DAVIES GILBERT, (continued 5)

At a subsequent period, when wars were levied in support of principles, and when men of honour and of virtue engaged on either side, as their early prejudices, investigations, or accidental experience induced them to believe that one or the other would prove most conducive to the public good—the Trevanions were less successful. They asserted their conviction in arms, that the country would be best governed by concentrating hereditary power in a single man; and Mr. John Trevanion, bearing a Colonel’s commission, shared in the military glories of the western army, and fell under the walls of Bristol. His father experienced the mitigated fate of those who were vanquished in this contest, by compounding for his estate; and when, after a long interval, his friends came again into power, and succeeded in placing at the head of affairs the son of their former chief, those immediately surrounding the seat of government possessed but slender means, and still less inclination, to risk their own safety by indemnifying those at a distance, who had suffered in the Good Old Cause.

The grandson obtained however the popular reward of representing Cornwall in parliament; and the Editor has in his possesssion a letter addressed by Mr. John Trevanion to his great uncle Mr. Henry Davies, a hundred and 205 twenty-five years ago, declaring his readiness to spend his fortune and to shed his blood, as his ancestors had done, in support of the same cause. This gentleman died in 1740, leaving William Trevanion his son and heir, and two daughters, the eldest of whom married John Bettesworth, LL.D. Dean of the Arches, and the younger married Admiral John Byron, well known in his younger days by a narrative of the disastrous expedition of the Wager Store ship, commanded by Captain Cheep, as a part of the fleet conducted by Commodore Anson round the promontory of South America, in the year 1740, and of his own adventures after the ship was wrecked on the coast of Patagonia, the dead reckoning giving them an erroneous longitude of fifteen degrees to the west, till his return in 1746. Admiral Byron is now better known as grandfather to the most popular of recent poets.

William Trevanion served in parliament for the borough of Tregoney, and died in 1767 without children, when the male line of this family became extinct. He was succeeded by Mr. John Bettesworth, his sister’s son, and his son John Trevanion Purnel Bettesworth Trevanion, esq. is now the possessor of Carhayes, where he has substituted a magnificent gothic castle, after a plan of Nash, the architect of Buckingham Palace and of Regent Street, for the house described by Mr. Tonkin.

Mr. Trevanion married early in life, and was left a widower with several children. He has for his second wife Miss Burdett, daughter of the individual to whom the country mainly owes the great alteration in the constitution of its government, on the ultimate effects of which no one is yet qualified to form even a conjecture, still less an opinion.

The family of Bettesworth have been settled on the manor of Fyning, a part of Rogate parish in Sussex, since about the year 1570; and a pedigree of nine descents is given in Dallaway’s History of the Rape of Chichester, ending with Thomas Bettesworth, who assumed the name 206 of Bilson in 1740, and died in 1754, aged 58. This gentleman bequeathed a life interest in his property to Thomas Bettesworth, of Chithurst, and after his decease gave it to Henry Legge, fourth son of William Legge, first Earl of Dartmouth, on condition of taking the name of Bilson.

Mr. Henry Bilson Legge married Mary Stawel, daughter and heir of Edward Stawel, Lord Stawel, and was in consequence himself created Lord Stawel in 1760. They were succeeded by their son Henry Stawel Bilson Legge, who died in 1820.

The parish of Rogate is situated between Petersfield and Midhurst, on the bank of a small river, which (after watering Selborne, a name made familiar to every one by the admirable work of its vicar, Mr. White,) flows into the county of Sussex, and joining the Arun, finally reaches the sea through Arundale, a name mistaken by the Normans for that of a swallow.

The manor of Fyning belonged to a monastery of Premonstratensian Canons, founded at Dureford, an adjacent parish, about the year 1160, by Henry Hosatus, or Husey, and augmented three hundred years afterwards by Henry Guldeford. It was surrendered to King Henry the Eighth, by John Simpson, the last superior. Temporary grants were made of the lands, till they were finally bestowed in fee on Sir Edmund Merwyn, a gentleman of Sussex, from whose descendants they passed to the Bettesworths.

In the church of St. Michael Carhayes are several monuments to the Trevanions, and pieces of armour, the trophies of former days; also a sword, believed to have been the very one used by Sir Hugh Trevanion at Bosworth Field.

Etymologies, deceptive at all times, become so in a tenfold degree when they are sought in the varying pronunciations of an unwritten language. But car, caer, &c. are known (like Rocca in the Italian) to mean a fortress, a castellated house, a dwelling; and hay, running colloquially into hayes, is an enclosed fence or yard. Carhayes may 207 therefore signify the castle surrounded by a basse court or enclosure.

Although Carhayes is several miles detached from the two adjoining parishes of St. Stephen and St. Dennis, yet it forms with them one united benefice, purchased by Mr. Pitt, with the other Mahon property. This more than usually improper association cannot by possibility escape the attention of those, who are engaged in reforming such abuses as may have crept into our Church Establishment.

This parish measures 815 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 1,114 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 188 9 0

Population,—

in 1801, 86 in 1811, 104 in 1821, 174 in 1831, 197

giving an increase of 129 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. Charles Trevanion Kempe, presented in 1806 by Arthur Kempe, esq.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish is composed of the series of rocks extending over the adjoining parishes of St. Ewe and Gorran.

ST. MICHAEL PENKEVIL.

HALS.

St. Michael Penkevil rectory is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north and east Merther and Lammoran, and is otherwise wholly encompassed with the sea arm of Falmouth harbour, that extends towards Tregony, Truro, and Tresilian bridges. At the time of the Norman Conquest there was an endowed church extant in this place, for then this district was taxed under the 208 jurisdiction of Penkevil, of which more under. Neither had it any other appellation at the time of the Inquisition into the value of Cornish Benefices, so often mentioned, 1294, than Ecclesia de Penkevill, in decanatu de Powdre; and was valued at 40s. Which probably was extant, as aforesaid, before the Norman Conquest, and held its name to that time; but afterwards, when the present church was rebuilt or augmented in the place thereof in the form of a cross, and was one of the quarter cathedrals of the Cornish diocese, it was then dedicated to God in the name of St. Michael the Archangel, and is commonly called St. Michael Penkivell church, as under. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it was valued for its first fruits £9. 14s. 0½. The patronage formerly in Tregago, Trenowth, Carmenow, Hals, now Boscawen; the incumbent Hillman; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1596, temp. William III. £83. 8s. by the name of St. Michael Penkivell. This church of St. Michael was endowed by the Fentongollans, or de Tregagos, lords of the manor of Fentongollan, upon whose lands it was built (out of which is since taken the manor of Tregothnan), who also at their own proper cost and charges, built the south chapel or aisle thereof, as a peculiar to them and their families, and obliged those lands for ever to repair the same, (both over and under) as they still do. Besides this they founded in this church a chantry, together with a convent house in the churchyard still extant, for the chanter’s residence; and endowed the same with competent lands for their subsistence, to pray for the souls of them and their ancestors, that after death they might be delivered from the flames of purgatory, and transported into heaven; now these funeral songs or offices for the dead are commonly called obits.

By the statute 27 Henry VIII. also 1 Edward VI. all chantrys, colleges, free chapels and hospitals, were given to the king; at which time John Carmenow, esq. obtained by gift or purchase the grant of this chantry from the crown, and annexed it, together with its lands and revenues, to the manor of Fentongollan, out of which at first 209 it was taken; all of which at length John Hals, esq. lord of the manor, together with the patronage of this church, sold to Hugh Boscawen, esq. temp. Charles II.

Fenton-gollan, Venton gollan, was and is the voke lands of a considerable manor, which heretofore comprehended the whole parishes of St. Michael Penkevil and Merther; except the tenements of Penkevill, Tregothnan, (Treganyan, Penhell, Eglesmerther, and some others,) now as above subdivided into the manors of Tregothnan and Fentongollan; which latter had heretofore upon its lands many large and commodious houses, as halls, parlours, and dining rooms, a notable tower and bell, three stories high, and a chapel adjoining thereto for divine service, and two large gatehouses at each end of the town, which fabric the writer hereof hath often seen in his youth, when his grandmother lived in it, and enjoyed the same lordship, together with the manor of Bohurro, alias St. Anthony, as her jointure or freehold for life. But now, alas! since her death, those lands have been sold and transferred to several persons by her son John Hals, and those houses are all pulled down, and the chief stones thereof carried to build the gates and houses of Tregothnan.

This lordship, as I have been informed, soon after the Norman Conquest passed from the family from thence denominated de Fentongollan, to that of Tregaga, or Tresaga aforesaid, who for many generations were gentlemen of great fame and wealth, and in all probability were so denominated from Tregaga, or Tregage, house and tower, or castle, yet extant at Ruan Lanyhorne.

In the rector’s chancel or chapel of this church is yet to be seen a marble tombstone, with this inscription on it: Here lieth the body of John Trembraze, Master of Art and Law, and sometime rector of this church, who departed this life 12 November 1503, upon whose soul Jesus have mercy. Trembraze is a place in Leskeard parish.

This church, as I said before, being a quarter cathedral 210 to the Bishop of Exeter, the old bells in this tower of St. Michael Penkevil were baptized, as appears from their names subscribed in them, St. Michael and St. Mary; the manner of which baptizing bells was thus: After the bell was cast and set up in the tower, the suffragan bishop called the chief inhabitants of the parish together to be godfathers and godmothers of the bell; who all holding the rope in their hand after prayers, the suffragan demanded the name of the bell of them, which being given he sprinkles water upon him or it, saying, “Michael, I baptise thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost; be thou henceforth efficacious in driving thunder, lightning, evil spirits, and tempest, from the living and the dead in this place;” whereupon the gossips toll the bell; having prepared a new white garment, then put it upon the bell (as was used to be done amongst new baptized Christians of the primitive church) afterwards a great banquet is prepared by the gossips for the suffragan, his chaplains, and ministers, who are there fed and rewarded. Now it is a doubtful question amongst the canonists whether the gossips to such bells may marry with each other afterwards by canonical law. (See also to this purpose Fox’s Acts and Monuments, temp. Henry VIII. p. 84.)

