consequence for wealth, buildings, or inhabitants; although it now be
much altered in these particulars, and equals several other fellow
corporations. Of old it hath been privileged by the Earls of Cornwall
with the jurisdiction of a Court Leet, and with sending two Members to
Parliament; also with fairs and a weekly market.
On the island (or peninsula) north of St. Ives, standeth the ruins of
an old chapel, wherein God was duly worshipped by our ancestors the
Britons, before the church of St. Ives was erected or endowed; betwixt
which island and the shore is an indifferent roadstead with some winds
for ships to lie at anchor.
This town is particularly famous for the art of catching fish; in
which trade or occupation of late they have been attended with good
success, to the great advancement of their wealth and reputation. The
chief inhabitants of which place were Mr. Hitchins, Mr. Trevilion, Mr.
Beare, &c. In this port his Majesty hath his Custom House collector,
surveyor, comptroller, and waiters, both for sea and land.
Trenwith, in this parish, is the seat of an old family of gentlemen,
from thence denominated de Trenwith.
THE EDITOR.
St. Ives has grown, since the time of Mr. Carew, into a place of
considerable importance, participating in the general prosperity of
the whole country; and deriving great local advantages from the
extension of its fisheries, from the construction of a pier, and from
the extraordinary increase of trade at the adjacent port of Hayle.
Fish of almost every kind, frequenting the coast of Cornwall, are
taken at St. Ives; but the fishery absorbing all the others in its
magnitude is the taking of pilchards.
Pilchards are taken in two different ways quite distinct from each
other.
The first, most ancient, most certain, and therefore of greatest
importance to the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, is called
drifting.
Boats sail in the open sea, drawing after them a great number of nets
appended to each other, provided with small leads and corks at the
opposite sides, and extending in all to a very great length. The
meshes of these nets are made of such a size as to admit the head of a
pilchard to pass through them, but not the body; in consequence such
fish as strike against the net are retained suspended by their gills,
acting in the nature of a barb.
The second method is on a much more extensive scale, uncertain as to
success; but occasionally giving fortunes to those concerned in
carrying it on, by the gain of one prosperous year.
This method is founded entirely on the habit common to all the clupea
genus of congregating in large shoals, and coming occasionally near
the shore into shallow water, and into places where the ground is free
from rocks; this latter circumstance is peculiarly favourable in the
St. Ives Bay, and the ground is moreover covered to the depth of
several feet by a fine sand, composed entirely of shells, reduced
almost to a state of powder.
All the most favourable stations are occupied during the proper season
of the year by large boats, having nets on board measuring four
hundred and forty yards in length by twenty-seven yards in breadth,
capable therefore of covering nearly two and an half statute acres.
These nets are provided with very heavy weights at one of their sides,
so as to sink them firmly on the ground, and with large corks to make
them buoyant on the other. Two large boats and one smaller, as an
attendant, are appropriated to each net; and when a shoal is
discovered approaching, by a well-known change of colour and a ripple
on the water, these boats, sometimes directed also by signals from the
shore, move in opposite directions, extending the immense net to
intercept the fish, and then to close it behind them. In this way a
quantity sufficient to fill a thousand casks, after being pressed,
have been frequently secured at one time, and on some occasions much
more. The casks are hogsheads of fifty-four gallons, and contain about
two thousand five hundred pilchards, so that the thousand hogsheads
make two millions and a half secured by one net.
The fish are taken out of the sea by raising them to the surface of
the water in smaller nets, used within the great net forming an
artificial pond; and finally they are dipped up in baskets. The first
net, called a seyne, frequently remaining in its original position for
several days, or perhaps gently slided towards the shore.
Pilchards are preserved for exportation in the following manner: they
are laid in regular heaps along the sides of walls sheltered by roofs
to a height easily reached, and to a depth suited to the ordinary
length of the arm, where they are almost concealed by the great
quantity of salt strewed with them; three hundred and thirty-six
pounds, or three great hundred weight of salt, being allowed for each
pressed hogshead. In this state they remain thirty-six days, while oil
continually oozing from them is received in pits; they are then rinced
in water, and laid with great care in casks made purposely with open
joints, where they receive a strong pressure through the medium of a
long beam and weights; more oil is then collected, and the casks,
closed up, are fitted for sale. Nine of these packages, independent of
the wood, are said to weigh two tons; so that in their final state,
the quantity of a thousand hogsheads, not unfrequently caught at one
time, must weigh above two hundred and twenty tons.
The quantity of oil is very considerable, varying from two to five
gallons from each hogshead, but of inferior quality. Pilchards thus
cured are called fumados, which seems to imply their having been
originally smoked like red herrings; their chief consumption takes
place in Spain and Italy.
The pilchards used for home consumption are invariably picked; these
are opened and washed, and then rubbed with salt, about seven pounds
to the hundred, and preserved in jars or troughs.
The herring, pilchard, sprat, anchovy, and several other species, are
arranged by icthyologists under the genus clupea; the herring and
pilchard being adjacent to each other. The pilchard is rather less in
size than the herring, has larger and firmer scales, and contains much
more oil. There is one discriminating circumstance quite obvious; the
pilchard, suspended by its dorsal fin, remains in equilibrio, while
the herring, under similar circumstances, dips towards its head.
The pier was built under the authority of an Act of Parliament passed
in the year 1767, after a personal survey and a report from the
celebrated Mr. Smeaton, which is printed in his works. This shelter
from every wind has equally tended to improve the fishery, to increase
the general trade of the place, and to protect vessels bound for
Hayle; but the fishery is indebted in a still greater degree to
another Act of Parliament, carried through the legislature by the late
Mr. Humphry Mackworth Praed, who had the honour first of representing
this place, and then the county.
A caution had existed time of mind, by which any boat provided with a
seyne net, having taken possession of one of the favourable stations
or stems, might retain it till the net had been used to inclose a
shoal, or, according to the technical expression, had been shot; and
this right extended from one season to another: persons in possession
of a stem were therefore unwilling to lose it, except for a
considerable prize, and small shoals were generally allowed to escape.
By Mr. Praed’s Act, so great and so beneficial a change was made,
that, arranging the succession in an equitable manner, it allowed each
boat to hold its stem but for twenty-four hours, and consequently
every shoal, however small, was eagerly secured.
The nets are preserved for a long succession of years by steeping them
in a decoction of oak bark as frequently as they are used; and, what
would scarcely have been expected, the fish oil without this
preservative, would destroy the twine in a very short time.
It seems that these nets must have been originally introduced from
Dungarvon in Ireland, since they are still said to be braided
according to the Dungarvon mesh, but no similar fishery is remembered
at that place. Fish, however, of all kinds not only migrate through
distant seas, but without any known cause, frequently leave one part
of a coast and resort to another, returning after uncertain intervals
to their former haunts.
There is one custom at St. Ives, of which the origin and specific
meaning are entirely lost. So soon as shoals of pilchards are
discovered in the bay, all the people, and more especially the
children, run round the town shouting, HEVA! HEVA! with all their
might.
St. Ives was distinguished in the last century by the birth and
residence for some years of a very eminent scholar, the Rev. Jonathan
Toup. His father, who died in 1721, was lecturer of that Town, as the
church being a daughter church to Lelant, is entitled to service from
the vicar only once in three weeks; his mother was the heiress of the
family of Busvargus, long settled at Busvargus in St. Just.
He was born in 1713; and it is apprehended received the rudiments of
classical learning from his father. He became a Commoner of Exeter
College, Oxford, and having taken the usual degree of Bachelor of
Arts, obtained Holy Orders in 1736. He was Curate of Philleigh in that
year, and of Burian in 1738. He continued to pursue, with
extraordinary diligence, the study of Greek. He became Rector of St.
Martin’s, near Looe in 1750, through some private interest; but the
Vicarage of St. Merran and a Prebend in the Cathedral of Exeter in
1774, were procured from the Bishop of Exeter by his literary friend
Doctor William Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester.
Mr. Toup took his Master of Arts degree at Cambridge in 1756, when he
had advanced towards the middle of life, and apparently as a
qualification for his second living.
His chief work is, perhaps, “Emendationes in Suidam; in quibus plurima
loca Veterum Græcorum, Sophoclis et Aristophanis in primis, tum
explicuntur tum emaculantur.” These were printed in three parts, which
came out in three volumes in the years 1760, 1764, and 1766; and were
followed in 1775 by “Appendiculum Notarum in Suidam.” All these have
since been reprinted at Leipsic in four volumes octavo; and the whole
has been recently incorporated into a most splendid and learned
edition of Kusterus’ Suidas, by the very Reverend Thomas Gaisford,
D.D., Dean of Christ Church, and Regius Professor of Greek in the
University of Oxford.
Mr. Toup gave also to the world by far the best edition that has
appeared of Longinus. He also assisted the celebrated Mr. Thomas
Warton in his edition of Theocritus; and added, “Curæ posteriores,
sive Appendicula Notarum atque Emendationum in Theocritum, Oxonii
nuperrime publicatum.” He also published a letter to Bishop Warburton
under the title of, “Epistola Critica ad Virum celeberrimum Gulielmum
(Warburton) Episcopum Glocestriensem.”
Nothing in particular is remembered of Mr. Toup’s private life. He
died unmarried at the Rectory of St. Martin’s in 1785; and the
delegates of the Oxford press, in regard for so eminent a scholar, and
in return for a present of MSS. made by his niece and executrix, have
erected a monument to his memory in St. Martin’s Church.
Another gentleman, although not a native of the town, may be noticed
here.
Mr. John Knill was born in the eastern part of Cornwall, and served
his clerkship as an attorney in Penzance, from thence he removed to
the office of a London attorney, where having distinguished himself by
application and intelligence, he was recommended to the Earl of
Buckinghamshire, who at that time held the political interest of St.
Ives, to be his local agent.
After residing for some time at St. Ives, Mr. Knill was sent on a
mission to the West Indies, highly honourable to his abilities and to
his character, with an authority for inspecting all the custom-houses
and their establishments; and, if sufficient cause should appear, with
power to suspend any one, however high, from his office.
Having executed the functions thus delegated with integrity and
moderation, he returned to the collectorship at St. Ives, and engaged
in a very anomalous undertaking, at that time sanctioned and
encouraged by the government, which consisted in equipping small
vessels to act as priviateers against smugglers. In this species of
warfare he is said to have been very successful; and on the breaking
out of the Dutch war in the war with America, these vessels were ready
to act their part in a practice most disgraceful to a civilized
nation, and which every good, honourable, and humane man must hope
will never again be repeated. In this way vessels laden with private
property, wholly unprepared for resistance, utterly unacquainted with
the nations being at war, were plundered and robbed of whatever they
contained, and unoffending passengers were exposed to insult and
violence.
Mr. Knill was hurried by the force of circumstances, contrary to his
inclination and habits, and to his deep subsequent regret, into doing
what others did, and participating in these unhallowed gains. The
Editor understands, however, that he showed every kindness in his
power to some objects of compassion who were made prisoners; and that
he restored several articles of their more valued property at his own
individual loss.
Soon after this time Mr. Knill took up the singular fancy of erecting
a triangular pyramid on a hill overlooking St. Ives, with the
intention of his being buried in a proper receptacle hollowed in the
base; and he invested a sum of money in trust for the support of some
half ludicrous and half serious dances and processions, to be repeated
every fifth year.
He however, removed, to London, resided in Gray’s Inn, was called to
the bar, and became a bencher; and having departed this life on the
29th of March 1811, was buried, by the direction of his last will, in
St. Andrew’s church, Holborn. The monument is ornamental to the
country: on one side of the pyramid are inscribed the words, “John
Knill;” on a second, “I know that my Redeemer liveth;” and on the
third the word “Resurgam.”
The monument stands on the Editor’s land, and pays him sixpence
a-year, secured on a farm of some value, with a power of distress.
Mr. Knill was undoubtedly a man of considerable talent. When the Earl
of Buckinghamshire took the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, he
selected Mr. Knill for his private secretary; but not liking the
bustle, nor perhaps the responsibility of this situation, he returned
to St. Ives. His philanthropy and general kindness were known to all;
but a variety of idle fancies and singularities, unworthy of his
talents and experience in the world, are remembered, while the
estimable qualities of his heart are perhaps forgotten.
An extraordinary event took place at St. Ives on the 17th of Feb.
1780.
Some time in the month of December preceding, a large body of troops
had been embarked at New York for the attack on Charlestown in South
Carolina; and in a public dispatch from Gen. Sir Henry Clinton, dated
March the 9th, he says, “only one ship is missing, having on board a
detachment of Hessians; and supposed to have borne away for the West
Indies.” The Editor has ascertained by particular inquiries, that the
vessel alluded to in this dispatch nearly reached Charlestown, the
place of its destination, having about two hundred and fifty German
soldiers on board with provision suited to so short a voyage, when
being run foul of by a ship of war in a gale of wind, and injured in
the masts and bowsprit, the vessel could sail no other way than before
the westerly wind, then blowing with violence; most fortunately the
direction of the wind continued steadily in the same direction, and
the passengers arrived safe, but nearly famished, at St. Ives on the
day above-mentioned. St. Ives and the neighbourhood contended with
each other in efforts, not merely to relieve the distress of these
unfortunate persons, but to make them comfortable and happy; the best
attainable lodgings were provided for the private men, and the
officers were daily invited to gentlemen’s houses. Their sufferings as
foreigners on behalf of England, had excited general compassion,
heightened by the reflection that they were not engaged in maintaining
any cause in which their country had an interest, that they were not
volunteers, but had been purchased by this nation from an individual
entrusted with unlimited power, for the good of a portion of mankind,
which he had most basely abused for the sake of private gain, in a
manner that must commit his name and memory to infamy, and to the
execration of mankind; nor can the administration be freed from blame
that hired these human beings at so much a-day, and agreed to give the
Landgrave of Hesse Cassel a certain sum for every one killed, or
missing, or lamed.
