DAVIES GILBERT, (continued 8)

King Arthur’s three admirals at sea, as appears from the book of Thriades in British, were Gerint ab Erbyn, a nobleman of Cornwall, for then Cornwall and Devon were one county or province, slain at Lhongporth, now London, by the Saxons, anno Dom. 540; March ab Meircyon, and Gwenwynwyn ab Nau.

There is yet extant in the British tongue an elegy upon the death of this Gerint, which amongst others contains those words. Ray Rhytharmaur mab Erbin.

King Arthur also, by reason of the great schism in the Church between the Arian and Catholic Clergy, instituted the order of Knights of the Holy Trinity, and built the Chapel of Trinity at Restormell.

Pierce Gaveston being made Earl of Cornwall by King Edward II. and afterwards banished for his wicked practices, and put to death by licence of that king, took out of the jewel house a table of gold, and tressells of the same, that once belonged to King Arthur, and delivered them to Amery of Friscoband, a merchant, to be carried into Gascoigne, where they were sold at a great price to his own private advantage, as our chronologers tell us.

339 But in memory of King Arthur, Roger Mortimer soon after, at such time as he and Queen Eleanor his concubine, wife of Edward the Second, governed this kingdom, in imitation of him, kept a round table, to which many noble knights belonged and frequented, to his infinite cost and expense, which by him were called the Knights of the Round Table. (Heywood’s Chronicles, p. 193.)

The Isle of Man being conquered by William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, temp. Edward III. he caused him to be styled King of Man, and gave him leave to institute at Windsor, in a chamber two hundred feet round, in imitation of King Arthur, a society of Knights of the Round Table. (Daniell’s Chronicle, p. 196.)

TONKIN.

I shall offer a conjecture touching the name of this place, which I will not say is right but only probable. Tin is the same as Din, Dinas; and Dixeth, deceit; so that Tindixeth turned for the easier pronunciation to Tintagel, Dindagel, or Daundagel, signifies the Castle of Deceit, which name might be aptly given to it from the famous deceit practised here by Uter Pendragon, by the help of Merlin’s enchantment.

The manor of Tintagel was very antiently demesne land of the crown, and famous for its castle, and Browne Willis says, the castle, manor, and borough of Tintagel, were settled by Edward the Third on his son Prince Edward, whom he created Duke of Cornwall, and continued it to his heirs, the succeeding Dukes of Cornwall, before which this king’s brother, John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, held it. This castle boasts much greater antiquity, and is said to have been the seat of the Dukes of Cornwall, and pretends to have been the birthplace of the famous King Arthur, which happened above five hundred years before the Norman Conquest, that prince having been born in the year 500, fifteen years after which he is said to have succeeded 340 his father in the kingdom, and to have lost his life in the thirty-sixth year of his reign in a place near Camelford. The borough of Bossiney, known in this county by the name of Tintagel, is a very small village, and contains scarcely twenty houses, and those not better than cottages. This place, with Trevenna, another little hamlet equally mean, lie in the parish of Tintagel, from which church they are at no great distance, and with it make up the one borough. It was privileged by Richard Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans, who granted “Quod Burgus noster de Tyntaivil sit liber Burgus.” It is governed by a mayor. The first return of Members to serve in Parliament is in the reign of Edward the Sixth.

In an indenture during the reign of Queen Mary it is styled Trevenna alias Bossiney, in others Trevenna simply, in others Bossiney alone.

The borough is held from the duchy at a fee-farm rent of 11l. 16s. 9½d.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons says, “this castle, which is of great antiquity, is reported to have been the birthplace of King Arthur, with respect to whom it was the opinion of Lord Chancellor Bacon, ‘that there was truth enough in his story to make him famous, besides that which was fabulous.’ His history nevertheless has been so blended with the marvellous by the monkish historians, that some authors have been disposed to doubt of his existence; and the circumstances connected with his supposed birth at Tintagel, are clearly not among those parts of his story most entitled to credit. We find no mention of this castle in authentic history till the year 1245, when Richard Earl of Cornwall was accused of having offered an asylum at his castle of Tintagel, to his nephew David Prince of Wales, in rebellion against his uncle Henry the Third. Thomas de la Hyde was governor or constable of the castle in 1307, Thomas 341 le Arcedekne in 1313, and William de Botreaux in 1325. It appears by a survey taken about that time, that the castle was in a very ruinous state. The great hall was taken down by John of Eltham. John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, was made constable in 1388.” Mr. Carew states, p. 286 Lord Dunstanville’s Edition, “that being turned from a palace to a prison, this castle restrained one John Northampton’s liberty, who for abusing the same in his unruly mayoralty of London, was condemned hither as a perpetual penitentiary,” and Thomas Earl of Warwick was also a prisoner there in 1397.

Lord Treasurer Burleigh abolished the office of constable or governor of this castle.

Norden has a print, accompanied by a description of the castle, as it remained in his time, about 1584, when considerable portions of the fortress appear to have remained both on the island and on the main land.

The living belonged to the Great Benedictine Monastery at Fontevrault in Anjou, distinguished by the peculiarity of being presided over by an abbess, although the establishment consisted of monks as well as nuns. Having been seized into the king’s hands with other benefices belonging to alien houses, this parish was given by Edward the Fourth to the collegiate church of Windsor, where the great tithes and the patronage of the living still remain.

It is stated by Doctor Borlase, that besides the chapel within the fortress, dedicated to St. Ulette or Uliane, two others existed in the parish, one dedicated to St. Tiron and the other to St. Dennis.

I have retained the fabulous history of the Great Arthur, with feelings similar to those which induced the Greeks to dwell on the twelve labours of their Hercules, or the Scandinavians to recount the exploits of Odin. In a manner similar to what took place with respect to them, there exist reasons for conjecturing, at least that a mythological personage of remote antiquity became blended with a 342 British warrior who opposed the Saxons, and that the constellation Arcturus is in this way connected with the Cornish chief.

The tales translated from the Celtic by Jeffery of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph in 1152, are followed by the author from whom Mr. Hals collected his materials; they are also copied into the romance of Prince Arthur, where in Caxton’s edition is a print of the king sitting in the middle of his round table, with the knights companions surrounding its circle. And this print has evidently given origin to the lines of our most facetious poet, proving from the round table that knight errants were accustomed to eat like other persons. See part I. canto 1, line 387.

Mr. Hals says this is the place called Donecheniv in Domesday Survey. Dunechine, would mean the fortress or a chasm, corresponding precisely with the situation.

Joseph of Exeter, from whom Mr. Hals has translated some lines on this place, is mentioned with great commendation in Warton’s History of English Poetry: “But a miracle of this age in classical composition was Joseph of Exeter, commonly called Josephus Iscanus. He wrote two epic poems in Latin heroic verse. The first is on the Trojan War; it is in six books, and dedicated to Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury. The second is entitled Antiocheis, The War of Antioch, or the Crusade. The former is preserved; but a fragment only remains of the latter, found in the library of Abingdon Abbey.”

In the retreat of Gothlouis before Uter Pendragon, Mr. Hals mentions Exeter under the name of Caer Iske, but without much commendation of the martial spirit possessed by its inhabitants. If either Iske is the proper name of this river, or the general term for a river has been changed into Ex, the Celtic name will exactly accord with the present Ex-cester, as the word is still pronounced in Devonshire, the camp or fortress on the Ex.

Tintagel parish contains 4001 statute acres.

343 £. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 3674 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 499 10 0

Population,—

in 1801, 649 in 1811, 730 in 1821, 877 in 1831, 1006

giving an increase of 55 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Charles Dayman, presented by the Dean and Canons of Windsor in 1810.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish offers many objects of considerable interest to the geologist. It is entirely situated on rocks belonging to the calcareous series. In the southern part, its rocks consist of clay slates possessing various degrees of fissibility, from the most perfect roofing-slate of Delabole, to a slate that can only be separated into thick flags. Amongst these strata occurs an interesting rock, which appears to be composed of hornblende and compact felspar, and in some parts of hornblende and calcareous spar only. The latter variety is well known in the neighbourhood under the name of green freestone, and may be seen in the walls of the oldest churches. It is in situ in a croft near the pretty little waterfall of Nathan’s or Kneighton’s Kieve.

In the northern part of the parish, near King Arthur’s Castle, and in Bossiney Cove, the slate is very talcose, and is occasionally coated at its joints with calcareous spar. At the former place also occurs a large mass of compact felspar, but which is so much decomposed that its precise nature has not been ascertained. In the sea-cliffs are several slate-quarries, the quality of which, however, is inferior to the Delabole, and is known in the market by the name of cliff slate. In this slate are impressions apparently derived from shells, which have been referred to the genus producta. This is the only instance of a fossiliferous slate hitherto detected in Cornwall, though it is probable that others may exist, particularly between St. German’s and the Rame Head.

344

ST. EARTH.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north, Philack; east, Gwyniar; west, Breage, Geenlow, and St. Hillary. For the modern name, it signifies holy or consecrated ground or earth, referring to the church and cemetery thereof. In Domesday Roll this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Trewinard, of which more under. At the time of the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the value of Cornish Benefices, this church was neither extant or endowed, since it is not named in that inquisition, in Decanatus de Penwid. But in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it is called San Etghi, or Yrghe; id est, the holy charge, cure, or command, viz. of souls, and was then valued 14l. 1s. The patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Ralph. The rectory in Painter, by lease under the Dean and Chapter; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 125l. 19s. 2d.