TONKIN.

St. Michael Penkevil is in the hundred of Powder, and is surrounded to the west and south by branches of the river Fale.

This parish hath the adjunct of Penkivell from Penkivell therein, although I should think it ought rather to have had that of Fentongollan, since that always, till of late, hath been the principal place in this parish, and the patronage of it belonged thereto. I shall therefore in the first place treat of the manor of Fentongollan.

The name of this manor does not bear the meaning assigned 211 to it by Mr. Carew, but it signifies the holy well. The Saint’s well of the parish being on the barton. But note that a part of the barton, and the greater portion of the manor, are in the adjoining parish of Merthyr; but as the house is wholly in St. Michael Penkevil, this is the most proper parish wherein to treat of it.

Fentongollan has been the seat of several considerable families; the first that I meet with as lord of this place is John de Trejago, or Trejano, Sheriff of Cornwall in the time of Edward the Second, whose son Stephen Trejago left an only daughter Jane, married to John Trenoweth, of Trenoweth, in whose posterity it continued, and was their principal residence till about the middle of the reign of Edward the Fourth, when John Trenoweth, of this place, left four daughters and coheiresses.

Philippa, married to John Carminow, who obtained with her this place.

Maud, married to Thomas St. Aubyn, of Clowance.

Catherine, married to John Raynwood, and secondly to Edmund Stradling, of Dunlery.

Margaret, to John Godolphin, of Godolphin; and between these his large inheritance was divided.

But this lordship, with many adjacent estates, came entire to Philippa, his eldest daughter and coheir, the wife of John Carminow, esq. whose posterity lived here in great splendour, and went by the name of the great Carminows.

John Carminow, of Fentongollan, was Sheriff of Cornwall in the fifth year of Henry the Eighth. His son, Thomas Carminow, was a gallant courtier and gentleman of the privy chamber to the same king; but his grandson, Oliver Carminow, put a final end to the greatness of his family, having squandered away a vast estate, no less it is said than eight thousand pounds a year of actual receipts, leaving two daughters coheirs to what remained.

Ann, married to William Salter, of Devonshire.

Margaret, to Philip Cole, also of Devonshire, who sold this lordship to one Mr. Holcomb, in the latter part of 212 Queen Elizabeth’s reign. The Carminow family was, however, continued through George, younger brother to Oliver, who lived at Polmawgan, in St. Winnow, as his posterity did at Trehanick, in St. Teath, where the last male of this family died, in the reign of King Charles the Second.

Mr. Holcomb sold this place in the reign of James the First to Sir Nicholas Hals, who resided here. His son John Hals, parted with it to Ezekiel Grosse, esq. whose daughter carried this, together with sixteen other manors, to the family of Buller, of Shillingham; and Francis Buller sold it in King Charles the Second’s reign to Hugh Boscawen, esq. who pulled down this noble old mansion, the lofty tower and fine chapel, and carried the stones to build his new house at Tregothnan, so that not a footstep is to be seen of this once magnificent place, and a poor farm-house is built for a tenant in its stead.

Under Fentongollan is a passage or ferry boat to go to Truro, and likewise to Kea, which is called Mopas; this place was formerly famous for oysters, which are now spoiled by the vessels that carry off the copper ore, which vessels, lying generally at this place, and pumping up the poisonous water from the ore, let in by leakage, have infected them with a strong brassy taste, so that eating a few of them will make any one ill; and yet, what is very remarkable, the oysters themselves grow large and fatten as well as ever.

Adjoining to Fentongollan is Treganyan, which I take to be a contraction of Tre-gan-ythan, the fursy town on the downs: however, its present plight may be better. This was anciently the seat of the family of Sayer.

To the south of Treganyan is the church town and rectory house, and near to them is Tregothnan, which signifies the old town in the valley, a name suitable to the situation of the old house, although not of the new one. This place was anciently the seat of a family of the same name, till Johanna, the daughter and heir of John Tregothnan, by her marriage in the 8th year of Edward the Third, 213 1334, with John Boscawen, of Boscawen Rose, in the parish of St. Burian, brought Tregothnan to this family, whose principal seat it hath been ever since, now just upon four hundred years; who have greatly enriched themselves, as well as ennobled their blood, since that time, by marriages with the heiresses of Albalanda, Trenoweth, &c. and by matching themselves into the most eminent families of the county.

By a bill indented, bearing date the 4th of July 20th of Henry the Seventh, Thomas Hobbs, clerk, witnesseth to have received for the king’s use, of Richard Boscawen, esq. five pounds of lawful money, in full of his fine to be released from the dignity of Knight of the Bath, at the creation of Prince Henry.

Sir John Arundell, of Trerice, knight, late Sheriff, acknowledges to have received of Hugh Boscawen, esq. four marks of lawful money of England to their Majesties’ use, for that he repaired not to the Queen’s coronation to receive the honour of knighthood, dated January the 18th, the 1st and 2d of Philip and Mary. This is the gentleman said in “the Bayliff of Blackmore,” to have been a wise man, learned in the laws of the realm, who yet was outwitted, or rather cheated, by a family of Truro, of which he tells a long story.

Hugh Boscawen, esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall the 10th of King Charles the First, and was grandson to the above Hugh Boscawen, through his eldest surviving son Nicholas Boscawen and Alice his wife, one of the daughters and coheirs of John Trevanion, of Trevoster.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Hals has very naturally been induced to give the history of this parish, particularly of Fentongollan, and of every one connected with it, at great length; but he has done this in a manner so diffuse and incoherent, that the Editor has thought it expedient to omit nearly the whole, 214 and to substitute a short abridgment made by Mr. Lysons from Hals and Tonkin, although this will include some repetition from the latter.

LYSONS.

The manor and barton of Penkevil belonged in the reign of Edward the First to the family of De Wen, from whom Hals supposes it passed in marriage to the Penkevils; it is however quite as probable that the property remained in the same family, they assuming a new name from the place of their abode. This family, says Hals, flourished for several descents in a genteel degree, till the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when Penkevil was given or sold to George Courtenay, gent. whose great-grandson alienated it to Hender Molesworth, esq. by whom it was conveyed to Hugh Boscawen, esq.

The manor of Fentongolland, which extends into the parish of Merther, is said to have belonged at an early period to a family of the same name, from whom it passed by a succession of female heirs, to the families of Trejago and Trenoweth. John Trenoweth, who died in 1497, left four daughters, coheirs. The eldest, Philippa, brought this manor to John Carminow, of Resprin, (a younger branch of the Carminows, of Carminow,) who became, in consequence of this match, as Mr. Hals says, “more famous for his wealth than any other of his name or house, or than any other family in Cornwall.” Thomas, son of this John Carminow, was gentleman of the privy chamber to King Henry the Eighth. Hals, speaking of the hospitality of John Carminow, the grandson, says, “That he kept open house for all comers and goers, drinkers, minstrels, dancers, and what not, during Christmas time; and that his usual allowances of provisions for these twelve days were twelve fat bullocks, sixty statute bushels of wheat, thirty-six sheep, with hogs, lambs, and fowls of all sorts, and drink made of wheat and oat malt proportionable, for 215 at that time barley malt was little known or used in those parts.”

Oliver Carminow, son of this John, is said to have squandered away the greater part of his very valuable estates. He left two daughters, married to Salter and Cole, by whom this manor was sold, in the year 1600, to the Holcombes. Sir Nicholas Hals purchased this estate in 1603, and made Fentongollan his residence; his son sold it to Ezekiel Grosse, whose daughter and heiress brought this and several other estates to Francis Buller, Esq. of Shillingham. It was purchased of that family about the year 1676, by Hugh Boscawen, Esq. who soon afterwards pulled down the fine old mansion-house of the Carminows, with its lofty towers and chapel. A farm-house now occupies the site.

Tregothnan, the seat of Lord Viscount Falmouth, came to the Boscawens in marriage with the heiress of Tregothnan in the fourteenth century.

Treganyan, or Tregonian, formerly the seat of a family bearing the same name, passed by successive female heirs to the Haleps and Sayers; by bequest from the latter to Trevelyan; and by a coheiress of Trevelyan to Rowe. It was purchased of the Rowes by Mr. George Simmons, who conveyed it to Lord Falmouth. The barton-house is now occupied by a farmer.

Nancarrow, in this parish, was also the property of a family to whom it gave its name.

The family of Boscawen is unquestionably of very great antiquity, of Norman or British origin, having either imparted their name to Boscawen Rose, in St. Burian, or received it from that place.

The peninsula west of the Mount’s Bay, little frequented in former ages, and scarcely accessible to strangers, abounded, as all similar districts have been found to do, with long settled possessors of landed property; who, content with the small fortunes transmitted from their ancestors, 216 lived on in succession the protectors, the benefactors, and the paternal governors of their neighbourhoods. Such were the Boscawens, Vyvyans, Levelas, Trevilians, Noyes, and perhaps Usticks, Davieses, Kegwins, and some others, all inhabitants for centuries of this remote portion of Cornwall, and all arranged on similar scales of property and influence. The Boscawens however emerged in the fourteenth century, and pursued with great perseverance and success the only path then leading to advancement in the world. They married heiress after heiress, and acquired extensive properties in various parts of the county.