Mr. Hals and Mr. Tonkin have enumerated several names of families at
St. Ives. In recent times, that of Stephens has acquired an undisputed
superiority.
That family, although merchants up to the decease of Mr. John Stephens
in 1764, had been long in possession of landed property in St. Ives;
and the Editor has seen the original of the following receipt given at
the accession of King James the First.
XXII^o die Octobris, An^o Dom^i 1603.
Received of John Stephens of the Burrough of St. Ives in the
Hundred of Penwith, within the county of Cornwall, Gen^t,
for his composition with his Ma^{ies} Commissioners for his
not appearing at the Coronation of our said Souvraigne Lord
the King, for to receive the Order of Knighthood, according
to his Highness’ proclaymasion in that behalfe, the sum of
sixteen pounds.
I saye received XVI^{li}
FRA. GODOLPHIN, Coll.
Mr. John Stephens married Mary, one of the three daughters of Mr.
Samuel Phillips, of Pendrea in Gulval.
This gentleman appears to have been very successful in his various
concerns of merchandise and fisheries, as he added largely to his
landed property by purchases in the immediate neighbourhood of St.
Ives, and also in the parishes of Newlyn and St. Enoder. He acted for
many years as agent to the Earl of Buckinghamshire in managing the
political concerns of the town; but at last broke off the connection
by getting his son, Mr. Samuel Stephens, returned on a vacancy.
Mr. John Stephens had a numerous family; his eldest son went to
Holland, according to the practice of those times, with the view of
continuing his father’s mercantile concerns; and the next son, Samuel,
became a member of the University of Cambridge to prepare himself for
the church, and probably with the expectation of obtaining Lelant and
St. Ives, but the death of his elder brother caused this to be
relinquished. He married Anne, daughter of Mr. Seaborn, of Bristol;
and on his father’s decease about the year 1764, he disposed of every
thing connected with the trade and fishery of this place, and having
abandoned the sect of Presbyterians, to which all his family and
relations had been strongly attached, he went so far as to pull down
the meeting-house, and to withdraw his support from its minister;
proceedings well remembered to his disadvantage on subsequent
occasions.
About the year 1774, Mr. Stephens commenced building his new house at
Tregonna; and in that and in a subsequent year proved unsuccessful at
a poll, and on a petition, for the representation of St. Ives. He died
in March 1794, leaving three sons, John Stephens, Rector of Ludgvan;
Samuel, to whom he devised a large portion of his estate; and
Augustus, all of whom have died in the present year (1834); also three
daughters, Anne, Maria, and Harriet. Mr. Samuel Stephens, the second
son, married Betty, sole daughter of Capt. Wallis, the discoverer of
Otaheite, and coheiress of the families of Hearle and Paynter. He
represented St. Ives in two Parliaments, and died February the 25th,
1834, leaving five sons, and one daughter, married to the Rev. Charles
William Davy.
Previously to the Act of Parliament of 1832, St. Ives sent two Members
to Parliament; and the right of voting rested in persons paying scot
and lot throughout the parish. It now sends one member in conjunction
with Lelant and Towednack. The present representative is Mr. James
Halse, probably related to the historian: this gentleman is among the
most enterprising and successful adventurers in mines of the present
day.
The situation of the town would seem to be most salubrious, and
perhaps it is so in ordinary times; but few places have suffered more
from occasional epidemics.
The Editor remembers to have heard dreadful traditionary accounts of
the plague in 1647. No market was kept in the town for a considerable
space of time; but instead of it, supplies were brought to the edge of
two streams of water at Polmanter and at Longstone Downs, where
provisions were deposited with their prices affixed, which the
inhabitants took away, leaving their money in the streams. It it said,
however, that the Stephens family having retired to a farm called
Aire, which they possessed just out of the town, and having there cut
off all communication with others, entirely escaped, although 535 died
in the course of one summer, out of a population which could not at
that period have exceeded treble the amount. In the spring of 1786, a
fever raged with great violence, to which the reverend Mr. Lane, then
lecturer, and Mrs. Lane fell victims within a few days of each other.
The whole inscription on the cup given by Sir Francis Basset is as
follows:
If any discord ’twixt my friends arise
Within the borough of beloved St. Ives,
It is desired this my cup of love,
To everie one a peace-maker may prove;
Then am I blest to have given a legacie,
So like my harte unto posteritie.
Francis Basset, A^o 1640.
The arms of the town are, Argent, an ivy bush overspreading the whole
field Proper, evidently in allusion to the name; but this bearing has
afforded an obvious joke throughout the neighbouring parishes at the
expense of the Mayor.
The church is unusually large and handsome, with a fourth aile at the
eastern end, and a lofty tower; and few prospects are equally
beautiful with that of the town and bay from the hill near Tregenna.
The parish feast is celebrated at the same time as that of Lelant the
mother church; and Lelant, Redruth, and Crowan, are said to honour St.
Eury by holding their feasts on the nearest Sunday to her day,
February 1st, but no trace of any such saint can be found.
The parish measures 1524 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 5,560 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 1,174 0 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 2714 | 3281 | 3526 | 4776
giving an increase of 76 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The north-eastern part of this parish is composed of compact and slaty
felspar rocks, like those of St. Just in Penwith; the other part is
situated on granite. Both these rocks are traversed by metalliferous
veins, which have been for many ages the objects of mining
speculations.
ST. JULYOT.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north St.
Gennis, west St. George’s Channel, south Lesnewith, east Otterham. As
for the modern name, it is so called from its tutelar guardian and
patron thereof, St. Julius, Pope of Rome and Confessor. In Domesday
Tax, 20 William I. (1087), it was rated under the jurisdiction of
Lesnewith or Otterham. In the taxation of benefices made by the
Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester in Cornwall, 1294, ecclesia de
Sancta Juliot, in decanatu de Major Trigshire (id est, before Stratton
was dismembered from it) is rated xii_l._ Again, Capella de Sancta
Julyot, xxvi_s._ viii_d._; but where this latter Church or Chapel now
stands, I am wholly ignorant; for in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, and
Valor Beneficiorum, both are forgotten or omitted; the patronage is in
Molesworth, and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax,
1696, 66_l._ 16_s._
TONKIN.
This parish is a donative, the patrons Sir John Molesworth and Mr.
Rawle. The name is from St. Juliet, a virgin saint and martyr.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Whitaker agrees in assigning to St. Juliet the honour of giving
her name to this parish.
There seems to be some confusion in Mr. Hals’ narrative between the
appropriations of the Rectory and of the Vicarage, which Mr. Whitaker
endeavours to explain in the following note.
“Mr. Hals has confounded himself by the identity of names. The
Rectory of St. Julyot is placed by the first Valor in the Deanery
of Trig _Minor_, and the _Chapel_ of St. Julyot is placed by it;
and by the second in that of Trig _Major_. The former too is
rated so high as 12_l._, while the latter is only 26_s._ 8_d._
even at a period so much later. The former therefore is the only
large living of Trig Minor that is unnoticed in the first Valor,
Lanteglos, correspondently valued in the second at 34_l._ 11_s._
3_d._ And the latter is the present St. Julyot, not a Rectory,
but a mere Chapel in the first Valor, a mere Curacy Parochial in
the second, once appropriated to the Abbey of Tavistock, and
therefore having only 15_s._ certified value at present, the old
allocation settled upon it by the Abbey.”
Mr. Hals has given a very long history of Julius, Pope or Bishop of
Rome, from the year 343 to 358, which is omitted.
Nor is there anything worth relating in the history or legend of St.
Julyot. She is said to have suffered death, having been accused by a
violent and wicked person who had previously taken from her by force
some ample possessions. There is extant a sermon of St. Basil in
praise of this saint, who is commemorated in the Rituale Romanum on
the 30th of July.
The family of Rawle, settled for some time at Leskeard, are said to
have originated from Hennot, in this parish. They, together with
Molesworth of Pencarrow, are joint impropriators, and alternately
nominate the perpetual curate.
St. Julyot measures 2276 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1784 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 143 18 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 199 | 208 | 263 | 271
giving an increase of 36 per cent., in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Russell, instituted in 1810.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The rocks of this parish are nearly allied to dunstone, into which
they pass at Tresparret Downs; some of them, however, more nearly
resemble the dark-coloured pyritous rocks of Forrabury.
ST. JUST, IN ROSELAND.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north King’s
Road and other parts of the Sea of Falmouth Harbour, east Phillery,
south Gerans, west Anthony; the modern name of this parish and church
is taken from the name of the saint to whom the same is dedicated,
viz. St. Just; for in the Domesday Tax it was rated under the
jurisdiction of Egles-ros, now Philley, or Tregarada, now Tregare in
Gerance, both contiguous therewith. In the Inquisition of the Bishops
of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294,
ecclesia de Sancto Justo, in decanatu de Powdre, was rated at iiii_l._
vi_s._ viii_d._ This church was partly endowed by the Dean and Chapter
of Exon, who received an annuity out of the same of xxx_s._, as
appears from that Inquisition; and partly by the Prior and Convent of
St. Mary de Val, or Vale, contiguous therewith, and St. Mary de Plym,
its superior, who received annually out of it xiii_s._ iv_d._ In
Wolsey’s Inquisition it was valued at 37_l._ The patronage was
formerly in the Prior of St. Mary de Val, now Antony (in right of
their manor of St. Mary’s, now St. Maws), annexed since the
dissolution of that Priory, 26 Henry VIII., to the manor of Tolverne,
afterwards in Arundell of Tolverne, now Tredinham; the incumbent
Bedford. The parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696,
172_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._
In this parish, upon a cove or creek of Falmouth Harbour, stands the
borough of St. Mawes, also St. Mary’s, so called from the manor of
land on which it is situate, heretofore pertaining to the Canons
Regular of the Priory of St. Mary de Plym in Devon, both dedicated to
the blessed Virgin Mary, and thence from her denominated St. Mary’s.
It is the voke lands of two ancient manors, named Tolverne and
Bohurra, privileged time out of mind with the jurisdiction of court
leets, held before the Steward or Portreeve, who governs the same, and
is annually chosen by the majority of the homage or tenants of the
manor of Tolverne Court; the lords of which formerly were the Priors
aforesaid, afterwards Arundell of Tolverne, now Tredinham as
aforesaid. It sendeth two Members to sit in the Lower House of
Parliament, who are chosen or elected by the freeholders or freemen of
the said borough. It hath a weekly market, and an annual fair on
Friday next after Luke’s day; and giveth for its arms, a bend lozengy
of six pieces ermine, between a castle in the sinister chief and a
ship rigged without sails in the dexter.
The writ to remove an action at law depending in this Leet to a
Superior Court, and the precept for election of Members of Parliament,
must be thus directed: Præposito et Senescallo ville sue de St. Mawes
alias St. Mary’s in Com. Cornub. salutem.
At the north end of this borough, upon a well advanced promontory,
stands the Castle of St. Mawes, alias St. Mary’s, first built,
fortified, and supplied with a small garrison of soldiers, by King
Henry VIII. in his French wars, for defence of the harbour of
Falmouth, against invasion of enemies; having now about thirty cannon,
demy cannon, and culverins pertaining thereto (but scarcely so many
soldiers of war). The Captain and Keeper whereof hath from the King
54_l._ 15_s._; his Deputy 27_l._ 7_s._ 6_d._; three Gunners, in all
72_l._
After the dissolution of the Priory of St. Anthony, 26 Henry VIII.,
1535, this Castle and the land whereon it stands, together with the
government thereof, as I am informed, was given by that King to Sir
Robert Le Greice, Knight, an Arragonist or Spaniard, whose son, in
Queen Elizabeth’s reign, sold the inheritance thereof to Hanniball
Vyvyan, Esq. of Trelowarren, who thereupon was made Governor thereof;
as some say after his decease, Sir Francis Vyvyan, Knight, his son;
after his decease Sir Richard Vyvyan, Bart., his son; after his
decease Sir Vyell Vyvyan, Bart., who was so far imposed upon by John
Earl of Bath, by licence of King Charles II., as to sell the
inheritance of the lands whereon this Castle stands, to him for
500_l._; who forthwith transferred it over to Sir Joseph Tredinham,
Knight, who then became Governor thereof, but was displaced by King
William III., and the government thereof given to his Privy
Councellor, the Right Honourable Hugh Boscawen, Esq., now in
possession thereof at the writing of these lines.
There was a great controversy in Parliament, 4 James I., between
Cotterell and Legrice, about Legrice’s lands. See the Memoirs of
Parliament, page 68, and modus tenendi Parliamentum.
During the interregnum of Cromwell, Sir Richard Vyvyan, as a person
dissaffected to his government, was displaced from the gubernation of
this Castle, and one Captain Rouse put in his place, which gentleman,
as I have been informed, before the war broke out between King Charles
I. and his Parliament, was of such low fortune in the world that he
lived in a barn at Landrake, and lodged on straw, till he got a
commission to be a Captain in the Parliament Army under the Earl of
Essex, which brought him into money and credit; so that at length he
was posted the Commander or Governor of this Castle, who behaved
himself so very proud, grand, severe, and magisterial towards the
neighbouring gentlemen of the royal party, that it gave occasion to
John Trefusis, Esq., to make this short description of him in verse;
which the Cavalier party, when they met to drink the King’s health,
would commonly sing in derision of the Governor, and called it their
passado, viz.:
In wealth Rouse abounds;
He keepeth his hounds,
Full fourteen couple and more.
