DAVIES GILBERT, (continued 6)

TONKIN.

The manor of Insworth,

A Peninsula on whose neck, says Mr. Carew, standeth an ancient house of the Champernons; and descended by his daughters and heirs to Fortescue, Monck, and Trevilian, three gentlemen of Devon. The site is naturally both pleasant and profitable; to which the owner, by his ingenious experiments, daily addeth an artificial surplusage. Mr. Tonkin then adds, this estate (as I am better informed) being in the parish of Maker, I shall there treat more fully of it.

Sir Richard Champernon, of Madberie in Devon, Knt. had by Catherine his wife, daughter of Ralph Daubeney, Knt. two sons, Richard and John. He died in 1418, and gave this place to the said John, who lived here, and left only one son, a Richard Champernon, who by his wife, the daughter and heir of Sir John Hamley, Knt. left three daughters, one of whom married Humphrey Monck, of Potheridge in Devon, Esq.

The said Sir John Champernon was Sheriff of Cornwall 24 Henry VI. 1445, as his son Richard in the first year of Edward IV. 1461.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Hals has not gone into any particulars respecting this parish; but he has occupied several pages with the 252 real and with the legendary histories of the Evangelist, to whom the Church is dedicated; these are omitted as unsuited to a local history.

Mr. Lysons says, that the manor of Tregenhawke, situated partly in this parish and partly in Rume, and feudatory to the manor of East Anthony, did belong to the family of Eliot, by whom it was alienated in 1635 to Richard Treville, merchant; and that from the Trevilles it passed by coheiresses to the families of Cross and Trelawny. The whole now belongs to Lord Graves, who has also the manor of Withroe, called in this parish Winnow.

The right of presentation is appendant to the honour of East Anthony.

An excavation in the cliff at Whitsand Bay is noticed as having been made by Mr. Luggan, the proprietor of a farm called Freathy, by way of exercise and amusement.

The church is, perhaps, of less dimensions than any other in Cornwall, being no more than fifty-six feet long by eighteen in breadth; it bears the appearance of antiquity, and is decorated by some monuments, one to the family of Beel, with their arms, Azure, three griffins’ heads erased Argent.

This parish measures 872 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 1,016 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 108 19 0

Population,—

in 1801, 110 in 1811, 143 in 1821, 178 in 1831, 150

giving an increase of about 36 per cent. in 30 years.

Present rector, the Rev. William Rowe, instituted in 1808.

Dr. Boase says of the geology of this little parish, that its rocks are precisely similar to those of East Anthony, to which it adjoins; and may almost be considered as forming a part.

253

ST. ISSEY.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Pedyr, and hath upon the north the channel of Padstow habour, south and east St. Breoch and part of St. Colomb, west little Pedyrick. In Domesday roll 20 William I. 1087, this district was taxed either under the jurisdiction of Polton or Burge, now Burgus (i. e. Turris). In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish benefices, Ecclesia de Sancti Issei, in decanatu de Pedyr, is rated iiiil. vis. viiid. Vicar ejusdem xlvis. viiid. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 9l.; the patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Harris, the rectory in Wright. The parish is rated to the 4s. in the pound Land Tax 1696, 161l.

There hath been for many ages in Cornwall, a certain sort of unlearned men called attornies, who have taken upon them to solve all questions, debts, damages, and difficulties whatsoever, by exciting or increasing them, under pretence of friendship and good council, who are often called upon to the assistance of men of lazy or weak understanding to their undoing.

For instance thereof, I well remember in this parish of St. Issey there had lived two brethren of the surname of Warne, who having some small disputes or controversies one with the other, not determined, concerning a tenement of land in fee, containing about fifty acres, at a place called ——; they appealed to two attornies, viz. Joseph Hawkey, of St. Colomb, and Degory King, of St. Breock in Pider, who run this their controversy so far in law and equity, that they were not able to pay the cost thereof as punctually as those attornies expected; thereupon they 254 brought actions at law against their clients for the same, and at length obliged the two brothers of the Warnes aforesaid, to sell the inheritance of their lands aforesaid to their attornies, the one half thereof to Hawkey and the other moiety thereof to King, now in quiet possession thereof.

The inhabitants of this parish will tell you by tradition, that the tutelar guardian of this church is one St. Giggy, who in a place so called in this parish, hath yet extant a walled consecrated well, or spring of water, where heretofore he heard and judged cases of conscience for the cure of souls; but all further history of him is wanting, save that they tell me St. Issey is only a corruption of Giggy.