Trewinard, taxed in Domesday Roll, by the name of Trewinerder, id est, the high, haughty, beloved town, alias Trewinar, id est, the town of the beloved lake or river of water, on which those lands are situate, viz. the Hayle River, gave name and origin to an old family of gentlemen surnamed De Trewinard, who flourished here for many generations in genteel degree down to the latter end of the reign of King Henry VIII. at which time John Trewinard, Esq. was Member of Parliament for the borough of St. Ives, and so became privileged against his creditors, being a man much encumbered with debts, who during the intervals of parliament kept house here and stood upon his guard, at which time one of his creditors obtained judgment and outlawry against him, after three terms in the county court, broke his 345 house, took his person, and carried him prisoner to the sheriff’s ward, where he remained till the next session of parliament, against which time he brought his writ of habeas corpus, and was brought up to Westminster in expectation of great damages against his creditor that put him in durance. Upon this restraint of Mr. Trewinard’s person, the house resolved not to sit, looking upon it as a breach of privilege, but entered before their rising into a grand committee for hearing this case pro and con, betwixt Trewinard and his creditor, when it appeared as aforesaid Trewinard was outlawed and so out of the king’s protection, and till that outlawry was reversed he could not lawfully sit as a member; by which expedient Trewinard was forced to compound with his creditor and sue forth the king’s pardon, and then appeared in parliament in statu quo prius. This John Trewinard had, as I take it, issue Martin Trewinard, steward of the stannaries, who had issue Deiphobus Trewinard, that in his rage or anger killed an innocent man and buried him secretly in Trewinard Chapel, of public use before the Church of St. Earth was erected; however, this fact was not so covertly carried, but the coroners of the shire had notice of it, who accordingly came to this place, opened the grave, took forth the body, and impannelled a jury thereon, who upon oath gave their verdict, that this party’s death happened by a wilful murder of Trewinard’s, whereupon he was carried before a justice of the peace, and upon further examination of this matter, had his mittimus made, and was accordingly sent to Launceston gaol, where he remained till the next assizes.

In the mean time, foreseeing that this barbarous fact would tend both to the destruction of his life and estate, he applied to Sir Reginald Mohun, Knight, a favourite of the Queen Elizabeth’s, and proposed to him, that he would make over and convey to him, his heirs, and assigns for ever, all his lands and tenements whatsoever, under this proviso or condition, that in case he were condemned for the murder aforesaid, that he should or would procure the Queen’s 346 pardon or reprieve for his life; which proposal being accepted by Sir Reginald Mohun, lease and release of his lands were made and executed for a valuable consideration accordingly to him, bearing date the day before this tragical fact was committed, whereupon Sir Reginald Mohun forthwith became seised of this barton and manor of Trewinard, and at the next assizes held for this county, Mr. Trewinard being indicted for this murder, was found guilty by the grand and petty juries, and accordingly condemned to be hanged to death, at which instant Sir Reginald Mohun having gotten the Queen’s reprieve or pardon for Mr. Trewinard, put it into the sheriff’s hands, whereby his execution was stopped, and himself afterwards, on sureties for his good behaviour, was set at liberty from the gaol, and subsisted upon some small stipend allowed him by Sir Reginald out of his lands during life.

The arms of Trewinard are yet extant in the glass windows of this house, viz. in a field Argent, a fess Azure, between three Cornish daws Proper. Sir Reginald Mohun took such pleasure in this place, that at some times he lived on it in the middle of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, and finally settled it upon his three daughters, one of whom was married to Sir Thomas Arundell, of Talvorne, Knight.

Sir Thomas Arundell’s part of the premises was purchased by Sir Nicholas Hals, of Fentongallan, Knight, who having leases of the other two parts, some time also for pleasure resided on this barton, whose son and heir John Hals sold the same.

The present possessor of one third part in fee, and two third parts in lease of this barton and manor, from Praed and Penrose, as I take it, is Thomas Hawkins, Gent. who giveth for his arms the same bearing as Mr. Hawkins, of Creed.

Such another tragical story of murder is to be seen under Falmouth district, as also in Prince’s Worthies of Devon, how that Sir John Prideaux, of Orchardton, killed in a duel Sir William Bigberry, of Bigberry, Knight, whose ancestors 347 from the Norman Conquest had lived there, in worshipful degree, for nine descents, to the year 1360, when the two daughters and heirs of this murdered gentleman were married to Champernowne, of Beer Ferries, and Durneford, of Stonehouse. By this misfortune Prideaux being condemned to be hanged, gave most of his estate to obtain his pardon from Edward the Third.

In like manner he tells us that Sir Alexander Cruwys, Knt. temp. Henry VI. slew one Mr. Carew, and for that fact was condemned to be hanged, but in order to procure his reprieve or pardon, he sold twenty-two manors of land. Also that John Copleston, of Copleston, in Devon, Esq. commonly called the Great Copleston, in the middle of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, in a rage slew his natural son and godson, for which fact he was condemned to the gallows, but in order to procure a reprieve or pardon, he was forced to sell thirteen manors of land in Cornwall. His son left only two daughters that became his heirs, married to —— Copleston and —— Elford.

Lastly, he further tells us that Sir John Fitz, of Fitzford, Knight, slew in a rage one Mr. Slannen, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, after which fact, posting away to London, with his servant, in order to get his pardon, and at every stage shutting his chamber door, for fear of being taken where he lodged, it happened in the night that his servant knocking violently at his chamber door with some intelligence, and he not well awaked out of his sleep, or not well understanding his servant’s voice in the dark, he rushed to the door, shot off a pistol, and slew his own servant, which as soon as he understood, he took another pistol and shot himself dead also.

Trenhayle, in this parish, that is to say, the stout, strong, or rapid river, gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, from thence denominated Trenhayle, whose sole inheritrix, temp. Edward III. was married to Tencreek, as Tencreek’s daughter and heir, by her was married to Thomas Budeoxhed, of Budeoxhed, in Devon, by 348 whom he had Thomas Budeoxhed, Sheriff of Devon, 26 Henry VI. whose son married Pomeray, his grandson Trevilload, his great-grandson Halwell, and his posterity successively Stroote, Trowse, and Champernowne, which last gentleman, Philip Budeoxhed, having no issue male or female, temp. Elizabeth, his sisters became his heirs, and were married, Winifred to Sir William Gorges, Elizabeth to John Amadis, of Plymouth, Agnes to Oliver Hill, of Shilston. Gorges sold Budeoxhed, temp. Charles I. to Mr. Trevill, a merchant of Plymouth, now in possession thereof. The arms of Budeoxhed are, Sable, three fusils in fess between three bucks’ heads caboshed Argent.

Mr. Budeoxhed, aforesaid, Sheriff of Devon 26 Henry VI. at his own proper cost and charge, pulled down the old church of Budeoxhed, and built the new church of Budeox, as it now stands, wherein himself lies interred, some time after his eldest daughter died, who was the first person that was buried therein after the same was built and consecrated. Prince’s Worthies of Devon, p. 71.

Trelizike, in this parish, the town or lands situate upon the gulph, cove, creek, or bosom of waters (see Landowenach Lizard), temp. Edward IV. as appeared from a deed that I have seen, was the lands of Otho de Trefusis, ancestor of the Oates of Peransabulo, from whose heirs it came to the Smiths and others. In particular, Sir James Smith, of Exeter, was seised thereof, temp. Charles II. who sold the reversionary fee thereof to Arthur Paynter, Gent. attorney at law, his father having a chattel estate therein before that purchase. The ancient name of those Paynters, as Mr. Arthur Paynter informed me, was De Camburne, from which name they were transnominated, upon this occasion; John, the son of John De Camburne, being bound an apprentice temp. Queen Mary to a painter in London, and happening, in some contest, to kill or murder a man there, he forthwith made his escape thence, and fled into Ireland, where he remained undiscovered for several years, at length returned into his native country, and fixed in St. Earth church 349 town, where he set up a painter’s shop, and surnamed himself Paynter, from whom those gentlemen so called are lineally descended. The present possessor Francis Paynter, gentleman, that married Sutherland, and Paynter, his father Praed, his grandfather ——, and giveth for his arms, in a field Sable, three slabs of tin Proper.

Gurlyn, id est, the husband’s lake, or riveret of water, otherwise Gorlyn, is the fat or fertile lake of water in this parish, formerly held of the Crown by the tenure of knight’s service, was, temp. Edward III. the lands of Dinham, from whose heirs it came to Nansperian, and by Nansperian’s daughter and heir, to Matthew Prideaux, and by Prideaux’ two daughters and heirs, in marriage to Gregor and Bickford, now in possession thereof. The arms of Nansperian were, Argent, three lozenges Sable. Nansperian signifies the valley of thorns.

TONKIN.

In the Taxation of 1291, the 20th Edward I. this parish is called, Ecclesia de Lanhudnow, the rectory being valued at xxvis. viiid. and was appropriated to the Church of Exeter, to which it still belongs. As for the present name, St. Earth, I take it to be a contraction of Sancta Hierytha, of whom Camden, in Devon, speaks thus: “Chettlehampton, a little village where Hierytha, calendered among the female saints, was buried.”

Trewinard, in this parish, was of old the seat of a well regarded family of gentlemen, from thence denominated De Trewinard. It is now in the possession of Thomas Hawkins, Gent. attorney at law, that married, first, the daughter of James Praed, Esq.; and secondly, Anne, the daughter of Christopher Bellot, of Bochim, Esq. By the first he has only one daughter, but by the second a numerous issue. He giveth for his arms, in a field Argent, a saltire Sable, charged with five fleurs-de-lis Or.

Mr. Hawkins owns but a third part of the mansion and 350 barton of Trewinard, of which Sir John St. Aubin, and Mr. James Praed, are joint lords with him. Mr. Thomas Hawkins is since dead; and this is now the seat of his son Christopher Hawkins, Esq. and Clerk of the Assizes. He hath married Mary, one of the daughters of Philip Hawkins, of Pennance, Esq.

I take the etymology of this name, Trewinard, to be a town or dwelling on a marsh.

The Trewinards lived here probably before the Norman Conquest, and were once possessed of an estate worth at the least three thousand pounds per annum, as I have been informed by one of their descendants, the late Rev. Mr. James Trewinard, Rector of St. Mawgor in Meneage.

James De Trewinard was one of the Knights of the Shire for Cornwall 20 Edward III. William De Trewinard was so likewise in the 28th year of this reign.