When he lived in a house
With an owl and a mouse,
Oh! they say he was wondrous poor.――Oh! they say.
Part of this barn aforesaid, tempore William III., as I am informed,
was converted to a dwelling house, the other part was made a
Presbyterian meeting-house, by Mr. Robert Rouse of Wootton, son of the
gentleman before mentioned, who with his family commonly on Sundays
met there with great numbers of people of that profession, to hear the
predicaments of their Priest. This Mr. Robert Rouse married Harrington
of Somersetshire, and resided there during his father, the Governor,
Rouse’s life, with his wife, during which stay there he had by her one
or two sons; and after his father’s death, he came down to Wootton in
this county.
As the Captain or Keeper of St. Mawes Castle hath a salary as
aforesaid, so the Governor of its opposite Castle of Pendenis, hath
yearly from the Crown 182_l._ 10_s._; his Lieutenant-Governor 73_l._;
the Master Gunner 36_l._; and two other Gunners 36_l._ each; and the
like payments are made to the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor and
Gunners of Scilly Castle and Islands.
TONKIN.
The patronage of this parish is in Sir Joseph Tredenham, in right of
his manor of Tolvern.
A great part of this parish is included in the manor of Tolvern, but
as the capital place is in Philly I shall there treat of it.
Treveres; the town in the ways or roads, veres being the plural of ver
or vere, a road, way or lane.
This place has been for several generations, by lease from the
Arundells and the succeeding lords of Tolvern, the seat of the Jacks,
the last of whom, Richard Jack, Esq. dying without issue, left this
estate to his sister’s only daughter, heiress of William Hooker, of
Trelisick, in St. Ewe, Esq. and married to John Pomeray, Clerk.
Near this place lies Rosecossa, the woody valley, which I am told was
formerly the seat of Sir John Rosecossa, who had here a large house
and a chapel, but lately demolished. He left two daughters
coheiresses, married to Trefry and Woollcumbe. This estate, with
another called Tolcarne, that is the stone with a hole bored in it,
have descended to Roger Woollcumbe, of Langford Hill, Esq. the present
possessor of both.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Hals has given a long history of St. Just, the companion of St.
Austin, and his successor in the See of Canterbury, all of which is
omitted. The parish is supposed to be under the patronage of St. Just,
or Justus Archbishop of Lyons, about the year 350. This Saint, already
a Bishop, began his career towards beatitude, by assisting St. Ambrose
in his furious hostility against the Arians, and completed it by
retiring into the deserts of Egypt, to prepare himself for the society
of superior beings, through the favour of Him who is the author of all
wisdom, of all knowledge, and of all benevolence, to be obtained by
discarding or stupefying in solitude every kind affection, and every
faculty of intelligence bestowed on him by the Almighty.
He is commemorated in the Roman Calendar on the second of September.
St. Mawes and its castle are by far the objects of greatest curiosity
in this parish.
The shelter afforded for boats must at all times have rendered this
place a resort of fishermen, but it acquired more importance and a
name by the residence of St. Mawes, who seems to have come from
Ireland with the other missionaries.
Accounts respecting him are extremely various. Some assimilate his
history to that of St. Just, stating that he attained the episcopal
dignity, and then, in compliance with the taste of that age, retired
to an ascetic solitude; other legends represent him as a schoolmaster,
and in early paintings he may be seen with the well-known emblem of
scholastic authority in his hand.
The castle at St. Mawes was undoubtedly built by King Henry VIII. but
a tradition universally believed in Cornwall is much less certain.
It is said that the King came to view the situation of his two
projected castles of St. Mawes and Pendennis; that he passed two
nights at Tolvorn, then a seat of the Arundells; and that he crossed
the river from thence to Feock, at a passage that has ever since gone
by his name. There is not, however, any trace of this journey to be
found in histories of the times, nor in any public document.
The privilege of sending Members to Parliament was given to this
village by Queen Elizabeth, in pursuance, probably, of the Tudor
policy noticed under Michell; and if the creation of a close borough
were the object really intended, it proved invariably successful up to
the general disfranchisement of 1832.
This right of sending Members to Parliament, accompanied by the
pageantry of maces and sergeants-at-arms, and combined with various
personal advantages, could not fail of exciting feelings of envy and
ridicule. In this instance the village of St. Mawes, extending in a
single line of houses in the direction of the beach, has readily
presented a topic, which was, to inquire whether the new mayor lived
on the same side of the street as his predecessor.
Corrack Road, the best anchorage for large vessels in all Falmouth
harbour, lies off this parish, called by Mr. Hals King Road, but the
popular appellation is St. Just, or Sainteast, Pool.
Mr. Lysons gives the following inscriptions, said to have been written
by Leland, and cut in the castle walls.
“Henricus, Octavus Rex Angliæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ invictissimus, me
posuit præsidium reipublicæ, terrorem hostibus.
Imperio Henrici naves submittite vela,
Semper honos, Henrice, tuus laudesque manebunt;
Edwardus famâ referat factisque parentem,
Gaudeat, Edwardo duce nunc, Cornubia felix.
Semper vivat Aiâ Regis Henrici Octavi, qui
anno XXXIVᵒ sui regni hoc fieri fecit.
Honora Henricum Octavum Angliæ, Franciæ, et
Hiberniæ Regem excellentissimum.”
The advowson of this parish has passed by succession from Tredinham,
through Schobells, to Hawkins. The present incumbent is Edward Rodd,
D.D. of Trebartha, late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and Proctor
of the University in 1802.
St. Just in Roseland measures 2340 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4714 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 817 8 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1416 | 1639 | 1648 | 1558
giving an increase of 10 per cent. in 30 years; there being
a decrease of 90 in the last 10 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.
This parish, which forms the eastern shore of Falmouth harbour, is
composed of the same rocks as the adjoining parishes of Filley,
Gersons, and St. Anthony.
ST. JUST, NEAR PENZANCE.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north-east
Morsa, west St. George’s Channel and Sennan, east Saneret, south
Buryan. For the modern name, it is taken from the tutelar guardian to
whom this church is dedicated, viz. St. Just the Roman, first Bishop
of Rochester, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury.
At the time of the Norman Conquest this district passed in tax, either
under the jurisdiction of Buryan or Alverton. In the taxation of
benefices made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the
value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, ecclesia Sancti Justi in decanatu de
Penwith is rated viii_l._; in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, 11_l._
11_s._ 0½_d._; the patronage in the Crown; the incumbent Millet; the
rectory in possession of Borlase, and the parish rated to the 4_s._
per pound Land Tax, 1696, by the name of St. Just, 133_l._ 7_s._;
which name is derived from the Latin words jus, justus, right, just,
lawful, righteous, well-meaning, upright.
At Pen-dene, or Pen-dayn, in this parish, is the dwelling of John
Borlase, Esq. Commissioner for the Peace, who married Lydia Harris, of
Kenegye, and giveth the same arms as the Borlases of Borlase in St.
Wenn and Newland; this gentleman’s father greatly advanced his wealth
by tin adventures, and is descended from the Borlases of Sythney, as I
am informed.
Bray in this parish, situate on the Irish sea coast, gave name and
original to an old family of gentlemen surnamed de Bray who by the
tenure of knight service, held in this place two parts of a knight’s
fee of land, 3 Henry IV. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 39.
I take the Lord Bray of Hampshire to be descended from this family.
This place is now in the possession of that well-known quaker, John
Ellis, Esq.
On the south side of this parish, upon a lofty hill, stands Chapel
Carne Bray, that is to say Bray’s spar-stone Chapel, and suitable to
its name it is situate upon the top of the most astonishing burrow or
tumulus of Carnes, or spar stones, that ever my eyes beheld;
artificially laid together perhaps upon the bodies of human creatures,
interred upon the mountain before the fifth century; on the top of
which burrow of stones, which is about fifteen feet high from the
ground, stands the chapel itself; which riseth about ten feet higher,
well built with moor-stone and lime, with a window in the east, and a
durns, or door, on the south of the same stones; the roof all well
covered or arched over with large flat moor-stones, wrought with the
hammer and strongly fastened together. The chapel being about ten feet
broad and about fourteen feet long (as that on Roach Rock) on the
outside; and round this chapel may be seen, the downfalls of many
sparstone-stairs and walks, by which heretofore the people ascended to
this chapel, and diverted themselves with a full prospect of the
contiguous country by sea and land――St. George’s Channel, the British
Ocean, and the Atlantic Sea towards the Scilly Islands, of which from
hence in fair weather you may have a full view; which lands of Scilly
seem to stand in equal height with this chapel, though the ground
towards the Land’s End, in St. Leucan and St. Lennan, on the sea-shore
towards it, are at least eighty fathoms lower, or under it, as is the
sea itself, betwixt that and the Scilly Islands. Such another chapel
as this, though not built upon a burrow of stones, is to be seen on
Mountague Hill, in Somersetshire, and dedicated to St. Michael the
Archangel, for half a mile ascended up the hill upon stone stairs,
embowed or arched over head right artificially. (See also Camden in
Somerset.) Thus it appears that this tribe of Bray were heretofore men
of great wealth, fame, and renown in those parts; since their name
adheres not only to two local places in this parish, but divers
others, as Castle Carne Bray in Luggan, Bray in Morvall, and many
other places.
In this parish also was formerly St. Ewny’s Chapel, now dilapidated;
see Redruth and Lelant for more of this St. Ewny.
Those spar-stone monuments of Carne Bray Castle, and Chapel Carne Bray
aforesaid, will I suppose perpetuate the name and memory of those
Brays till the final consummation of all things, as aforesaid. Bray,
in Battle Abbey Roll, is recorded to have come into England with
William the Conqueror; but by the names of those local places and the
fabrics aforesaid, it is probable they were here long before.
In this parish is a large flat stone, on which, as tradition says,
seven Saxon Kings at one time and day, dined thereon, at such time as
they came into Cornwall to see the Land’s End thereof, and of Great
Britain; which Kings are said to have been: 1. Ethelbert, 5th King of
Kent; 2. Cissa, 2nd King of the South Saxons; 3. Kingills, 6th King of
the West Saxons; 4. Sebert, 3d King of the East Saxons; 5. Ethelfred,
7th King of the Northumbers; 6. Penda, 5th King of the Mercians; and
7. Sigebert, 5th King of the East Angles; who all flourished about the
year 600, and were all crowned heads, as Samuel Daniell in his
Chronicle tells us.[7]
TONKIN
Has not any thing in addition to what is stated by Mr. Hals, except a
description of Mayne Scriffer, or the “inscribed stone,” which he ends
by saying is really not in this parish, but in Madders, where he
purposes to give a more full account of it.
THE EDITOR.
Pendeen claims the first attention of any place in this parish. It was
for some ages the residences of the Borlases, since removed to Castle
Horneck, near Penzance. At Pendeen resided in the early part of his
life Mr. John Borlase, sometime member for St. Ives. Here were born
his two sons the Rev. Walter Borlase, LL.D. Vice Warden of the
Stannaries; and the Rev. William Borlase, LL.D. by diploma from the
university of Oxford, the justly celebrated writer of the Antiquities
and of the Natural History of Cornwall.
Pendeen exhibits an excellent specimen of the large but comfortless
houses, inhabited by gentlemen two centuries ago.
Near the house may be seen one of those very ancient excavations
called vaus or faus. See Borlase’s Antiquities, p. 293, 2d edit. 1769.
They are conjectured to have been made for places of refuge in times
when predatory descents on the coast were of frequent occurrence, and
always causes of alarm. Yet the entrance could not be concealed, and
the five kings of the Amorites had left an example, confirmed at no
remote period by the cruel fate of a northern clan, proving the utter
insecurity of such a retreat.
On the sea-shore below the house is a small cove, where boats and nets
are kept for fishing; but so small is the shelter on this iron-bound
coast, that the boats are drawn up by ropes or chains, and kept
suspended during the winter, on the sloping surface of a steep cliff.
Some miles westward of Pendeen, and near the sea, is Botallock, the
seat of the Usticks; one among the many families that resided for
centuries in this remote peninsula, moderately endowed with gifts of
fortune, but possessed of the honour and feelings of gentlemen.
This parish has been productive of tin from the most early periods;
and Botallock would have elevated its proprietors in the scale of
wealth, but times and manners had changed, so that the last Mr. Ustick
of that place having spent his estate, and then got it redeemed by a
productive mine, sold it at last to Admiral Boscawen, to whose
grandson the property now belongs. The veins or lodes of tin having
been wrought within the last fifty years to depths unattainable before
the introduction of improved steam-engines, copper has, in very many
instances, been found under the tin; and this has occurred at
Botallock, where situated on the edge of a cliff, the workings with
the steam-engines, whims, &c. present a spectacle more unique and more
imposing than any other in Cornwall.
Further from the shore is Busvargus, the seat of an ancient family of
the same name, the heiress of which was the mother of the Rev.
Jonathan Toup, whose eminence as a scholar has been noticed under St.
Ives. He died without issue in 1785; and the estate of Busvargus,
having been settled on the children of his half-sister, is now the
property of his niece, Mrs. Nicholas of Looe, the present
representative of the Busvargus family.
The families of most distinction in latter times, inhabitants of St.
Just, were Allan and Moddern, but both names are now extinct.
The great tithes appertained to the monastery of Glaseney, in Penryn.
