DAVIES GILBERT, (continued 2)

This parish has been productive of much tin near the surface; but a wide stripe of granite nearly resembling that of St. Stephen’s in Brannel, extends from the parish of Zennor through Towednack, and thence into Ludgvan, including Castle-an-Dinas, which Mr. Hals by mistake places in this parish. Its course is distinctly marked by the absence of all bolder rocks from the surface, and in some places it has been wrought for china clay, found quite equal in quality to that near St. Austell, but occurring in layers of but little breadth, and therefore expensive to pursue. This soft granite, called by the miners whetstone, permits the lodes to continue their courses through it from the hard and crystallized granite, but the tin in a great measure disappears at a trifling depth.

There is little connected with Towednack of any curiosity, that does not refer to the Editor and his family.

I am possessed of a manor still extending into five parishes, of which the vokeland, to use Mr. Hals’s term, was Amellibrea in this parish. It has descended to me from the Noyes, and particularly from my direct ancestor William Noye, the Attorney-General. I have the Court Rolls in complete succession for nearly three centuries. On these Rolls the names of Godolphin, Grylls, Mahun, Praed, St. Aubyn, Veal, occur with others as free tenants, and a great number of persons held by copy of Court Roll.

At Amellibrea are the remains of an extensive foundation said by tradition to have formerly supported a prison.

But the free tenants have been lost, and the copyholds converted into leases for life, as indeed has been the case generally over Cornwall, with the exception of ecclesiastical property; the copyholds not being renewable on the payment of a fine not exceeding two years’ value, as is the custom over most parts of England, but dependent wholly on the pleasure of the lord. The tenures were therefore in themselves much the same; and as I remember to have heard, the tenants preferred chattle property, as they termed 55 it, to copyhold, in consequence probably of the uniform rules of succession and the facility of disposing by will.

The last copyhold that appears on the Rolls was in the very beginning of the last century.

The particulars of holding a Court in those days, with the Steward’s charge, happen to be preserved on the Roll for 1688, and seem to me sufficiently curious to warrant their insertion.

At a Court of William Davies, esq. Lord of the United Manors of Amyll and Tillie, holden on Friday the 27th day of April, 1688.

The Homage.

Sampson Veale, esq. Foreman.

Robert Michell, James Trewhelow, John Curnow,

Francis Quick, John Quick, John Williams,

Oller Vaynfleet, John Baragwanath, John Trewhella,

Anthony Quick, Christopher Trewhella, John Gilbart,

George Beriman, James Quick.

The Oath.

You shall swear that you, as Foreman of this Homage, with the rest, shall duly inquire, and true presentment make of all such copyholds and things as shall be given you in charge; wherein you shall spare no man, from love, favour, or affection; nor present any man for malice, hatred, or envy; but according as things are presentable, shall or may come to your knowledge, by information or otherwise, so shall you make thereof true presentment without concealment,

So help you God, and the contents of this book.

The Charge.

Sirs —You that be sworn!

You know the customs of this court, and what you ought to present, which is grounded all on these three things, that 56 is to say, upon truth, judgment, and justice, for this comprehends all you have to do.

It standeth upon truth, for that you ought to present nothing but the truth, and likewise not to omit any thing that is true and presentable being here unpresented.

It standeth upon judgment, that you do not present any thing rashly, or unadvisedly; but certainly to know the truth thereof before you do present it.

And it standeth upon justice that you do not for favour, affection, corruption of money, or other reward, for fear of any man’s displeasure, or for any private gain or profit, leave any thing unpresented that is here presentable; neither for malice present any thing contrary to truth.

These three principal things you ought duly to consider of; and so hoping that you will have a special care thereof according to your oaths and duties, and the trust that is reposed in you, I will cease to trouble you any further about them.

First, you shall inquire whether all such persons as owe suit and service to this court be here to do the same; and all that make default you must present.

Also you shall inquire if any tenants be dead since the last court, or before, and his death not yet presented; and you shall inquire what lands he held of these manors, and what is due to the Lord on his death;[4] and also if any copyholder has leased his copyhold for any longer term than a year and a day, without the Lord’s license, it is a forfeiture of his copyhold. And also if any copyholder deny to pay his rent, or deny to come to his Lord’s Court, or deny to be sworn of the homage, it is a forfeiture of his copyhold.

And also you are to present all alienations that you may know among the tenants, who they are, and for what.

You are also to present all such as remove any bounds bounding the lands of these manors and the lands of any other Lord, or between tenant and tenant, or elsewhere in those manors.

You are likewise to present any one that has taken any 57 goods out of the pound wilfully by force, or any pound-breaker by the way, as they are driven to pound.

You are likewise to present any man that hath fished or fowled in these manors, or hawked or hunted.

And also you are to present any that doth refuse or neglect to grind at the mill of those manors; and if you are not well served, you that are ill dealt with by the miller, he is lyable to be prosecuted, and make satisfaction.

You are to present all tin broken in these manors that hath not paid farme nor toll.

You shall swear by the contents of that Book; that you will be true and faithful to the Lord of those manors, and shall from henceforth bear, do, and pay to your said Lord, and to his heirs, at times assigned, all such rents, customs, and services as you ought to pay, and for all such lands and tenements as you claim to hold of him; So help you God.

As the Steward’s name in not appended, I am unable to say who was the author of this perspicuous, eloquent, and argumentative address. It is probably in a great measure conformable to the approved model of that day.

Having omitted to insert in its proper place axPetition from my great-grandmother to King Charles the Second, I shall give it here, as being in some degree connected with the property.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

The humble petition of Hester Noye, widow of Humphrey Noye, esquire, son and heir of the Attorney-General Noye, and eldest sister and coheir of Edwyn Lord Sandys, deceased,

Humbly sheweth,

That King Henry the VIII. in the 14th year of his reign, created your Petitioner’s great-grandfather William Sandys a Peer of this Realm, by the style of William Lord Sandys, Baron of the Vine, who granted a Patent of the said honor 58 to him and his heirs, which hath been ever since enjoyed by his descendants both male and female accordingly; and last of all by the said Edwyn Lord Sandys, who is lately deceased, leaving your said Petitioner and five other sisters his coheirs.

That your Petitioner’s father served your late Royal Father of glorious memory in the late unhappy wars, and raised a Regiment of Foot, and another of Horse for that service, and was himself slain therein.[5]

That your Petitioner’s late husband was likewise active in his late Majesty’s service, being a Colonel in the Army, and suffered very much for his loyalty in the late rebellious times, by whom your Petitioner had issue William Noye, esq. his son and heir, who is still living.

Now forasmuch as your Petitioner is advised that upon the death of the said Edwyn Lord Sandys, it is in your Majesty’s power to dispose of the said honor to which of the said sisters and coheirs your Majesty pleases,

Your Petitioner therefore humbly prays, that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to permit your Petitioner and her heirs to enjoy the said honour and title.

And your Petitioner shall ever pray.

It is almost unnecessary for me to add that this Petition did not prove successful.

Towednack is now included with Lelant in the borough of St. Ive’s, sending one member to Parliament.

The great tithes belong to Mr. Praed of Trevethow, who, together with the heirs of the late Duke of Bolton, possess the remainder of the parish.

The parish feast is kept on the nearest Sunday to April 28.

This parish measures 2,569 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 1483 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 153 8 0

Population,—

in 1801, 465 in 1811, 532 in 1821, 582 in 1831, 736

giving an increase of 58 per cent. in 30 years.

59 THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The extreme northern part of this parish is formed of a narrow slip which runs out considerably beyond the regular boundaries, and terminates on the sea shore; about half of the protuberance is composed of felspathic rocks, belonging to the porphyritic series, and all the rest of the parish is situated on granite.

TREMAINE, or TREMEAN.

HALS.

Tremaine or Tremean is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north St. Mary Wike and Jacobstow, east North Pederwyn, south Tresmere, west Treneglos. As for those names, they are of one signification, viz. the town of stone, or stone town, a place, it seems, notable for those inanimate creatures. This church was endowed by the Abbat or Prior of St. Stephen’s by Launceston, to which abbey it was wholly impropriated; the patronage was in ——: the incumbent ——; the rectory in ——; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year £42. 5s. 0d. I take it this church is now a chapel of ease to Egloskerry, altogether wholly impropriated as aforesaid.

