of soldiers
therein, coasting in our British Channel, at length came into this
Mount’s Bay, and there dropped anchor; when soon after they landed a
considerable number, or quantity, of seamen and soldiers, and marched
in hostile manner towards this town. Which the inhabitants observing,
they forsook their houses, and fled to the hill country; whereby the
Frenchmen became peaceably possessed thereof, and plundered the same
for some days, till they understood that John Carminow, of
Fentongollan, Esq. was coming or marching towards them, with his posse
comitatus, to give them battle; when instantly they set the town on
fire, and the houses on the contiguous part of the country, and burnt
the same totally to the ground, to the great loss and damage of the
inhabitants, and forthwith fled to their ships for safety and
protection; and thereupon their ships hoisted anchors and put forth to
sea again. Where they had not long been till Sir Anthony Oughthred,
King Henry VIII.’s Admiral at sea, with a squadron of thirty men of
war, met and gave them battle, to their great loss of men and some
ships of war, whilst the rest of their fleet ran away, and fled into
the haven of Brest for safety and protection.
THE HISTORY OF ST. MICHAEL’S MOUNT.――PART I.
So called, for that our ancestors, the Britons, apprehended the
appearance of the Archangel St. Michael, about the year of our Lord
495, was in this place, though the Italians say it was upon Mount
Garganus, in their country, and the Frenchmen tell us that it was upon
their Mount St. Michael, in Normandy; such difference amongst writers
is about it; and verily this matter of fact is worth contending for,
since the etymology of Michael is “sicut Deus,” i. e. as God, as I
have shewn elsewhere under other churches to him dedicated. It appears
from the history of the church of Landaff, as Mr. Camden hath
observed, that this mount was called Dinsill, and Dinsull, but what
those words should signify he could not tell.(_c_)
Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, p. 154, tells us, that beside
those religious appellations that were given to it, it was called in
British, Cara cowz in clouz, which he interprets as the Grey rock in
the flood, a corruption of Carra clo gris en an coos; i. e.
rock-clo-grey in the wood.(_d_) Of this place Mr. Carew, and Mr.
Camden that trode in his steps, tells us, that it was the Ocrinum,
Οκρινυμ, or Ocrinium of Ptolomy and Atticus, the Greek geographers;
and yet Camden, in another place, fixes that name on the Lizard Point.
This Mount is comparatively a pyramidal crag, containing about seven
acres of land in compass; at the foot whereof, towards the land, is a
level piece of ground covered with grass, where there is a wharf, or
key, for landing goods and merchandize from the sea; also some
dwelling-houses and fish-cellars, and a cemetery for burying the dead.
To this Mount the sea daily makes its flux and reflux, and affords
safe riding and anchorage to boats, barks, and barges, with some
winds. And that which tends more to the convenience and security of
this place, that at low water it is all part of the insular continent
of Britain, and at full sea an island of itself. To which purpose thus
speaks Mr. Carew out of the Cornish Wonder Gatherer:
Who knows not Migell’s Mount and chair,
The pilgrim’s holy vaunt;
Both land and island twice a day,
Both fort and port of haunt.
For to this Mount and chapel of St. Michael devout Christians in
former ages came as pilgrims from the furthest part of this land, with
rich offerings and oblations to St. Michael’s altar, Abbat, or Prior;
also tradition tells us that in former ages this mount was parcel of
the solid lands of this parish of St. Hilary, and severed or
disjointed from it by some earthquake, terrestrial concussion, or
inundation of the sea; and to prove this, it is alleged that in the
Mount’s Bay, after some great tempests, the bodies and roots of
oak-trees have been discovered in the sand, broken up by the surges of
the sea; the like observation is made by Camden and Lhuyd on the sea
shores of Pembrokeshire, and I myself, and many others, in the moors
of Calestock Veor, Calestock Rule, Rheese, and Polgoda in Peransand,
have seen and found, deep under ground, far from the sea, in the fens
and turf lands, the bodies and roots of several oak trees, the hearts
whereof were firm and solid. But whether those seas were formerly dry
land, and the fens aforesaid the places where these trees grew (none
in those parts being now to be seen there), let others resolve; or
rather whether they are not subterraneous trees, that grew or are
generated there, as some philosophers hold and teach, under the earth.