They now belong to Borlase.
The vicarage is in the presentation of the crown, and was held for
many years by Doctor William Borlase, the historian.
And here perhaps the Editor may be allowed to mention the name of one
whom he esteemed and admired, although his connection with Cornwall
was so little permanent as to consist only of his serving the curacy
of this parish.
The Reverend John Smyth, Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, received
his title for deacon’s orders from Doctor William Borlase, as vicar of
St. Just, where he remained about six or seven years, till Cornwall
lost one of its greatest ornaments.
Leaving St. Just, after Doctor Borlase’s decease, he became the friend
and assistant of the Reverend Sir Richard Kaye, Dean of Lincoln, and
through his recommendation made the tour of Europe with Mr. Langley, a
gentleman of Yorkshire. He then went back to College, and on a vacancy
became tutor, and succeeded to the Headship; returning from a visit to
Penzance, in 1809, he died in consequence of some local complaint at
Exeter, where a monument has been placed to his memory in the
Cathedral Church, with the following inscription:
Juxta conditur
Joannes Smyth, S. T. P.
Magister Collegii Pembrochiæ
apud Oxonienses,
Qui Academiam remeans, hac in Urbe,
vi morbi grassantis, cito abreptus est,
die 19 Octobris, A.D. 1809, ætatis suæ 66.
Grata recordatione ejus in Collegiam beneficentiæ,
in amicos comitatis et benevolentiæ,
imo in omnes Φιλανθρωπιας,
hoc marmor posuêre
Successor ejus et Socii.
There is also a cenotaph in the Cathedral at Gloucester, a prebend of
which church is annexed to the mastership of Pembroke College, by the
liberality of Queen Anne.
Few men were ever more universally esteemed, or were more deserving of
being so. His abilities and learning commanded respect; kindness,
generosity, and benevolence endeared him to every friend; whilst good
nature and convivial manners made him the favorite of each casual
acquaintance.
To him the Editor is indebted for his good fortune in being himself a
member of Pembroke College.
The parish feast is celebrated on the Sunday nearest to All Saints,
November the first; but the church is known to claim for its patron
St. Just, the companion of St. Austin, Bishop of Rochester, and
afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. Little is handed down to
posterity of St. Just, but that little is entirely to his praise; at
the command of Pope Gregory the Great, he undertook the perilous but
successful service of converting the English Saxons; he attained the
highest ecclesiastical dignity from the suffrages of those who had
been brought by the labours of St. Austin and of his followers, within
the pale of the church; and he obtained deserved commendation from
Pope Boniface, either the third or fourth, who with one intermediate
Pope, were the successors of St. Gregory, when the apostolic
confirmation of his appointment to the metropolitan see was given, and
himself honoured by the investure of a pall. He is stated in the
Rubrics to have died on the 10th of November in the year 627.
Nothing seems to be more obvious, or to be more congenial to the human
mind, than an annual celebration of particular events. Nature has
completed in twelve months the most distinctly marked of her cycles.
The seasons are renewed in the same order; and, if experience did not
soon convince us of the contrary, we might be induced to think that
our own existence in this world was destined to tread the same
perpetual round.
Birth-days appear to have been celebrated in honour of living persons
from times the most remote, either by nations, provinces, or private
families, in proportion as their claims to attention were more or less
wide. After the decease of those who have been supposed to confer
benefits on mankind, “Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo,” and
more especially of those to whom nations owed their spiritual light
and hopes, the days of such persons leaving this scene of trial, of
sorrow, of anxiety, and of disappointment, to obtain their reward in
Heaven, became epochs for uniting religious observance with joy and
gladness. Churches were, therefore, dedicated to their memories and
festivals instituted; but in England at least this instinctive
propensity received the aid of a policy similar to that which, in
still earlier periods, had fixed the Christian festivals on the very
days previously occupied by the celebration of ancient superstition.
Bede has preserved the following letter from Pope Gregory to St.
Mellitus, who led a second band of missionaries into England, after
the successful preaching of St. Austin, and became the first Bishop of
London, where he is said to have founded the two Cathedrals, and
finally to have attained the Archbishopric of Canterbury.
Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ Gentis Anglorum Libri Quinque, autore Sancto et
venerabili Baeda. Lib. 2, ch. 30.
Exemplar Epistolæ quam Mellito Abbati Britanniam pergenti misit
Sanctus Gregorius.
Abeuntaibus autem præfatis legatariis misit post eos beatus Pater
Gregorius litteras memoratu dignas, in quibus apertè quàm studiosè
erga salvationem nostræ gentis invigilaverit ostendit, ita scribens:
Dilectissimo filio Mellito Abbati GREGORIUS Servus Servorum Dei.
Post discessum congregationis nostræ, quæ tecum est, valde sumus
suspensi redditi, quia nihil de prosperitate vestri itineris audisse
nos contigit. Cum ergo Deus Omnipotens vos ad reverendissimum virum,
Fratrem nostrum Augustinum Episcopum perduxerit, dicite ei quod diu
mecum de causa Anglorum cogitans tractavi; videlicet quia Fana
Idolorum destrui in eadem gente minime debeant, sed ipsa quæ in eis
sunt Idola destruantur; Aqua benedicta fiat; in eisdem Fanis
aspergatur; Altaria construantur; Reliquiæ ponantur, quia, si Fana
eadem bene constructa sunt, necesse est ut a cultu Dæmonum in obsequio
Veri Dei debeant commutari, ut dum gens ipsa eadem Fana sua non videt
destrui, de corde errorem deponat, et Deum Verum cognoscens ac
adorans, ad loca quæ consuevit familiariùs concurrat. _Et quia boves
solent in sacrificio Dæmonum multos occidere, debet eis etiam, hac de
re, aliqua sollemnitas immutari; ut Die Dedicationis, vel Natilitii
sanctorum Martyrum, quorum illic Reliquiæ ponuntur, Tabernacula sibi,
circa easdem Ecclesias, quæ ex Fanis commutatæ sunt, de ramis arborum
faciant, et Religiosis convivis sollemnitatem celebrant._ Nec Diabolo
jam animalia immolent; et, ad laudem Dei, in esu suo animalia
occidant, et Donatori omnium de satietate sua gratias referant; ut dum
eis aliqua exteriùs gaudia reservantur, ad interiora gaudia consentire
faciliùs valeant. Nam duris mentibus simul omnia abscindere
impossibile esse non dubium est; quia et is qui summum locum ascendere
nititur gradibus vel passibus, non autem saltibus elevatur; sic
Israelitico populo in Ægypto Dominus re quidem innotuit; sed tamen eis
sacrificiorum usus, quæ Diabolo solebat exhibere, in cultu proprio
reservavit, et eis in suo sacrificio animalia immolare præciperet,
quatenus cor mutantes, aliud de sacrificio amitterent, aliud
retinerent; ut etsi ipsa assent animalia quæ efferare consueverant,
vero tamen Deo hæc et non Idolis immolantes jam sacrificia ipsa non
essent.
Hæc igitur dilectionem tuam prædicto Fratri necesse est dicere, ut
ipse in præsenti illic positus perpendet, qualiter omnia debeat
dispensare.
Deus te incolumem custodiat, dilectissime Fili! Data die decima quinta
kalendarum Juliarum, imperante Domino nostro Mauricio Tiberio piissimo
Augusto, anno decimo novo; post consulatum ejusdem Domini anno decimo
octavo; Indictione quarta. A. D. 601.
It may be presumed that the Jesuit missionaries to China and to
Paraguay were not unacquainted with this letter from the Pope.
St. Just in Penwith measures 6,984 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 7776 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 817 8 0
Population, }in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
} 2779 | 3057 | 3666 | 4667
giving an increase of 68 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Buller, presented by the Lord
Chancellor in 1825.
This parish is called St. Juest as a distinction from the
name of the parish in Roseland pronounced St. Jeast.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish, with the exception of a narrow band of slate which skirts
the coast from Pendeen Cove to Cape Cornwall, is situated entirely on
granite. It has been long celebrated for its mines, which generally
are placed on or near to the junction of the granite and the slate;
and in consequence of the narrow limits of the latter rock, their
workings often extend under the sea. Botallack mine is a noted
instance of this description; and its steam engine and machinery,
perched on the side of a steep rocky cliff, present one of the most
picturesque objects in the country. St. Just has afforded specimens of
by far the greater number of British minerals. Its slate has a basis
of compact felspar, and exhibits many interesting varieties of this
rock; but the most rare is that which abounds with disseminated
garnets at Botallack. The principal lodes of this parish exhibit some
peculiarities in their direction, and the little coves are generally
covered with beds of diluvium, some of which are composed of large
granitic pebbles and boulders, which appear to have once formed a
beach, although at present they are elevated above high-water mark.
St. Just abounds with so many interesting objects as to make it
impossible to enumerate them in these short notices. Ample details may
be found of all these productions in the Transactions of the
Geological Society of Cornwall.
[7] This is said by modern tradition to have happened at
Mean, in the adjacent parish of Sannen. _Edit._
ST. KEYNE.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the east Leskeard and
the Loo river, south Dulo, west Lanreth, north St. Pynnock; at the
time of the Norman Conquest this district passed under the
jurisdiction of Leskeard, and so in the Domesday Tax as part thereof.
In the Inquisition into the value of Cornish benefices made by the
Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, ecclesia de Kayne in decanatu
de Westwellshire was rated xx_l._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, 5_l._
18_s._ 6_d._ The patronage in ――――; the Incumbent Doweringe; and the
parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 53_l._ 16_s._ by
the name of St. Kain.
The presidual guardian of this church is one of those two holy women
mentioned by writers as famous for their piety and supernatural facts;
the one of the British blood, the other of Saxon race. That of the
British is St. Kayne, daughter of Braghan, king and builder of the
town of Brecknock in Wales, who flourished about the year 500; the
which King Braghan had issue also twenty-three other daughters, all
for the like reasons aforesaid entered into the catalogue or calendar
of saints; and also two sons, St. Canock and St. Caddock, to whose
honour and memory a chapel in Padstow parish was erected; and still,
though disused from divine service, bearing his name. The other St.
Kayne was born about the seventh century, upon the river Avon in
Somersetshire, at a place which after her decease sprung up a town,
still flourishing in fame and wealth, from her denominated Kainsham,
i. e. Kain’s house, home, habitation, or dwelling. She is famous
amongst agonal writers for miracle working, particularly for turning
serpents into stones wheresoever she saw them, so that they had not
power either to hurt man or beast; a woman very much wanted now in
Cornwall, where adders or serpents abound to the great hurt of man and
beast.
She is also highly praised by John Capgrave in his book of the English
Saints, for her purity, piety, and chastity.
To one of these two women is also dedicated the vicarage church of
Cainham, in Holderness hundred in York; as also Caynham vicarage
church in Ludlow hundred in Salop.
In this parish at ―――― lived some of the Coplestons of Colbrook in
Devon, as I take it; which place descended to them by some of the
heirs of Flemmen, Berkley, Turvey, Courtney, Bonvill, Pawlet,
Chichester, Bridges, Graas, Hawley, Huish, Wiedbury, Fitzwalter, or
some others, which they married with successively; and thereby
obtained such a mighty estate in Cornwall and Devon that they were
generally distinguished by the name of the “great Coplestons.” But,
alas! maugre all their great riches and wealth, the last John Great
Coplestone, tempore Elizabeth, for killing his natural son and godson
in discontent, was indicted at the assizes at Exeter, tried and found
guilty of wilful murder, and sentenced to death for the same; and lay
in gaol till he sold thirteen manors of land in Cornwall to obtain a
reprieve or pardon; and left of legal issue only one son, named John,
who had issue only two daughters that became his heirs; married to
Bamphield and Elford, in whom the estate, name, and blood of those
Coplestons is terminated, who gave for their arms, Argent, a chevron
Gules, between three leopards’ faces Azure. These gentlemen were
hereditary esquires of the white spur, who, together with the
Champernowns and the Carmenows, possessed and enjoyed the profits of
their private estates in Devon and Cornwall, to that great degree, in
former ages, that the like great riches was not then to be found in
any other family for value in those counties, though now I know not of
any lands in Cornwall remaining in those tribes, or any of those names
now extant there.
TONKIN.
Camden, in Somersetshire, mentions Keine as a devout British Virgin,
whom many of the last age, through an over credulous temper, believed
to have changed serpents into stones, because they find sometimes in
quarries some such little miracles of sporting nature. She is said to
have been born on the banks of the river Avon in that county, at the
place where after her decease sprung up a town, from her denominated
Keynesham. She is famous among the agonal writers for her purity,
piety, and charity, as also for many miracles, particularly for
turning serpents into stones.
There was one other St. Keyne famous among the Britains of Wales,
daughter to Brechanus, King, and namer of Brecknock Town. He had
twenty-four daughters and two sons, all Saints.
It is possible, however, that both these St. Keynes may be one and the
same.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Lysons says, that the ancient name of this parish was Lametton,
and that the manor still exists.
This manor he further states was the property of Sir Robert Tresilian,
Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, attainted in the reign of King
Richard the Second, by whom this portion of his property was bestowed
on John Hawley, of Dartmouth, supposed to have married a daughter of
the Chief Justice. His daughter and heiress brought it to the
Coplestones.
In the reign of James the First it belonged to the Harrisons of Mount
Radford in Devonshire, and from them it passed by marriage to the
Rashleighs.
Mr. William Rashleigh, of Menabilly, is now the proprietor of the
whole or nearly the whole of this parish, and in it of the celebrated
well, which Mr. Carew notices in the following manner, p. 305, Lord
Dunstanville’s edit.