The Boscawens were among the few Cornish gentlemen in the western division, who took what may now be called the liberal side in the Civil War, and they continued to oppose the arbitrary principles of the faction, having at its head the two last brothers of the house of Stuart—and assisted in the glorious Revolution which secured us from civil and religious despotism, by placing the Prince of Orange on our vacant throne.

Hugh Boscawen married Margaret Clinton, eventually coheiress of the Earl of Lincoln, by whom he had a numerous family, all of whom died before him, with the exception of Bridget, married to Hugh Fortescue, ancestor of Earl Fortescue; and with this lady, Mr. Hals states that Mr. Boscawen gave lands and money to the value of a hundred thousand pounds; he died in 1701, and was succeeded by his relation of the same name. This gentleman is understood to have possessed very considerable talents, and powers of exerting them. He continued ably to support the Revolution government, and brought to it a powerful aid arising from the peculiar feature which distinguished Cornwall up to the year 1832.

In 1714, on the German accession, hopes, fears, expectation, and party violence, burst forth with all the fury that had driven them into action thirty years before. Vigorous proceedings were therefore demanded, and may be justified by the exhortation at Salamis, Νυν ὑπερ παντων Αγων. 217 Yet in moments of cool reflection, and at the distance of a hundred and twenty years from this agitated period, one cannot refrain from thinking that Mr. Boscawen was carried beyond the limits of duty to his country, or zeal for his associates embarked in the same cause, when he undertook and executed the task of arresting his countrymen, and probably his former friends, on the suspicion of their entertaining opinions more favourable than his own to monarchical power, and to what in modern phrase might perhaps be termed conservative principles.

Sir Richard Vyvyan was seized at Trelowarren, conveyed by water to Pendennis Castle, and from thence to the Tower. Mr. Basset, of Tehidy, would also have been arrested if he had not left his house; and other proceedings were taken of equal violence.

These acts, however necessary at the time, produced their moral effects of creating feuds and permanent irritations, so that while the principal agent was admired by one party, and received the reward of an hereditary seat in parliament, as was industriously propagated, in return for these services, the opposite party detested his name, and usually joined to it an epithet drawn from the inferior apparitors of the common law.

This gentleman, created Viscount Falmouth in 1720, married Charlotte, daughter and coheir of Charles Godfrey, Esq. and his wife Charlotte Churchill, sister of the great Duke of Marlborough. They had a very numerous family; the eldest son, Hugh Boscawen, succeeded of course to his father’s estate and hereditary seat in parliament; very little is remembered about him. He is believed to have been kind and benevolent in private life, and the Editor is anxious to avail himself of this opportunity for acknowledging an act of generous and feeling liberality exercised by this gentleman to the benefit of a near relation, about fourscore years ago. In ability he probably fell much below the usual standard of his family, for he is known to have been cajoled into marrying a kept mistress; and idle tales are circulated of his mistaking 218 “Optat ephippia Bos” for the Latin of his own name, and Horace Walpole for the Roman poet. It is probable these mistakes never literally happened, but such anecdotes are usually characteristic of the individual; if however they really were made, the credit of the family has been amply redeemed by a nephew, who has given to the public one of the best translations of Horace extant in any language.

Of his various brothers very little also is known or remembered, excepting of one, and that one is Admiral Boscawen, the glory not of Cornwall but of his country, the Nelson of his time.

Edward Boscawen went early to sea, expecting (as the Editor has heard from one to whom he related the circumstances) to be advanced almost immediately through family interest and connection to the station of a Lieutenant; when the order was suddenly made for subjecting all midshipmen to a service of six years at the least. “To this order,” he was accustomed to say, “I owe all my knowledge of seamanship, and to this order the British Fleet is mainly indebted for the superior knowledge and skill of its officers.”

The young man was properly advanced as occasions offered themselves; and from the period of his commanding a ship, his whole career was one of glory and of deserved success. Besides engagements with single ships, and their capture, his achievements are recorded at Porto Bello, Carthagena, Cape Finisterre, the East Indies, the Coast of Spain, and above all at Louisbourgh Harbour, in Cape Breton, where he effected a conquest most gallant in itself, and essential to the subjugation of Canada by General Wolfe; and what may equal the spolia opima of Rome, he three times made M. Hoquart, the French commander, a prisoner in the course of one war.

Admiral Boscawen was beloved throughout the navy for his care and attention to the health, the comfort, and the happiness of every one under his command, to as high a degree as he was admired for skill, for prudence, and for valour; throughout Cornwall he was adored. So that, notwithstanding the rule observed in that county, of considering 219 every gentleman who obtains a seat in the Upper House of Parliament, as relinquishing for himself of course, and also for his family, in favour of other gentlemen, all claim to the county representation, Admiral Boscawen, standing completely on his own personal merits, and founding a new branch from an ancient family, was invited to accept the situation of member for Cornwall. The general election arising from the accession of George the Third was approaching, when a fever closed the life of this great man, on the 10th of January 1761, in the 50th year of his age.

Admiral Boscawen married Frances, daughter of William Evelyn Glanville, a lady possessed of every quality that could adorn the highest station, or that could render her amiable in domestic life.

They had several children:

The eldest, called after his father’s name, died at Spa in Germany, in early life, on the 17th of July 1774.

The second son, William Glanville Boscawen, having engaged in the sea service, anxious to emulate the splendid example given by his father, and having become a Lieutenant, was most unfortunately drowned in Jamaica, on the 21st of April 1769. On this melancholy occasion the following elegy was composed by Doctor John Walcot.

This gentleman was bred to the medical profession under an uncle at Fowey, where he afterwards practised, but standing high in the estimation of Sir William Trelawny, appointed Governor of Jamaica, Doctor Walcot, provided with a medical degree, went out with him as his physician; and in times when propriety and decorum were less attended to than at present, he was also admitted into holy orders, and thus became qualified for holding a living in the Island, one of which he actually obtained; but having returned to England after the Governor’s decease, he relinquished the preferment, which could not be held without residence, and abandoned the character of a clergyman.

No one can read this poem, somewhat perhaps too nearly resembling an ode of Collins, nor many other of his more 220 elegant productions, his sonnets set to music by Jackson, &c. without regretting the change of style and of subject which he afterwards adopted under the assumed name —— Pindar.

Mr. George Evelyn Boscawen, third son of the Admiral, succeeded his uncle as third Viscount Falmouth in July 1782, and married two years afterwards Elizabeth Anne, daughter of John Crewe, esq. Their eldest son, Edward Boscawen, advanced to the dignity of an Earl, married in August 1810, Ann Frances, daughter of Henry Bankes, esq. repeatedly 221 member for Corfe Castle, and for the county of Dorset; they have an only son, who with the double portion of honour that invests young men who apply themselves to learning or science, without the ordinary stimuli of pecuniary benefit, or of advancement in the world, obtained the high distinction at Oxford in 1832 of being included in the first class of literary merit.

Tregothnan, from its bold and elevated situation, commanding an extensive view, intersected by various branches of the Falmouth river, and of the harbour, from the abundance of its trees and woods, and from the integrity of its surrounding property fenced in by natural boundaries, must be considered as the first gentleman’s seat in Cornwall, with the exception perhaps of Mount Edgcumbe. The house standing there till within these few years, bore the appearance of considerable antiquity, and harmonized with the surrounding scenery; the ruins of Fentongollan could not have been used for building this house, as Mr. Hals relates: they may have supplied materials for repair, or for additional offices.

The present proprietor has taken down the old house, and replaced it by a new one, that may compete with the best in England for real utility, and for decorations harmonizing with its bold situation and surrounding landscape.

The old parish church, and its massive tower, supported by immense buttresses, form altogether a venerable and impressive group, visible for a great distance in almost every direction. The advowson of the living was acquired with Fentongollan.

This parish measures 961 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 847 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 84 3 0

Population,—

in 1801, 154 in 1811, 178 in 1821, 167 in 1831, 179

giving an increase of 16 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. Granville Leveson Gower, presented in 1818 by the Earl of Falmouth.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE. 222

This parish is entirely situated in the calcareous series, and consists of the same rocks as Lamoran, and the eastern part of the parish of Kea.

MICHAELSTOW.

HALS.

St. Michaelstow rectory is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north Lantegles by Camelford, south Brewer, west St. Udye, east Advent. For the name of this parish, it is taken from the church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel.

At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was rated under the jurisdiction either of Lantegles or St. Vaye. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, it was rated by the name of Ecclesia de Sancto Michaelstow, 40s. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, £10. 13s. 8d.; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. £72.

In this parish formerly lived the genteel family of Michaelstow, that married one of the heirs of Gifford, of Fewborough in Devon, and had issue by her a daughter named Mary, married to Wollacomb, of Devon, temp. Henry VI. (Prince’s Worthies of Devon, in Wollacomb).

TONKIN.

This parish, named Michaelstow, which signifies Michael’s Place, is a rectory. The patronage in the Crown: the incumbent Cloak.

THE EDITOR. 223

There is little deserving of remark in this parish, except some doubtful remains of military antiquities. Mr. Lysons says, that the great duchy manor of Helston in Trig, extends over the greater part of this parish, and that what was formerly called Helsbury Park, is possessed by the Duke of Bedford, under a lease; and that just without the former boundary of the park are extensive earthworks, which Mr. Lysons conjectures to be the spot described as a castle by William of Worcester, and probably of great antiquity. The church has a few monuments to the Lowers and others. The only village in this parish, in addition to the church town, is called Treveighan.

Trevenin was a seat of some branch of the Lower family, now all extinct; and Tregone, heretofore belonging to the Mayows, is now the property of Mr. Hockin.