From the foot of Mount St. Michael you ascend the hill or rock through
a narrow, crooked, craggy path to the outer portal or gate; a
considerable height on the one side, by the way in the rock, is a
small spring of water, that falls into pits made in the stones to
lodge the same, for the lower or bottom inhabitants’ use; which water
never intermits its currrent. Above the second gate there is another
spring of water issuing out of the rocks, that makes a pretty
confluence for six or seven winter months, and then intermits, which
renders the portage of it upwards much the easier for the inhabitants’
use in that season. After you pass through this second gate, betwixt a
winding and crooked path, artificially cut in the rocks on the north
side thereof, and follow the same, you arrive to the top of this
Mount, where towards the north-west is a kind of level plain, about
four or six land-yards, which gives a full prospect of the Mount’s
Bay, the British Ocean, Penzance town, Newlyn, Moushole, Gulvall,
Maddarn, Paul, and other parishes, over a downright precipice of rocks
towards the sea, at least twenty fathoms high. From this little square
or plain, there is an artificial kind of ascent also going towards the
east, which offers you a full sight of the outer walls of the castle,
and brings you to Porth-Horne, (i. e. the Iron Gate) part of which is
yet to be seen. This little fortress comprehendeth sufficient rooms
and lodgings for the captain or governor and his soldiers to reside
in, to which adjoining are several other houses or cells, heretofore
pertaining to the monks that dwelt here; all admirable for their
strength, buildings, and contrivance, on the top of a rock naturally
fortified: so that a small number of soldiers, having provision and
ammunition, might defend themselves against the greatest armies in
former ages, though I confess now, since the art of war is grown to
greater perfection in mischief and destruction, a few cannon or bombs
from the opposite hills would soon shatter it to pieces.
On this Mount, King Edward the Confessor, anno Dom. 1044, founded and
endowed an Abbey or Priory of Benedictine Monks, that is to say
Augustines reformed, with a little chapel yet standing, and dedicated
the same to the Archangel St. Michael, part whereof is now converted
to a dwelling house, in which there is yet to be seen cut in stone
three or four coats of arms, one of which was, as I remember, a
Chevron between three fleurs-de-lis.
That it had at that time considerable revenues belonging to it I make
no question, since in the Domesday Book, 20 William I. 1087,
Lan-migell was then taxed, that is to say Michael’s church or Temple,
as aforesaid. But that which renders this place most famous is the
present church or chapel and tower, cemetery, and cells cut in the
rocks for hermetical monks of the order aforesaid; built and further
endowed by William Earl of Morton and Cornwall, yet extant and kept in
good repair, with pews; to whose father, Robert Earl of Morton, King
William the Conqueror had given the lands of many rebels in those
parts, and in particular this Mount, with its appurtenances,
(dedicated as aforesaid) and created him Earl of Cornwall, whose
successors held the same by tenure of Knight Service till temp.
Charles II. Of which sort of tenures there were lately extant, in the
hundred of Penwith, thirteen knight’s fees.――Carew’s Survey of
Cornwall, p. 39. And in other hundreds three hundred more in Cornwall.
Upon the tower of this church or chapel, for it is bigger than many
other Cornish parish churches, is that celebrated place called Kader
Migell, i. e. Michael’s Chair, viz. a kind of seat artificially made
or cut in the stones on the top of its tower, very dangerous in the
access and tremendous to behold.
Contrary to this description, Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, p.
154, tells us that St. Michael’s Chair is a bad seat, in a craggy
place without the castle, dangerous for the access and therefore holy
for the adventure; so that I conceive he had this report by hearsay,
not ocular demonstration. In this chapel are yet to be seen the
tombstones of several persons there interred, in the rocks, (with a
small quantity of earth, though without the chapel there is a bank of
earth, brought there by art for burying the dead,) but the
inscriptions on those tombstones are so obliterated with dust and
time, that I had not leisure much to examine them. The roof and timber
of this temple is yet so firm and uniformly kept in repair, that no
decay, moth, or spider’s web are to be seen in the roof thereof, which
gives occasion to a conjecture that the same was all built of Irish
oak, which drives that poisonous creature the spider from it. Certes,
this fabrick is not only an evident proof of the great skill which
former ages, in William the Conqueror’s days, had in the art of
architecture, but that many other such of much later erection can
hardly equal the same, though it has stood firm above six hundred
years.