“Next I will relate to you another of the Cornish natural wonders,
viz. Saint Keyne’s Well; but lest you make wonder, first at the Saint
before you notice the well, you must understand that this was not
Kayne the Manqueller, but one of a gentler spirit and milder sex, to
wit, a woman. He who caused the spring to be pictured added this rhyme
for an explanation:
In name, in shape, in quality,
This Well is very quaint;
The name to lot of Kayne befell,
No over holy Saint.
The shape, four trees of divers kind,
Withy, oak, elm, and ash,
Make with their roots an arched roof,
Whose floor this spring doth wash.
The quality, that man or wife,
Whose chance or choice attains,
First of this sacred stream to drink,
Thereby the mastery gains.”
Mr. Tonkin quotes this passage from Carew, and adds:
“Did it retain this wondrous quality, as it does to this day
the shape, I believe there would be to it a greater resort
of both sexes than either to Bath or Tunbridge; for who
would not be fond of attaining this longed-for sovereignty?”
And Mr. Tonkin adds further, “since the writing of this the
trees were blown down by a violent storm; and in their place
Mr. Rashleigh, in whose land it is, has planted two oaks, an
ash, and an elm, which thrive very well; but the wonderful
arch is destroyed.”
For a most interesting account of St. Keyne’s Well, and of all that
portion of Cornwall, the reader is referred to Mr. Bond’s
“Topographical and Historical Sketches of East and West Looe, and of
the Neighbourhood,” 1 vol. 8vo. 1823, printed by John Nichols and Son,
No. 25, Parliament Street, Westminster.
Mr. Bond says that the trees were blown down by the great storm of
November 1703, and that Mr. Philip Rashleigh, who succeeded his father
in the property about that time, planted soon afterwards the trees
which have now acquired their full growth, and probably equalled those
which stood there before them.
Mr. Bond has also printed the beautiful as well as humorous lines
composed by Mr. Southey, and referred to other verses on the same
subject in the Gentleman’s Magazine for June 1822, vol. XCII. i. p.
526.
Mr. Southey’s lines cannot be too frequently reprinted.
SAINT KEYNE’S WELL.
BY ROBERT SOUTHEY.
(_From Carew’s History of Cornwall._)
A well there is in the West Country,
And a clearer one never was seen;
There is not a Wife in the West Country,
But has heard of the Well of St. Keyne.
An oak and an elm tree stand behind,
And beside does an ash-tree grow;
And a willow, from the bank above,
Droops to the water below.
A trav’ller came to the Well of St. Keyne;
Pleasant it was to his eye,
For from cock-crowing he had travelling been,
And there was not a cloud in the sky.
He drank of the water so cool and clear,
For thirsty and hot was he;
And he sat down upon a bank
All under the willow tree.
There came a man from the neighbouring town,
At the Well to fill his pail;
So on the well side he rested it,
And bade the stranger hail.
“Now art thou a bachelor, stranger?” quoth he,
“For if thou hast a wife,
The happiest draught thou hast drank to-day
That ever thou didst in thy life.
“Or has your good woman, if one you have,
In Cornwall ever been?
For, and if she have, I’ll venture my life
She has drank of the Well of St. Keyne.”
“I left a good woman who never was here,”
The stranger he made reply,
“But that my draught should be better for that,
I pray you answer me why.”
“St. Keyne,” quoth the countryman, “many a time
Drank of this crystal Well;
And before the angel summon’d her hence,
She laid on the water a spell:――
“If the husband of this gifted Well
Shall drink before his wife
A happy man thenceforth is he,
For he shall be master for life.
“But if the wife should drink of it first,
God help the husband then!”――
_The stranger stoopt to the Well of St Keyne,
And he drank of the water again!!_
“You drank of the Well, I warrant, betime?”
He to the countryman said;
But the countryman smiled, as the stranger spoke,
And sheepishly shook his head.
“I hasten’d, as soon as the wedding was done,
And left my wife in the porch;
But i’ faith! she had been wiser than me,――
For she took a bottle to church.”
It is almost unnecessary to observe, that the stones said to originate
from serpents petrified at the intercession of St. Keyne or St. Kenna,
and supposed by Mr. Tonkin, according to the philosophy of his day, to
be _Lusus Naturæ_, are the shells of extinct Nautili, called Cornua
Ammonis, from their resemblance to the horns sculptured on the statues
of Jupiter Ammon, found in abundance throughout the neighbourhood of
Kainsham, and in most of the formations intermediate between the iron
sand and red marle.
Transforming serpents into stone, seems to have been an achievement as
appropriate to Saints as was the encountering of dragons to knights
errant. St. Hilda cleared her favourite Island from these venomous
reptiles; and St. Patrick, more powerfully gifted, swept them from the
whole of Ireland at once.
It was at last observed, with no small degree of wonder, that those
metamorphosed snakes invariably wanted a head, and the times of
fabricating legends having passed by, this phenomenon never received a
solution from the cloister.
St. Brechan, the British Saint and King, the happy father of
twenty-six children, all sainted like himself, is represented in the
second plate of St. Neot’s Church, in what is called the Young Women’s
Window, displaying these twenty-six Saints, small in stature, within a
fold of his kingly robe.
This parish measures 769 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1,017 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831, 68 12 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 139 | 157 | 153 | 201
giving an increase of 44½ per cent. in 30 years.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This little parish is situated entirely on rocks of the calcareous
series, like those of Dulo, one of the adjacent parishes.
KEY, OR KEA.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north Kenwyn
and Truro, and the sea channel thereof, south the Vale River and sea,
west Feock. As for the modern name Keye, it signifies in British a
hedge or mound, against sea or land, as sepes in Latin; from whence we
have our English words key or keys, wharfs for exportation and
importation of goods and merchandize over seas; no improper
appellation to the circumstances of this place, where are several of
that sort. It was taxed in the Domesday Book, 20 William I., 1087, by
the name of Landegey, (and from thence the manor of Lan-digge in this
parish, contiguous therewith, and surrounding the same, is
denominated; now corrupted to Lansagey, alias Keye.) From whence it is
plainly evident that before the Norman Conquest here was an endowed
rectory church that received tithes or tenths, of the profits of the
earth, predial or otherwise, towards the maintenance of the worship
and service of God, and doubtless invested with that benefit by the
Bishop of Bodmin or Cornwall, before that was united to Kirton and
Exeter.
In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the
value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, ecclesia de Landigh in decanatu de
Powdre was rated viii_l._ vi_s._ viii_d._ Vicar ejusdem xx_s._ In the
grant of fifteenths, granted by the clergy to the King, the 24th Henry
VI., 1447, the parish and church of Landege was rated £2. 7_s._,
Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 90. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521,
Landegge was then rated together with Kenwyn, £16.; the patronage
formerly in the Bishop of Cornwall that endowed them, now the Bishop
of Exeter; the late incumbent Mitchell, now Borlase; and the parish
rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, £171. 8_s._
Nansa-Vallan, in this parish, is the dwelling of Charles Boscawen,
Esq. Barrister-at-Law, second brother to the Right Honourable Hugh
Boscawen, of Tregothnan, Esq. who for many years hath retired himself
in this place in great esteem and respect of all that know him; doing
good to all those that, for his counsel, hospitality, friendship, or
charity, make addresses unto him; though he hath hitherto lived a
bachelor’s life, and whilst he lives I suppose ever will, with a kind
of abhorrence of women and marriage. I take this place either to be
part of or the voke lands of the manor of Blanchland, i. e. white
land, formerly the lands of Albalanda, now Boscawen’s of Tregothnan,
the waste lands of which lordship is not only abounding in tin and tin
mines, but for about twenty years last past hath yielded its owner
about twenty thousand pounds out of its coppermines, though the waste
or down lands in which it is found, is in many places scarce worth
eighteen pence per acre.
Guddarne in this parish, part of Blanchland manor, by lease is the
dwelling of Reginald Bauden, Gent. that married Pendarves, his father
Paynter, his grandfather Trewoolla.
In this place of Guddarne, in my youth, I was showed by Mr. Bauden a
brass or iron crock, containing about eight gallons; wherein, as he
said, his father found by virtue of a dream of one Hendra, under Key
Cross, in a tempestuous night of wind, thunder, lightning, and rain,
so vast a quantity of gold and silver as not only advanced him from
the rank of rack-renter to that of a freeholder, but from the
distinction of a plebeian to that of a gentleman.
Kelleho, Kellyow, Killeyow, synonymous words in this parish, id est
Hazell Copps, a place it seems heretofore notable for those sort of
nut trees called hazells, one of the sweetest and best sorts of nuts
this island affordeth, if left to grow full ripe and well saved. This
place is the dwelling of John Hawes, Esq. that married Sprye, his
father Vosper, and giveth for his arms, Azure, a fess wavy between
three lions passant Or.
Trelogas, in this parish, is the dwelling of Robert White, Gent. that
married Philips, of Poughill.
From this family was descended Mr. John White, linendraper in London,
who having got much money by trading in tin, settled lands of ten
pounds per annum beyond reprizes for ever, to be divided into four
equal parts, between the poor inhabitants of the four ancient coinage
towns in Cornwall, viz. Leskeard, Lestwithell, Truro, and Helston; to
be distributed by the ministers and churchwardens of those churches on
St. John’s day yearly; the remainder, being forty shillings, to be
divided into four equal parts between the four ministers of those
churches, who on that day in their respective churches annually are to
preach an anniversary sermon in remembrance of him for ever, of which
elsewhere (see Truro.)
In this parish of Kea on the open downs, by the highway or street, are
situate the four burrows, i. e. the four sepulchres, tumuli, or
graves, after the British-Roman manner, to put those travellers that
passed by in mind of mortality and death; one of them is called Burrow
Bel-les, i. e. the far off, remote, broad or large burrow or
sepulchre, (viz. on the confines of this parish) and suitable to its
other names it is one of the broadest or largest burrows in those
parts; into which some tinners, temp. William III. in hopes of finding
money, pierced a hole or adit into the centre thereof, where, though
they missed their expectations they found in the same two of the
broadest and flat moor-stones as a cover, supported by three
perpendicular stones of suitable strength or bigness, that they had
seen in the adjacent country. In the vacant space, vault, or arch
under those stones, they found decayed or broken pieces of the urn or
ossilegium, and about a gallon of black matter and ashes, which
doubtless was the gleanings or remains of that once famous human
creature, before the fifth century interred here, with many thousands
others, doubtless of less degree in the contiguous lands thereof, who
had not money to raise such troublesome, laborious, and costly funeral
monuments as those four burrows were, and still are.
Cur-Lyghon in this parish is now transnominated to Carlyon; and here
for many descents lived the family from thence denominated Curlyghon,
who were gentlemen of considerable fame, lands, and revenues in those
parts, as appeared to me from several old Latin deeds, some bearing
date 6 Henry V. (see Truro); from whence it came by marriage, descent,
or purchase to Burleigh, and from him to Hawes, as I was informed.
TONKIN.
I take the name to be a corruption of Caius; and that St. Caius, Pope
and kinsman to the Emperor Dioclesian, who suffered martyrdom under
the said Emperor in 296, is the tutelar patron of this church, which
is a daughter to Kenwyn, and passes in the same presentation, being
valued with it in the King’s Books at 16_l._ The patronage in the
Bishop of Exeter. The incumbent Mr. Mitchell, the oldest clergyman now
living in this county; who though aged, and his churches three miles
apart from each other, regularly serves them both every Sunday; he is
since dead, in 1731, and has been succeeded by the Reverend Walter
Borlase, LL.D. and vicar of Maddern.
In this parish lies the extensive manor of Blanchland, latinized into
Albalonda. This manor gave name to a considerable family, in which it
continued for many descents. The last of them, Otho de Albalonda, had
only one daughter and heir, Johanna, married in his lifetime to John
Boscawen, of Tregothnon, in the 31st year of Edward III. and carried
this rich inheritance into that family; in which it hath ever since
continued, to their very great advantage, having within these fifty
years brought them more money for copper than almost all the other
mines in the county together, if the last twenty years are excepted,
during which time great discoveries have been made in various other
places. Neither are the wastrels of this manor destitute of good mines
of tin; one of which, called the White Works, occasioned a law-suit
between Mr. John Mayo, of Truro, owner of the tin bounds thereon, and
Mr. Hugh Boscawen, lord of the soil, towards the latter end of the
reign of Charles the Second.
Mr. Mayo claimed the farm or toll of the copper-ore, as well as of the
tin, in right of his bounds; but the suit was very justly determined
in favour of Mr. Boscawen, as Lord of the Soil, for that the right of
the tin as bounder was only by the custom of the Stannaries, and that
no such custom could be pleaded for copper ore.
This one suit put an end to all disputes between the lords of the soil
and the bounders, which otherwise would have been endless, and very
much to the discouragement of copper mines; and there have not been
wanting some designing people of late, who made application to King
George II. then Prince of Wales, falsely representing that much tin
ore was carried into Wales with the copper ore, and there separated
from the copper, to his great loss of duties.
Guddern. This place hath been for several generations the seat, on
lease from the family of Boscawen, of the Bowdens; perhaps ever since
the Albalonda’s time, although they were possessed of fair estates in
fee elsewhere.
Reginald Bowden, Esq. is the present possessor.