The advowson is in the Duke of Cornwall. Mr. Tonkin says in the Crown; but much confusion seems to have existed in former times between the claims of these two corporations sole, and if such a subject were worthy of investigation, it is probable that many inaccuracies might still be discovered.

The present Rector is the Rev. Edward Spettigue, presented in 1818 by the King as Prince of Wales.

Michaelstow measures 1,338 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 1564 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 141 11 0

Population,—

in 1801, 158 in 1811, 181 in 1821, 216 in 1831, 215

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

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish skirts the northern boundary of the granite of St. Breward, reposing on rocks belonging to the porphyritic 224 series, the most interesting of which is a kind of micaceous schist, that occurs near the granite, and may be traced through the parishes of St. Breward and Blisland, and Cardenham.

MYLOR, or MILOR.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Mylor lieth in the hundred of Kerrier; it has to the west Gluvias, to the north St. Perran Arworthal, with Carnan and Restronget creeks, to the east and south Mylor Pool and Falmouth harbour.

The Saint that gives name to this parish is Meliorus, son of Melianus, Duke of Cornwall.

In the valuation by the Bishop of Lincoln this parish is valued at £6. 13s. 4d.; being about that time appropriated to the College of Glasseney.

The church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Books at £16. 15s.. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent Mr. Francis St. Barbe; the impropriation of the sheaf in Robert Trefusis, esq.

I shall begin with the barton of Carclew. I find the name of this place anciently written Crucglew. Cruc is a barrow, and also clew I apprehend to be an inclosure; so that the whole signifies the inclosure of barrows, or by barrows, of which there are several in the adjoining commons. The first owner of this place that I can meet with is Dangeros, or Dangers, who married Margery, the 225 daughter of Bartholomew Serischall, whose arms were the same with the Seriseaux: Argent, a saltire Sable, between twelve cherries slipped Proper; in the reign I believe of Henry the Second.

Robert de Cardinan, by a very ancient deed, without date, which I have seen, gave Crucgleu and Pengaer to Richard Dangeros and his heirs.

This family, who by their matches seem to have been gentlemen of considerable note, continued at this place till the beginning of the reign of Henry the Fourth, when James Dangero left two daughters and coheirs:

Margaret, married to David Renaudin, of Arwothal; and Isabella, married to Richard Bonithon, second son of Simon Bonithon, of Bonithon.

This barton fell to the share of the said David Renaudin, but he and Margaret his wife dying without issue, their portion of the whole inheritance, said to be worth £500 per annum, came to Richard Bonithon and Isabella his wife. The last male descendant of this family, Richard Bonithon, esq. a very worthy gentleman, died July the 31st 1697, in the 45th year of his age, leaving by Honor his wife, daughter of Sir Thomas Heale, of Fleet, one daughter and heir, Jane, married to Samuel Kempe, of Penryn, esq.; which said Samuel Kempe died without issue, October the 20th 1728, leaving the said barton of Carclew, and some small part of the ancient lands, (for he had sold off the rest in his lifetime,) to his widow, who now resideth there; a lady who, for her many virtues, bounty, and other accomplishments, deserveth a much better fortune, in every respect, than she has had the luck to meet with.

The said Mr. Kempe built a noble house here, which he did not live to finish, and had laid such a plan for avenues, gardens, &c. as when brought to perfection would have made it one of the pleasantest seats in the county.

There hath been much tin on this barton, and perhaps it would turn to good account if a deep adit were brought in to 226 unwater the shafts in depth. There is also a pretty good lode of antimony not wrought, and perhaps not worth working.

The arms of D’Angers, or Dangeros, as they were painted in the old glass windows at Carclew, were Sable, a chevron between three flowers-de-luce Argent.

Arms of Bonython: Argent, a chevron between three flowers-de-luce Sable. But they likewise gave them, as appear in the old hall, as above, with three pelicans feeding their young ones in the nests, Argent, added.

THE MANOR OF RESTRONGET.

This manor joins with Carclew. It was formerly written Restrongas, and I take the sense of the word to be Res, Ros, Rose, a valley; trong, a nose, used in the same sense as we use ness, from the French, for land jutting into the sea; and gas, or guys, deep; so as to signify altogether, the valley with the deep promontory or point of land. William de Bodrigan was lord of this manor in the 12th of Henry the Fourth. And that family possessed it till the beginning of the reign of Henry the Seventh, when, on the attainder of Bodrigan, it was given to William Trevanion, in which family it still continues, John Trevanion, of Carhayes, Esq. being the present lord thereof. In the village of Restronget have lived in lease for several generations a younger branch of the Leys of Ponacumb.

There is a passing boat kept here, it being the post road, and by much the nearest cut from Falmouth to Truro and the east, called Restronget Passage.

A part of the Bishop’s manor of Penryn extends into this parish.

MANOR OF TREFUSIS AND TREGOSE.

Trefusis, saith the Editor of Camden, in the Additional Part, p. 22, signifies a walled town, or fortified place. 227 This hath been the seat of an eminent family of the same name ever since the Conquest, if not before. The present possessor hereof is Robert Trefusis, Esq. a young gentleman of great hopes, who is yet unmarried. These gentlemen, led away by a false notion, (with many others) of being of French extraction, have given, in allusion to the supposed meaning of their name in the language of that country, for their arms, Argent, a chevron between three fusees, or wharrow spindles, Sable.

The house is extremely pleasant by its situation, and would be much more so were it built a little higher up. To the south of the house is a fine grove, and a walk, at the end of which is a pleasure-house, built by this gentleman’s father, from whence there is a very beautiful prospect.

Adjoining to Trefusis is Nankersy, that is the winding valley, from ceirsie, to twist or wind about. This place, by a lease from the Trefusises, has been for two or three generations the seat of a younger branch of the Littletons, of Lanhidrock; the late owner, William Littleton, Gent. died a bachelor in the year 1734, and by his decease the estate is fallen into the lord’s hands. The arms of Littleton are Argent, a chevron between three escallops Sable.

On this Nankersy hath been lately built by the Dutchmen a considerable town, called by them Flushing, after a town of the same name in Zealand, by which name it is now generally known. And had these Dutchmen had the continuing of this town, they would have made it in some measure to resemble its namesake, by digging a canal to discharge all sorts of merchandise through the middle of it, there being a large marsh adjoining, that seemed by nature to have been placed for that purpose; but as it is, though there are some good houses here, the whole is without any order, contrivance, or regularity. The late Samuel Trefusis, Esq. was at no small expense in levelling the place, the buildings, quays, &c. for loading or unloading the vessels; and could he have settled the packet boats 228 here, for which it lies far better than Falmouth, the water being deeper, and they all lying before it, Flushing would soon have been a place of great resort; but, having failed in that, the town is now falling to decay, and many of the houses of which it consists are uninhabited.

THE MANOR OF MYLOR.

A small lordship which takes its name from the parish, and in which the church is situated, so that probably the churchyard and the glebe were taken out of it by the gift of some former proprietor, although the fact is now forgotten. The present lord of this manor is Martin Lister Killigrew, Esq. an adopted heir to Sir Peter Killigrew.

The church is situated at the south-east end of the parish, near that branch of Falmouth haven called Mylor pool. It is but a small building, consisting of a nave, one aisle of the same length, with a handsome north cross aisle, belonging to Carclew; and a little distance from the west is a low square campanile covered with slate, in which are three bells.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Tonkin seems to have fallen into an error respecting the valuation of this living in the taxation of Pope Nicholas; which he says was £6. 8s. 4d. But no name in the least degree resembling Milor, can be found under Kerrier hundred in the parliamentary publication of that record, nor is any parish rated at that sum.

The church contains several monuments. The most interesting is one of marble, placed there to the memory of her father, mother, and husband, by Jane, the heiress of the Bonithon family, and widow of Samuel Kempe, who built the house at Carclew, and died on the 20th of October 1728, in the 59th year of his age.

There is also a monument to Francis Trefusis, who died in 1680, decorated by handsome sculpture. And one to 229 the memory of Edward Baynton Yescombe, esq. who fell while he was bravely defending the King George, Lisbon packet, against the enemy, in August 1803. And another executed by the celebrated artist Mr. Westmacott, to the memory of Reginald Cocks, youngest son of Charles Cocks, Lord Somers, and Anne his wife, sister of the late Mr. Reginald Pole Carew.

Carclew was devised by Jane Kempe to her relation Mr. James Bonithon, of Grampound, from whom it was purchased by Mr. Lemon in 1749, who immediately began to finish the house, and to complete the whole as a family residence on the scale appropriate to every thing that he undertook. Here Mrs. Lemon resided after she became a widow, and here the family have resided ever since. Mr. and Mrs. Lemon had an only son William Lemon, who married Anne, daughter of Mr. John Willyams, of Carnanton. Both died in early life, leaving three children.

William, born Oct. 6, 1748, who succeeded his grandfather in 1760, married Jane, daughter of James Buller, of Morvall, esq. was elected member of Penryn, on the decease of Mr. Francis Basset in 1769, and at the general election of 1774 succeeded in a contest to represent the county, which, universally esteemed and respected, he continued to do by ten subsequent unanimous elections, during a period of fifty years, up to his decease on the 11th of December 1824. This gentleman was created a Baronet, and commanded for several years the county militia.

John, the second son, became a colonel in the army, commanded the militia of Cornish Miners, served in parliament for the borough of Saltash, and four times for Truro. He died unmarried in 1814, at Polvellan, a place that he had created with great taste on the southern side of the lake, loch, or loo, formed by the two rivers above East and West Looe, and close on the margin of a large salt water pond, made to retain the sea water at high tide, afterwards to give motion to the machinery of grist mills, 230 from whence Mr. Lemon named his new place Pol-Vellan, in Cornish the mill-pool.