Martin De Trewinard, Esq. (whom Mr. Carew calls a merry Cornish gentleman, and tells a comical story of) I believe was the last of them that possessed this estate, for Norden, who wrote his description of Cornwall towards the latter end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, saith, that Trewinard was the seat of Mannering.

Trelisick, compounded of Tre-lis-ick, a dwelling on the broad creek, suitable to its situation on that part of the river Hayle, where it openeth itself into a lake, is the seat of the ancient family of Painter. The present owner of which is Francis Painter, Esq. formerly one of the Clerks of the Admiralty, and now General Receiver of the Prize Money which shall become due to captors. He married a daughter of —— Sutherland, Esq. late one of the Clerks of the Admiralty, by whom he has only one surviving son Mr. James Painter. His arms are, Azure, three slabs of tin Argent, each charged with an annulet Sable.

Mr. Francis Painter is since dead, leaving two daughters by his second wife, a daughter of his uncle Mr. Francis Painter, of Boskina in Burian. William Painter, D.D. Rector of Exeter College in Oxford, was also a brother of his father Arthur Painter.

351 —— Painter, of Antron, was, I am informed, a younger branch of this family, and arrived at considerable eminence, but, like many branches, it has withered, while the parent stock remains fair and flourishing. But the family of Trelisick is now extinct in the male line, by the death of Mr. Francis Painter, jun.

THE EDITOR.

St. Earth, now invariably written without the a, is supposed to derive its name from St. Ergan, one of the female missionaries from Ireland.

The church stands at the side of what must have been an estuary in former times, pretty much like Egleshayle, near Wadebridge. The church is neat and plain, with three ailes of equal height, the roof has wooden ribs with bosses, and the whole was plastered about the year 1747. The tower is not inferior to most others, and the south porch is remarkable for its beauty. The whole eastern extremity of the south aile is said to have belonged exclusively to Trewinnard, but for want of asserting it, the right has been lost.

The walls of the church were covered with sentences, and the windows were ornamented by stained glass, but in the great repair bestowed on the church in 1747, all these were removed, as it is said, by the zeal of Mr. Collins, at that time Vicar, against all vestiges of the religion professed by our forefathers. A few small panes of glass only remain, and the cross engrailed Sable, on a field Or (the arms of Mahon), can alone be distinguished. The south wall of the church is supported by a continued buttress, added about the year 1760.

On a slab stone, just before the communion table, is the following inscription:

Here lyeth the body of the below named John Ralph, who ended this life the 10th of Feb. anno Domⁿⁱ 1729, in the 85th year of his age. The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.

352 Here lyeth the body of Loveday, the wife of John Ralph, Vicar of this parish, by whom he had three children, Mary, John, and Loveday; the last died in her infancy. The other two were alive at their mother’s death. She was a virtuous and prudent wife, a loving and indulgent mother, a friendly and prudent neighbour, and very charitable to the poor. She exchanged this life for a better the last day of November, in the year of our Lord 1715, and in the 82d year of her age.

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, yea, saith the spirit, that they rest from their labour.” Rev. xiv. 13.

John Ralph, son of the above, obtained the living of Ingatestone, in Essex, and died there in 1755.

Adjoining to this stone is another, with an interesting inscription:

Underneath is deposited, in hopes of a joyful resurrection, the body of Elizabeth, wife of Edward Collins, Vicar of this parish, whose filial piety and obedience, conjugal love and fidelity, maternal care and affection, unfeigned charity and benevolence, uniform and constant perseverance in all the duties of Christianity, have been equalled by few, excelled by none. She was the daughter of Nicholas Kendall, of Pelyn, Clerk, Canon Residentiary of St. Peter’s, Exeter, and Archdeacon of Totness, by Jane, daughter of Thomas Carew, of Harrabear, Esq. son of Sir Alexander Carew, of East Anthony, Bart. 353 She was born Aug. 19, 1701; married July 22, 1731; died Nov. 30, 1749. M. Conjugis opt. dilectissimæ H. M. L. M. P. C. Maritus amantissimus juxta cum Deo visum deponendus.

The six letters stand for, Hoc Marmor Loco Monumenti Poni Curavit.

Mr. Collins died in October 1755, and was buried under the same stone, but without any additional inscription. Mr. Edward Collins was the eldest son of John Collins, Esq. of Treworgan, in St. Erme, and brother of Mr. John Collins, Rector of Redruth. He studied for some years at the Temple, with the view of being called to the bar, and it is said that he became a clergyman from principles of conscience.

Mr. Collins retained uniformly through life the respect of all around him; he appears to have been a man of learning and of taste, but of austere manners. I have heard from one who was present, that Mr. and Mrs. Collins meeting accidentally, at a neighbouring gentleman’s, a lady who was not of the Established Church, they refused to hold any conversation with her.

Their only son, Mr. John Collins, Vicar of Ledbury in Herefordshire, supported the reputation derived from his father. He distinguished himself as a man of letters on various occasions; one of the editors of Shakspeare left his library to Mr. Collins, in gratitude for assistance afforded him, and there may be found a very curious note at the conclusion of Troilus and Cressida, in the edition by Johnson and Steevens, with Mr. Collins’s name subscribed.

The next Vicar of St. Earth was Mr. Symonds, who acquired the living through a curious combination of circumstances. Mr. John Stephens, the principal merchant at St. Ives, and agent for the Earl of Buckinghamshire in the management 354 of the borough, was a zealous Presbyterian. The living of St. Ives with Lelant, had been designed for some young man of the town, who indiscreetly, and probably in joke, declared that when he succeeded to the church he would preach furiously against Presbyterians, and teach that Hell itself was strewed over with their bones. This was said in a garden, in defiance of the Cornish proverb, Nynges gun heb lagas, na kei heb scover. “There is no downs without eyes, nor hedge or wall without ears.” And Mr. Stephens walking in a garden adjoining overheard this declaration, and in consequence exerted his influence with the patron to obtain the living from the Bishop of Exeter for one who might prove less unfavourably disposed towards his sect, the only one at that time considered as formidably hostile to the Established Church; and to ensure this object Mr. Symonds was selected, because his father, who exercised the trade of a barber at Cambridge, discharged also the office of clerk to a Presbyterian meeting-house.

Mr. Symonds was received as a friend at St. Ives, and elected into the Corporation. But in the course of a few years a violent struggle arose respecting the election of a Recorder, when Mr. Symonds most prudently considering that nothing further was likely to be obtained from those who had already given him a living, sold himself to the opposite party, carried the election for them by his casting vote, and received the living of St. Earth. See various Essays in the London Magazine, with the signature Y. Z. for 1767, pp. 225, 456, 464, 628; for 1768, pp. 25, 199, 575; for 1769, pp. 18, 235, 578.

Mr. Symonds died in 1775, and was succeeded by Mr. George Rhodes, of Devonshire, some time a Fellow of Exeter College. This gentleman having obtained preferment near his immediate connections, resigned the living in 1781, and was succeeded by Mr. Mayow, of Bray near Looe, who never resided, and died in the year 1800, when the benefice was given to Mr. Samuel Gurney, recently deceased (1833) and to whose memory a marble slab has been 355 immediately placed over the chancel door by his mother, in her ninety-fourth year.

The glebe land is more extensive and of greater value than in most other parishes, and the vicarage house is one of the best in Cornwall, a new front having been added by Mr. Collins, and some improvements made by Mr. Rhodes. There is also a rectorial glebe; and a large house near the eastern end of the bridge, stands on the spot where formerly was a barn for receiving the tithe corn.

There is a third slab stone in memory of Mr. Richard Shuckburgh, brother to the well-known mathematician and astronomer of Shuckborough, in Warwickshire. Mr. Humphrey Williams, then the resident curate, had married Miss Sarah Bate, his half-sister, who is also buried in St. Earth’s church.

The church-yard is still too small for the parish, notwithstanding its being enlarged in the year 1817, chiefly at the expense of the Editor, and by virtue of a general Act of parliament which he brought into the House of Commons for that express purpose, 56 Geo. III. c. 141.

The bridge is said by Leland to have been constructed two hundred years before his time, or about five hundred years ago. The causeway is very long, but there were originally only three small arches. A fourth, somewhat larger, has been added at the eastern end. The roadway was so narrow that a single carriage had, at one part, great difficulty to pass, and the whole created a large expense to the county, occasioned by accidents to the walls, and by wheels always running in the same track. In the year 1816, the Editor procured a grant of fifty pounds, and, expending somewhat more than an equal sum himself, he got the road widened sufficiently for all useful purposes, more especially as in the year 1825 a causeway was made across the river, about a mile further down. St. Earth adjoins to no less than seven parishes: Lelant, Ludgvan, St. Hilary, Breage, Crowan, Gwinear, and Phillaek.

356 Trewinnard has been, without all comparison, the principal place in this parish.

I have not any means of affirming or of contradicting the relation of Mr. Hals, as to the tragical event imputed to the last Trewinnard: some indistinct tradition of a murder was handed down to within my remembrance. The transactions of this gentleman’s grandfather with the House of Commons are given by Mr. Hatsell, as derived from authentic sources, in his Parliamentary Precedents, vol. i. p. 59, of the edition of 1796, and p. 60 in the last edition. I apprehend that he was then Member for Helston. One of the family resided till very lately in the Strand, London; for, struck by the name “Trewinnard,” the Editor was induced to call at the house. Mr. Trewinnard said that his family came, as he had heard, from a town so called in Cornwall, and that he had some old deeds in his possession. These were exhibited, and proved to be leases of various farms in St. Earth parish. The Mohuns appear to have made this place a principal ressdence, for the cross engrailed exhibits itself not only on fragments of painted glass preserved in the church, but also on the seat or pew, quartered or impaled with various arms, and in one instance with the fleur-de-lis and the lions, of England and France.