Hale-wyn in this parish (or Hall-wyn, the fair or white hill, as Hal is a hill, and Wyn or Gwyn white or fair. Goonwyn in Lelant the fair downs; Hale is a moor. Whitaker.) This lordship was from Edward the Fourth’s days one of the dwellings of the Champernons, of Intsworth, near Saltash; and in this place they had a great and magnificent house, as appears from the walls and ruinous rubbish and downfalls thereof yet to be seen, as also their domestic chapel and burying place; in the glass windows of which chapel was lately to be seen this inscription: “Orate pro anima Domini Ricardi de Campo Arnulphi;” and beneath the same his paternal coat armour, viz. Gules, a saltire Varry, between twelve cross-crosslets Or; which shews that he derived his blood and bones from the Champernownes, of Clyst Champernowne in Devon. For the Champernownes of Umberleigh and North Taunton, near Modbury, gave for their armes, the one Gules, a saltire Varry; the other, Gules, a saltire Varry between twelve billets Argent. [The name is originally Latin, De Campo Arnulphi, then formed by the Norman French into Champernulph, and finally formed by them, or by the Cornish, into Champernown. Whitaker.]

Cannall-Lidgye in this parish is the voke lands of a considerable manor, now in several persons’ hands; much of 255 those lands being in possession of Boscawen as I take it; the high rents are in Hart. As part of the same, is the possession and birthplace of my very kind friend and neighbour Thomas Carthew, Esq. Barrister-at-Law, who by his indefatigable study and labour, first in the inferior practice of the law under Mr. Tregena, without being a perfect Latin grammarian, always using the English words for matters or things in his declarations, where he understood not the Latin; who was at length, by a mandamus from the Lord Keeper North, called to the bar, and the generous practice of the law for some years, when afterwards in the latter end of the reign of King William the Third, he had a call for being made a Sergeant-at-Law, under which circumstance he grew into such great fame and reputation that he is likely to make a considerable addition of riches to his paternal estate.

He married North, a relation to the Lord Keeper North aforesaid; his father, Baker, of Lanteglos, by Fowey; his grandfather Lawry; and giveth for his arms, Argent, a chevron Azure, between three ducks Proper. The name is local, compounded of Car-dew, or Car-thew, i. e. Rock Black in this parish. Long since the writing hereof, those his lands of Canaligye are all sold by Mr. Carthew’s son and heir to two of the brothers of Trebilliocks.

Trevance in this parish, i. e. the town upon the rising or advanced land, is the dwelling of Richard Harris, Gent. that married Vivyan, of Tollskidy; his father Moyle.

Tre-vor-ike in this parish, [Pryce, in his Archæologia Cornu-Britannica says, Ick I take to signify either a creek, rivulet, or brook, as Trevorick, the town or the brook. Whitaker.] is the dwelling of William Cornish, Gent. that married Cornish, his father Tonkyn; originally descended from one William Cornish that settled here tempore Queen Mary, a Welshman. To this place belongs a sea-mill, a healing or slate stone quarry, and a lime kiln, commonly made in jointure to those gentlemen’s wives, to 256 win whom in marriage this argument amongst others was commonly used,

now all spent and wasted by ill conduct, and those lands sold to a relation of his surnamed Cornish, or some other.

At Carthew, or Legarike, in this parish, is a considerable lead or copper mine in the lands of Bearford or Bond; wherein many labouring tinners are much employed as miners, and reap much benefit thereby, as well as the lords of the lands or soil thereof.

TONKIN.

Mr. Tonkin has not any thing in addition to what is transcribed from Mr. Hals.

THE EDITOR.

The church of this parish is called in some ancient writings, Eglos-Crock and Nansant. The Dean and Chapter of Exeter are impropriators of the great tithes, and patrons of the vicarage. The church is very old, but decorated with a lofty tower; there are monuments to Mr. Thomas Carthew, and to some of the vicars. The church town is the largest village in this parish, and lies nearly midway between Padstow and Wade Bridge. Mr. Lysons says that the manor of St. Ide, extending from this parish into the adjacent parishes of Little Petherick, St. Ervan, Breock, Padstow, and Mawgan, belonged successively to the families of Hiwis, Coleshill, and Arundell, and at a later period to the Morices. It was purchased by the late Mr. Thomas Rawlings, of Padstow.