Colonel Lemon was such a proficient in music as to perform extemporaneous voluntaries; and several psalm tunes and chants of his composition have been printed.

Anna Lemon, the sister, married Mr. John Buller, of Morval.

Sir William Lemon greatly improved Carclew, and added most materially to the extent of the property round his seat, by purchasing from Mr. Trefusis the manor of Restronget, which had been acquired some years before from Mr. Trevanion.

He is most worthily succeeded by his son Sir Charles Lemon, now member for the county, to whom the house at Carclew is indebted for still further improvements made in the best taste; the grounds and gardens have also been enlarged and beautified, and further arrangements and other decorations are still in progress. It is a very curious circumstance that several acres of ground at Carclew have been recently found covered with the eria ciliaris, not known before as an English plant.

Of his eight sisters three have married Cornish gentlemen. Harriet, married to the late Lord de Dunstanville. Caroline, to John Heale Tremayne, esq. late member for the county. Jane, to her double cousin-german Mr. Anthony Buller, Barrister-at-law, and knighted on his going to India as a judge.

The family of Trefusis can now scarcely be considered as connected with Cornwall, Robert George William Trefusis having succeeded, on the death of George Walpole, Earl of Orford, to the barony in fee of Clinton, created by writ of summons in the year 1299, the 28th of Edward the First, and under a deed of settlement, made by the same Lord Orford, having succeeded also to a very large estate, chiefly in Devonshire; and finally, in consequence of their having alienated by far the greater part of their possessions in this county.

231 This gentleman having married Marianne Gaulis, a lady of Switzerland, and died in 1797, has been succeeded by his son Robert Cotton St. John Trefusis. He married one of the daughters of William Stephen Poyntz, Esq. and niece of Mark Anthony Browne, last Lord Montague, of Cowdray Castle, in Sussex; but having died without issue, he is succeeded by his brother Charles Trefusis. The widow is recently married again to Colonel Horace Seymour.

The situation of Trefusis is very beautiful, the whole jutting into Falmouth harbour, with Penryn river on the south and Milor river to the north.

Mr. Tonkin has given a picture of Flushing, very far from corresponding with its present features: instead of falling into decay it has grown up to be an elegant town, although the packet station has not been fixed there, nor is it in all probability suited to that purpose.

If the word Gas, or Guys, which Mr. Tonkin says means deep in Cornish, should also, as in some other languages, bear the correlative sense of lofty, his explanation of Restronget would be more complete.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Edward Hoblyn, collated in 1823 by the Bishop of Exeter.

This parish measures 3,463 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 6724 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 951 12 0

Population,—

in 1801, 1665 in 1811, 1897 in 1821, 2193 in 1831, 2647

giving an increase of 59 per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The eastern part of Milor appears to belong to the calcareous series, but the rocks of the western part correspond with those of Gluvias.

232

MINSTER.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Minster, a rectory in the hundred of Lesnewith, is bounded to the west by Trevelga, to the north by Farrabury, to the east by St. Juliot, and to the south by the parish of Lesnewith.

In the taxation of Pope Nicholas this parish is named Talkarn, and is valued at £5. In Wolsey’s valuation it is taken at £22. 17s. 10d. The patronage in Edward Amy, Esq.; the incumbent Mr. James Amy his brother.

THE EDITOR.

Near the church are some ruins still to be seen of a monastic establishment, said by Mr. Lysons, on the authority of Doctor William Borlase’s manuscript collections, to have been a priory of Black Monks called Minster, or Tolcarne, founded by William de Botreaux, as a cell to Tywardreth, itself subject to the abbey of St. Sergius and Bacchus, in Angiers. Tywardreth, however, after having been seized into the King’s hands, as an alien priory, was made independent and denizen, and continued till the general dissolution by Henry the Eighth. Probably therefore Minster remained as a parcel of Tywardreth up to the same eventful period.

Tanner, however, calls it merely an alien priory to the abbey of St. Sergius and Bacchus at Angiers, without any notice of Tywardreth.

In Dugdale’s Monasticon is the following addition to 233 Tanner: Minster Prior, alienigena habet in proprios usus Ecclesias de Minster et Bodecastell; and in a note there is a reference to muniments in Exeter Cathedral, and to MS. collections in the British Museum, vol. XL. p. 39, for a resignation of this priory by the abbot and convent de Valle, or Vale Royal, in Cheshire; from which it would seem that this house was not restored to Tywardreth after the sequestration of both.

The manor of Pollifont, in Lewannick, (see that parish) which formerly belonged to this priory, is now an appendage to the living, so that the rector of Minster is lord of the manor of Pollifont; and the customs of the manor are said to be, that on the accession of a new rector, after the decease of the former, but not otherwise, the tenants pay him thirty pounds and one penny, raised according to some ancient schedule among themselves.

Several small fees are due on surrenders and on admissions at the manor courts, and on the death of each tenant a heriot becomes due to the lord, which is either his best beast or six guineas, and in addition to these, there is an annual payment of four pounds.

Minster church lies in a deep valley, surrounded by trees, giving the strongest impression of its forming the quire of a sequestered monastery. It contains several monuments to the Henders, Cottons, &c. One has a Latin inscription, with the curious pedantic device of certain letters standing prominent among others in the different words, and indicating, as Roman numerals, the various dates. Four lines on William Cotton, son of William Cotton who held the see of Exeter from 1598 to 1621, and on Elizabeth his wife, daughter and coheir of John Hender, have been frequently transcribed, on account of their extreme simplicity:

234 This church is one of the very few in Cornwall that want the decoration of a tower, and strange legends are circulated to account for this defect, probably of a more ancient date than the Reformation. The bells are said to have arrived in a vessel almost to the spot where they would have been landed, when an expression of the captain, implying confidence in the powers which God had given him, construed into blasphemy by Anthopomophites of all religions, is supposed to have caused the immediate destruction of the ship, with every one on board; but when the ground seas roll with their accustomed violence on this iron-bound coast, the bells are still fancied not only to ring a peal, but to indicate by particular sounds the cause of this reputed miracle, intended to convince mankind that they are bound to neglect and to render vain whatever gifts the Almighty may have bestowed on them, and thanklessly to employ their time in imploring more.

This place was in feudal times the residence of a baronial family, bearing the name of Botreaux, which they imparted to a manor, or, as the Court Rolls would testify, to an honor, having manors dependent, and enclosing the town of Botreaux Castle, dignified by the appellation of a borough; a term, it may be observed, that had not in ancient times any reference to the privilege of sending members to parliament.

Mr. Lysons says, that William Lord Botreaux, the last of this family, fell in the second battle of St. Alban’s, leaving an only daughter, married to Sir Robert Hungerford.

The honour of Botreaux, and the manor of Worthyvale, went with the heiress of Hungerford to the family of Hastings, by whom this property was sold to John Hender, esq. in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

John Hender appears to have had four daughters and coheiresses: Katharine, married to John Molesworth; Frances, to Richard Robarts, of Truro; Mary, to Ellis Heale, of Devonshire; and Elizabeth, to William Cotton, son of the Bishop; Boscastle and Worthyvale came as a portion to the last.

235 Sir John Cotton, probably the grandson of William Cotton, resided here, and died in 1703, without a family; he gave the property to his sister’s son, Mr. Amy, Sheriff of Cornwall in the year 1714, whose father had the living of Minster. His son, Cotton Amy, esq. married one of the two daughters and coheiresses of Samuel Gilbert, of Tackbear, in Bridgerule, and had two daughters: Grace, married to Mr. Jonathan Phillipps, of Camelford, a Captain in the Cornwall Militia. This lady had several children, who all died at early ages; and her sister never married, having continued in a state of derangement at Botreaux Castle for many years.

Sir Jonathan Phillipps (for he had been knighted on the occasion of presenting an address from Camelford, when a female offering a petition to King George the Third, was observed to have a knife in her hand,) left his share of this property, with the remainder of his own estate, to Mr. Thomas Winslow, the son of his sister, on his taking the name of Phillipps, which he did, and was succeeded by his son, who now resides at Landue, in Lezant, but having purchased that place and lands about it, Mr. Phillipps has parted with much of the estate at Botreaux Castle to Mr. Avery, a gentleman who carries on a very considerable trade there, and seems likely to raise the place into greater opulence and importance than it can have experienced since the fall of its feudal grandeur.

An elevated piece of ground, rendered steep by artificial scarping, is pointed out as the site of the castle, which gave a termination to the honour of Botreaux. This castle had, however, disappeared before the time of Carew; and the dwelling of Sir John Cotton, probably constructed after the castle had become a ruin, which used to be called The Great House, was scarcely habitable fifty years ago, and has now disappeared.

The port of Botreaux Castle admits coasting vessels in fine weather, and considerable trade is carried on there by exporting the excellent slatestone with which that neighbourhood abounds, and by importing coal and lime, in addition 236 to such articles of commerce as the adjacent country may require.

It is generally believed that the harbour might be rendered safe and commodious for a sum much within the limits of private expenditure. Ponderous articles might be raised to any required level by the power of water wheels, and from the summit of the acclivity, a flat plain extends to the distance of many miles inland; so that a possibility at the least seems to exist, of Botreaux Castle becoming the site of an extensive commerce.

The advowson of the living belongs jointly to Mr. Thomas John Phillipps, representative through his great uncle of Miss Grace Amy, and the representatives of her sister. The late incumbent was the Rev. R. Winsloe, uncle to Mr. Phillipps.