Mr. Hals states that the estate was divided between the three daughters of Sir Reginald Mohun; that one of these daughters married Sir Thomas Arundel, of Talvorne, and that his part was purchased by Sir Nicholas Hals, of Fentongallon, who had the other two-thirds on leases for lives; but that John Hals sold the whole. It is probable that the purchaser must have been Mr. Bellot, of Bochym, whose daughter brought the one-third freehold, and the two-thirds lease for lives, to Mr. Thomas Hawkins; yet Reginald Mohun is said by Mr. Lysons, under Cury, to have given one of his daughters, with Bochym, to Francis Bellot; through whom Mr. Hawkins, the present possessor, connects himself with the ancient and baronial family of Mohun.

357 However Mr. Thomas Hawkins acquired Trewinnard, the property has now been possessed by his family above a century and a half.

The first of his ancestors who settled in Cornwall was Mr. John Hawkins, who is said to have come from Kent in the year 1554. He married a daughter of the officiating Minister of Blisland.

Second, John Hawkins, their son, designated merchant, married Jane Rother or Williams, of Grampound.

Third, John Hawkins, gent. married Paschas, daughter of Joseph Cooke, of Mevagissey.

Fourth, Thomas Hawkins, who died in the lifetime of his father, married Adry, daughter of —— Crudge.

Fifth, John Hawkins, gent. married Loveday, daughter of George Trenhayle.

Sixth, Thomas Hawkins, their son, married, first, Florence, daughter of James Praed, esq. of Trevethow, by whom he had one daughter, married to John Williams, of Helston, merchant. He married, secondly, Ann, daughter and coheir of Christopher Bellott, of Bochym, and died in 1716, leaving one son and one daughter.

Seventh, Christopher Hawkins, esq. barrister-at-law, married Mary, daughter and coheir of Philip Hawkins, of Pennance, esq. and practically his sole heiress, as well as of her brother Philip Hawkins, D.D. sometime Master of Pembroke college, Cambridge.

They resided during several years in London, where Mr. Hawkins practised as a lawyer; but, having lost several children, they determined on removing into the country, and finally settled at Trewinnard about the year 1750. They had one daughter, Jane, married to Sir Richard Vyvyan, of Trelowarren. And

Eighth, Thomas Hawkins, esq. who married Anne, daughter of James Heywood, esq. a merchant of London. He represented Grampound in Parliament, and died in 1766, leaving four sons and one daughter.

Philip died at Eton.

358 Sir Christopher, Member for Michell, Grampound, Penryn, and St. Ives, in different Parliaments, and created a Baronet July 28, 1791. He was a Fellow of the Royal, Antiquarian, and Horticultural Societies, and published in 1811 “Observations on the Tin Trade of the Ancients in Cornwall, and on the Ictis of Diodorus Siculus.” He died unmarried in 1829.

Thomas died a young man.

John Hawkins, the present representative of the family, celebrated throughout Europe for his general knowledge on all subjects, his science, literature, and travels, especially through Greece, the most interesting portion of the ancient world, married the only daughter of Mr. Sibthorpe, Member for Lincoln, and has two sons and four daughters; the eldest, Mr. John Heywood Hawkins, is a distinguished Member of the present Parliament. His sister is the widow of Mr. Trelawney Brereton.

The house at Trewinnard has been so much altered and improved since Mr. Christopher Hawkins came to reside there, about eighty years ago, as scarcely to leave a trace of what it had been in former times; but the garden remains, a pleasing specimen of cut yew, trim box, and thorn hedges. There was also a building, detached from the house, supposed to have been the ancient chapel, although, I think, inaccurately, as it stood north and south. One of the upstairs rooms has tapestry representing the victory of Constantine, with his celebrated vision of the Cross. But, above all, here are preserved the remains of an old coach, suspended on long leathers without springs, and in general form corresponding with the coach exhibited by the Lord Mayor of London. I believe, however, that it is much less ancient than has generally been supposed, and it has been in actual use within seventy years.

Trewinnard has the advantage of a stream of water, brought with great art over very uneven ground from a distance of two or three miles, conducted into almost every field, and supplying the house.

359 The place of next importance in this parish is Trelisick. Perhaps the etymology of this word may be tre-lès-ick, the town on the inclosed water, les, or lis, being an inclosed place; and the river Hayle here expands itself into the appearance of a lake; and the same circumstance applies to Trelesick as the head of Falmouth harbour.

The tale related by Mr. Hals respecting the change of name from De Camborne to Paynter, does not seem very probable. I remember, however, a man of that family who was a house-painter, and who would be driven into most violent fits of passion when boys hallooed after him, “Painter by name and painter by nature.”

Mr. Francis Paynter is said to have married, first, a daughter of —— Sutherland, Esq. one of the Clerks of the Admiralty, and to have had by her one son, who died in his father’s lifetime. I apprehend that this son, James, too warmly espousing the politics then most popular in Cornwall, took an active part in proclaiming King James on the death of Queen Anne; that he was indicted by the victorious party, acquitted at Launceston, and welcomed by bonfire and by ball from thence to the Land’s End.

Of the two daughters by his second marriage, with his cousin of Boskenna, one made a most imprudent match with a foreigner, and settled in France, leaving many descendants.

The other daughter, Mary, born in 1709, married a very respectable gentleman, Mr. Hearle, of Penryn. They acquired the other sister’s share of the property by purchase, and the whole is now equally divided between the families of her three daughters. One married the Rev. Henry Hawkins Tremayne, of Heligon; another Francis Rodd, Esq. of Trebather; and the third Capt. Wallis, of the Royal Navy, well known for his discovery of Otaheite, in a voyage round the world.

The house at Trelisick has been greatly reduced in size; but the whole place continues to bear the appearance of a gentleman’s seat, and the property is much improved by the rapid advance of trade and of establishments at Hayle.

360 This portion of the Hearle and Paynter estate has been assigned to Mr. Francis Hearle Rodd.

The place next of importance in this parish was probably Tredrea. The name, perhaps, imports the thoroughfare town, as it lies on the way from Trewinnard to the church.

There was here a large house inhabited by a family of the same name, who appear in the parish register two centuries ago as Esquires, a distinction then sparingly applied. The property is said to have passed, by a mortgage unredeemed, to the St. Aubyns of Crowan, who granted it on a lease for lives, in the year 1685, to Mr. Matthew Phillips. One of his daughters married Mr. John Davies, younger brother of Henry Davies, Esq. of Bosence. Mr. John Davies had a daughter, Catherine Davies, eventually heiresss of her brother Henry Davies, and through him of her father and uncle. Her son is the Editor of this work.

The old house at Tredrea having fallen into a state of decay, Mr. Henry Davies took it down about the year 1750, and built small a neat house on the same spot, where the Editor still occasionally resides.

Bosence, in St. Earth, has belonged time out of mind, (certainly from before the reign of Henry the Seventh,) to the family of Davies. On it there is a very perfect Roman entrenchment; and various articles of Roman workmanship, found on removing the earth, are described and figured by Dr. W. Borlase, in his Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 316, edit. 1759; and also in a Paper communicated to the Royal Society in 1759, vol. xi. p. 322, of the Abridgment; and the Articles themselves having been presented by Mr. Henry Davies to Dr. Borlase, were by him deposited in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, where they are now preserved. Another Roman intrenchment, but much less perfect, is situated on the summit of the hill on the south side of the road leading eastward, at about half a mile distant from St. Earth bridge: this is mentioned by Leland. The Editor availed himself 361 of an opportunity for purchasing it about ten years ago, to prevent its further destruction.

In the church-yard are several monuments to the Davieses, particularly one to Mr. William Davies, the Editor’s great-grandfather.

A flat stone, lying on a raised grave, having the arms of Davies, a chevron between three mullets pierced, impaled with the ancient arms of Noye, Azure, three crosses botony in a bend Argent. The more recent arms are, Argent, three bendlets and a canton Sable, on the canton a cross of the Field. There is this inscription round the edge.

Here lieth the body of William Davies, of Bosworgy, in this parish, Gent. who was buried the 28th day of February, in the 54th year of his age, anno 1690.

On the middle of the stone:

I cannot account for this extraordinary epitaph.

362 Near this tomb stands a handsome marble sarcophagus, erected over a stoned vault, with the following inscriptions:

On the south side:

In memory of Henry Davies, of Tredrea, Esq. a Lieutenant in the Cornwall Militia. He was a dutiful son, an affectionate brother, an obliging relation, a sincere friend, and in all repects a worthy gentleman. He died of the smallpox at London, December 10, 1760, aged 36, justly lamented by all his friends and acquaintance.

On the north side:

Here lyeth interred the remains of John Davies, Gent. who departed this life May the 29th, 1737, in the 51st year of his age. And of Mary and Philippa, his daughters. Mary Davies died Jan. 2d, 1740, aged 8. Philippa Davies died at Bristol Wells, August the 18th, 1755, in the 25th year of her age.

On the northern end:

Elizabeth Davies, widow of Mr. John Davies, and daughter of Matthew Phillipps, of Tredrea, died April the 21st, 1775, aged 80.

On the west end:

In memory of the Rev. Edward Giddy, M.A. during 43 years an active and most useful Magistrate, who departed this life March the 6th, 1814, in his 80th year. Also of Catherine, his wife, 363 sister and heir of Henry Davies, Esq. who died February the 3d, 1803, aged 75, leaving one son and one daughter: Davies Giddy, and Mary Philippa Davies Guillemard.

The Editor is desirous of preserving a short memorial to a relation, whose kindnesses to him were unceasing from infancy to the fifty-fifth year of his age; and to a servant whom he has ever regarded with gratitude as the one whose precepts and instructions he imbibed with the utmost pleasure and delight, and whose tales of the times of old remain deeply impressed upon his mind.

To the memory of Mrs. Grace Jenkins, born at Treloweth, 1734, died April 7th, 1823, having passed the greater part of her life in this parish, universally esteemed and respected.

This memorial, in gratitude for her long and faithful service, is inscribed to the memory of Jochebed Hoskin, who died March the 23d, 1814, aged 86, by Davies Gilbert. She came to live with Mrs. Elizabeth Davies, at Tredrea, in 1750, and continued in the family ever afterwards.