Nansavallan. Avallan is an apple-tree, and the name signifies the
valley of apple-trees. This I take to have been the chief seat of the
Albalondas, as it hath been since of some of the Boscawens; and
particularly of late years that of Charles Boscawen, Esq. a younger
son to Hugh Boscawen, Esq. and sometime Member of Parliament for
Tregony, and a Justice of the Peace. The arms of Albalonda were,
Gules, three bends Argent; Mr. Bowden’s, Azure, a chevron between
seven griffins’ heads couped Or, each head transfixed by a dagger, the
pommel Or, the blade Proper.
Adjoining to Nansavallan is Kelliou, the groves, this name being the
plural of Kelli, a grove. It was once the seat of a family of the same
name, but whether they were of the same stock with the Kellios of
Lanleke and Rosiline I am yet to learn. By a daughter and heir, this
place, if I am not mistaken, came to Edward Vivian, Esq. a younger son
to Vivian of Trenoweth, by whom he had only one daughter and heir
Jane, married to John Howeis, of Redruth, whose great-grandson
Reginald Howeis, Esq. is the present owner of it. He was Sheriff of
Cornwall in the tenth year of George I. 1724, and hath married
Susanna, the eldest daughter and coheir of Edward Harris, Esq.; and
his brother Edward Howeis, Jane her younger sister, and both have
issue. The family of Howeis, give for their arms, Azure, a fess wavy
between three lions passant Or, armed and langued Gules.
Trevoster. This place is very pleasantly situated on Truro river,
facing the town, from which it is but two miles distant by water. This
was a seat of a younger branch of the Trevanion family, for here lived
John Trevanion, youngest son of John Trevanion, of Carhays, Esq. which
John Trevanion had by his wife, the daughter of Holland, Esq.
of Devonshire, a son of the same name, who married Marianne, the
daughter of John Somaster, of Painsford, in Devon, Esq. by whom he had
three daughters and coheiresses. Mary, married to Richard Trefusis, of
Trefusis, Esq.; Joan, to William Bligh, of Botathon, Esq.; and Alice
to Nicholas Boscawen, of Tregothnan, Esq.
Since that, Trevoster has been held on lease by one of the family of
Davies, and now Mr. Howeis, of Killion, has a lease of it on lives.
All these estates before mentioned, I take to be within the manor of
Blanchland, and I have passed by one place in it to the north-west of
the Great Works, called Kelly freth: this was for several generations
the seat, in lease from the Boscawens, of the Winters, a younger
branch of that eminent family in Gloucestershire, and the family
remained here till very lately, giving for their arms, Sable, a fess
Ermine.
I don’t know whether it be worth while to take notice of a place to
the south of it, called Chase Water, which being on the great road
between Truro and Redruth, and very near the Great Works, hath now
several houses built in it.
_The manor of Key, alias Landegay._
I take this to be the same with that called by Mr. Carew Landegy. I
find this parish called Ecclesia de Landigay.
This manor was forfeited by Francis Tregion, Esq. with the rest of his
estate, as may be seen in Probus.
About the 8th or 9th Charles I. this manor was given or sold for a
small sum by the King to William Coryton, of Newton, Esq. in whose
family it hath remained ever since. On the commons belonging to
Guddern is a large barrow called Guddern Barrow, near which are
several large moorstones; and also at no great distance is another
barrow, called Craig Vrause, or the large barrow, remarkable for
giving name to some good mines of tin and copper near it.
THE EDITOR.
All the legends of this parish concur in claiming for their patron
Saint Kea, one of the great company of missionaries, and as the
ludicrous, almost from a species of fatality, appears to have blended
itself with these ancient tales, a large block of granite, hollow on
one side, which happened to lie near the bank of the river, was for
centuries pointed out as the boat used by St. Kea to waft himself from
Ireland to the Cornish shore; and so currently was this story
repeated, that, if persons went to sea in a vessel not adequate to the
service, it was observed they might as well have made a voyage with
St. Kea in his moorstone trough.
Mr. Hals having used a strange orthography for Nansavallan, and given
as fanciful a derivation of the word; both are omitted, since Nans or
Nance is known to be a vale; and Avallan may be proved to be the
Celtic name of an apple, by referring to the History of Glastonbury.
This seat of the Albalandas presented within fifty years one of the
most venerable specimens in all that neighbourhood of the dwellings
used by gentlemen of consideration in former times.
It was entirely surrounded and sheltered by large trees, and at some
little distance stood a wood more extensive than any one west of it;
and both were conspicuous and pleasing objects from the whole district
round Truro; but the _auri sacri fames_ has swept away the whole, and
the place is now become very little preferable to an open down. The
Editor expresses himself with some feeling on this subject, having
passed at Nanceavallan many happy weeks of his childhood; and fancied
the wood an exact counterpart of that in which the favourite objects
of infantine compassion perished from want of food, and were painfully
covered over with leaves by the little bird, doubly consecrated by
this effort of his kindness.
In the hands of the proprietor, the farm of Nanceavallan is however
now improving, by extensive drainages, and by a system of husbandry,
that cannot fail of extending the benefit derived from example to all
the neighbourhood.
Killiow is now the seat of Mr. Robert Lovell Gwatkin, where he has
built an almost entirely new house with extensive gardens and
plantations, improved the land, and made the whole into a handsome
modern residence.
To this gentleman the parish is also mainly indebted for a removal of
the church.
Either cultivation began on the banks of the river, or a strong
feeling of veneration was entertained for the spot where St. Kea
landed from his granite trough, but so it happened that the church
stood at one extremity of the parish, and that by far the least
populous. Mr. Gwatkin led the way, and contributed largely towards
constructing a new church much nearer to the great mass of the
inhabitants; in this he was followed by other proprietors, and a
spacious church is now in use for divine service between Killiow and
Nanceavallan. Prayers, with a sermon suited to the occasion, were
first given, after reading the Bishop’s license, on the 3d of October
1802, being the feasten Sunday, to a congregation so large as almost
to fill the churchyard as well as the church itself, which is
decorated by Mrs. Gwatkin, niece of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with
paintings which that great artist could not have failed to admire. The
tower alone remains to point out the site of the former church.
Mr. Reginald Haweis, mentioned as the possessor of Killiow by Hals,
received his education as a Gentleman Commoner of Exeter College; but
he spent the whole of the remainder of his life in retirement. One
Oxford anecdote he used to relate with peculiar pleasure. It seems
that he was selected to recite some Latin verses in the theatre,
commemorating the victory of Blenheim, an event without parallel in
the modern history of Europe till the year 1815. In the verses
occurred this apostrophe, Quo, Tallarde! ruis? and as Mr. Haweis was
actually pronouncing these words, the Duke of Marlborough with Marshal
Tallard entered the theatre, amidst thunders of applause. But possibly
the entrance of Marshal Tallard may be a mistake.
Mr. Reginald Haweis and his brother Edward, both stated to have
families, died childless; and the estate devolved on Mr. David Haweis,
the grandson of an uncle.
That uncle had been a beneficed clergyman, but was deprived with the
two thousand turned out to poverty and to suffer persecution (see St.
Hilary parish) on St. Bartholomew’s day 1662; a day ill chosen by
those who might recollect what happened on the same festival ninety
years before.
This gentleman having a family, and being without support, found
himself obliged to dispose of them in any way to procure their own
maintenance, and his eldest son submitted to become a barber. His son
was apprenticed to the same trade; and on him the estate devolved. He
married a gentlewoman, Miss Kempe, of Roseland; but persevering in low
habits of intemperance, the peculiar vice of that time, he died at an
early age, leaving the property to his widow for her life, with the
remainder to his sisters. They were married, and in stations not more
elevated than his own; their husbands were ready to pursue a line of
conduct similar to that which had cut short the ’squire’s life; and in
consequence, the whole reversionary interests were soon dissipated,
with the exception of one subdivided portion, transmitted by a
sister’s daughter, who died early in life, to her only daughter, Mary
Ann Jenkins, of whom it may be sufficient to say, that if the whole
estate had devolved on her, it would have been in hands worthy of her
best ancestors.
On the banks of the river, directly opposite to Tregothnan, the
magnificent seat of Lord Falmouth, is a farm called Trelease,
belonging to the Editor; for beauty of natural situation and for
command of prospect, scarcely inferior to Tregothnan itself.
But if ancient romances could be relied on as authorities, the place
most deserving of regard in this parish, or in the whole county, after
Tintagell Castle, would be Carlian, since Thomas of Erceldowne, the
celebrated northern poet of the twelfth century, universally known by
the appellation of Thomas the Rhymer, describes Carlian as the
birth-place of the renowned Sir Tristrem, Knight of the Round Table,
companion of Arthur and the chief hero of chivalry, where all exceed
not merely the prowess, but whatever the imagination can create in
these degenerate times. Yet perhaps the armies and fleets of England
may say,
Taccia Argo i Mini, e taccio Artu che suoi
Erranti, che di sogni empion le carte.
Chase Water is now grown almost into a town. A chapel has recently
been built there for the accommodation of a dense population; but in
such wretched taste as to burlesque the worst imitation of Gothic.
The parish of Kea measures 7382 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4306 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 1254 7 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 2440 | 2766 | 3142 | 3837
giving an increase of 57 per cent. in 30 years.
In 1821 and in 1831 the population of Tregavethen is
subjoined, 66―59.
The present Vicar of Kea is the Rev. George J. Cornish,
collated by the Bishop of Exeter in 1828.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The southern part of Kea is formed of the same rock as the adjoining
parish of Feock; the northern part runs towards the granite, and is
similar to the corresponding part of Gwennap; and, like it, has been
much explored by mines.
Baldue, the Black Work, about a mile east of Chase Water, has produced
great quantities of the sulphate of zinc, called by the miners Black
Jack.
KELLINGTON, OR CALLINGTON.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Eastwellshire, and hath upon the north
Stoke Clemsland and South Hill, east St. Dominick, south St. Mellin,
west St. Eve.
At the time of the first inquisition into the value of Cornish
benefices by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, anno Dom. 1294,
this church had no endowment, neither was it then consolidated into
South Hill; but before Wolsey’s inquisition 1521, they were both
united, and were then valued for revenues at 38_l._ per annum; the
patronage in the Duke of Cornwall, who endowed it; the incumbent
Trelawnye; the town and parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax
1696, 120_l._ 16_s._
This church or chapel town bailiwick is now known by the name of the
town, manor, and borough of Killiton, i. e. chapel town, privileged
with the jurisdiction of a Court Leet, and sending two Members to sit
in the Commons’ House of Parliament, which are chosen by the tenants
of the said manor that are freeholders; as also by a jury chosen out
of them, is elected the Mayor or Portreeve that governs the said
borough yearly; the arms of which are in a field, a wreathed flourish.
This borough is also privileged with a weekly market on Wednesdays;
and fairs yearly on April 23, September 8, and November 1.
The writ to remove an action at law depending in this town Court Leet,
as also the precept for electing Members of Parliament, must be thus
directed: Preposito et Burgensibus Burgi nostri de Killiton in com.
Cornubiæ salutem; and for the same purpose, to remove an action at law
depending in the Hundred Court Baron of this Bailiwick, the writ must
be thus directed: Senescallo et Ballivo Hundredi et Libertatis nostri
de Eastwellshire in comitatu Cornubiæ salutem.
Near this place is situate Hengiston Downs, the place mentioned by
Roger Hoveden in his Latin Chronicle, which says, that in the year of
our Lord 806 a great fleet of Danes arrived in West Wales, which some
conjecture to be Cornwall, not North or South Wales (in all thirteen
shires); especially for that he says, the Welsh joined in insurrection
with them against Egbright thirteenth King of England or the West
Saxons, by whom they were all overthrown at a place called,
Hengis-ton·dun, i. e. Hengis-ton-dun; that is to say, Hengist’s
fenced, fortified or camp town, which some take to be Hengiston Downs
aforesaid, which place in former ages so abounded with tin that it
gave occasion to those rhimes, (neither is it at present altogether
destitute thereof)
Hengiston Downe well ywrought,
Is worth London towne dear ybought.――Carew.
In this town or borough of Killington, for retirement and delight,
lived Sir Edward Bray, Knight, originally descended, as tradition
says, from the Brays of Bray, in St. Just in Cornwall, that came into
England with William the Conqueror, otherwise from Ralph de Bray,
Sheriff of Hampshire, third of King John.
The Bray’s arms were, in a field Argent, a chevron between three
eagles’ legs erased at the knees Sable. He gave also in a field Varry
Purple and Argent, three bendlets Gules.
Sir Reginald Bray, Knight Banneret and of the Garter, Privy Councillor
to King Henry VII. and Speaker of the House of Commons in his eleventh
year, is noted to have made the usual protestation for himself to that
King, without any petition for the liberty of the Commons, as is to be
seen in modus tenendi Parliamentum: he was a brother of the Lord Bray,
or descended from the same family. (See Camden in Hampshire.) Others
will not allow those Brays to be of British, but of French descent,
from the province of Bray in that country, and that they came into
England with the Conqueror, and that the many places in Cornwall
distinguished by the name of Bray were denominated from them after
their coming into England: but of this query.
A Knight Banneret was made in the field or camp of war, under the
King’s standard, who was personally present, by cutting off the point
of his standard, and making it a banner; after which they might
display their particular arms in a banner in the King’s army, and take
place of Knights Bachelors.
TONKIN.
As for the name of this parish, which is a daughter church to South
Hill, and has for its patron saint St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in
Lycia, I take it to be Killy-Ton, the town in a grove of trees.
Then follows a long conjectural account of the lords of this manor,
which is wholly uninteresting, and therefore omitted.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Tonkin does not state on what authority he has assigned the town
and parish to the care of St. Nicholas. The popularity of this saint
is now, and always has been, so great as to render the fact of his
being the patron very probable. He is held in the highest veneration
throughout Russia.