This abbey or priory of Benedictine Monks of St. Michael, after the
donation thereof by the Conqueror to his nephew Robert Earl of Morton
aforesaid, was by him annexed and made subject for religious matters
to the Abbey of Mount St. Michael in Normandy, under which
circumstance it stood till the French wars, temp. Henry V. 1414, when
the Statute, made 1380, in the reign of King Richard II. was put in
force, for suppressing alien priories (who secretly communicated the
state affairs to foreigners). King Henry V. or VI. then gave this
Alien Priory of St. Michael to Sion Abbey in Middlesex, under which
rule and jurisdiction it remained till 26 Henry VIII., 1533, when it
was dissolved; when, I take it, it passed in value with Sion, since
the Monasticon Anglicanum does not mention it separate.
The Mount is now in possession of Sir John Saintaubyn, (formerly
Bassett) who for melancholy retirement dwelleth here. It is still
privileged with royalties over the Mount’s Bay, as far north as Long
Bridge in the manor of Lanesely, with wrecks, anchorage of ships,
quayage or wharfage of goods, and with keeping annual fairs on the sea
shore near it, September 29, Monday after Midlent Sunday. Round this
Mount, for two leagues space, is an indifferent safe road for
anchorage of ships, when the wind is proper for it; and here, as
Froissart saith, landed Sir Robert Knollys, a valiant commander of the
Black Prince’s in the French wars temp. Edward III. (who drew the
traitor Sir Perducas D’Albert from the French to the English army, to
which afterwards he returned again most perfidiously,) where he had
been highly instrumental in taking the forts of Froyns, Roach,
Vandower, Ville Franck, and other places for the English; from hence
he went to London by land, was graciously received and plentifully
rewarded for his good services by King Edward III.
PART II.
This Mount, from the time of King Edward the Confessor to the middle
of the reign of King Richard I. for the space of 150 years, was a
sacred nursery of religion; but then, notwithstanding the sanctity
thereof, and the guardianship of St. Michael, it was seized by one
Henry de la Pomeray, Lord of Berry-Pomeray in Devon, and Tregony
Pomeray in this county, being distasted at the government of King
Richard I. as many others were, by reason of the Pope’s request he
engaged in the Holy War, and forsook his kingdom, leaving for his
vicegerent William Longchamp, a Norman Bishop of Ely; who had extorted
great sums of money from the people in his absence, without a
Parliament; and moreover so insulted over the nobility and gentry of
this kingdom in his office, that he discontented the greatest part of
them; and to countenance his grandeur he seldom rode abroad with less
than a thousand attendants. Those and others his exorbitances gave
occasion to John Earl of Cornwall and others to fall into treasonable
practices, and of this number it seems this Sir Pomeray was one, who
not only informed the King beyond the seas of these topping,
magisterial, and illegal practices of Longchamp at home, but that by
reason thereof King Philip of France, in those distractions, took
occasion with a great army of soldiers to invade Normandy, and had
taken the town of Guisors and many other places by force and arms, and
would reduce the whole province in short while (if not resisted) to
his dominion. Whereupon the King, in answer, by his letters patent,
deposed Longchamp from his authority, and placed the Archbishop of
Rouen in his place, when soon after Longchamp, in women’s apparel,
made his escape into his own country, but was detected and shrewdly
beaten with rods before his departure out of England, by the women
there.
Longchamp, as tradition saith, having notice that de la Pomeray was in
confederacy with Earl John, who under pretence of opposing his
vice-government, designed the usurpation of King Richard’s Crown,
(though he had told him that in case his brother should die, before he
returned into his kingdom, without issue, that the right of succession
was in Arthur Duke of Britany, his elder brother’s son, not him,) sent
a sergeant at arms to the castle of Berry Pomeray in Devon, where he
then resided, in order to arrest and take him into custody, which he
no sooner did but Pomeray stabbed him to the heart, of which wound he
instantly died. Upon which tragical accident the murderer fled into
Cornwall, where he had great possessions in lands, and besides twelve
lordships held by the tenure of knight service. And there cast himself
upon his amicus, John Earl of that province, who as tradition saith
secretly supplied him with divers men at arms to secure his person
against his enemy the Viceroy, which accordingly they did till
Longchamp was displaced.