Time rolls his ceaseless course! the race of yore,

That danced our infancy upon their knee,

And told our wondering childhood legends store

Of strange adventures happ’d by land or sea,

How are they blotted from the things that be!

364 There is a vault belonging to the family of Hawkins; and Mr. Christopher Hawkins, in 1767, and his widow, Mrs. Mary Hawkins, in 1780, are laid in it, I believe with some of their children; but there is not any inscription.

Perthcolumb presents some appearance of antiquity. There is a tradition of its once having given a sheriff to the county. The place now belongs to Mr. Andrew Hoskin, descended from a very ancient family in the adjoining parish of Lelant.

Gear has a good house, once the seat of another branch of the Davieses, but bought by the Editor’s father.

Tregethes belonged for several descents to the Penroses. It is now the property of Mr. Ellis, who resides in it.

About the year 1782, a mill was constructed on a part of Trewinnard, for rolling copper and iron, by a company established at Hayle thirty years before, on the supposed patriotic principle of smelting our own copper ore; but, after many years of competition against the smelting-works in Wales, it was discovered that one shipload of copper ore required three shiploads of coal, and that by importing coal from Swansea to work the steam-engine, and by exporting the ores to be smelted there, vessels were enabled to obtain cargoes in both directions; and, in consequence, the works at Trewinnard and at Hayle are no longer employed for their original purposes.

The rage for importing coals to reduce our own ores at home, which was epidemic about the middle of the last century, seems to have originated from a confusion of ideas in the application of analogies, the most abundant source of error. It would be absurd to send our food across the seas to be roasted or boiled; therefore the same principle was extended to copper ore.

These establishments were, however, maintained for some considerable time by the genius and the abilities of one man. Mr. John Edwards had been taken as a clerk for general business by Mr. Hawkins, just at the time when he 365 and other Cornish gentlemen set on the copper-works. Mr. Edwards soon forced himself into the chief management, became a partner, and continued the works during the whole of his life; not being distinguished merely as a merchant or manufacturer, but as a scholar and a gentleman.

Gurlyn is said by Mr. Lysons to have been the residence of various considerable families. It has, for perhaps a century, been the joint property of Messrs. Gregor and Harris. About the year 1760, Mr. John Millett, possessing a lease of this place for lives, built an entirely new house there; but the lease has been bought in by the gentleman seised of the freehold, and the house taken down.

Treloweth is a manor heretofore the property of the Tredreas. On a part of this manor stands a tin-smelting house. Tin, by the laws of the Stannaries, must be reduced to the metallic state in Cornwall; and much less quantities of coal are required than in the case of copper. Till about the commencement of the last century, all the tin ores of Cornwall were smelted in small blast furnaces, by means of charcoal or of peat. At that period some Germans introduced the reverberatory furnace, and with it the use of coal. Several smelting-houses were immediately constructed by the gentlemen of the county, and although not among the first, that at Treloweth. I have ascertained the exact period of its building, from this circumstance, that the workmen were interrupted by the total eclipse of the sun, which happened about 15 minutes before nine on the 22d of April, 1715, O. S.

Mr. Henry Davies, the Editor’s great-uncle, was among those who contributed to the building, and the crest of his arms, a lamb carrying a flag, was adopted as a mark to distinguish the slabs of this house; all the different smelting and blowing houses having always used specific marks. The crest, had, I presume, been originally taken in allusion to the Welch and Cornish sound, at least of his name; davas being Cornish for a sheep, or perhaps a shepherd. This mark, however, conveyed to the minds of persons in 366 Catholic countries some idea of consecration, and procured a preference for the Lamb Tin, although it never claimed to have the slightest superiority; and finally, all the other houses have taken the same, or similar marks.

Among the Germans who introduced the reverberatory furnace, was the celebrated Becker. His son became a bricklayer, and his grandson’s widow died about twenty-five years ago in the poorhouse at St. Earth.

The Rev. John Ralph, Vicar of Ingatestone, son of the Vicar of St. Earth, gave in 1754 a hundred pounds towards founding a school at St. Earth, to be applied as Mr. Collins, the then Vicar, and Mr. Hawking, of Trewinnard, should direct. Some portion of the 100l. was expended in repairing a small house in the church-yard. The remainder, together with another hundred pounds, given by Mr. Hawkins, remain in aid of the schoolmaster.

This parish measures 3,791 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 4,708 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 558 2 0

Population,—

in 1801, 1122 in 1811, 1317 in 1821, 1604 in 1831, 1922

giving an increase in 30 years of 71 per cent.

The feast is the nearest Sunday to all Souls, Nov. 2.

Present Vicar, the Rev. John Punnett, collated in 1835 by the Right Rev. Henry Phillpotts, present Bishop of Exeter, on a lapse from the Dean and Chapter. Mr. Punnett has wonderfully improved the house and the vicarage generally, which had previously been considered one of the best in Cornwall.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

St. Earth is situated on felspar and hornblende rocks belonging to the porphyritic series. In many parts these rocks are so silicious as to give rise to very unproductive soils; but in other places, where the felspar predominates, the land is very fertile. These rocks are traversed by metalliferous veins, which are richer in copper than in tin ores.

367

EGLES-HALE, or EGLES-HAYLE.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Trig-minorshire, and has upon the north St. Minvor, east St. Mabyn and Bodman, south and west the river Allan. For the modern name, it is taken from the church and the place of its situation, and signifies the river church, or the church upon the river. In the Domesday Book, 20th William I. this parish was taxed under the jurisdiction of Treworder, or Trevorder, viz. the further town, upon the confines thereof. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia de Egles-haile was valued to first fruits cs.; Vicar ejusdem nihil, propter paupertatem, the patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, who endowed it. The incumbent Maye; the rectory in possession of Walker. This church, in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, was rated 16l.; and valued to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 200l. Walter Brounscomb, Bishop of Exeter 1270, endowed this church, and Stoke-Gabriel church in Devon, and gave the sheaf thereof towards celebrating the festival of the Angel Gabriel, which he had instituted.

Park, that is, a field of any sort, otherwise in this parish it signifies a deer-park, was one of the ancient seats of the Peverells, lineally descended from William the Conqueror, by Jane his concubine, the wife of Randolph Peverell, of Hatfield-Peverell parish, in Witham Decanatus, in the county of Essex, who abdicated the said Jane, and left her wholly on the Conqueror’s hands, who had issue by her a son, named William Peverell, (who, because born during the joint marriage and lives of the said Randolph and Jane, was surnamed Peverell,) upon whom the Conqueror settled the honor, manor, and borough of Nottingham, and town of Lyndeby, on him, and his heirs male. [Here Mr. Hals goes into a long history of the Peverells, wholly unconnected with Cornwall.]

368 Thomas Peverell, of Park, a supposed descendant of the Conqueror’s son, who was also of Ermington and Sandford, in Devon, was Sheriff of Cornwall 13 Richard II. He was also Sheriff of Devon 20 Richard II. Richard Peverell, his son, was Sheriff of Devon 14 Henry IV. who dying without issue male, his lands went in marriage with his daughter, married to Basset of Umberleigh, Botreaux, and others.

On this lordship of Park those gentlemen had their deer-park, some of the walls and fences being yet standing; their tower-house, and other buildings answerable, their gardens, walk, and fish-ponds beneath the same, the ruins whereof are yet extant. How those lands descended down from Peverell’s heirs to the last age I know not; about which time it was in the possession of Opie and Hickes; from whom it passed by sale to the Hon. John Molesworth, temp. Queen Anne, as I take it.

The arms of Peverell were, Gules, a fess Argent between six crosses pattée Or.

Those Peverells are especially memorable here by two crosses of moorstone in the highway set up by them, still extant, and called Peverell’s Crosses. Not far from them is another moorstone cross, near Mount-Charles, called the Prior’s Cross, whereon is cut the figure of a hook and a crook, in memory of that privilege and freedom granted by him to the poor of Bodmin, for gathering, for fire-boote and house-boote, such boughs and branches of oak-trees in his contiguous wood of Dunmear, as they could reach to or come at with a hook and a crook, without further damage to the trees thereof. From whence arose the Cornish proverb, concerning filching, purloining, or taking another person’s goods, overmuch or indirectly, beyond what is allowed them, &c. “that they will have it by hook or by crook.”

Pen-carou, Pen-caro, alias Pen-carow, i. e. head-deer, or chief-deer, formerly part of the Peverell’s deer-park; and from thence so denominated, as some think. But when I 369 consider that Caer-kynock, or Caer-kunock, is situate on the lands thereof, now called Castle-kynock, i. e. the king, prince, or sovereign’s castle, extant here long before the Norman Conquest, I take the modern name Pen-carow only to be a corruption of Pen-caer-ou, or Pen-caer-ow, i. e. my head castle, or city, intrenched or fortified place, according to the artificial and natural circumstances thereof, it being on a high hill, overlooking the contiguous country, the ruins are of the largest British camp or intrenchment that ever I saw in Cornwall, containing about 100 acres of land, and consisting of a four-fold rampart, yet of a great height in some places, with several platforms or counterscarps within the same, for offence or defence, in case of storm or surprise.

[The camp in Pencarrow Park has a double vallum, the inner one oval, inclosing an area 250 feet by 200; the outer one of an irregular form. On the east side, at the distance of about 700 feet from this camp, are some extensive outworks. Lysons.]

This barton gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, surnamed De Pen-carow, who siding with Richard the Third against Henry the Seventh, as some say, but, as others will have it, with Flammock, in his insurrection against that King, he lost this place, and other lands, by attainder of treason (see Bocarne, in Bodmin), having before conveyed a great part of his estate to Henry the first Lord Marney, of Colquitta, to procure a reprieve, or pardon of his life, from that king; from whose heirs it came to the Walkers of Exeter, by descent or purchase, and from them to John Molesworth, of Tretane, Esq. first but an attorney-at-law, afterwards commissioner or auditor to Queen Elizabeth in those parts for the Duchy of Cornwall, that married one of the coheirs of Hender, so called from the parish of Molesworth, in Lightstone hundred, in the county of Huntingdon.