TONKIN.

Tremaine or Tremean is in the hundred of East, and is bounded to the west by Warbstow and Treneglos, to the 60 north and east by part of Devonshire, to the south by Tresmere.

The name in Cornish signifies a dwelling of stone, or the stony town. [Tre-maen, stone-house.]

It is a daughter church to Egloskerry. The great and small tithes are wholly impropriated; and only £5 per annum allowed to the service of the cure out of the sheaf, taxes included, which taxes ought to be paid by the impropriators of the said sheaf.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons says that the manor of Tremayne belonged to the family of Treise, whose heiress brought it to that of Morshead; it has passed by sale to Mr. John Jolliffe, the present proprietor; but the greater part of the parish is within the manor of Penhele in Egloskerry.

The church of Tremaine, now a daughter church to Egloskerry, was consecrated in 1481, by the name of the chapel of Winwolaus of Tremene, with a cemetery adjoining, since which time it has probably been esteemed a separate parish.

The benefice, as a daughter church to Egloskerry, is in the gift of the Crown. G. W. Owen, esq. is impropriator of the great tithes, which belonged formerly to the priory of Launceston.

Saint Winwaloe, whose festival is kept on the third of March, has been noticed in vol. ii. p. 127.

Tremaine measures 806 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 467 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 43 0 0

Population,—

in 1801, 91 in 1811, 122 in 1821, 125 in 1831, 118

giving an increase of 28 per cent. in 30 years.

61 THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are the same as those of Boyton and Otterham.

TRENEGLOS.

HALS.

Treneglos is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north Warstow, south and east Tresmere and St. Cleather, west Davidstow. For the name, it refers to the church, and signifies a stout, strong, robust or firm church. Under what name it was rated in the Domesday Book I know not. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester aforesaid, ecclesia de Treneglos was valued at £7. vicar’ ibidem 20s. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was rated, together with Warstow, as to First Fruits, £9. 19s. 6d.; the patronage in the Duke of Cornwall I take it; the incumbent Wood; the rectory in ——; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, together with Warbstow, as I remember, £87. 16s. which church is consolidated into Treneglos, and goes in presentation with it.

TONKIN.

Treneglos is in the hundred of Lesnewith, hath to the west Davidstow, to the north Warbstow, to the east Tremaine, to the south St. Cleather.

The meaning of this name is no other than the church 62 town, the common appellation which we give to all dwellings round or near the church.

In 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory here was valued (Tax. Ben.) at £7. being appropriated to the priory of Tywardreath, and the vicar at 20s.

It is a vicarage not valued in the King’s Book; the patronage in the Crown; the incumbent Mr. Charles Porter.

THE EDITOR.

There cannot be a doubt as to Mr. Tonkin’s being the real etymology of this name.

Mr. Lysons says, the greater part of the manor of Downeckney, anciently Donnegny, which formerly belonged to the Dinhams and Cardinhams, by descent from Richard, Steward of the household to William the Conqueror at the time of the Domesday Survey, is now vested in fee in William Braddon, esq. of Treglith in this parish, who is lessee of the remainder; that remainder belonging in equal shares to the Trefusis family from the Rolles and Walpoles; and to the representatives of the Gilberts of Tacbear through Cotton and Amy. Mr. Braddon inherited this property from his father-in-law John Spettigue, esq. who had purchased it from the family of Symons, who resided at Treglith.

The church of Treneglos was given by the above-named Richard, so early as the time of the Conqueror, to the priory of Tywardreth. The great tithes, with the exception of some endowed on the vicarage, belong to the Eliot family of St. German’s.

The vicarage is in the gift of the Crown.

Treneglos measures 2362 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 1363 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 129 7 0

Population,—

in 1801, 196 in 1811, 200 in 1821, 238 in 1831, 183

63 It is clear from the above figures, that there must have been some mistake, since such fluctuations never take place in parishes entirely agricultural.

The present Vicar of Treneglos, with Warbstow, is the Rev. J. H. Mason, presented in 1804 by the Prince of Wales.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish lies on rocks of the calcareous series, except that its southern extremity reaches the Downs, where the rocks become felspathic, as has been noticed under the heads of Laneast, Egloskerry, and St. Stephen’s.

TRESMERE.

HALS.

Tresmere, alias Tresmoore vicarage, is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Tremayne, east Egloskerry, south Lanest, west St. Cleather. Under what name or jurisdiction it was taxed in the Domesday Book I know not. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Capella de Tresmoore was valued xxvis. viiid. which Church I apprehend was partly endowed by the Prior or Abbat of Tywardreth, and the other part by the Prior of St. Stephen’s, for in that Inquisition I read Prior Tywardrayth percepit de garba de Tresmoore 11s. afterwards wholly impropriated to the Prior of St. Stephen’s, who doubtless purchased in that title. The parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax for one year 1696, £42. 12s.

TONKIN.

Tresmere, in the hundred of East, hath to the west 64 Treneglos, to the north Tremaine, to the east part of Devonshire, to the south Egloskerry.

This signifies the same with Tre Mere, the great town or dwelling. [N. B. This name, and that of Tren-eglos, are very remarkable in thus containing a supplemental letter. W.]

This Church, by the name of Capella de Tresmore, an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. is valued (Tax. Ben.) at xxvis. viiid. being then appropriated to the Priory at Tywardreath.

It is wholly impropriated, the great and small tithes belonging to Sir John Molesworth and Francis Manaton, Esq. who ought to pay out of it for serving the cure £6 per annum, lately detained by both, the Curate not being able or willing to recover it at law. The Prior of Tywardreth did receive out of the sheaf of Tresmore ijs.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons says, that this parish is an appendage to the manor of Werrington. This would indicate its being impropriated by the Abbey of Tavistock, as Werrington was the chief seat of the Lord Abbat; but Tresmere is not noticed in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of that Abbey; but in the Valor Ecelesiasticus of Launceston Priory there occurs this trifling entry:

£. s. d.

Tresmare —Pensio 0 1 8

The tithes of this parish are completely in lay hands. When tithes were first bestowed on monasteries, the duties of the Church to which they appertained, were performed by members of the Convent, who occasionally travelled there, and succeeded each other; the “book-bosomed priests” of the Last Minstrel. In times more remote, secular clergy went on circuits from the Cathedral or seat of the Bishop and his priests; till the inconvenience of this itinerant system became strongly felt, and decrees were made in several General Councils of the Latin Church, 65 enacting that each benefice should have a permanently resident priest, and that a competent provision should be made for his support. This was usually done by assigning to the deputy, the Vicarius or Vicar, all the tithes except those of corn, although others were occasionally retained; but in various instances, instead of tithes, an allowance was made in money, equivalent perhaps at the time, but long since reduced to nominal payments, by the gradual depreciation in the value of gold and silver from natural causes, and by the fraudulent reduction of the standards practised in various degrees by all governments, or lastly, by the non-convertible paper currencies.

The very great difference in the circumstances of those deputies, arising from the nature of their endowments rather than any legal distinction in the offices, has affixed to one the name of Vicar, and to the other that of Perpetual Curate.

It appeared from Mr. Tonkin’s narrative, that the stipend in this parish amounted to six pounds a year, and that it had been withholden by superior force; without doubt, the liberality of modern times has long since caused it to be restored and increased.

Mr. Lysons states, that the impropriation has passed through the families of Molesworth and Manaton, and that it is now vested in Edward Coade, Esq. and that this great piece of preferment is in the Crown.

Tresmere measures 982 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 588 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 50 12 0

Population,—

in 1801, 129 in 1811, 154 in 1821, 173 in 1831, 171

giving an increase of 32½ per cent. in 30 years.

Perpetual Curate, the Rev. W. A. Morgan, presented by the Lord Chancellor in 1821.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The geology of this parish is in every respect the same as that of Trenegloss.

66

TREVALGA.

HALS.

Trevalga Rectory is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north the Irish Sea and Ferabery, east Minster, south and west Dundagell and St. Teth.