Afterwards, notice being given that King Richard was taken prisoner
coming from the Holy War, 1194, by Leopold, Archduke of Austria in
Germany, and cast into his prison called Trivalis, in which no man
before was known to be put that escaped with life, this news prompted
Pomeray from the sin of murder to that of rebellion; resolving to
reduce this Mount of St. Michael to Earl John’s dominion, and to place
himself therein for better safety. In order to which he found out this
expedient, to go with his guard of armed men that daily attended him
in disguise to that place, under pretence of visiting a sister that he
had amongst the religious people there;(_e_) who upon discovering who
he was, and the occasion of his coming, had the gates opened, where he
entered with his followers, who soon after discovered under their
clothes their weapons of war, and declared their design was for
reducing the Mount to the dominion and use of John Earl of Cornwall,
and that if any person opposed them therein, they would revenge it
upon him to the loss of their lives; whereupon, he commanded the Prior
and his monks to deliver him the keys of the gates, and possession of
the houses thereof for common uses, though therein they much
discommoded the monks with their soldiers. Nevertheless, for fear of
greater damage, they patiently submitted to his pleasure; who
thereupon with his soldiers fortified the place, and so made it
comparatively impregnable, and so there lived in great pomp and
triumph for some time, not expecting ever to hear that King Richard
was in the land of the living, or delivered from prison, it being for
some time reported he was dead. But, alas! many times common fame is a
common liar, and all men are apt to believe such matters and things as
they would willingly have come to pass, or stand well affected to.
But contrary to the expectation of Pomeray and his confederates, King
Richard, after fifteen months’ durance in prison, was ransomed for one
hundred thousand pounds, and returned safe to London; when he found
his brother John formidable, and making way to his crown, having got
possession of the castles of Lancaster, Marlborough, Nottingham, St.
Michael’s Mount, and other fortresses, into which he had placed
governors and soldiers. Whereupon, in order to reduce those places,
King Richard raised a considerable army; at the news whereof Earl John
fled into France, and was by his brother deprived of all his
possessions in England: notwithstanding which, the garrisons aforesaid
stood firm to Earl John’s interest, till at the siege of Vernoil in
Normandy, he fled from the French army to that of his brother, threw
down his arms and submitted to his mercy; whereupon he was restored to
all his lands and dignities, both in Normandy and England. But
notwithstanding this concord and agreement between King Richard and
his brother John, the castles aforesaid stood out, and would not
surrender for some time after, especially this Mount, which Pomeray
commanded. Whereupon King Richard commanded Richard Revell, then
sheriff of Cornwall, with his posse comitatus, to assist Hubert
Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor of
England, whom he had sent as his general into Cornwall to besiege St.
Michael’s Mount, and reduce Pomeray to his duty and allegiance; which
army of men, and bands of soldiers, no sooner approached the same (as
Hoveden saith) and gave him summons, but the sight of the numerous
army he was to contend with so affrighted Pomeray and his
confederates, that forthwith, without resistance, he surrendered the
garrison on mercy to the said Walter, for the use of King Richard,
1194, at the consideration of which and his other facts, through
trouble of mind he soon after died, as despairing of pardon.
Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, tells us, by report of some of
his posterity, that he made his will and bequeathed part of his lands
to the monks of St. Michael’s Mount, others to the Knights of St. John
of Jerusalem, to pray for his soul; the remainder descended to his
heir (which we have no reason to doubt of, since Henry de la Pomeray,
one of his posterity, 3 Henry IV. at Tregony, held twelve knights’
fees of land in Cornwall, id. Mr. Carew); having so done, he caused
himself to be blooded to death, to make his bequests good and valid in
law; after his death King Richard restored the prior and his monks to
the full possession of their cells, revenues, and chapel; and in de la
Pomeray’s fort, he placed a small garrison of soldiers, to defend the
same against sudden invasion of enemies; and in this condition St.
Michael’s Mount remained from the year 1196 to the year 1471, 275
years, manned out with carnal and spiritual soldiers.(_f_)