From the local place aforesaid, was denominated Walter de Molesworth, Sheriff of Bedfordshire, from the 26th to 370 the 36th of Edward I. anno Dom. 1298; the which gentleman accompanied King Edward into Palestine, and returned with him safe into England again. After the decease of the said Edward, he was knighted by King Edward the Second, and was made Sheriff of Bedfordshire again by the name of Walter de Molesworth, Knt. from the 6th to the 9th of Edward II. 1316, in which year he died, and was succeeded by John de Pabenham. From which gentleman, as I am informed, was lineally descended John Molesworth, Esq. aforesaid, that married Hender, and by her had issue, Hender Molesworth, Esq. that married Spark of Plymouth, and by her had issue my very kind friend John Molesworth, Esq. and Hender Molesworth, with a daughter married to Dr. Hart; the which John Molesworth married two wives, Wise, and Slannen, the relict of Legard, afterwards knighted by Charles the Second, and had issued by Wise, John Molesworth, Esq. that married Arscott of Tetcot, and hath issue, Hender Molesworth aforesaid, the son of Hender Molesworth, who being bred a soldier, managed affairs with that valour and conduct, that, after passing gradually to the dignity of a colonel, he was by King James the Second made a baronet of England, and governor of the Island of Jamaica, where he purchased a considerable estate in land, and called it Tremolesworth, which, together with his honour (if he died without issue male, according to the limitation of his letters patent as a baronet), is now legally descended to Sir John Molesworth, of Pencarow, Bart. The arms of Molesworth are, Vaire, a bordure Gules, charged with eight cross-crosslets Argent.

Kestell, in this parish, i. e. a castle, so called, I presume, for that heretofore it had upon the lands thereof some camp or castle-like intrenchment, for kestell is derived from the provincial Latin of the Romans in Britain, castrum, or castellum; which place gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, surnamed de Kestell. The 371 first possessor thereof of this tribe, as appears from the record in the Office of Arms, was John de Kestell, temp. Edward I. where his posterity have ever since flourished, to the time of writing hereof, in good fame and reputation, between the degrees of a justice of the peace and that of a hundred constable; the present possessor James Kestell, Gent. that married Vaughan of Trewothick and Ottery, in Devon, his father Kestell of Manacow, and giveth for his arms, Argent, three falcons Proper; as also, Or, three castles turreted Gules. (See Kestel, in Manaccan.)

Pen-davy, or Pen-duffy, i. e. David’s head, (why so called, qu.?) a head or promontory of land situate between the Alan and the Kestell rivers, was formerly the lands of Kestell (and before that the Prior of Bodmin’s, as I am informed); by Kestell’s daughter and heir it passed in marriage to Nathaniel Moyle, Esq. barrister-at-law, of Bakehouse, who for want of issue sold it to Mr. Ustick, now in possession thereof.

Crone, Croan, in this parish, signifies a skin or hide of leather; so called either from the tanner that made or sold leather here, or rather for that this tenement consisteth in quanto of a hide or skin of land, viz. as much arable ground as one plough can cultivate in a year, commonly reckoned about eighty statute acres. This barton was formerly the lands of Roscarrock, by whom it was sold to Michael Hill, Gent. by whose son, John Hill, Rector of St. Mabyn, it was sold to Edward Hoblyn, Gent. attorney-at-law, a younger branch of the Nanswhiddon family by the Hoblyns of Bodmin, now in possession thereof. He is especially memorable for his saying, when first he began to practice, “that he would get an estate by the law one way or other,” viz. right or wrong, and common fame saith he was as good as his word, in the worst[41] sense. Whereupon, 372 since his death, by an unknown but arch hand, was fixed upon his grave in this parish church this taunting epitaph:

Here lies Ned,

I am glad he’s dead,

If there must be another,

I wish ’twere his brother,

And, for the good of the Nation,

His whole relation.

Treg-leah, in this parish, i. e. the law town or dwelling, is the lands of William Keckwitch, Gent. a younger branch of the Keckwitches of Trehawke, and giveth for his arms, Argent, in bend two lions passant Sable. It was since sold to Mr. Hoblyn.

In this parish is Castle Killy-biry, or Killy-biny, consisting of about six acres of ground upon a well-advanced hill, within a treble intrenchment of earth. Perhaps one of the castles possessed by that arch-traitor the Pictish Mordred, slain by King Arthur, (see Dundagell,) from whence his soldiers were routed; for the circumstance of this castle on the Alan river may agree with those verses mentioned under Lentegles by Camelford, for the river Camel is properly called the Alan river, as well as Camel.

Below Egles-hayle church (on the Alan river as aforesaid), where the sea creek or cove of Padstow Haven makes its daily flux and reflux, stands Ward Bridge, i. e. guard or watch bridge; otherwise, as Mr. Carew says, called Wade Bridge, from a little ford near it, which afforded, when the tide was out, a short but dangerous passage over it. But where this little vadum, or ford, should be, I know not, there being no other river to pass over from east to west but the Alan river aforesaid. Which bridge, as an artificial ligament, fasteneth the two parishes of Egles-hayle and St. Breock together, they being in all other places separated by the river. It was built in the latter end of Edward the Fourth’s reign, and beginning of Henry the Seventh’s; not, as Leland says, at the county charge, but, as all other works of this kind were, viz. by collections, and commutation of penance for sins 373 committed; for it was not made a county bridge till the beginning of James the First’s reign. Now this licence of all spiritual benedictions, collection, and commutation of penance, throughout the counties of Cornwall and Devon, was there granted by Dr. Peter Courtenay, Bishop of Exeter, to Thomas Longbound, then Vicar of Egles-hayle, his chaplain or vicar, 1485, who raised a considerable sum of money by that means, viz. of absolution, as also from charitable and well-disposed Christians. The undertaker, that expert mason John de Harlyn, and the treasurer Longbound, brought the bridge’s building to that perfection as it now stands, consisting of seventeen arches of stone of great height and magnitude, all built with great cost and labour, through which (as aforesaid) the sea passes up and down daily through the Alan river to Tagus, (i. e. Goodwood,) a mile, and is navigable for boats, barges, and lighters, to that place, which there bring sea sand, and other commodities, for the country-people’s use.

On the lower side of the bridge, from Padstow Haven, ships and barks laden with merchandise frequently arrive, of burthen from twenty to sixty tons, from Bristol, Wales, Ireland, and other places, where their commodities have better vent than at Padstow, two or three miles below, nearer the main sea.

Leland, in his Itinerary, tells us, volume the second, that some of the arches of this bridge were laid upon quicksand, which for some time made the treasurer and undertaker despair of success, till they projected the laying of packs of wool under the groundwork, which proved such a useful expedient as carried on the fabric according to their desire, and the same stands firm to this day.

After this bridge was erected, Longbound, the vicar, gave a small parcel of land towards the repair thereof, now worth 20l. per annum, and enfeoffed the twelve men of this parish, and their successors, in trust with the same for ever. There are also other lands in St. Breock, given by 374 the Prior of Bodmin, and other well-affected benefactors to the bridge, for the same purpose. At present this bridge stock is about 300l. and is set at the yearly rent for about 10l. per annum. Lastly, this just and indefatigable benefactor Longbound, after he had finished the bridge, with the moneys and stones left, caused to be built the tower of Egles-hayle church, as it now stands; over the belfry-door of which, in stone, on the north side, are cut in an escutcheon his arms, viz. a human heart, and superscribed Longbound. On the other side of the door aforesaid are cut, impaled, a chevron between two falcons, and a chevron between three ravens’ heads. Which first I take to be the arms of Kestell, and the latter of Ravenscroft of Cheshire, his wife.

From this parish was denominated an old family of gentlemen surnamed de Egles-hayle, of which family was Matheus de Egleshayle, Sheriff of Devon from the 1st year of Edward the First to the 6th, who gave for his arms, Argent, a cross Sable, and a fleur-de-lis in the first quarter.

TONKIN.

In this parish stands the lordship and barton of Pencarrow, which name may signify a deer-park. But I take the name of Pencarrow to be of a much more ancient date than the first bringing of deer into this land, and that the name is taken from the natural circumstances of the place, as compounded of pen-car-ow, head-rock-ry, for in this place is digged a quarry of bright clear freestone, that works with tool, plane, or hammer, equal to any other in Cornwall, as may be seen by the beautiful house Sir John Molesworth has built with it, and which is not yet quite finished. And surely it may be said of this barton, without disparagement to any other man’s lands, that for wood, water, and stone, it may compare with, if not exceed, any other part of the kingdom; neither do the lands come 375 behind any in the neighbourhood for fruitfulness. It is the seat of Sir John Molesworth, Knt. and Bart. who was knighted by Charles the Second, and succeeded to the title of baronet by the issueless decease of his younger brother, Sir Hender Molesworth, Governor of Jamaica, who left him a considerable estate in that island, and was the first baronet created by William the Third. This family is a younger branch of the descendants of Sir Walter de Molesworth, of Northamptonshire, who flourished in martial prowess in the days of Edward the First, and went with him to the Holy Land. John Molesworth, son of the above Sir John Molesworth, married the daughter of —— Arscot, Esq. of Tetcot, in Devonshire.

Kestle. The very name implies that heretofore it was a fortified place. Here liveth James Kestle, Esq. from thence denominated ever since that John de Kestle, lord of this place in the time of Edward the First, assumed that name; where his posterity, for about twenty descents, have ever since flourished in good fame and reputation; and give for their arms, Argent, a chevron Sable between three falcons Proper, armed with tasses and bells Or. Their crest, a castle Gules.