In the Domesday Book 1087, it was taxed by the name of Trevaga or Trevalga. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Trevalga, in decanatu de Minor Trigshire, was rated xxxxs. In Wolsey’s Inquisition £7. 6s. 8d. which probably was a free Chapel, erected before the Norman Conquest; since it hath not then or now admitted of any alteration of its name, though I judge from that Inquisition, that it was after the Conquest partly endowed by the Canons of the Cathedral Church of Exeter; since therein I read, Canonicus Exon. percepit de Ecclesia Trevalga vs. The parish was rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £59. 4s. 8d.

TONKIN.

Trevalga, in the hundred of Lesnewith, is bounded to the west by Tintagel, as it is to the north by the sea, to the east by Feraberry.

In an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. this Church is valued (Tax. Benef.) at xls. and the Canons of Exeter did receive out of it vs.

This Church is a Rectory, valued in the King’s Books £7. 6s.; and the patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent ——.

67 THE MANOR OF TREVALGA.

In Domesday Book this is mentioned as one of those given by William the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall. In the extent of Cornish acres 12 Edw. I. it is valued in eighteen.

[This manor, which has given name to the parish, has drawn its own from Trev Alga, the noble house; Alga (I.) signifying noble, as in Inis Alga, an old name for Ireland; and this affords one instance more of the necessity of recurring to the kindred dialects of the British in explaining Cornish names. W.]

THE EDITOR.

This parish is situated in the most wild and apparently most desolate part of Cornwall, although the soil is not unproductive. The Church stands near to the cliff of this iron-bound coast.

Mr. Lysons states, that the manor giving name to this parish, belonged in the reign of King James the First to James Welsh, Esq. from it has descended through the family of Bolitho to that of Stephens, and that it now belongs to Mr. Richard Stephens, of Culverhouse, near Exeter.

The Dean and Chapter of Exeter are patrons of the Rectory. The present Rector is the Rev. J. T. Symons, instituted 1831.

Trevalga measures 1094 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 1,024 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 89 5 0

Population,—

in 1801, 100 in 1811, 112 in 1821, 133 in 1831, 192

giving an increase of 92 per cent. in 30 years.

68 THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are similar to those of the adjacent parishes of Minster and Ferabury.

TREWEN.

HALS.

Trewen or Trewenn vicarage is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north and east Egloskerry and South Pederwin, south Lawanack, west Altarnun. As for the modern names, it signifies a white town or dwelling. The same, I suppose, in the Domesday Book 1087, taxed by the name of Trewin, i. e. the beloved town. The value of this Church’s revenues is not mentioned in any Inquisition, the same being wholly impropriated by the Abbat or Prior of St. Stephen’s, who endowed it, and was Patron thereof till the dissolution of the Abbey of St. Stephen’s aforesaid, 26 Henry VIII. when it fell to the Crown; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £46. 8s. 8d.

In this parish, September 29th, is held yearly a public fair or mart for goods and cattle.

In this parish is Polyfunt or Polyvant, synonymous words, i. e. the top spring or fountain of water, so called from some spring of water that rises in some high lands of that tenement, in which place the Prior of Minster in Kerryer, by the tenure of knight service, held one little knight’s fee of lands of Morton, 3 Henry IV. Survey of Cornwall, p. 41. It is now, as I am informed, the lands of —— Hicks, Gent.

69 TONKIN.

Trewen, in the hundred of East, hath to the west Altarnun, to the north Laneast, to the east Egloskerry, to the south Pederwin; as for the name, the plain meaning of it is, the White Town, but from whence so denominated I must plead ignorance.

[Tre Wen (C.) is the white or fair house, the manor house of the district, so called from its elegance, and then lending its name to the district and parish. W.]

THE EDITOR.

This parish is supposed to have belonged to the Priory of St. German’s as an appendix to South Petherwin, to which it is now united.

Trewen is not noticed by name in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of the 26th Henry VIII.; but South Petherwin, probably with the daughter parish included, is there stated to have paid to St. German’s annually,

£. s. d.

Decim. Garb 15 13 4

—— Feni 0 13 4

The great tithes belong to the University of Oxford, as does the presentation to the vicarage through the Mother Church.

This parish measures 868 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 796 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 134 11 0

Population,—

in 1801, 193 in 1811, 190 in 1821, 206 in 1831, 213

giving an increase of 10 per cent. in 30 years.

70 GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish is situated on rocks of the calcareous series, which are for the most part like those of Laneast; but where Trewen joins Alternun, bounded only by the small river Inney, some strata occur which deserve more particular notice. It has already been stated, that on the opposite side of this stream, a potstone or ollareous serpentine occurs; on the Trewen side a talcose schist first appears, which is followed by a calcareous schist, with its surface talcose and glossy, resembling the slate at Cotele on the Tamar. This slate gradually passes into a compact limestone, which is light-coloured and talcose, especially in such parts as come in contact with masses of hornstone diffused through the mass. This limestone is quarried and burnt on the spot, but after the selection of such portions as abound with calcareous spar.

TRURO.

HALS.

Truro is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Kenwen, east Clement’s, south an arm of Falmouth Harbour, where twice a day, upon spring tides, the sea makes its navigable flux and reflux to the walls, keys, and streets thereof.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this place was taxed under the appellations of Trewret and Treured, which shews that it then consisted of two privileged manors or jurisdictions, viz. the borough of Trewret and the manor of Treured, 71 now known, and still distinguished, by the names of the borough and manor of Truro, under the like circumstances.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Trewroe, in decanatu de Powdre, was rated liiis. ivd.

By the Charter of its incorporation from King John, the town was incorporated by the name of Burgus de Trewrow.

In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, this church’s revenues were valued at £16. The patronage formerly in Bodrigan or Trenowith, now Edgecumb. The incumbent Pagett; and the borough of Truro was rated to four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £186. 7s. That here was a Christian free chapel before the Norman Conquest I doubt not, implied in the word Trewrow, now a Rectory Church; in the glass windows of which, the north side thereof, is yet extant the arms of John Earl of Cornwall, who succeeded to the Crown of England 1199, and was made Earl of Cornwall by his father King Henry II. at nine years old (though he had not the possession thereof till the time of Richard I. 1190, which was but a hundred and twenty-four years after the Norman Conquest, and but one hundred and three years after the Conqueror’s death); which arms were: in a field Ruby, three leopards in pale passant gardant Tophaz, over all a bend Sapphire, which leopards are now called, and metamorphosed in the blazon of the Kings of England’s arms to lions, as it is testified by Nicholas Upton, who wrote his Book of Heraldry 1440, whose words be these: “Monsieur Johanes Roy d’Angleter, port de Gowles, ove trois lyopers d’Or.”

There is likewise extant in the same windows, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall’s badge, in a field —— three ostrich feathers with this motto or inscription, Ich Dien, or Ich Thyen, Saxon, I serve, which coronet was won by Edward the Black Prince, the first Duke of Cornwall, 72 from John of Luxemberge, King of Bohemia, at the battle of Cressy, 1346, and ever since worn by him and his successors, Dukes of Cornwall and Princes of Wales; which arms we may conclude was erected in this glass window soon after that victory, he being High Lord of this borough, which is held of his contiguous Duchy Manor of Moris, together with the Coinage Hall, which King John built and gave it; as also the royalty over the whole Harbour of Falmouth as far as Carike Road and the Black Rock Island (see Falmouth) in consideration of twelve pence rent and suits to that Manor Court, which privileges and royalty this town enjoyed till the time of King James II. and executed their water processes all over the said harbour for debt and damage; but then, upon the petition of Sir Peter Killigrew, Bart. it was given by him as an augmentation of profit to Mr. Quaram, Rector of Falmouth, and his successors for ever, but under what rent I know not.

The church was built at the proper cost and charge of the inhabitants, and other pious benefactors, with free-stone, in that costly and curious manner as it now stands, in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. as appears from an inscription in the glass windows thereof, under the name and arms of Margaret Tregian, one of those benefactors 1514; wherein also are yet extant the arms of the Arundells, Bevills, Trenowths, Carmenows, Edgecombs, and other benefactors; however, this church hath no tower or steple of bells as other churches.