St. Nicholas ran through the ordinary course of those days. He became
a monk, succeeded to the abbacy of his convent; and when the clergy of
Myra assembled to elect a Bishop, and almost agreed in their choice,
they were divinely instructed to wait till the next day, and then to
choose the person who first offered himself to their notice, on their
opening the church-door. They obeyed; and in the morning St. Nicholas
was led to the spot by an irresistible impulse. He assisted in
overthrowing the Arians, under the direction of Constantine, at the
Council of Nice. All these, however, were matters of frequent
occurrence. The fame of St. Nicholas rests on something more unusual;
and if the tale is of a date sufficiently early, it may have been the
cause of his subsequent advancement, and of his having obtained an
influence so great as to effect the change of his simple bishoprick
into a metropolitan see, with thirty-six suffragans.
So very early was the _præcox ingenium_ of this saint directed towards
observances, then deemed most acceptable to the Divinity, that when an
infant in arms he rigidly abstained, every Wednesday and Friday, and
on all other days kept as fasts by the church, from touching his
nurse’s breast; for this truly wonderful ascetic achievement he has
been deservedly accounted the peculiar patron of children, and more
especially the preserver of their health.
He died in 342, and was buried in the Cathedral at Myra; but in the
year 1087 his relics were forcibly taken from a country no longer
Christian, and were enshrined in the Cathedral of St. Stephen at Bavi
in Italy, where pilgrims have ever since resorted in great numbers to
witness or to experience miraculous cures effected by his intercession
with Almighty God.
His festival is kept on the 6th of December, and on this day the
ludicrous or profane ceremony of the Boy Bishop used to be exhibited
in most Cathedrals. At Salisbury a boy is represented on a monument,
dressed in the habit of a bishop including the mitre; and this is said
to have been occasioned by the lad dying in his mock pontificate.
Mr. Lysons states, that the manor of Callington has passed through
various families, Ferrers, Champernowne, Willoughby, Dennis, and
Rolle.
The heiress of Samuel Rolle brought it to Robert Walpole, Earl of
Orford, son of Sir Robert Walpole; and on the death of his son George
Walpole in 1791, _sine prole_, this property passed to Mr. Robert
George William Trefusis, of Trefusis in Cornwall, together with the
barony of Clinton, created by writ of summons to Parliament in the
reign of Edward the First.
George Walpole, Earl of Orford, executed a deed by which, after
reserving a life interest to himself, and a power of revocation never
acted on, he settled the remainder in fee of all such property as came
to him from his maternal relations, on the right heir of Samuel Rolle,
son of Robert Rolle and Arabella Clinton, his ancestor, from whom the
Barony had descended; but his legal adviser forgot a most important
distinction between deeds and wills; a will not coming into action
till after the testator’s death, when Mr. Trefusis would have been the
undoubted heir of Samuel Rolle; but the deed, being effective from the
instant of its execution, vested the remainder in Mr. George Walpole
himself, the then heir of Samuel Rolle; and on his decease carried the
property which had vested in him by act of law, although in direct
opposition to his wishes and intention, from the maternal line to that
of his father. Fortunately, however, in this instance, the whole was
under mortgage, which brought the cognizance of the affair into
Chancery. Mr. Trefusis took possession unopposed; and proceedings to
obtain the property in consequence of the mistake, were not commenced
till after twenty years, when a solemn decision of the House of Lords
declared that the interference came too late for disturbing matters in
equity.
It is obvious that Mr. George Walpole should have settled the
remainder in fee on such person as would be the heir of Samuel Rolle
after his own decease, or perhaps in trustees for such person. Mr.
Trefusis (Lord Clinton) has since disposed of the Callington property
to Mr. Alexander Baring.
This town or village received a Tudor charter in the 27th year of
Queen Elizabeth, and continued to fulfil the duties, for which the
corporation was instituted, till 1832, when the privilege of sending
Members to Parliament ceased to exist.
Callington parish measures 2387 statute acres.
Value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4142 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 950 17 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 819 | 938 | 1321 | 1388
giving an increase of 69 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The north-eastern part of this parish extends to the foot of Kitt
Hill, the most elevated point in Hingston Down, which is composed of
granite. The slate adjoining thereto resembles that which occurs in
similar situations in the parishes of St. Austell and St. Blazey; and
it has also been the scene of mining speculations. As the town of
Callington is approached, the slate becomes of a darker blue, and
passes into hornblende rock, which prevails in the other parts of this
parish; but where quartz predominates, the land is barren. This rock,
however, does not possess here a very marked character, nor is it
frequently exposed to view; near St. Eve it appears to graduate into
the calcareous series.
KENWYN.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north Peran
Sabulo, and St. Allen, east St. Clement’s, south Truro, west Kea.
In the Domesday tax 20 William I. 1087, this district was rated under
the jurisdiction of Edles. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of
Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish benefices, 1294,
there is no such church as Kenwen named then in the hundred of Powdre;
if it were then extant, at that time it had no endowment; however, I
find in the 15th granted by the Clergy, the 24th Henry VI. 1447, the
parish of Kenwen in Powdre was rated 2_l._ 19_s._; in Wolsey’s
Inquisition, 1521, Landegge or Keyewis consolidated into Kenwen (the
elder church into the younger) and rated as aforesaid 16_l._ The
patronage in the Bishop of Exon, who endowed them; the incumbent
Mitchell, and the parish of Kenwen rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land
Tax 1696, 196_l._ 14_s._ 6_d._
Near Edles, or Ideless, i. e. narrow breadth (formerly the voke lands
of a considerable manor, taxed in Domesday Book as aforesaid,
privileged then with the jurisdiction of a Court Leet) is yet to be
seen the ruins and downfalls of St. Clare’s consecrated and walled
well; chapelwise built, by the Nuns of the nunnery-house of Poor
Clares in Trurow, called An-hell, i. e. the hall; but yet, alas! as
tradition saith, they were not so poor as their rule obligeth them to
be, for in the walls of this well they had deposited or hid away
considerable sums of money, which, by tradition or some dream, was
discovered tempore James II. to some of the inhabitants of this
parish, who one night pulled down the walls and totally defaced this
chapel-well in quest thereof, and probably succeeded in their design
and undertaking, for soon after some poor labourers in agriculture
became rich farmers and landed men, and others. From this place was
denominated a family of gentlemen, surnamed de Idless, whose heir was
married to Hamley, tempore Edward III.
Trega-veth-an, in this parish, the grave town or dwelling, so called
from the cemetery and free chapel yet extant here, of public use
before the church of Kenwen was erected; which barton and manor for
several descents was the lands of a Welch family of gentlemen surnamed
de Langhairons; i. e. holy or sacred laws; till the latter end of the
reign of King Charles II. when Mr. Langhairne sold this barton to
Walter Vincent, Esq., barrister at law, and the manor to Mr. Bawden
and others. The arms of Langhairne were Azure, a chevron between three
escallops Or.
Chyn-coos in this parish, i. e. the wood-house, formerly surrounded
with woods, is the dwelling of Thomas Hawes, Gent., that married Hawes
of Kea, and Paynter; and giveth the same arms as the Hawses of Kea.
TONKIN.
The manor of Tregavethan.
This signifies the dwelling in the meadows, vethen being the same with
bither, a meadow; and whoever sees the place will be soon convinced of
the truth of this etymology.
Tregedick was lord of the manor and sometimes dwelt here, but having
only one daughter and heir, the barton passed with her to ――――
Langhairne, Esq., but the father having reserved the manor, he in
consequence of some difference sold it. The Langhairnes, however,
continued to reside on the barton in much esteem till the great Civil
Wars, in which this family suffered so much as to be compelled to sell
it; and it came at last into the possession of Henry Vincent, Gent.,
of Tresinsple, who let out the barton in leases to several tenants, so
that it is now become a village, and little of the mansion or house
left standing.
To the west of Tregavethan, or the high town, on the confines between
this parish and those of St. Agnes and Perran in the Sands, are three
great barrows, called the Three Barrows; and about a mile to the
westward of these on very high ground are four barrows, one belonging
to this manor and the other three to Lambourn in Perran. These barrows
give name to the downs, and the great road from London to the Land’s
End passes between them. They were doubtless the burying places of
some principal commanders, and probably Danes. To the left of
Tregavethan and within the manor, is Roseworth, the Green Valley. This
was once a seat of the family of Cosens; and here lived Nicholas
Cosens, Esq. who was Sheriff of Cornwall in the year 1660. He dying
without issue left it to his widow, and after his death it became the
property of Samuel Enys, Esq. by purchase.
THE EDITOR.
Kenwyn may be said to include the old part of Truro, which occupies
the mere extremity of a point or tongue of land stretching from this
parish and enclosed between two rivers. The land immediately round the
town is fertile, in a high state of cultivation, and decorated by
trees and villas; but towards the Four Barrow Down and Chasewater,
nothing can be more desolate than the barren commons studded with
heaps of rubbish from deserted mines.
In this parish are situate two of the earliest establishments for
smelting tin by means of coal, and on the largest scale of any in the
county, Calenick and Cavedras; but of late years this business has
taken an entirely new character; tin ores are sold, like those of
copper, by public tender or ticketings, and smelting houses are
constructed in some cases for the use of particular mines.
The manor of Newham formed part of the Bodregan property, and after
the despoiling of Sir Henry Bodregan by King Henry VII. it was given
to Trevanion, of whom it was purchased by the late Mr. Ralph Allen
Daniell, sometime member for West Looe, by whom a handsome house has
been built on the side of the river, half a mile below Truro; Bosvigo
is also a gentleman’s seat.
And at Comprigney, near Bosvigo, the Editor apprehends that several
ancestors in succession of General Sir Hussey Vivian resided. Kenwyn
church and tower, with an excellent glebe house adjacent, built about
the year 1780, are very conspicuous objects, and command themselves a
fine view of the town and river. The church is provided with a set of
bells said to surpass all others in the country; and to have been
placed there when ringing was a favourite amusement with the
neighbouring gentlemen.
This parish measures 8,094 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 13,296 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 2133 1 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 4017 | 5000 | 6221 | 8492
giving an increase of 111 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This large parish does not appear to offer anything peculiar in its
geology, as Doctor Boase merely remarks that Kenwyn lies entirely on
slate, which is of the same nature as that of St. Allen and St.
Clement’s.
ST. KEVERNE.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north St.
Martin’s, east St. Anthony, west Ruan Minor, south the British
Channel. As for the modern name, whether it be derived from the Saxon
Geferon, Geforan, Geuoran, i. e. Geferon, Geforan, Geuoran,
synonymous words, signifying a fraternity, seers, equals, fellows,
inspectors, with reference to the six, eight, or twelve men of this
parish, who as a body politic, corporation, or fraternity, govern the
same in joint or equal manner; or from the British Keveren, as schism,
separation or division in church matters or religion (see Lhuyd upon
Schisma); or from Kieran, a famous Bishop amongst the Britons about
the fifth century, who perhaps was born in this place, and is the
tutelar guardian and patron of this Church; and to him also is
dedicated St. Kieran rectory, in decanatu Christianitatis in Exeter:
of which every man may think as he please.
In the Inquisition made into the value of Cornish Benefices by the
Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, ecclesia Sancti Kierani, in
decanatu de Kerryer, xxii_l._ viii_s._ iiii_d._ Vicar ejusdem iiii_l._
vi_s._ viii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, 18_l._ 11_s._ 4_d._ The
patronage in Bulteel; the Incumbent Gerry; the Rectory in possession
of Heale; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696,
by the name of St. Keverne, 310_l._ 16_s._ 4_d._
Part of this new parish of St. Keverne, at the time of the Norman
Conquest, was rated in the Domesday Book, 1087, under the jurisdiction
of Treleage (i. e. Physician or Surgeon’s Town, or the Law Town); it
is now the possession of Robert Buggin, Esq. (id est, Bacon) who
married Prudence, daughter of John Arundell of Trethall, Esq.; his
father, Jane, the daughter of Sir Francis Vyvyan, Knight, a younger
branch of Gatcomb House in Devon, originally descended from Zacharias
Boggan, Gent., Mayor of Totness, A.D. 1550, whose ancestors were
merchants of that town, and gave for their arms, Sable, a cocatrice
displayed Argent, membered and taloned Gules.
Note further, that as ker, kerr, kyr, kir, signifies dear, beloved,
choicely affectioned, in British, Cornish, and the Armorick languages,
answerable to dilectus in Latin; so from thence proceeds Kerryer, a
lover, or one dearly affectioned. See Floyd upon _dilectus_.
Tre-land in this parish (either the temple town, or a town notable for
land) was another district or manor, taxed in Domesday Roll; and I
take it, there are yet extant two tenements here called Tre-land Vear,
and Tre-land Vean; i. e. the greater and less Tre-lands. One of those
places, as I am informed, is the dwelling of John Hayme, Gent. (Saxon,
i. e. a house, home, or covering; see also Verstegan upon this word)
that married Tregose; his father Boggans.
In this parish is situate Condura and Tregarne, manors formerly
pertaining to Condura, Earl of Cornwall.
Lanareh, also Lan-arth, in this parish is the dwelling of Sampson
Sanns, Gent., that married Cood, which tenement or barton was formerly
the lands of Kensham, who sold it to the present possessors.