Pendavy, the good promontory, is situated on a hill forming a peninsula by the river Alan, on the west side, and a rivulet which has two heads, one in St. Teath and the other in St. Mabyn, on the east side. Here dwelleth Nathaniel Moyle, Esq. a younger brother of Sir Walter Moyle, of Bake; to whom, by his marriage with Johan, the daughter and heir of Thomas Kestle, of this place, Esq. the lordship descended. Mr. Moyle having only one son, of the same name as himself, by this marriage, that died unmarried about four years since, and being something indebted, sold this lordship (which claimeth a royalty over all the river, and the bushelage of all goods brought up to Wade bridge) for a very considerable value (reserving his own and his lady’s lives on the barton), in the year 1703, to Michael Ustick, Gent. collector of Bideford, and 376 second brother to Oliver Ustick, of Lea, in St. Burian, Gent.

The Harbour of Padstow is navigable every tide up to this place, where vessels of sixty or seventy tons carry and recarry their loading of such commodities as the country needs, coal, salt, limestone, &c. and here they find generally a better vent for their goods than at Padstow, near the mouth of the river, which has occasioned the building of some houses on each side of the bridge, but mostly on the eastern, where are indifferent good quarters for travellers, who are sometimes forced to stop here against their wills, there being no passing over the bridge to the west in high spring tides, by reason that the ground on the western side is very low, and at such times overflowed with the sea.

Croan, the cross. Mr. Edward Hoblin built a good house at this place, and left it to his eldest son, of the same name, who was sheriff of Cornwall 8th George I. He married Barbara, the second daughter and coheir of Henry Hawkins, of St. Austell, Gent. by whom he had only one daughter, Damaris.

THE EDITOR.

Wade Bridge has a considerable number of houses on both sides of the river; and I apprehend that no inconvenience is now experienced from high tides on the western side. A toll has been levied for some years past, in aid of the revenue left for its repair; and in this year (1833) a railway, or tram road, is being constructed from thence to Bodmin.

Pendavy was inhabited by Mr. Ustick, the son or successor of Mr. Richard Ustick, who made the purchase. This gentleman married Catherine Trewren, daughter of the Rev. Richard Trewren, of Trewardreva, Rector of Withyell, and Catherine Davies, of St. Earth.

Mr. Ustick parted with Pendavy from a cause similar to that which induced the former proprietor to sell it; and 377 his widow, left without a family, or much provision, resided at Padstow till her decease in 1791. Pendavy now belongs to Sir William Molesworth.

Crowan was given by the will of Mrs. Damaris Kirkham to her first cousin, the Rev. Henry Hawkins Tremayne, and it is now the property of his son, John Hearle Tremayne, Esq.

The church of this parish is situated in a manner very like to that of St. Earth, on the river Hayle.

Egles-hayle measures 4,250 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 6757 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 622 14 0

Population,—

in 1801, 781 in 1811, 954 in 1821, 1174 in 1831, 1335

giving an increase of 71 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish lies parallel with that of St. Breock, on the opposite side of the river Camel, and is composed of similar rocks.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Richard Corey, collated by the Bishop of Exeter in 1804.

EGLES-KERRY.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north North Petherwin; east, St. Thomas; south, Trewenn; west, St. Cleather. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Capella de Egleskerry in Decanatu de Major Trigshire xll.; after which time, but before the statute of Richard the Second 378 against the total impropriation of vicarages, it was, by its patron and endower, the Prior of Launceston, alias St. Stephen’s, wholly impropriated; so that it is not named in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, and I take it Tremayne vicarage was then as a daughter church consolidated into it by the said Prior: whereby it is only a lectureship, the Vicar subsisting on a small stipend.

In the Domesday Roll, 20 William I. (1087), this district was taxed under the name of Pen-hall-an, now Penheale, then and still the voke lands of a considerable manor. Soon after the Norman Conquest, if not before, the De Boterells, alias De Botreauxes, were possessed of this place; for in the time of Henry the Second and Richard the First, Richard de Botreaux held 12 knights’ fees in Cornwall (Carew’s Survey thereof, p. 49); one of which was held of the King in this place by his posterity to the 3d Henry the Fourth; where we further read, p. 41: “William de Boteraux tenet dimid. part. feod. de Morton, in Penhele, de Rege.” From the Botreauxes, for want of issue male, those lands, by a daughter, with much other, were carried in marriage to Hungerford; as Hungerfords’ heirs, in like manner, carried it to Hastings. By Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, it was sold to George Grenvill, Esq. that married Julyan, one of the daughters of William Vyell, of Trevorder, who sold it to John Speccot, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 20th James I. grandfather of my kind friend the Hon. John Speccot, Esq. three times chosen Shire Knight for this county, temp. William III. (in order to which the writer hereof and many of his friends were his votes). He married the Lady Essex Robartes, daughter of the Right Hon. John Earl of Radnor, who died without issue, and settled those lands upon his kinsman Thomas Long, Esq. now in possession thereof; and who giveth for his arms, Sable, a lion rampant between eight cross-crosslets Argent: descended from the Longs of Wiltshire.

John Speccot, Esq. gave by his last will and testament a thousand pounds for the benefit of a mathematical school 379 in the county of Cornwall, where all children were to be taught gratis; the master to have the interest of the 1,000l. This school was first opened at Penryn, but is now at Looe.

Tre-lyn-ike, in this parish, i. e. the town of the lake, leate, or bosom of waters, is the dwelling of Christopher Baron.

Since the writing hereof this gentleman is dead; and this place, for want of issue, is descended to his sister’s son, Mr. Saltern, now in possession thereof.

TONKIN.

This church is dedicated to St. Kyryasius, or Carisius, Bishop of Ostia, in Italy, and who is said to have suffered martyrdom in the year 226. But Moreri relates of this person, or of one similarly named, that he pointed out to the Empress Helena the spot where the true Cross had been concealed.

The Hon. John Speccot, three times Knight of the Shire, married the Lady Essex Robartes, daughter of the Right Hon. John Earl of Radnor, but on the very day subsequent to their marriage Mr. Speccot was seized with the small-pox; and the lady experienced a fatal attack from the same dreadful disease about a month afterwards, just as her husband was getting well. His father married a daughter of John Eliot, of Port Eliot, Esq. Mr. John Speccot died in August 1703, without issue, and gave a great deal to charitable uses; but he devised the bulk of his estate to the heirs of his aunt, and, after many lawsuits and disputes, his first cousin, Thomas Long, came into possession of Penhele. He was Sheriff of Cornwall In 1724, and left one son, John Speccot Long, and three daughters. This gentleman died sine prole. He was the last male heir, and the property went among his sisters.

The arms of Speccot are, on a bend Gules, three millrinds pierced Argent. Penhele, or Penhale, is the head of the river.

THE EDITOR.380

Of the three sisters of Mr. John Speccot Long, one remained single. Another married Mr. Charles Phillipps, of Camelford, eldest son of Mr. John Phillipps, attorney-at-law. This gentleman represented Camelford in Parliament, and was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Cornwall Militia. He survived his wife, and acquired through her a third part of the Long property, which, with all his other possessions, he bequeathed in equal portions to his two brothers, Mr. Jonathan Phillipps, a Captain with him in the militia, and the Rev. William Phillipps, Rector of Lanteglos, the parish including Camelford. These two brothers came to some arrangement with the two sisters, by which this share of Penhale at least reverted to them.

The third sister, Margaret Long, first married Mr. Charles Davie, of the family settled at Orleigh, in Devonshire. He carried on, however, some business in Bristol, and is said to have been in very bad circumstances. He died after a few years, and in her old age the widow was induced to marry Mr. John Bridlake Herring, a Major in the army, who resorted to all possible methods for extorting money from the old lady; one that will scarcely be credited, by terrifying her with supposed apparitions. The three sisters are reputed to have excelled in beauty of person, but to have been so utterly neglected in their education, as scarcely to possess the common acquirement of reading.

The Editor remembers to have seen Penhale and the old lady in 1788. Her appearance, then near eighty, justified the report respecting her youth, and the house seemed to rank among the very finest specimens of ancient buildings in Cornwall, as well for size as for architectural decoration. Near the entrance stood a very curious dial, probably placed there by Mr John Speccot, who founded a mathematical school.

The barton of Penhale is again divided; one portion 381 belonging to a grandson of Major Herring, who has taken the name of Cloberry, and another to the Rev. Charles Sweet, of Kentisbury, in Devonshire.

This parish measures 2,829 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 181 2195 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 301 17 0

Population,—

in 1801, 307 in 1811, 395 in 1821, 436 in 1831, 537

giving an increase of 74 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. John Serjeant, instituted in 1826.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

Egles-Kerry is almost entirely situated on that extensive chain of downs, which runs across the country from Launceston to the Bristol Channel; composed of rocks which are very quartzose, but in many parts appear to be almost entirely felspar, commonly, however, united with some colouring material which stains them to a dark blue. This is particularly the case near the church, where the rocks very strongly resemble those at Rosecradock, and in other parts of St. Cleer. Northward, these rocks appear to pass into the Dunstone; but it must be confessed that their geological position is not yet elucidated; for, like the compact rocks of King Arthur’s Castle in Tintagel, of St. Stephen’s, and Pentire Points, on each side of Padstow Harbour, and elsewhere, they yet require to be carefully and patiently investigated.

382

ST. ENEDELLYAN, or ST. DELYAN.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Trigminor, and hath upon the north the Irish Sea; east, St. Teth; south, St. Kewe; west, St. Minvor. This is that Delian taxed in Domesday Roll, 20th William I. (1087,) and refers to the name of the tutelar guardian and patron of this church, here extant before the Norman Conquest, viz. St. Delian, or Telian, a British saint, said to be made Bishop of Menevia, or Landaff, after St. David’s death, anno Dom. 563, (see Davidstow,) (who was born in Merionethshire, and had his education under St. Dubritius, Bishop of Landaff, anno Dom. 520,) by whose instruction and piety he became a learned and pious divine, and was furthered and confirmed therein by St. David, afterwards Bishop of Landaff, alias Menevia.