The manor of Worthyvale was sold to Mr. Hugh Boscawen in the early part of the last century, and was used as a hunting seat; it has again been sold by one of his descendants, and it belonged some years since to a gentleman of the name of Farnham.

The single stone laid over a stream, having some letters cut on its lower surface, and which is believed to have marked the exact spot where Arthur received his death wound, is nearly in front of the house at Worthyvale.

This parish measures 2838 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 2089 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 253 19 0

Population,—

in 1801, 311 in 1811, 396 in 1821, 425 in 1831, 497

giving an increase of 25½ per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. Charles Woolcombe, presented in 1825 by the Rev. R. Winsloe.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The geological structure of this parish is similar to that of Lesnewith, except that at its northern extremity it contains pyritous and carbonaceous rocks like those of Farrabury.

237

ST. MINVER, or ST. MYNFER.

HALS.

Minver, or St. Mynfer, vicarage, is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north and west the Irish sea cliff and Padstow harbour, south Egleshayle, east St. Endellyan.

In the Domesday Book this parish was taxed by the name of Ros-minver. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish benifices, 1294, Ecclesia de Mynfred, or Mynfer, in decanatu de Minor Trigshire, was rated £7, vicar ejusdem 20s. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, £13. 10s. 1d. The patronage, formerly in the Prior of Bodmin, who endowed it, now Prideaux, of Netherton; the incumbent Lewellen; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. £385. 13s.

At Trevill-va, alias Trevellva, there is yet extant an ancient free chapel for divine service, kept in good repair by the lord of this place, furnished with an old English Bible, heretofore made use of in this chapel.

This barton is the dwelling of William Silly, Esq. commissioner for the peace temp. James II. and one of his corporation regulators. He married Kekewich, of Trehawke; and had issue Hender Silly, his son and heir, that died without issue; after her death he married Honour, one of the coheirs of Carter, and hath issue by her also; his father married Cotton (sister to Sir John Cotton, of Botreaux Castle). His grandfather, John Silly, gent. attorney-at-law, of St. Wenn, married Marks, of that place, where he got a great estate by the inferior practice of the law, and altered his name and arms from Ceely to Silly, for what reason I know not; in testimony whereof he and his posterity ever since gave the arms of Ceely, viz. in a field Azure, a chevron between three mullets Or.

238 King James the Second’s regulators of corporations in Cornwall, were Humphrey Borlase, esq. of Treludrow, Sheriff, William Silly, esq. aforesaid, William Cood, of Pensiple, esq. Mr. Edward Vincent, of Truro, and Edward Noseworthy, esq.

Here Mr. Hals’ manuscript is deficient, and several subsequent parishes are lost.

TONKIN.

Mr. Tonkin has merely copied a few of the introductory sentences from Mr. Hals.

THE EDITOR.

The great tithes of this parish, and the presentation to the vicarage, were parts of the possessions belonging to the priory of Bodmin at the dissolution.

In the taxation of Pope Nicholas the rectory and vicarage are assessed:

Ecclesia Sancte Minfrede Rec. £7 0 0

Vicar ejusdem 1 0 0

In the returns made to First Fruits officers for King Henry the Eighth, of the Ecclesiastical and temporal property belonging to this house, is this entry:

Mynfrey Decimæ Garbæ £14 13 6

The manor of Bodmin was bestowed by the King on the well-known poet Mr. Thomas Sternhold, for his translation of The Psalms, which may fairly be considered as a very adequate reward; but almost all the ecclesiastical possessions were given to the Prideauxes, and were finally sold about fifty years ago, soon after the decease of the last representative of the Devonshire branch of that family. Both the appropriated rectory and the vicarage were purchased by the Rev. William Sandys.

239 Mr. Sandys distinguished himself at Oxford, and was in consequence elected a Fellow of All Souls. He travelled through the south of Europe with Mr. Francis Basset, afterwards Lord de Dunstanville, and held the living of Illogan till Mr. John Basset, a younger brother, received priest’s orders. He married Miss Mary Praed, of Trevethow; and dying in 1816, he left the larger part of a handsome fortune to Mr. William Warren, a sister’s son, who married Miss Marshall, another sister’s daughter, and their son having taken the name of Sandys, is now the possessor, and resides at St. Minver.

A presentation to the vicarage was given by Mr. Sandys to the Rev. George Treweeke, the son of a third sister, who has also the rectory of Illogan.

Mr. Sandys, in consequence of some incident or of some allusion now forgotten, but not in diminution of the respect most justly due to his talents and his learning, acquired the appellation of Cardinal, perhaps from his having worn a scarlet dress at Rome, on some public occasion.

A monument is placed in the church to Mrs. Sandys, with the following inscription:

M. S. Mariæ fil: sec: H. M. Praed de Trevethow in hoc Agro, et Gul. Sandys, A.M. olim Col: Om: Anim: Oxon: Soc. Deinde hujus Parochiæ Vicarii Uxoris dilectissimæ. Quæ ob. 4^to die mens: Aprilis A.D. MDCCCIX ætatis LX. Amoris ergo et desiderii Maritus superstes heu! et mœrens H. M. P. C.

Mr. Lysons says that the manor of Penmear was given by the Black Prince to Sir William Woodland, usher of his chamber, but that it reverted again to the Duchy.

Trevernon, or Trewornan, belonged in the reign of king James the First, to Thomas Clifford, D.D. It afterwards became the seat of the Howes; from whom it passed, with 240 an heiress, to the Darells. It is now the residence of the Rev. Darell Stephens, their representative.

There is a monument to Thomas Darell, esq. who died in 1691.

Pentire Point in this parish is the boldest promontory on the southern side of the Bristol Channel. The barton of which this headland forms a part, belonged to a family of the same name, till it passed with an heiress to Roscarrock, and from them by an heiress to Tremayne; and it belongs at present to John Hearle Tremayne, esq. of Heligon.

Trevelver, once a seat of the Arundells, belongs now to the family of Yeo.

This parish is divided on the eastern side from St. Kew, by an estuary dangerous to passengers, and where lives were not unfrequently lost, till Mr. Sandys took the lead in constructing a bridge across the ford, which he effected after much exertion, and at a considerable expense to himself.

Although St. Minver is strictly one entire parish, yet there are two ancient chapels still remaining with districts assigned to them, out of which some of the parish officers are annually chosen.

The parish church, with its more appropriate division, is called Highlands, and the remaining part annexed in some degree to the chapels, is called Lowlands, subdivided into north and south. One of the chapels, according to Mr. Lysons, is dedicated to St. Michael; which, if the fact is so, must be a very unusual circumstance, as the wings of the archangel appear to have associated his habits, in popular opinion, with those of birds, which led him to delight in elevated situations; the other chapel has for its patron St. Enodoc or St. Gwinnodock.

One of these chapels happening to require repair about the middle of the last century, the vestry or the parish officers sold the bells to reimburse the expense, notwithstanding their being tenfold consecrated by the inscription:

ALFREDUS REX.241

It is perhaps too much to assume that they were given by the Great Alfred, although his visits to St. Neot must have brought that most illustrious of our kings into this neighbourhood.

The baptising of bells, and their dedication, have so much prevailed, that these were in all probability cast long since the time of Alfred; but his name should have been their protection, if other protection were wanted than their consecrated use.

The following monkish lines not unfrequently appear on bells made prior to the reformation:

Laudo Deum verum—Populum voco—Congrego clerum

Defunctos ploro—Fugo fulmina:—Festa decoro.

Great Tom of Oxford, (called Thomas Clusius) while it remained at Oseney Abbey, and before it was re-cast for its present station in 1670, had this curious legend:

In Thomæ laude resono BIM BOM sine fraude. It weighs 17,000 lbs.

St. Minver measures 6604 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 8,354 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 834 17 0

Population,—

in 1801, 788 in 1811, 851 in 1821, 1028 in 1831, 1110

giving an increase of 41 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. George Treweeke, also Rector of Illogan, presented by William Sandys, esq. in 1817.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The part of this parish which lies parallel with Endellion, resembles it in geological composition; but one part of it extends further north, and contains a compact rock of the same nature as that of Trevose Head in St. Merryn.

242

MORVA.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Morva is situated in the hundred of Penwith, and is bounded to the west by St. Just, to the north by the sea, to the east by Zennor, to the south by Sancred and Maddern. It is a daughter church to Madderne, the vicar of which performs divine service, and preacheth in the morning on the first Sunday in every month. The said vicar hath the small tithes.

Morva signifies Locus Maritimus, a place near the sea, as this parish is. The name is sometimes written Morveth, implying much the same sense.

The chief place, and almost the only one of note in this little parish, is Tregamynyon, that is, the stony dwelling, which was for several generations in the family of Lanyon, and the residence of a younger branch thereof ever since the 30th of Queen Elizabeth; for in Trinity term the 31st year of her reign was a fine passed at Westminster between William Lanyon, gent. and Richard Lanyon, esq. and John Lanyon, gent. of three messuages, ten acres of meadow, sixty acres of pasture, one hundred and fifty acres of furze, one water-mill, &c. in Tregamynyon. Here his posterity flourished in good repute till the reign of Queen Anne, when John Lanyon, of this place, gent. and John Lanyon, jun. his son and heir, joined in the sale of this estate to John Borlase, of Pendeen, esq. who is the present possessor thereof. The said John Lanyon, jun. married to his wife Frances Brydges, sister to James Lord Chandos, and aunt to the Duke of that name, who is since 243 dead without issue, being well stricken in years when he married, and twice a widower before. John Lanyon, the father, married —— Borlase, of Pendeen. His grandfather was commonly called the Golden Lanyon, as having gotten great riches by tin, which he divided among his numerous issue; but before I quit this place I must relate for the benefit of my readers what Mr. Lanyon, sen. told me respecting the covering of his house, as it may be of great use to persons building in high and exposed places. That not being able to keep his house here in good repair, it being rifled and uncovered by every storm, he at last resolved to plaster it with lime and hair on the lathes within, where the stones are fastened; after which he had not the least stripping of his healing for thirty years. This same thing was tried with the same success by Mr. Hector Trelevant, of St. Agnes; and it is, I verily believe, a certain and cheap prevention of damage.