And Mr. Lysons adds that, Blayble, a small farm in St. Issey, now belonging to Mr. Richard Williams, who occupies 257 it, was at an early period the seat of a branch of the Arundell family.

This parish measures 3,932 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 2,050 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 508 13 0

Population,—

in 1801, 522 in 1811, 632 in 1821, 660 in 1831, 720

giving an increase of 38 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

Dr. Boase says, that St. Issey has the same geological structure as the adjacent parish of St. Breock.

ST. IVES.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the east and north the Irish Sea, south Leland, west Tywednick; as for the modern name, it is taken from the tutelar guardian of the Church, which, as Mr. Camden tells us (upon what authority I know not) was one Iia, an Irish woman that preached the Gospel here. In the Domesday Tax, the 20th of William I. 1087, both the town and parish were taxed under the jurisdiction of Ludduham, now Lugian-lese manor, still extant here, formerly pertaining to the King or Earl of Cornwall, now to the Duke of Bolton, of whom the town of St. Ives’ privileges are held; and the same manor is held, as I take it, of the Earl of Cornwall’s Castle of Lancaster under certain rents.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of the Cornish benefices 1294, “ecclesia de Lelant in decanatu de Penwith,” is only taxed xxiil. xviiis. iiiid. without mention either of St. Ives or Tywednick, probably at that time they were neither erected 258 or endowed; in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, Ewny juxta Lelant and St. Ives are rated together 22l. 11s. 10½d.; St. Ewny, that is to say Tywednike, and St. Ives being consolidated in their mother church Lelant, did pass in presentation with it; the patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, who endowed them; the incumbent Hawkins, now Polkinhorn, the rectory in possession of Pitz; and the parish rated at 4s. per pound Land Tax 1696, 158l. 13s. 4d.

This town, as Mr. Camden saith, was formerly called Pendenis or Pendunes, the head fort, fortress, or fortified place; probably from the little island here, containing about six acres of ground, on which there stands the ruins of a little old fortification and a chapel, betwixt which island and the bending shore, or sea cliff, stands an indifferent safe road for ships to lie at anchor with some winds, which gives opportunity of trade and merchandize to the townsmen (whose town is situate thereon) and also for fishing, whereby they have much enriched themselves of late years.

The manor of Ludduham, formerly comprehending the parishes of Ludduham, Lelant, Tywednick, and St. Ives, now so many districts, is a lordship of great antiquity, and was privileged with the jurisdiction of a court leet before the Norman Conquest, for under that name it was then taxed (as aforesaid) though its now transnominated to Luggyan Lese; in which stands the borough of St. Ives, which claims the privileges thereof by prescription and tenure, all which are confirmed by a charter of incorporation from King Charles I. afterwards by another from King James II. by the name of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses, which consists of a Mayor, ten Aldermen, and eleven Common Councilmen; the Members of Parliament elected by freemen, alias scot and lot men free there, who sign the indenture; the arms of which borough is a cluster and branch of grapes or pomegranates; and the precept on the writs for electing Members of Parliament from the Sheriff, or removing any action at law depending in the court leet of St. Ives, the writ must be thus directed: Preposits 259 et Burgensibus Burgi sui de St. Ives in Com. Cornub. salutem.

The chief inhabitants of this town are, Mr. Hitchins, Mr. Beer, Mr. Stephens, Mr. Hickes; in which town is held a market weekly on Saturdays, and a fair annually on Saturday before Advent Sunday.

Sir Francis Basset procured their first charter of incorporation, who, being a Burgess, gave a silver cup of 5l. value to this corporation for ever, with this inscription,

Trenwith in this parish, was the voke lands of a considerable manor, privileged with a court leet before the Norman conquest, that heretofore extended itself over divers parishes; for by that name it was taxed in Domesday book, 20 William I. 1087, from which place was transnominated an ancient family of gentlemen, now in possession thereof, from that of Bayliff now to Trenwith, who have flourished here in good fame and reputation beyond the memory of man, since Henry VIII. The present possessor is Thomas Trenwith, Gent. that married Lanyon; and giveth for his arms, Argent, on a bend cotised Sable, three roses of the Field.