And moreover, as when it was a free chapel, the minister subsisted on the oblations and obventions of the altar, so now, comparatively, upon the piety and charity of his hearers by voluntary subscriptions; from whence it may be presumed the rector must demean himself well, and labour hard in his vocation, to get a competent maintenance, at least he must walk with such upright and wary conduct as he that went barefoot upon the edge of a sharp knife and did not hurt his feet; since he must converse with, and have to do with, men of divers principles and opinions 73 in religion in this place, viz. Anabaptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers, as of old his predecessors had with monks, Dominican and Franciscan friars, who were sharers or peelers of his profits by their predicaments. I shall not enter into the controversy whether the Gospel were better preached before churches were endowed with revenues, or since, the one being a motive to pride, sloth, and laziness; as the other is an inducement to humility, temperance, and virtue.

In this church stands a curious monument erected to the memory of John Robartes, esq. that married Gaurigan (ancestor of the Right Honourable Charles Bodville, Earl of Radnor) though much defaced in the interregnum of Cromwell; whose ancestor John Robarts, Mayor of Truro, that lies entombed thereby, mightily enriched himself in this town by trade and manufactures.

There is also near the same another funeral monument, erected to the memory of three brothers of the Mitchells, tempore James I. viz. Thomas, John, and James, as I remember, who, as the inscription saith, had all one God, one womb, and one tomb.

On the west side of this town was of old a Dominican Chapel and Friary; part of their house and consecrated well yet standing; their revenues dispersed into several hands since the dissolution of their house 26 Henry VIII. and now in possession of ——.

In the centre of this town was a nunnery of Clares closed up, who had considerable revenues, now in possession of Sir John Seyntaubyn and others; their consecrated walled well at Edles in Kenwen, and their house called Anhell, i. e. the hall or tabernacle, was fairly built of free-stone, though lately pulled down, and converted to shops and dwelling houses.

The town of Truro was made a coinage town by King John as aforesaid, and had all its privileges confirmed by a charter from Queen Elizabeth, by the name of the Mayor and Capital Burgesses; and consists of a Mayor, Recorder, 74 and twenty-four Capital Burgesses. The members of Parliament are elected by the majority of inhabitants of the said Corporation; the arms of which are, a ship man-of-war in full course, with sails spread, on the seas, wherein are fishes swimming.

The precept on the Parliament writ from the Sheriff, and a writ for removing an action at law depending in this court leet, must be thus directed:

“Majori et Burgensibus Burgi sui de Trewrow in comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem.” als. “Manerium de Trewrow, viz. Senescallo et Ballivor. Manerij sui de Trewrow in Comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem.”

This place is more notable as being the birthplace and honorary title of John Lord Robarts, Baron Robarts of Truro (see Lanhydeiock). It is also privileged with fairs annually, on the 19th of November, the 8th of December, Wednesday after Midlent Sunday, and on Whitsun Monday or Tuesday, and markets weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays; wherein all commodities necessary for the life of man are vended in great plenty at a moderate rate, viz. fresh fish, oysters, lobsters, and crabs of all sorts, corn, fruits.

The salary of the collector of the Custom House here is yearly £40, two tidemen and a waiter £80 per annum.

The chief inhabitants of this town are John Manly, esq. barrister-at-law; Mr. Gregor, Dr. Maye, Dr. Cloake, Graduates in Physic; Mr. Hawes, Mr. Hickman, Mr. Granvill Hals, Mr. Hickes, Mr. Herle, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Mayow, Mr. Williams, Mr. Foxworthy, Mr. Grebhle, Mr. Pawley, Mr. Michell, and others.

Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall 1602, tells us this town of Truro, for wealth and riches, exceeded any other town in Cornwall, and for buildings all other except Lanceston; I think it still under the same circumstances.

In this town at some time lived Captain William Upcott that married —— Bruce of Scotland, daughter of Edward Bruce, esq. of Edinburgh; after her death, Anne, 75 daughter of Adam Bennet, of this town, gent. son of John Bennet, of Penton in Devon, gent. a man of approved valour and conduct in the war, who in all the unhappy Civil Wars between King Charles I. and his Parliament, was bred up in the school of Mars from his youth, first an Ensign, then a Lieutenant, lastly made a Commander of a foot company under the Earl of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax’s armies for the Parliament; afterwards he was made Coronet of General Monk’s Horse Troop or Brigade, who specially favoured him, and in that capacity accompanied him throughout all the fatigues of the English, Scots, and Irish wars, managed by him and Cromwell against Kings Charles I. and II.; and when Monk came out of Scotland and returned into England with his army, and restored King Charles II. to his throne.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Truro is situate in the hundred of Powder, and is surrounded to the south, west, and north, by Kenwin, and to the east by St. Clement’s, being washed on each side by two rivulets (of which that which comes from St. Allen is the principal), and which joining together at the bottom of the town, fall into an arm of Falmouth Harbour, and form a beautiful basin and key there. This takes its name from the town, as that does from the three principal streets of which it consists, Tri, three, and Ru, a street, turned to Truro, euphoniæ gratiâ. [See below concerning this Etymon, which is adopted from Camden, and is obviously absurd, as the town must have had a name long before it forked out into three streets; and indeed from the first moments of its existence as a town, as a parish, or as a manor. W.]

This church, which is dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book £16; the patronage in the Honourable Richard Edgcombe, esq.; 76 the incumbent Mr. Joseph Jane, who in 17— succeeded Mr. Simon Paget, as this last did Mr. Samuel Thomas.

In an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at liijs. iiijd. having never been appropriated.

Leland (Itin. vol. III. fol. 11) speaketh thus of this town: “This Creke of Truru afore the very toun is divided into two partes, and eche of them hath a brook cumming down, and a bridge, and the toun of Truru bytwixt them booth. The White Freres house was on the west arme yn Kenwyn Streate.

“Kenwen Streate is severed from Truru with this arme, and Clementes Streat by est is separate on the est from Truru with the same arme.

“One paroche chirch in Truru; Kenwen, and Clementes Streates have several chirchis, and bere the name of the Sainctes of the paroche chirchis.

“Coynage of tinne at Midsomer and Michaelmas at Truru.

“Truru is a borow toun, and priviledged. There is a Castelle, a quarter of a mile by west out of Truru, longing to the Erle of Cornwale, now clene doun. The site therof is now used for a shoting and playing place. Out of the body of Truru creake, on the est side, breketh a crek estwarde a mile from Truru, and goith up a mile ——, perhaps to Kigan, and thens to Tresilian Bridge.”

Nothing can be better described than the situation of this town is here by Leland; only as to the castle, it is so far from being a quarter of mile out of the town that it is in it at the head of St. Pancras-street, to the left hand of the way as you go to Kenwyn church, which by the bye is no Saint as Leland has here made it, or ever called St. Kenwyn. [The difference between Mr. Tonkin and his author concerning the castle, is no difference at all. Mr. Tonkin forgets the interval of time between Leland’s writing and his own. At that time the castle was assuredly out of the town; St. Pancras-street then going up but a little way from the open area by the church-yard, and the castle 77 being now “at the head” of this street.] It lies very pleasantly, and from it you have a view of the whole town, the country around it, and the river, or rather arm of the sea, which, when the tide is in, looks like a fine canal of two miles in length, [and in coming up the canal by boat, the town with its new spire below, and the church of Kenwin with its new vicarage-house above, form a most pleasing view]; but the castle itself is more like an old Danish camp or round, than a place that had been once inhabited, there not being the least sign left of any wall, &c.

At the last visitation of this county (Heralds’ Office) it is said that “the town and borough of Truro was incorporated by the name of mayor and burgesses by Reignald Earl of Cornwall, natural son to Henry I. which as appeareth by record, was done by Richard Lucy alias Lacam, testibus Rogero de Valitort, Roberto de Edune Anvilla, Ricardo de Raddona, Aldredo de S^to. Martino, sealed with an ancient seal with a man on horseback.

“And at the time of this present visitation, the 9th of October 1620, was Gregory Frignis Major, Thomas Burgess, Richard Daniell, James Lawarren, William Catcher, aldermen, Everard Edmonds, Henry Williams, Edward Kestell, William Avery, Walter Penarth, Germaine Grees, Francis Noseworthy, Francis Gregor, Cuthbert Sidenham, Humphrie Sidenham, Gawen Carverth, Thomas Burgess, jun., Richard Hill, John Adlington, Nicholas Paule, Edward Grosse, Robert Kemp, Nicholas Stephens, John Pernall, and William Cosens, burgesses, Hugh Boscawen, esq. recorder, and John Michell, town-clerk of the said borough and corporation.