THE MANOR OF CARVOLGHE, OR CORVAEGHE.

This manor was one of those forfeited by Francis Tregian, esq. (See Probus).

It appears by an inquisition taken in the fifth year of King Charles the First, that the manor then belonged to Ezekiel Grosse, of Comborne, gent.

THE EDITOR.

The church of this parish has been recently new built with the assistance of the parliamentary grant. Its situation near the sea adds much probability to Mr. Tonkin’s interpretation of the name. The great tithes are appended to those of Maddern, and belonged to the family of Nichols, now Le Grice.

This parish has to boast of an ancient military work, more curious perhaps than any other in the west of England. It consists of two inclosures nearly circular; the inner 174 feet in diameter, the inner wall 12 feet thick, and 244 still remaining from 10 to 12 feet high; outside this is a vacant space 30 feet wide, and then the second wall, having a diameter of almost 230 feet, and built like the other, but less solid and not so high. The stones are all laid after the Cyclopian manner, unhewn and without cement; yet, by great labour and repeated trials, so adjusted as to form a close, even, and apparently smooth front. All round the interior surface of the inner wall are traces of rooms resembling in their situation modern casemates, and near it appear the simple remains of an ancient town. A description and plan of this most interesting ruin called Castle Chiowne, or Chioune, contracted into Choon, which is well known to mean the house in a croft, have been given by Doctor Borlase, in his Antiquities, p. 346 of the 2d edition. There is also a description by Mr. Britton in the second volume of the Beauties of England and Wales; and a very accurate plan and section, with a full description, may be found in the Archæologia published in 1829, volume the 22d, p. 300, by William Cotton, esq. M.A.

It is to be hoped that the proprietors of the soil will take care to prevent any further destruction of this most ancient and curious fortress, by effectually prohibiting a practice which has disfigured even Rome itself, that of recklessly removing the materials for domestic purposes.

At about 500 yards to the south-west of the Castle, is a cromleigh noticed by Doctor Borlase, p. 232.

Morva also contains, either in the whole or in part, the most romantic granite hill of the western formation. Carn Galva is entirely covered with blocks of the largest size; and being deep in the granite district, they have escaped that destruction of natural grandeur which inevitably accompany the useful or beautifying improvements effected by the hands of men.

Morva measures 1060 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 775 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 18 1 0

245

Population,—

in 1801, 282 in 1811, 273 in 1821, 325 in 1831, 377

giving an increase of 33½ per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish is entirely situated on granite, which presents the same varieties as the granite of Madron, of which indeed it is a continuation, the granite of both parishes belonging to one and the same mass.

MORVAL.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Morval lies in the hundred of West, and has to the westward the rivers Looe and Duloe, to the north St. Kayne and Leskeard, to the east St. German’s, and to the south St. Martin’s.

In the year 1291, the 20th of Edward the First, (if, at least, I am right in taking this to be the church there called Capella de Lamana,) it was valued at £1. 10s. being then appropriated to the Priory of St. German’s.

Morval, a vicarage, stands in the King’s Book at £6. 14s. 9d.

The name of this parish signifies the Sea Valley, it being written anciently Morevale; not that I would from thence insinuate that the sea came up formerly to this place, though the same be not impossible. But as Morval may be interpreted the Mory or Fenny Valley, I rather take that to be the right.

THE EDITOR. 246

It is with much diffidence that I venture to approach the subject of etymologies, but it seems at least to be clear that Mr. Tonkin is mistaken. Val or Vale is not Cornish for a valley, but an inclosure. More, in its original signification is great, large, vast, whence figuratively it has acquired the substantive meaning of a widely extended tract of land; as the Sea is in English, called the Deep. I conjecture, therefore, that Morval may be The Enclosed Sea, in reference to the Loch, which gives names to the towns of East and West Looe; or, if the substantive and adjective are inverted, and More resumes its primitive sense, it may be The Large Inclosure.

Mr. Bond states, in his History of Looe, and of the neighbourhood, that the principal seat in this parish, and a place of the same name in Cumberland, belonged to Sir Hugh de Morville, “a foul disgrace to knighthood’s fair degree,” one of those villains who murdered Becket at the altar in Canterbury Cathedral; but the honour of Cornwall is not stained by the assassin’s birth. The manor of Morval passed in early times to the family of Glynn.

Mr. Bond has also preserved a very curious memorial of the lawless and unsettled state of Cornwall, and probably of all England, during the contests for plunder, glossed over by the fiction of adverse rights between two branches of the Plantagenets.

In the year 1471, John Glynn, esq. was barbarously murdered at Higher Wringworthy, in this parish, by several ruffians, employed by Thomas Clements, whom he had superseded in the office of Under-steward of the Duchy. In the preceding year he had been assaulted and grievously wounded in the face by the retainers of Clements as he was holding the King’s Court at Leskeard, and thrown into Leskeard prison, where he signed a compulsory obligation 247 not to prosecute. Some months preceding the murder, the retainers of Clements went to Morval, and plundered the house and premises of goods and chattels to the value of two hundred pounds and upwards, as then estimated. All this appears from the petition of Jane Glynn, the widow, to Parliament, which sets forth, that she could have no redress for these terrible outrages in the county of Cornwall, by reason of the general dread of the malice of Clements and his lawless gang; she prayed, therefore, that her appeal might be tried in London by a Cornish jury; and that, in default of Clements appearing to take his trial, he might be dealt with as convicted and attainted. Her petition was granted.

The words of Jane Glynn’s petition to Parliament are:

“The said Thomas Flete &c. then and there, at four of the clock in the morning, him feloniously and horribly slew and murdered, and clove his head in four parts, and gave him ten deadly wounds in his body; and when he was dead they cut off one of his legs and one of his arms, and his head from his body, to make him sure; and over that, then and there his purse and twenty-two pounds of money numbered, and a signet of gold, a great signet of silver in the same purse contained, a double cloke of muster-de-viles, a sword, and a dagger, to the value of six marks, of the goods and chattels of the said John Glynn, feloniously from him they robbed, took, and bore away.”

The following enumeration of the particulars, as contained in the schedule annexed to Jane Glynn’s petition, may perhaps be thought interesting, as giving some idea of the furniture and stock of a gentleman’s mansion in the reign of Edward the Fourth.

“Fourteen oxen, ten kien, a bull, eight hors, sixty bolokis, four hundred shepe, ten swine, six flikkes of bacon, three hundred weight of woll, three brasynpannes, everych containing sixty gallon, ten pair of blankets, twelve pair of sheets, four matres, three fether beddes, ten coverletys, twelve pillowes of feders, four long gounes, six short 248 gounes, four women gounes, two drought beddes, a hanging for a chamber, three bankenders, twelve quyssions of tapsterwork, four cuppes of silver, three dozen of peauter vessell, two basons counterfet of latyn, two other basons of latyn, two dozen of sylver spoons, a saltsaler of sylver, two basons of peauter, two saltsalers of peauter, three pipes of Gascoyn wine, a hoggeshede of swete wyne, two pipes of sider, four hoggeshedes of bere, four hundred galons of ale, three folding tabules, two feyre long London tabules, four peyre of trestell, a pipefull of salt beef, a hundred of milwell and lyng drye, a quartern of mersau’te lynge, a hundred weight of talowe, forty pounds of candell, two hundred hopes, ten barrell, fyve large pypes, eight keves, ten pots of brasse, fourteen pannes of brasse, four pettys of yron, four andyeris, two knedyng fates, a hundred galons of oyle, six galons of grese, three hundred pounds of hoppes, two hundred bushell of malt, forty bushell of barly, sixty bushell of oyts, four harwyis, ten oxen tices, two plowes, ten yokk, ten London stolys, four pruse coffers, and three London coffers within the same conteyned, four standing cuppes covered, whereof one gilt, dyvers evidences and muniments concernyng the possession of the said John Glynn.” See also Mr. Lysons.

In the very early part of the sixteenth century, Richard Coade, esq. married Thomasine, daughter and heiress of John Glynn, with whom he acquired Morval, and in this family the manor continued till Anne, the daughter and heir of John Coade, carried it by her marriage to John Buller, second son of Francis Buller, of Shillingham. Their grandson, John-Francis Buller, married Rebecca, daughter and coheir of Bishop Trelawny; and on the death of his relation James Buller, of Shillingham, he succeeded to the family estate, very greatly increased by a marriage with the heiress of Grosse, a family from Norfolk, which settled first at Leskeard and afterwards resided in the parish of Camborne and Trescobays in Budock.

James Buller, son of John-Francis Buller and Rebecca 249 Trelawny, represented the county in Parliament, and died in 1765.

Mr. Buller married twice, and left Morval, with a considerable portion of his estate, to John, the eldest son of his second marriage with Jane Bathurst, daughter of Allen Bathurst, esq. created one of the twelve Peers by Queen Anne in 1711, and an Earl sixty-one years afterwards by King George the Third, in 1772. Their second son, Francis, became one of the Judges of the King’s Bench; and a third son, Edward, having married a Miss Hoskin, of Looe, lived and died at Port Looe, in the parish of Tallend. Their eldest daughter, Jane, married Sir William Lemon, during fifty years member for the county of Cornwall.