This Mr. Sanns died without legal issue about the year 1696, and left
his estate to his brother’s son, John Sanns, that married Hamley of
St. Neot, now in possession thereof, who in the month of January, in
the afternoon, in the year 1702, with seven other persons, men and
women of this parish, coming by sea from Falmouth town and harbour
towards their own homes in a fishing boat of about five tons burden,
without deck or covering, on a fair day; and having got off at sea
about a league beyond the said harbour, and within two leagues of
their dwelling to the west; suddenly there happened to arise a high
and mighty storm of wind against them, which rose the rapid waves of
the sea to that degree, that the boatmen or oarmen, with all their
skill or strength, were not able to put the boat further forward
without its being filled with water or swallowed up with the raging
sea.
Whereupon, despairing of getting home to St. Keverne, they all
resolved if possible to return back to Falmouth harbour before this
tempestuous storm of wind that blew that way, or to run on shore on
any other part of the country as they could. But, alas! they no sooner
attempted those expedients, and turned their boat, but instantly the
wind turned and thwarted their design. In this extremity they knew not
what to do; both wind and water being thus outrageous against them:
and that which added more to their calamity was, that, through their
long toiling at sea, the light of the sun was past and night
approached.
Then every person present being at their wit’s end, called upon his
God for pardon of their sins, and mercy upon their souls, as
despairing of the preservation of their bodies from the merciless
element of the seas; when at length, after much fervent prayers,
tears, and cries, the watermen proposed, all other their endeavours
failing, that the boat must be left to drive before the wind and sea,
to such port or place as God in his infinite mercy and providence
should guide it.
This course was taken, and the boat forthwith, by letting loose its
helm, in a dark long night and most tremendous storm or hurricane,
followed the current of the wind and waves all night; the passengers
every minute casting out of the boat such water as the outrageous seas
cast in upon her, least she might thereby be overwhelmed or filled
therewith. At length the glimpse of daylight appeared, when they
beheld themselves environed with the billows of the great ocean,
without sight of either sun, moon, stars, or land. The storm still
continuing all that day and the night after, also the third day and
the night after, the boat and mariners in the same condition as
aforesaid, when afterwards the fourth day in the morning, the wind and
seas being somewhat abated of their fury and violence, about ten of
the clock they discovered land, and forthwith rowed and steered the
boat to the sea-shore thereof, where they arrived with the boat
safely; which happened to be, as I was informed, on the coast of
Normandy in France, about a hundred leagues distance from the place
the boat first was driven off at sea. Which happened to be at such
time as Queen Anne had wars with the French King. As soon as Mr. Sanns
and his companions stept on land, they were met by three or four men
with fusees, demanding what they were (as they judged, for they
understood not French), to which they replied they were English; which
one of them that understood the English tongue hearing, demanded the
occasion of their coming there, and by what expedient they came over;
the particulars of which hearing, as aforesaid, they were all
astonished to hear of their hazardous passage, miraculous
preservation, and to behold the boat, the instrument thereof next
Providence.
Upon which discourse, a gentleman of the company asked Mr. Sanns what
part of England he was born in, to which he replied Cornwall; and
further interrogated him whether his name were not Sanns, to which he
replied that it was; ‘Why then,’ said the gentleman, ‘I know your
person, and well remember the kindness you shewed me in my distress
many years since at your house, when the ship in which I was, was cast
away and lost on the coast of St. Kevern;’ understanding which, after
they embraced each other. Then, he demanded their arms and money, if
any; whereupon Mr. Sanns having with him forty guineas that he had
received at Falmouth for pilchards, the day before his boat was driven
off at sea, he forthwith delivered it to his friend, who told him he
and his companions must yield themselves prisoners of war; which
accordingly they did, and Mr. Sanns was taken home to the gentleman’s
house. After which they were all examined concerning the premises
before a justice of the peace, who finding matters as aforesaid,
ordered that they should not be kept in custody as prisoners of war,
but be all permitted to go at liberty and beg the alms of the people;
whereupon they found extraordinary charity and favour amongst them,
since they were not enemies, but persons by fate or Providence,
brought there after an especial manner, and preserved from the
violence of the seas by the great Maker and Protector of all things.
The news whereof forthwith not only flew over the country, but was
transmitted to the cognizance of King Lewis XIV., who thereupon
ordered that by the first transport ship for prisoners of war, they
should all be sent home freely into England; which happening soon
after, Mr. Sanns took his leave of his kind landlord, in whose house
he had been dieted and entertained, and was content to leave the forty
guineas aforesaid with him, as his recompence; but contrary to his
expectation the gentleman gave the same to him again, saying he would
take nothing of that kind at his hands, since God in such a wonderful
manner had preserved him and his companions from the great danger of
the seas. Whereupon, he presented five or six guineas to his wife, who
after some reluctancy accepted thereof, and so they parted and went on
board a transport ship, and safely landed at Portsmouth; and in about
eight weeks after their departure from England, returned safe to St.
Keverne, to the great joy and astonishment of their friends and
relations, who concluded them all drowned long before.
And that the reader may not think those people’s subsistence three
nights and four days in their dangerous sea voyage, was as
supernatural as their preservation, it must be remembered, that one of
Mr. Sanns’ companions being a woman that was an inn-keeper, had bought
at Falmouth town before they departed thence, for to sell to her
customers, twelve pennyworth of white bread and three or four gallons
of brandy, which proved the material support of their lives. Matthew
of Westminster, our Chronologer, tells us that about the year 900,
Dusblan, Machreu and one Maxlium, in a boat made of one ox skin and a
half, with seven days provisions, in two days and a night arrived
miraculously into Cornwall from Ireland, at the Mount’s Bay.
TONKIN.
Mr. Tonkin does not add any thing to Mr. Hals’s narrative, except the
single observation,
It takes its name from the famous St. Keven.
THE EDITOR.
St. Keverne’s fame does not extend out of Cornwall. He must have been
one of the Irish missionaries who crossed the seas in granite troughs,
or in skiffs made of bullocks’ hides. Tales were in circulation about
mutual visits from St. Perran and St. Kevern, but they contain only
vulgar incidents of modern fabrication.
The extraordinary escape of the passengers from Falmouth, is retained
at the full length in which Mr. Hals relates it, as the narrative
bears evident marks of authenticity, and the incidents are creditable
to all the parties introduced.
This parish is amply provided with small harbours or coves affording
shelter to boats, and the shore admits of using seine nets for taking
pilchards. The principal of these harbours, Coverack, has been long
noted for an extensive trade, still more lucrative than fishing; the
other two are Porthoustock (Proustock) and Porthalla (Prala).
About seventy years since a large shoal of pilchards came into the
cove at Porthoustock, while the seine boats were on the outside. One
of these extended its net across the entrance and shut in the whole;
but salt in sufficient quantity could not be procured for saving them,
when the fishermen resolved on the hazardous expedient of sailing to
France for a supply; the weather continued fine till their return, and
they are reported to have prepared for exportation above a thousand
hogsheads. The Church is situated on the highest ground in this whole
district, having the addition of a spire instead of the lofty tower
usual in Cornwall. The existing spire is of recent date, although
probably on the model of that which was destroyed by lightning on the
28th of February 1770.
For a very accurate and able account of this thunder storm, which
occurred during divine service, and seems to have been one of the most
violent on record, see a paper in the 61st vol. of the Philosophical
Transactions, p. 71, art. 8, 1771; (and vol. 13, p. 98, of the
Abridgment,) by the Rev. Anthony Williams, then Vicar.
The spire was rent in pieces. The roof of the church almost entirely
destroyed; large stones scattered over the floor, and small stones on
the outside carried to a distance little short of a quarter of a mile.
Mr. Williams himself was rendered insensible, the whole congregation,
with very few exceptions, fell on the ground deprived of all
recollection; but no life was lost, nor did any sustain a serious
injury; about ten were slightly hurt.
In the church are several monuments; and in the churchyard stands a
large sarcophagus, having sculptured on it the representation of a
shipwreck, and military emblems, with the following inscription.
To the memory of Major-General H. G. C. Cavendish,
Capt. S. C. Duckenfield, Lieut. the Hon. E. Waldegrave,
Sixty-one non-commissioned officers and privates
of the regiment,
who in returning from Spain in the Despatch transport
unhappily perished in Coverack Cove,
the 22nd of December 1809.
The ship was known to be very old and in bad repair; but, although the
wind blew with some violence, it would have been a matter of no
difficulty whatever to clear the Mein Egles, or Manacles Rocks. Seamen
have therefore conjectured that the Captain kept near the shore for
the purpose of stranding his vessel, to obtain the exaggerated value
contracted for with the Government; and that in attempting this fraud,
he fell on the rocks which caused the loss of every one on board.
Mr. Cavendish was a son of Lord George Cavendish, of East Bourn,
Sussex, afterwards created Earl of Burlington.
The great tithes of this parish have been sold to the various
proprietors of the land.
The tithes of fish belonged, however, to Mr. Matthew Wills of Helston,
in right of his marriage with the only daughter of Mr. Tonkin of
Trenance near Porthoustock. For some years they were of considerable
value, but as all tithe of fish is allowed to be in this country the
mere creature of custom, the custom then acted on was attacked at law,
and after a trial, on which the celebrated Mr. Dunning attended by a
special retainer, it was overturned. Trenance and the other property
in St. Kevern are now possessed by his son, the Rev. Thomas Wills,
Vicar of Wendron, for about fifty years.
Kilter, in this parish, was the birthplace and probably belonged to
the individual of that name, who with Humphry Arundell and others,
excited the common people to take arms against the government of King
Edward VI. in 1549, by holding out those unattainable objects which
have misled the ignorant to their own destruction in all ages and
nations, in union with others certainly of a different description;
one of which was the re-establishment of the Bloody Statute, or the
Six Articles, by which every person refusing to acknowledge the King’s
supremacy over the church was adjudged to be hanged; and every one
conscientiously disbelieving the real presence of Christ’s body in
consecrated bread and wine, was condemned to be burnt alive.
Lanarth has been for a considerable time the residence of the Sandys
family. The Rev. Sampson Sandys lived there to a very advanced age. He
was probably grandson to the gentleman whose wonderful escape to the
coast of France is detailed by Mr. Hals under the name of Sanns, which
the editor remembers to have heard was the original appellation of
their family, till they adopted the name and cross-crosslets of the
Sandys of Ombersley.
Mr. Sampson Sandys was succeeded at Lanarth by his nephew, Mr. William
Sandys, a colonel in the army of the East India Company, who rebuilt
the house, and greatly improved the place.
The rectory was, before the Reformation, appropriated to the Abbey of
Beaulieu in Hampshire, founded by King John.
In the schedule of the property returned to King Henry the VIII. on
its surrender, are the following entries, which may be found in the
Augmentation Office.
Com. Cornub.
St. Kivion――Redd. Assis. lib. ten. 2 15 10
Redd, et Firm. ten. ad volunt’ 8 2 4
Terr. dominic. 1 16 8
Tregonon, firma molend. 1 2 6
Opera autumpnal’ 0 1 6
Perquis’ cur’ 1 7 2
Firma rector’ 57 4 0
Helston red. annual’ 6 3 4
The reasons assigned for King John founding this magnificent
Cistercian Abbey of Beaulieu, or De Bello Loco, are so curious, and so
illustrative of the profligacy and weak superstition united in forming
his character, that the Editor thinks it right to insert the following
original, with a translation.
Anno sexto Regis Johannis idem Rex construxit quoddam Cœnobium ordinis
Cisterciensis in Anglia, et Bellum Locum nominavit; quod quidem
Cœnobium tali occasione narratur ab eo factum. Quia enim idem Rex
versus Abbates, et alias personas ordinis Cisterciensis prænominatas,
supra modum, sine causa, est iratus, et eosdem non mediocriter per
ministros suos gravaret, ad quoddam Parliamentum, quod ipse apud
Lincolniam tenuit, Abbates dicti ordinis venerunt, si quo modo Regis
ejusdem gratiam et favorem potuissent aliquatenus invenire. Quibus
visis, sicut crudelis animi erat, præcepit suis ut dictos Abbates sub
pedibus equorum viliter conculcarent; Regis vero injustum tam
facinorosum et inauditum hactenus mandatum ab aliquo principe
Christiano, perficere nolentibus, hii Domini Abbates, jam fere
desperantes de Regia benignitate, ad sua hospitia festinanter
accesserunt. Nocte vero sequenti, cùm idem Rex Johannes in lecto suo
dormiret, ei quod coram quodam Judice, prædictis Abbatibus illuc
assistentibus, ductus fuerit: qui eisdem Abbatibus jusserat dictum
regem supra dorsum suum cum flagellis et virgis verberare: quam quidem
verberationem, mane vigilans, se sensisse dixit. Sompnium vero suum
cuidam personæ ecclesiasticæ de curia sua narravit, qui dixit ei, quod
Deus erga eum supra modum esset misericors, qui eum tam clementer et
paternè in præsenti seculo dignatus est corripere, et eidem sua
misteria revelare; et consuluit Regem ut pro Abbatibus dicti ordinis
velociter mitteret, et ab eisdem de reatu suo veniam humiliter
imploraret.
Rege siquidem acquiescente, pro eis, ut ad Regem venirent, missum est.
Quod audientes per nuncium Regis, putaverunt se ab Anglia fore
exterminandos; Deo tamen, qui suos non deserit, aliter disponente, cùm
nunc ad conspectum Regis venissent, indignationem suam quam ergo eos
habuit Rex remisit.
“In the sixth year of his reign King John founded a certain
monastery of the Cistercian order in England, and gave it the
name of Beaulieu; and the following account is given of the cause
which induced the King to found this abbey.