“We find also that the Mayor of Truro hath always been, and still is, Major of Falmouth, as by an ancient grant now in the custody of the said Mayor and Burgesses doth appear.”

78 WHITAKER.

Here I shall add some remarks that will illustrate the origin of this town more than Mr. Tonkin has done.

Truro takes its name from its castle. This, in Leland’s time, belonged to the Prince of Wales as Earl of Cornwall, and was therefore one of the castellated palaces of the Cornish Earls; it was only a small one, however. This the ground of it shows when the walls are gone. Even in Leland’s time, it was “clene doun;” and the area was used as a place of exercise for shooting with bows and arrows, and for other diversions. It “is now,” says Mr. Tonkin, “more like an old Danish camp or round than a place that had been once inhabited.” What ideas Mr. Tonkin had of an “old Danish camp,” I cannot say; but the castle carries no appearance of a camp at all, either Danish, Saxon, or Roman. Nor is it more like a round, if by “a round” Mr. Tonkin means a Cornish one, like the amphitheatrical “round” of Piran. The only remains of the castle, indeed, are the name, a waste area, and the old mount or keep, the earth of which is nearly gone, and is daily vanishing by application of it to other purposes. This artificial mount marks the centre of the castle, had the main tower upon it, and constituted the principal part of the whole; and a small ward must have gone round it, standing on the natural ground, and forming the offices to this petty palace.

This was plainly the origin of the town:—where an ancient Earl’s house was, however small in its extent, and however occasional in its use, it naturally drew the traders of the country to it. The wants of such a Lord’s household, and the accompanying treasury of a kingdom in a county, created such a call for wares, and produced such a currency of wealth, as made it for its season the little centre of trade to the adjoining country; and a town grew up in time, the weakly child of its castle at first, but able to subsist without the castle at last. Such, undoubtedly, was the 79 origin of Truro. This lay upon the more westerly of the two currents; the westerly side of the town, therefore, would be the primitive and original part of it; accordingly, we see the White Friars’ house constructed with it. From this current it extended, as it enlarged, to the easterly one. The erection of a church on that side, when a district was taken out of Kenwin parish, and the peninsulated ground between the currents was formed into a parish of itself, drew it easterly with great power. The town consisted at first, probably, of the street running from the foot of the hill on a part of which the castle stood, and extending backwards with its yards and gardens to the western current; and this part of course adopted the previous appellation of the castle, and was called with it Tre-vereu, Tre-ureu, or Truru, Treuro, or Truro, the house or castle upon the Uro or Uru, the same denomination of a river with that of the Vere in Hertfordshire, the Vera-lamium of the Itineraries, the Uro-lanium of Ptolemy, and with that of the Eure in Yorkshire, the Uluracum, and the Is-urium of the geography and itineraries.

So originating from the castle, in that primary part of the whole, the western side of the town, and in that most primary point of all, the line of houses above, the town would naturally shoot out next in the line of houses opposite to this on each side of the opening towards the church, and beside the church on each side, drawn on by the strong attraction of the church itself. The roads into the town from east and west would then allure it down to their respective passes over the current; the road from the west then coming down, as it still does, at the bottom of the first line of houses; and that from the east coming within these thirty years by the narrow street near the church, at the corner of which is the rectory-house. The town would then extend from the western access into it, in a street of houses running at right angles with the original street of the whole, and pushing directly in a line from the access. These must have been the three streets from which Camden supposed 80 the name to have been derived: “Truro, Cornwallice Treuru, a tribus plateis dictum,” (page 138); but this last street was afterwards split by the corporation into two, by the erection of a town-hall above and a market-house below, along the middle of it. In this state stood the town probably for some time, with the continuance of this middle row of buildings, with the erection of a coinage-hall for tin a little beyond the termination of it, and with the extension of the two original sides of this third street up to it. It then stretched up the hill towards the castle, ranged over the confining currents on the east and west, into the parishes of St. Clement’s and Kenwin, and expatiated down to the quay and beside it. It ranged over the western current, now probably covered with a bridge, before it pushed up the hill towards the castle, as that line of houses is called Kenwin-street, even by Leland, and this is denominated St. Pancras-street by Mr. Tonkin; that was then the way, the circuitous way to Kenwin Church, when this is the direct way, and the present; and the principal alteration which has happened to Truro since, has resulted from the erection of a new bridge over the eastern current, longer and grander than the other, a few yards lower in the channel than it, lining with the eastern road, and leading directly to the Town-hall and market-house. This naturally produced a Bridge-street, leading up at one end of the Coinage-hall, so falling into what was then the principal stem of the town, and thus communicating with all the branches; and all will be consummated in a few years by executing an Act of Parliament which has already passed, in taking down that middle row of buildings which is formed by the town-hall and its accompaniments, restoring this street to its original width, and multiplying houses for the dislodged inhabiters in the extreme parts of the town.

When the church was originally built I know not, but it was then dedicated to St. Pancras, I apprehend, though it is now to St. Mary, as the street leading down to one corner of the large area at it, which is popularly denominated 81 Pider-street at present, is still denominated St. Pancras-street by Mr. Tonkin; but the present church of St. Mary is of that light and elegant sort of Gothic architecture which took place among us in the reign of Henry VII. and which perhaps might be wished to have still continued among us, as being a happy union of the solemn solidity of the Gothic and of the luminous lightness of the Roman. At this period the church must have been built, the architecture of London by degrees reaching out its influence into Cornwall; and accordingly in the southern window, which is the third from the east, is a date of 1518.

But let me be more particular concerning the antiquity of Truro. The castle is not mentioned in Domesday Book;[6] it was therefore later than the Conquest. It was built by some of the Norman Earls of Cornwall, and was one of the rural palaces, as it were, which they had in the county subordinate to their grand capitals at Launceston, Tremarton, and Restormel. The town must be still later than the castle; yet it is noticed within a century after the Conquest, so nearly coeval was it with its cause, the castle. It is noticed above to have been in the possession of Richard de Lucy. It was incorporated, says the Visitation above, “as appeareth by record, by Richard Lucy, alias Lacam.” “Truro, Truru, or Trevereu,” adds that best investigator of our constitutional antiquities, because the most grounded on the evidence of records, Dr. Brady, “was some time in the possession of Richard de Lucy, a person of great note in the reigns of King Stephen and Henry II. in the eighth of whose [Henry’s] reign,” or, an. Dom. 1162, “he was made Justice of England.”[7] This Richard had got possession of this part of the old estates of the earldom, either by one of those half-alienations, which were only sub-infeodations in reality, or (as we shall soon see) by being Earl of Cornwall himself. He actually resided in the castle, as he is styled in an instrument 82 of Henry the Second’s, “Ricardi de Lucy de Trivereu;” and he encouraged the little town of the Earls, by incorporating it, and so giving it a legal dignity in granting it an internal jurisdiction. He even proceeded to allow it that last and highest privilege of a borough, a freedom of exemption from toll; nor was this confined to the borough itself; it extended beyond it; it extended into all the country round; it was commensurate with the whole county; and Richard must, therefore, have acted with a power, not merely of the lord of the borough, but of the earl of the county, as no one less than an earl could have given such an ample sweep of exemption. The proof of all this lies in the original charter of the town, not now in existence, but referred to in a succeeding charter, and particularised so as to be equal to the very charter itself. The town thus began about the year 1100, was incorporated about 1130 perhaps, and was made a free borough (as we shall instantly see) before 1140.