This St. Delian accompanied St. David in pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to visit the holy cross and sepulchre, from whence they safely returned again into their own country; and finding the same greatly infected with the plague, St. Delian, as was generally said, by his sincere and fervent prayers soon delivered that country from the malignity of that fatal disease, which long time before had destroyed great numbers of its inhabitants. He is placed by Harpsfield and Campion in the Constat of the Bishops of Landaff, and that he died about the year 570.

In this church of St. Delian, (now called Ene-Delian, or Ene-Dellian,) soon after the Norman Conquest, some gentlemen, lords of tenements in this parish, set up and endowed here a court, corporation, or college, of six Prebends, or Canons Augustine, as council or assistants to the Bishop, Dean, or Rector, viz. the Lord of the Barton of Trearike, now Peter’s, and two others, who alternately are patrons of this church, and present the rector thereto. 383 The Prebend of Trearick was given by Richardson to one Grey; the patronage of which is in the Earl of Radnor.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, the revenues of Ecclesia de Enedelian-ta, (id est, the church of the good soul of Delian,) then a vicarage, were thus charged:

1. Prebend. Dom. Paganus de Liske, in eadem, xls.

2. Prebend. John Moderet, lxs.

3. Prebend. Henricus de Monkton, iiiil. iis.

4. Prebend. Dominus Reginald Thick, iiiil. iis.

5. Prebend. Magister Osberti, iiii. xs.

6. Prebend. Magister William de Wymondham, iiiil. xs.

Vicarius ejusdem xxs. In all 23l. 4s.

In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, this church of Endelian is rated to First Fruits 10l. The Incumbent Wills; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 180l.

Within this district now stands the barton and manor of Ros-cur-ok, rated as the voke lands of two manors or parishes in Domesday Roll, 20th William I. (1087.) The same, I suppose, mentioned in Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 47.

Tre-freke, alias Tre-vreke, alias Tre-frege, synonymous words in British, (that is to say, the wife’s town, or a town pertaining to some wife,) is the dwelling of John Hamly, Gent, that married Treffreye.

Pen-nant, in this parish, (i. e. the head of the valley,) is the dwelling of John Rawe, Gent. that married Kelly.

Tresongar, or Tresongadh, is the dwelling of John Matthews, Gent. that married Vivian of Truan. The present possessor, Mr. Matthews, leaving no issue male, his only daughter and heir is married to Henry Bond, Gent. attorney-at-law, steward to the Earl of Radnor.

In this parish, as I take it, is situate the barton of Cheny (see St. Teth).

It is now, I suppose, in possession of Mr. Danell.

TONKIN.384

Roscarrake, in this parish, gave name and residence to the old and famous family of gentlemen, from thence denominated De Roscarrake.

Richard de Roscarrack held in this place the fourth part of a knight’s fee in the reign of Henry the Fourth, as appears from Carew’s Survey.

John Roscarrack was Sheriff of Cornwall in the 6th Henry VII. Richard Roscarrack was Sheriff in 4th Edward VI. again 2d Elizabeth. And John Roscarrack was Sheriff 17th Elizabeth.

They received great augmentation to their estate by the daughter and heir of Pentire of Pentuan, who brought to them the whole patrimony of that family: but, alas! so true is that saying, “Man doth not always flourish,” the great estate of this family, by ill conduct, was much wasted; and in the reign of Charles the Second, this very barton and manor of Roscarrack was sold by Charles Roscarrack to Edward Boscowen, Esq. in whose son and heir, Mr. Hugh Boscowen, of Tregothen, it now resteth.

Trefreke now belongs to Mr. John Hemley, who giveth for his arms, Argent, three hounds passant Azure.

THE EDITOR.

Port Isaac, a small town of the sea coast, with a harbour for boats and sloops, is situated in this parish.

The church, standing on a high hill, is a landmark from the Bristol Channel.

The rectory, and one of the prebends, are in the gift of the Crown. Another of the prebends belongs to Mrs. Agar, the representative of the Robartes. The third is in the presentation of Mr. Gray.

385 The north aile of the church is said to have been built by the Roscarracks, and to have remained their private property, with a burial-place below it.

This parish measures 3,083 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 5215 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 745 6 0

Population,—

in 1801, 727 in 1811, 950 in 1821, 1149 in 1831, 1218

giving an increase of 67½ per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

St. Enedellyan has been long celebrated for its mines of antimony. This metal occurs in the state of a sulphuret, associated with iron pyrites, in quartz veins, which run east and west, traversing a blue lamellar slate, very similar to that which frequently abounds in the calcareous series, and to which, indeed, this slate belongs. Some curious varieties of rocks in this series are found in St. Enedellyan, one of which, in particular, abounds between the church and Port Isaac, which was noticed by Sir Humphrey Davy in a decomposing state, under the name of mandelstone. In this state it is a dull earthy argillaceous rock, of an ochreous colour, full of small, roundish cavities. In its perfect state this rock is a greenish-grey, glossy, compact felspar, containing granules of flesh-coloured calcareous spar, and minute prisms of hornblende. During decomposition, the calcareous spar is dissolved, and washed away by the rainwater, which produces the honeycomb appearance; and the ferruginous stain is derived from the iron contained in the hornblende. This rock has been described by Mr. Prideaux as occurring in Devon. It is very rare in Cornwall.

386

ST. ENODOR.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Pidre, and hath upon the north Little Colon; east, St. Stephen’s and St. Denis; south, Ladoch; west, Newland. In the Domesday Tax, 20th William I. (1087,) this district was taxed under the names of Borthy and Resparva. And Berthy is still the voke lands of a manor pertaining to Penrose, now Boscawen and others. The 3d Henry IV. one Ralph de Borthy held in Dinbegh, in Pidre, by the tenure of knight-service, a small knight’s fee. (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 41.)

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices, (1294,) Ecclesia Enadori in Decanatu de Pidre, is rated viil. vis. viiid. Vicar ejusdem xxs. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, and Valor Beneficiorum, Enador Vic. is valued at 26l. 13s. 4d.; the patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, who endowed it; the Incumbent Martin; the Rectory, or sheaf, in possession of Davy’s heirs; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, (1696,) 141l. 6s.

Some of the inhabitants of this parish have told me that one St. Athenodorus is the tutelar guardian of this church, from whom it is denominated Enador. Athenodorus, the stoic philosopher of Athens, was born before Christ Jesus, and was tutor to the Emperor Augustus, who taught him that he should neither do or say any thing, but take respite till he could say over the Greek alphabet, that so he might neither say or do any thing through rashness or anger; for which advice he is specially remembered.

Car-vin-ike, alias Car-fyn-ike, (i. e. the rock spring, fountain, leat, or riveret of water, so called from the natural circumstances of the place,) is the dwelling of Anthony Tanner, Gent. that married Carthew; his father Arundell, 387 by whom he had this place. Originally descended from the Tanners, late of Court and Boderick, in St. Stephen’s, and giveth the same arms.

Pen-coll, or Pen-cooth, in this parish, (i. e. the head-wood, a name also of old taken from the ancient natural circumstances of the place,) is the dwelling of Arthur Fortescue, Gent. that married Verman; his father Elford, being of the Fortescues of Filleigh, in Devon, and gives the same arms.

Gon-rounsan, in this parish, is the dwelling of John Flammock, Gent. that married Coode, and giveth for his arms the same as the Flammocks of Bodmin. This land is since sold to Philip Hawkins, Esq. son of Mr. Hawkins of Creed.

Tre-wheler, in this parish, is the dwelling of Edward Hoblyn, Gent. that married Williams; his father Cosowarth; a younger branch of Nanswhiddon family, and giveth the same arms.

This parish of St. Enedor is the flattest or levellest parish of lands in Cornwall, and, by consequence, the storehouse or preserver of moisture, or water; and in testimony of the wateryness of this soil, I do remember that in the latter end of the reign of King Charles the Second, the tower of this church sunk in its foundation, so much that the whole fabric fell to the ground, and greatly damnified the church with its stones; which church and tower, by the Bishop of Exeter’s grant of a collection throughout his diocese, are both again well-built and repaired as it now stands.

This parish is enriched with lodes of tin and copper.

At Pen-hale, or haile, in this parish, that is to say, the head-river, or the head of the river; and suitable to its name, in the low lands thereof are the original fountains or springs of two notable rivers, viz. that on the south side of those lands, making its current or flux to Tresillian Bridge, in Merther, on the south part of this county; that on the north side of Penhale lands, making its course to Lower 388 St. Colomb Port, on the north part of Cornwall; both which rivers abound with fishes proper to the country in their seasons, as trouts, eels, peal, and salmon, &c. before they empty themselves into the North and South Seas of the British Channel, and the Irish or Atlantic Ocean.

TONKIN.

I have to remark on this parish, that all the southern part is in the hundred of Powder, although it is wholly rated to that of Pidar.

Athenodorus, to whom this church is dedicated, is a saint in the Roman Calendar, and brother to Gregory Thaumaturgus, or the miracle-worker, both natives of Neocæserea, in Pontus, or Cappadocia; of noble extraction, very well skilled in the sciences, the knowledge of tongues, and philosophy; who, hearing of the great fame of Origen, came to hear him, and were by his learned lessons, and holy exhortations, brought to leave the Pagan philosophy and all mundane sciences, and to embrace the holy theology, in which they made so great a progress in the space of five years, under so good a master, that, although they were both very young, they were honoured with the office of Bishops in the churches of Pontus. This St. Athenodorus suffered martyrdom about the year 272, under Aurelian.

THE EDITOR.

In this parish are situated three villages, called Summercourt, Penhale, and Fraddon, each of which had formerly the privilege of holding an annual fair. All are now transferred to Somercourt. One held on the 25th of September, is considered to be the most important in Cornwall. The name is obviously modern, although the village itself seems to be quite as ancient as any in the neighbourhood.

There is in this parish also another village, of considerable importance up to the year 1832, called Michell, St. Michael, or Modeshole.