Those lands of Trenwith were of old pertaining to the Earls or Kings of Cornwall, afterwards to the Kings of England; and were held by the tenure of knight service by such as possessed them, if not from King Arthur’s days, (see Dundagall) yet from William the Conqueror’s, who, in imitation of him, gave bartons, manors, fields, large territories of land to his favourites, under the tenures of villeinage and knight service in capite, by means of which knight service those tenants were obliged to do him any necessary service, either in wars or to his royal person, for the performing whereof he took their oaths in public courts, both of homage and fealty; and by reason of this 260 tenure he disposed of the bodies of their heirs in marriage as he listed, and retained in his custody and wardship their whole inheritance till they accomplished the age of twenty-one years; and by those examples other men of great possessions did the like. Those lands of Trenwith, tempore Henry IV. were held by that tenure in capite by Edmund Plantagenet, alias Beaufort, Marquess of Dorset, grandchild to John Duke of Lancaster, 21 Henry VI. 1442, consisting of four knights’ fees, 3 Henry IV. (See Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 39). He was slain at the battle of St. Alban’s 1450, on the part of Henry VI. against Richard Duke of York; as also was his son Henry on the same part after the battle of Hexham, and his brother Edmund after Tewkesbury 1471, beheaded by King Edward IV. and his whole estate confiscated to the Crown; from whence Bayliff, now Trenwith, purchased part of those lands, which still pays high rent to the Kings of England. In like manner Humphrey Plantagenet, fourth son of King Henry IV. held by the same tenure in Conerton, Binerton, Drineck, and Ludgian, four knight’s fees of land in those places. He was impeached of treason at the Parliament held at St. Edmund’s Bury in Suffolk; afterwards murdered; and those and all other his lands confiscated.

TONKIN.

This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s books, together with Lelant and Towednack, with which it passeth in presentation, at 22l. 11s. 10½d.; the collation in the Bishop of Exeter; the late incumbent Mr. Hawkins, now Polkinhorne. The sheaf in possession of Edward Noseworthy, Esq.

The town of St. Ives, in Mr. Carew’s days, was of small value or 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.

261 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 262 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 263 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. 264 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, 265 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 266 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.

267 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 268 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; 269 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 Domⁱ 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 270 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.

271 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:

The arms of the town are, Argent, an ivy bush overspreading the whole field Proper, evidently in allusion to 272 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.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 5,560 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 1,174 0 0

Population,—

in 1801, 2714 in 1811, 3281 in 1821, 3526 in 1831, 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.

273

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 xiil. Again, Capella de Sancta Julyot, xxvis. viiid.; 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 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 66l. 16s.

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 274 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 12l., while the latter is only 26s. 8d. 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 34l. 11s. 3d. 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 15s. 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.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 1784 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 143 18 0

Population,—

in 1801, 199 in 1811, 208 in 1821, 263 in 1831, 271 275

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 iiiil. vis. viiid. This church was partly endowed by the Dean and Chapter of Exon, who received an annuity out of the same of xxxs., 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 xiiis. ivd. In Wolsey’s Inquisition it was valued at 37l. 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, 276 afterwards in Arundell of Tolverne, now Tredinham; the incumbent Bedford. The parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 172l. 13s. 4d.

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 277 from the King 54l. 15s.; his Deputy 27l. 7s. 6d.; three Gunners, in all 72l.

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 500l.; 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 278 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.:

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 182l. 10s.; his Lieutenant-Governor 73l.; the Master Gunner 36l.; and two other Gunners 36l. 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 279 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.

280 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.

281 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.

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.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 4714 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 817 8 0

Population,—

in 1801, 1416 in 1811, 1639 in 1821, 1648 in 1831, 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.

282

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 viiil.; in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, 11l. 11s. 0½d.; the patronage in the Crown; the incumbent Millet; the rectory in possession of Borlase, and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, by the name of St. Just, 133l. 7s.; 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.

283 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.

284 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, 285 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 286 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 287 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 288 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.

289 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, 290 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.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 7776 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 817 8 0

Population,—

in 1801, 2779 in 1811, 3057 in 1821, 3666 in 1831, 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 291 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.

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 xxl. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, 5l. 18s. 6d. The patronage in ——; the Incumbent Doweringe; and the parish 292 rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 53l. 16s. 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 293 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 294 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:

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.

296

SAINT KEYNE^’S WELL.

By Robert Southey. (From Carew’s History of Cornwall.)

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 298 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.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 1,017 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 68 12 0

Population,—

in 1801, 139 in 1811, 157 in 1821, 153 in 1831, 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, 299 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 viiil. vis. viiid. Vicar ejusdem xxs. 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. 7s., 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 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, £171. 8s.

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 300 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 301 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 302 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 16l. 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.