In the reign of King Stephen, who came to the throne in 1135, and in the fifth year of it, or 1140, Lucy resigned up the possessions of the earldom; as then, “Reginald Fitzroy, who was one of the illegitimate sons of King Henry the First, was created Earl of Cornwall.”[8] Reginald was, therefore, invested with all that Lucy had possessed. This he retained till his death, which happened in the 21st of Henry II.[9] or the year 1175. We accordingly find him extending his more than half-royal graces to his borough of Truro, by granting it a charter confirmatory of the privileges which Lucy had conceded to it before. “The town and borough of Truro,” says the Visitation, “was incorporated by the name of the Mayor and Burgesses, by Reignald Earl of Cornwall, natural son to Henry the First (which, as appeareth by record, was done by Richard Lucy, alias Lacam), testibus Rogero de Valitort, Roberto de Edune Anvilla, Ricardo de Radiona, Aldredo 83 de St. Martino, sealed with an ancient seal, with a man on horseback.” This description shows the charter to have been actually inspected by the visitors; yet Dr. Brady knows it only from the recital of a subsequent charter.[10] The original is lost in the Tower, I suppose, while its counterpart is preserved at Truro; and it runs thus in the Inspeximus, 13 Edw. I. No. 61. “Reginaldus Regis Filius,” not as in descriptive terms the son of the King, but merely as a personal and family appellative, Fitzroy, “Comes Cornubiæ; omnibus Baronibus Cornubiæ, et omnibus militibus, et omnibus libere tenentibus, et omnibus tam Anglicis quam Cornubiensibus, salutem. Sciatis, quod concessi,”—a word that shows even confirmatory charters to do, what our legal antiquaries are naturally unaware that they do, to use the language of granting just as if they were original charters, and so leave us to decide from other circumstances, which are original and which confirmatory —“Liberis Burgensibus meis de Trivereu,” where the note of previous freedom in the Burgesses proves them to have been already freed from toll, “habere omnes liberas consuetudines et urbanas,” the same exemption from toll that all cities (which were in the King’s demesne) had, “et easdem in omnibus quas habuerunt in tempore Ricardi de Lucy,” a plain evidence that they had “free customs,” and that they themselves, therefore, were “free Burgesses” in the time of Richard de Lucy, “scilicet Sacham et Socham, et Tholl et Them, et Hinfangenethuf [Infangthief],” that is, all those rights of judicature over themselves, and over others who came among them, that then belonged to all the manorial courts, and that were necessarily given to the Burgesses of Truro when they were incorporated, and by incorporation were enabled to exercise a jurisdiction independent of the common officers of justice: “et concessi eis, quod non placitent in Hundredis, 84 nec Comitatibus, nec pro aliquâ summonitione eant ad placitandum alicubi extra villam Trivereu,” a privilege consequent upon the grant of an internal jurisdiction, and necessary to its completion: “et quod quieti sint de Tholneo dando per totam Cornubiam, in feriis et in foris, et ubicunque emerint et vendiderint,” a privilege which must have been a very valuable one to a society of traders, and the more valuable from its long reach over all the fairs and markets of the county: “et quod, de pecuniâ eorum accreditâ et non redditâ, namium capiant in villâ suâ de debitoribus suis,” by distraining the cattle, and arresting the persons of their debtors, that came into the town, though they did not belong to it.[11] This charter is without a date; with so many and such witnesses no date being necessary; and as it must have been prior to the Earl’s death, it was before the year 1175.

Henry the Second confirmed Reginald’s charter, as Reginald confirmed Lucy’s; and all were re-confirmed by Edward the First in 1284.[12] But in all these charters, we have no intimation of that grand privilege which we are sure Truro to have possessed, and which is alluded to in the Visitation above. “We find also,” says the Visitation, “that the Mayor of Truro hath always been, and still is, Mayor of Falmouth, as by an ancient grant, now in custody of the said Mayor and Burgesses, doth appear.” The superiority of Truro over all the harbour of Falmouth we see is here attested by a record of 1622; and “an ancient grant, now in the custody of the Mayor and Burgesses,” is appealed to by the record. This distinguishing privilege had been ceded to Truro by a grant of a particular nature; but from the manner in which the Visitation refers to it, the grant must have been so early as to be without a date, and so be like Reginald’s and Lucy’s charters before; and it was probably, therefore, about the same age with them. [Whitaker.]

85 THE EDITOR.

Truro has long claimed to be the first town in Cornwall; and the station has generally been allowed, although several others exceed it in beauty of situation. Penzance in that respect, as well as in foreign trade and the magnitude of its internal commerce; and Falmouth in the number of inhabitants.

Truro, situated adjacent to the largest mining district, at the head of a navigable river, and nearly in the centre of population, has acquired the lead in all county concerns, and has the good fortune to possess many large handsome houses, and breadth of streets unknown in the other towns. Here, too, for a long series of years, was situated the chief place of education for the heirs of Cornish families, at a time when the state of communication between places two or three hundred miles apart, rendered it a matter of serious importance to think of sending a lad to either of the public schools. Two very eminent masters of the school at Truro are still remembered, Mr. Conor, a layman, from the north of England, or Scotland, by the tradition of our fathers; and the Rev. Dr. Cardew, by some among the best classical scholars in both Universities. There is a monument to Dr. Cardew in St. Erme Church. It is also understood, that their predecessor, Mr. Jane, either established or maintained the reputation of this school. Mr. Jane is understood to have been a native of Leskeard, and a nephew of Doctor William Jane, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and Dean of Gloucester, who drew up the strong Declaration adopted by the University in favour of the principles which would have retained King James on the throne of England, and when the Revolution was effected, supported the opposite side, which gave occasion to the following epigrams:

86

The Rev. J. Jane, son of the gentleman who kept the school at Truro, became a student and tutor at Christ Church, from whenee he retired to the college living of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire.

Truro has produced its fair proportion of men distinguished by their proficiencies in literature, arts, sciences, and arms. Of persons living, I would select the Rev. Richard Polwhele, as an eminent historian, poet, and divine; and the Right Honourable General Sir Hussey Vivian, companion in arms of the Duke of Wellington, an active partaker in the glories of Waterloo, since commander-in-chief of Ireland, and now (1836) occupying, perhaps, the highest office of the government not included in the cabinet.

An individual, little if at all remembered, emanated from Truro in the sixteenth century, if he was not born there. Wood says, in the Athenæ Oxonienses:

“Thomas Farnabie, the most noted schoolmaster of his time, son of Thomas Farnabie, of London, carpenter, son of —— Farnabie, sometime Mayor of Truro in Cornwall, was born in London about 1575, and became a Student of Merton College in 1590; but being wild he made no long stay there, but left the college very abruptly, and went into Spain, and was for some time educated in a college belonging to the Jesuits. He left them, however, and being minded to take a ramble, went with Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkyns in their last voyage; afterwards, it is said, he was a soldier in the Low Countries. Having suffered great distress after his return, he at last succeeded in establishing a school in Goldsmiths’ Rents, near Red Cross Street in London, where at one time he made up a number exceeding three hundred generous 87 youths. At length, upon occasion of some sickness, he removed about 1636 to Sevenoaks in Kent, in the neighbourhood of which place (at Oxford) he had purchased an estate, and taught there the sons of several neighbouring gentlemen, by which he acquired considerable wealth, and purchased another estate near Horsham in Sussex. He suffered some loss and imprisonment in the Civil War on account of his taking the Royalty side, and died at Sevenoaks, where he is buried, in the chancel of the church, with the following inscription:

“P. M. Viri ornatissimi Thomæ Farnabii Armigeri, causæ olim Regiæ, reique publicæ, sed literariæ vindicis acerrimi, obiit 12 Junii 1647.

His principal works are,

Notes on the Satyrs of Juvenal and Persius.

Notes on the Tragedies of Seneca.

Notes on Martial’s Epigrams.

Notes on Lucan’s Pharsalia.

Notes on Virgil.

Notes on Terence.

Notes on Ovid.

A System of Grammar.

Index Rhetoricus and Oratorius.

Phrasiologia, Latin and English.

Anthology of Greek Epigrams, with a Latin Translation.

Tables of the Greek Language.

Various Letters to Learned Persons.

Boyle says of him in his Dictionary, that Farnaby was a learned classic, and that his notes on the greater part of the ancient Latin Poets have been of much use to young persons; that he dedicated his Horace to Prince Henry, the eldest son of King James the First, and that he was most favourably received by the Prince when he presented his 88 work; and that he received an order, or a request, to make similar commentaries on all the Latin Poets, in anticipation, in some degree, of the great work afterwards executed for the King’s son in France.

But the most remarkable and striking feature in the history of Truro consists of the great wealth acquired there by various families in succession during a long series of years.

The first on record is the family of Roberts, or Robartes, who are said to have began their career by retail trade in a house remaining at the commencement of this century, near the north-western extremity of what has been made the great street, by the improvement of taking down the middle row of houses, noticed by Mr. Whitaker, and completed by a new street leading from it southward towards Penryn and Falmouth.