The eldest son of his first marriage settled at Downs, near Crediton in Devonshire, a property that he acquired by his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of William Gould, of that place, which is now the residence of his grandson James-Wentworth Buller.

Mr. John Buller resided at Morval, represented Exeter, Launceston, and West Looe in Parliament; and married Ann Lemon, only sister of Sir William Lemon. He has left a numerous family, and is succeeded by his eldest son, John Buller, this year (1835) Sheriff of the county.

Arms of Buller: Sable, on a cross Argent, pierced of the Field, four eagles displayed of the First.

Coode: Argent, a chevron Gules, between three moorcocks Sable.

Glynn: Argent, three salmon-spears Sable.

Grosse: Quarterly Argent and Azure, on a bend Sable three martlets Or.

The manor house at Morval is situated in a beautiful valley surrounded with trees; and it exhibits a good specimen of a gentleman’s residence of about two centuries old. The whole place has been very much improved within the last thirty years.

250 The seat next of importance in this parish is Bray. And Mr. Bond says of it, “Bray, Bre, Brea, in Cornish signify a hill; and this place is situated on the side of Bindown Hill. Bray commands very beautiful prospects.”

The manor of Bray, then held under the Vyvyans, as of their manor of Treviderow, was in the reign of Charles the Second in the family of Heles, who were succeeded by the Mayows, of which family was Dr. John Mayow, an eminent physician in the reign of Charles the Second, who contributed some papers on Respiration, and other subjects, to the Philosophical Transactions. Bray is now the property and occasional residence of Philip-Wynill Mayow, esq.

Another account which I have met with states, that Philip Mayow, of Looe, purchased in the sixth of Elizabeth (anno 1504) the manor of Bree or Bray, in the parish of Morval, of Christopher Copplestone, of Warleigh, esq. These accounts, therefore, vary; and which is right I cannot ascertain.

This Philip Mayow, of Looe, is buried in St. Martin’s church, and has the following epitaph:

Dr. John Mayow, mentioned by Mr. Bond, and who has been noticed under St. Martin’s, must have been a 251 very extraordinary man, worthy of being ranked with the first chemists or philosophers of any age.

In the forty-first number of the publications made by the Royal Society previous to the regular series of the Philosophical Transactions, anno 1668, p. 833, will be found an account of two works by John Mayow, LL.D. and M.D. Tractatus duo. Prior de Respiratione, Alter de Rachitide (the rickets); see also the Abridgment, vol. i. p. 295, where the authors say in a note, “As an account of the life and opinions of Dr. Mayow was published only a few years ago by a physician now living, we deem it unnecessary to insert in this place a biographical notice of this distinguished chemist and physiologist. We shall only remark, that in his writings are to be found the primordia of some of the most important theories and experiments of modern chemical philosophers.”

The physician alluded to was Thomas Beddoes, of Pembroke College, Oxford, and afterwards of Clifton, near Bristol, whose life has been given to the public by Dr. John Edmonds Stock, in one vol. 4to, printed for Murray in 1811; and his pamphlet is entitled, “Chemical Experiments and Opinions extracted from a Work published in the Last Century. Printed at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1790.”

Doctor Beddoes here bestows on Mayow the praise he most justly merits, and to be praised by Doctor Beddoes is laudari a laudato viro. Few persons ever displayed more genius or power of invention; and to him we mainly owe the preparation of Humphry Davy for his splendid philosophical career, after a most fortunate introduction by the Editor of this Work.

Anthony Wood gives the following particulars of Mayow:

“John Mayow descended from a genteel family of his name, living at Bree in Cornwall; was born in the parish of St. Dunstan in the West in Fleet-street, London, admitted scholar of Wadham College the 27th of September 252 1661, aged sixteen years; chosen Probationary Fellow of All Souls College soon after, and upon the recommendations of Henry Coventry, esq. one of the Secretaries of State; where, though he had a legist’s place, and took the degrees in the civil law, yet he studied physic, and became noted for his practice therein, especially in the summer time in the city of Bath; but better known by these books, which show the pregnancy of his parts.

De Respiratione, Tractatus Unus. Oxon. 1668-69, 8vo.

De Rachitide, Tractatus Unus.—Ibid.

De Sale Nitro et Spiritu Nitro Acerbo.—Oxon. 1674, in a large octavo.

De Respiratione Fœtus in Utero et Ovo.—Ibid.

De Motu Musculari et Spiritibus Animalibus.—Ibid.

And all the five were printed again at the Hague in 1681.

“He paid his last debt of nature in an apothecary’s house in York-street, near Covent-garden (having been married a little before, not altogether to his content) in the month of September 1679, and was buried in the Church of St. Paul, Covent-garden.”

Mr. Bond adds, with respect to this parish, that Polgover, sometime a seat of the Mayows, still belonging to that family; and Lydcott (about a mile from thence) a seat of the family of Hill, now the property of Mr. Braddon, are both farm houses.

A manor, or reputed manor, called Wringworthy, belongs to the Copleys of Bake.

The only place of trade in this parish is a small village, situated at the spot where the Looe River ceases to be navigable for barges at high water. There are several kilns for burning lime, which is used to a great extent throughout all the neighbourhood as a manure; but the modern name of Sand Place indicates a recent origin. Here the canal to Leskeard terminates.

The church is in the same beautiful vale as the manor house. It contains several monuments in memory of individuals 253 belonging to the families of Mayow, Kendall, Coode, &c.

The great tithes belonged to the priory of St. German’s; and in the Valor Ecclesiasticus in the time of King Henry the Eighth, preserved in the First Fruits Office, they are rated,

Morvall, decimæ garbæ - £10.

The great tithes now belong to Mr. Buller.

The presentation to the vicarage is in the Crown; and the present Vicar is the Rev. Stephen Puddicombe, presented by Lord Chancellor Eldon in 1803.

Bindon is the prominent feature in all this country. It commands a most extensive prospect over Plymouth, and to the range of the Dartmoor hills; in the other direction the view extends to the high lands near St. Austell, southward it is bounded by the horizon of the sea, and it almost reaches St. George’s Channel to the north. The elevation cannot be less than eight or nine hundred feet; yet strange to say, the road from Looe to Leskeard still continues to pass very nearly over the summit of this hill.

Morval measures 2925 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 3910 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 415 10 0

Population,—

in 1801, 533 in 1811, 574 in 1821, 615 in 1831, 644

giving an increase of 21 per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish all belong to the calcareous series, and are similar to those of the adjoining parish of Duloe.

254

MOREWINSTOW.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Morewinstow is in the hundred of Stratton, and has to the west the sea, to the north part of Devon, to the east the river Tamar and part of Devon, to the south Kilkhampton.

This parish is so called from the son of St. Morwen, to whom Marham church is dedicated.

It is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Books at £10. 8s. 6d. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter.

In the year 1291, the 20th of Edward the 1st, this church was valued at £13. 6s. 8d. having since been appropriated to the hospital of Bridgewater in Somersetshire.

THE EDITOR.

At the general dissolution, the tithes of this parish were valued at £5. 6s. 9½d. being a part of the ecclesiastical possessions of the hospital of St. John at Bridgewater.

The great tithes now belong to the family of Trefusis, through those of Walpole and Rolle.

This parish forms the north-eastern extremity of the county, and gives origin to the river Tamar, (Ta-more, the great water,) which flows to the south coast, there forming the superb harbour of Plymouth. The portion of Morewinstow adjoining to the Irish channel, partakes of the rugged grandeur common to this district. The church stands near the cliff, commanding a fine view of the sea. The building is large, containing several fine specimens of 255 gothic architecture. It is also decorated by monuments to the Kempthornes, Waddons, &c. Mr. Lysons states, that the principal villages in this parish are Coumbe, Crosstown, Eastcot, Gooseham, Hallabeer, Woolford, and Woolley.

He also states, that Stanbury, a seat and manor in this parish, belonged to a family of the same name, and gave birth to Richard Stanbury, Bishop of Hereford, who died in 1471. But Mr. Lysons seems to have fallen into an error respecting the Christian name of this individual, and also as to the year of his decease.

John Stanbury was confessor to King Henry the 6th, and made by him the first Provost of the College, which that unfortunate king founded at Eton in the 19th year of his reign, 1440-41. He was made Bishop of Bangor, May 4th, 1448, and translated from thence to Hereford, on the 7th of February, 1453, and died May the 11th, 1474. Little more seems to be known of this prelate, although he must have been a man of learning and of much consideration in his time, and one who may fairly be reckoned among the distinguished persons of the county. The property of the Stanburys passed to the family of Mannings, and has been subdivided among heiresses. The great tithes of this manor, and of some other lands in the parish, have been endowed on the vicarage.

Tonacombe belonged to a family said to have changed their name from Lea to Kempthorne, although the reason of their doing so is not known. The family resided there during several descents, till it passed by an heiress about a hundred and fifty years ago to the Waddons. It has again passed by a female descent, and is now the property of William Waddon Martyn, esq.

There is also a farm in this parish called Lea, belonging to George Thynne Carteret, son of Henry Frederick Thynne, second son of Thomas Thynne, and Louisa Carteret, daughter of Grace Granville, daughter and coheir of John Granville, created Earl of Bath by King Charles the 2d.

256 George Thynne Carteret is Baron Carteret, by a creation, dated Jan. the 29th, 1784, granted to his father.

This farm may have caused the double names of Kempthorne and Lea.

Cleave house is said to be pleasantly situated; and Chapel house, a modern building, was the residence of the Hammetts, a family from Carmarthenshire, and bequeathed to Zachariah Hammett Drake, by his maternal uncle. It is now by purchase the property and residence of Thomas Troad, esq.