It is possible that the very humble commencement of the Roberts’s fortunes may have been invented since their splendid elevation, to augment the wonder; but certain it is, that they resided for several generations in Truro, conducting extensive mercantile concerns, and accumulating capital, rather than obtaining it by any sudden effort; and employing their savings in the acquirement of land by great or small purchases, or more frequently, perhaps, through the medium of advancing money on mortgage, till they acquired the most scattered estate of any in the county. About the reign of James the First, this family rose into high consideration; they acquired an hereditary seat in Parliament, in a manner not very honourable at least to the Duke of Buckingham, and afterwards became decorated with the nominal office of Earl of Radnor: held the Lord Lieutenancy of Cornwall, with the Lord Wardenship of the Stannaries; and, lastly, the office of highest dignity in the gift of the Crown, the Vice-Royalty of Ireland.

The next considerable family emerging from Truro was the Vincents; in their case the practice of law was added 89 to trade; they repeatedly represented Truro in Parliament, and were among the first people of the county. One of their seats was Tresimple in St. Clement’s, now the property of Mr. Vivian, of Penkalenick in the same parish; but the family of Vincent has disappeared, and their very memory is almost extinguished.

After the Vincents will come the Gregors, who have now been for a long period country gentlemen. The late Mr. Francis Gregor represented the county in three successive Parliaments, from 1790 to 1806, when he retired on account of ill health.

The next large fortune acquired at Truro was by Mr. Lemon. A short account of this very extraordinary person has been given under Germoe parish. His very splendid career, not merely of acquiring wealth, but of high reputation for himself and of benefit to his country, began in the neighbourhood of Penzance; and his removal to Truro is understood to have been occasioned by the discernment of Mr. Coster, a gentleman concerned in copper smelting works at Bristol, and a representative in Parliament for that city.

Mr. Coster greatly augmented his fortune by purchasing the copper ores of Cornwall, for some time without a competitor; and undertaking to work some of the Gwennap mines in depth for copper, which had previously been productive of tin, he selected Mr. Lemon for one of his partners, with unlimited confidence in managing the whole concern.

Mr. Lemon was succeeded by Mr. Daniell, who took the whole of his great mercantile concerns off the hands of Mr. Lemon’s executors in 1760, having acquired the command of capital by his marriage with Miss Elliot, niece of Mr. Allen, of Bath. The late Mr. John Vivian acquired also a large fortune residing in Truro; and of persons now living, several might be added to the list.

Mr. Richard Hussey has been noticed in the parish of 90 Feock as an eminent lawyer, and likely to have attained some of the highest honours of the profession; he died unmarried in 1770. His father, who practised in Truro as an attorney, was the son of the Reverend John Hussey, vicar of Okehampton in Devonshire.

The late Mr. John Thomas may also be included among those who have acquired fortunes and displayed ability at Truro: after retiring early in life to Chiverton, a paternal property in Perran Zabuloe, where he built an excellent house, Mr. Thomas was placed in the honourable office of Vice-Warden, which he executed with great credit for more than thirty years.

Among persons distinguished for talents, one cannot omit Mr. Samuel Foote; he was born here about the year 1720, although the family seat was Lambessa, in the adjoining parish of St. Clement. His mother was the sister of Sir John Dinely Goodere and of Samuel Goodere, a Captain in the Navy, whose history almost equals in depth of misery the well-known tragedy of Penryn; and it is a curious circumstance that Mr. Foote’s first publication is a complete narrative of this most melancholy affair, in a pamphlet signed with his name, and addressed to Henry Combe, Esq. then Mayor of Bristol, in 1741. Mr. Foote’s life and adventures are before the public in various forms.

Recently two natives of Truro have distinguished themselves throughout Europe by a most important geographical discovery. The Mr. Landers, as is well known, descended a large river from the interior of Africa to the sea, at what is called the Bite of Benin, where the river loses itself by flowing in divided streams through a delta created by the deposit of alluvial debris, brought down from the highlands by the force of its own current.

A monument is now constructing on an elevated piece of ground at the southern extremity of the town, in memory of the brother, who has most unfortunately lost his life in a second expedition, intended for the establishment of a 91 friendly and commercial intercourse with the inhabitants of countries thus brought within our reach.

An anecdote seems worth preserving relative to an invention, completely in anticipation of the use now made of steam for propelling vessels in all parts of the world. The mere idea of using this gigantic power instead of the human arm for moving boats and ships through the water, must have occurred to thousands; the mode of effecting the application is the real invention.

About sixty years ago Mr. Charles Warrick resided at Truro, a young man of some family and fortune, and bred to the law; a person of singular and eccentric habits, displaying much ability and genius in some cases, with an apparent want of both in others. Mr. Warrick partook of a taste very common in places situated on navigable rivers, for spending a large portion of his time on the water, or in making contrivances relative to navigation; and he constructed a boat with slender ribs, covered either with canvass or with paper soaked in substances that excluded water: on each side he appended a wheel connected together by an axis turned in the middle into the form of a staple, or what is called a double crank. In this boat he frequently paddled from Truro to Falmouth Harbour, moving the crank with his hands, and out-running all other boats; but no one thought of applying the construction to larger vessels, nor had he, in all probability, the slightest notion, that within half a century similar wheels and cranks, moved by steam-engines, would impel vessels of many hundred tons burden through the most tempestuous seas, and against winds and tides, over extensive oceans, with a safety and a precision almost equal to land conveyance.

As illustrative of the changes in all respects, that have taken place in the last three-quarters of a century, the following curious relation, although trifling in itself, may be allowed to find a place.

A family about to embark at Falmouth, no longer ago than the year 1748 or 1749, hired a coach and horses in 92 London to convey them there, a system of travelling practised on the continent up to the present time; the driver having delivered his charge, made known his desire for obtaining, what he perhaps denominated a back-freight, on easy terms, and a party of young men availed themselves of the opportunity, stipulating, however, that in the event of their reaching a town at any part of the day where cockfighting would take place in the evening, the coach should lie by to afford them an opportunity of being present at the diversion.

Truro has not been measured as a distinct parish, and is therefore included in Kenwyn.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 6958 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 1119 4 0

Population,—

in 1801, 2358 in 1811, 2482 in 1821, 2712 in 1831, 2925.

giving an increase of 24 per cent. in 30 years.

It must be observed, that the amount of Real Property, the Poor Rate, and the Population, relate only to the ward rather than the parish of St. Mary, constituting Old Truro. In a note attached to the last Population Abstracts, it is said that the whole town is supposed to have contained 8,468 inhabitants in the year 1831.

The present Rector of Truro is the Rev. E. Dix, who was presented by the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in 1833. The net value of the living, as returned in 1831, was 135l.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The town of Truro stands on the same kind of argillaceous slate that prevails in the adjoining parishes of Kenwyn and St. Clement’s.

93

ST. TUDY.

HALS.

St. Tudy, alias St. Tidy or Tudy, is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north Michaelstow, east Brewar, south St. Mabyn, west St. Kew. For those names, they are all synonymous, and signify St. Udye, or St. Udith, (or the Holy Udith,) referring to the name of St. Udith, the tutelar guardian and patroness of this church, and by the name of Mama Tedy or Tidy,[13] i. e. Mother Udith, it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, which plainly shows here was an endowed rectory church dedicated to her before that time. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de St. Tudy, in decanatu de Minor Trigshire, was valued 1294 for its revenues, cs. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £31; the patronage in ——; the incumbent Trelawny. This parish was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, by the name of St. Udy, £144.

The history of St. Udith is as followeth: she was the natural daughter of King Edgar, by the lady Wolfchild, who was afterwards made Lady Abbess or mother of the maids of the Nunnery of Wilton in Wiltshire, wherein she demeaned herself so well as to her conduct, piety, and purity, that, as Capgrave tells us, she obtained the reputation of a saint, though the author of Polychronicon, Liber 6, chapter 9, tells us, that Bishop Ethel wold sharply reproved her, for deviating from her rule, and being too curious in her attire; to whom she replied that God regarded the heart more than garments, and that sin might be 94 covered as well with rags as robes; to which the Bishop answered, that, though our corrupt mortal bodies were covered with silk, silver, and gold, it could neither procure a minute’s life or health for us, nor hide our sins from God’s sight, but were rather an argument of our pride and vanity, than sincerity or humility.

After the brother of St. Udith, Edward the Martyr, was slain, St. Dunstan had a mind to make her Queen of England to defeat Etheldred the lawful heir, but her piety or policy would not permit her to accept the proffer: she died Anno Dom. 984, and was buried in the church of Denis of her own building at Wilton. She is commonly called Udith the younger, to distinguish her from St. Udith her aunt.

Hengar was formerly the seat of the Billings, alias Trelanders, whose daughter and heir was married to John Trelawny of Coldrinick, esq. by whom she had no issue; after his decease she was married to Dr. Lower, Physician in Ordinary to King Charles the Second, by whom he had three daughters, one married to Edward Morice of Werrington, esq. (by whom she had no issue); after his decease she was married to the honourable Major-General Charles Trelawny, governor of the Royal Citadel of Plymouth, now in possession of this place. Another daughter was married to Captain Mitchell; the third to —— Lower of St. Winnow.

Pen-vos, alias Pen-vose. It is now the dwelling of Humphrey Nicoll, esq. Commissioner for the Peace, that married —— Cudworth.

In this parish as I take it, or St. Kew, is still to be seen the ruins of a once famous and treble intrenchment of our ancestors the Britains, called Dameliock Castle, and taxed by the name of Dimelihoc, in the Domesday Book 1087, wherein Gothlois, (i. e. purple back or spear,) Earl of Cornwall immured or fortified himself against Uter Pendragon’s soldiers: in which place he was by them slain about the fifth century, as our annalists tell us (see Dundagell).

Damelyock, alias Daimelack, as a monosyllable in British, 95 Scotch, and Irish, signifies the hazard, skirmish, or battle house or place. The lands about this fort and castle, since its first erection, have been enclosed and cultivated, so that now it is comparatively defaced, but not so much as to obscure this treble ditch, camp, or intrenchment, from the sight of spectators or observators, or to obliterate its ancient name aforesaid; but query, whether this Dameliock Castle be not in St. Kew and St. Teath?

Those Billings, alias Trelawders, mentioned on the other side, were gentlemen of blood and arms of three or four descents, and at Hengar, alias Hanger or St. Mabyn, married with the daughters of Blewet of Colon (who gave for their arms, Gules, a chevron between three eagles displayed Vert), Babb of Tingraze in Devon, Hockyn of Helland, and Helston in Cornwall, and gave for their own arms, in a field Or, on a bend Sable three stag’s or buck’s heads couped at the neck Or, attired and armed of the Field. The which Billing, heir of St. Mabin, was married to Hamley of Treblethick 1630.

Note further, that Tredinick of St. Breock gave the same arms as Billing or Trelawder of Hengar, only differenced with the colour of the stag’s or buck’s heads, viz. in a field Or, on a bend Sable, three buck’s heads attired or armed Argent.

TONKIN.

St Tudy, in the hundred of Trigg, hath to the northwest St. Kew, to the north that and St. Teath, to the east Michaelstow and Brewer, to the south St. Mabin.

In anno 1291, 20 Edward I. this church by the name of St Tudy, was valued (Tax. Ben.) at cs. having never been appropriated.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book very high, £31; the patronage in Christ Church College, Oxford; the present incumbent Mr. George Allanson (vicar likewise of Budock and Gluvias) who succeeded —— Collier.

96 The manor of Tinten, id est [as the name appears below to be Tynton, Din Don, Tin Ton, the hill house. W.]

In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. (Carew, fol. 47 b.) this is valued in twelve.

This was anciently the seat of the family of the same name. Johannes de Tynten is named among the knights of the county of Cornwall, 17 Edward II. when John de Treiagu was Sheriff (Ibid. fol. 51). Johannes de Tynton (probably his father, for this was no knight) was one of those that had £20 per annum of land or rent or more, in the county of Cornwall, 25 Edward I. John de Tinten held one fee Mort. [of the honour of Morton] in Tynten, and in Trewinneck, 3 Henry IV. (ibid fol. 42 b.)

THE EDITOR.

The church of this parish is adorned with several splendid monuments, one to Mr. Anthony Nicoll, who distinguished himself in the Civil War, and another representing a mother and three daughters kneeling, with various arms emblazoned over them, Reskymer, Courtenay, Mohun, Trelawny, &c.

St. Editha, the patroness of this church, as Mr. Hals conjectures on the assumed authority of Domesday Book, must have acquired a high degree of sanctity at a very early period of life, having died in her twenty-fourth year, after passing her time from childhood in the convent at Wilton, of which her mother was abbess; and, therefore, as it is observed in the Roman Martyrology, “She may be said rather not to have known the world than to have left it;” but she fasted, wore hair-cloth next her skin, and chose to perform every office that was most disgusting or loathsome. In recompense, her beatitude was attested, according to William of Malmesbury, in a most decisive manner; who says, that while Canute celebrated the festival of Whitsuntide at Wilton, he spoke with ridicule of St. Editha, adding, that he never could believe the daughter 97 of King Edgar could be a saint, who had always addicted himself to acts of tyranny, and to the indulgence of bad passions. Ethelnodus, the archbishop, then present, contradicted the king, and proceeded to open the tomb of the virgin saint; when, raising herself up so as to sit, she seemed to attack the contumaceous king; and he, terrified, fell prostrate on the ground, apparently without life; but recovering, he expressed great joy, that by a renovation of his existence he found himself in a situation to be penitent for his fault.

The presentation to this rectory is in the Dean and Canons of Christ Church. The Rev. Charles Hodgson, late student, presented in 1817, is the present incumbent.

The whole parish appears to be well cultivated, notwithstanding that it adjoins the granite district of St. Breward or Simonward, and it is agreeably diversified by hill and dale.

It appears from Mr. Lysons that the manor of St. Tudy belonged to the family of Nicoll, but that it was sold together with Penrose, the family seat, to Mr. Trehawke of Leskeard, by whom they have been devised to Samuel Kekewich, esq.

The manor of Tinten, like so many others, either gave its name to the ancient proprietors, or received it from them. An heiress took it to the Carminows of Boconnoc. The Carminow property passed to the Courtenays, and fell to the Crown on the attainder of the Marquis of Exeter. This manor was included by King Henry the Eighth in the exchange given for the honour of Wallingford.

The manor of Kellygreen belongs to Walter Raleigh Gilbert, esq.

Tremeer was a seat of the Lowers, the birth-place of Sir William Lower, the author of various works.

The Phœnix in her flames, a Tragedy.

Polyenetes, or the Martyr, a Tragedy.

Horatius, a Roman Tragedy.

The Enchanted Lovers, a Pastoral.

98 The Amorous Fantasme, Tragi-Comedy.

Noble Ingratitude.

Journal of the Travels of King Charles the Second in Holland; and others.

He died in 1662.

Here also was born Richard Lower, M.D. brother of the former, who lived to the year 1690. This gentleman published various medical works, and some papers in the Philosophical Transactions. One of his works, “Tractatus de Corde, item Motu et Calore Sanguinis et Chyli in eorum transitu,” reached a third edition in England, and was reprinted abroad.

Hengar is a handsome seat, very pleasantly situated on a rising ground, and at a small distance from the house a prospect is obtained of great extent and beauty, in consequence of an admixture of all the varieties of scenery which distinguish Cornwall —granite mountains, undulating hills of the slate formation, deep valleys with streams of water, and trees, and finally the sea. This place was the occasional residence of Matthew Michell, esq. acquired under the will of Samuel Michell, a Colonel in the Guards, who died there in 1786, after attaining his eighty-fifth year. Mr. Matthew Michell has left this place with all his property to his widow, who is again married to a gentleman of the name of Searle.

St. Tudy measures 2881 statute acres.

£. s. d.

Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 4286 0 0

Poor Rate in 1831 398 8 0

Population,—

in 1801, 502 in 1811, 512 in 1821, 605 in 1831, 658

giving an increase of 31 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish no where reaches so far as the granite hills. Its eastern part is composed of rocks which pass into the 99 porphyritic series of St. Breward; the western part rests on the same kind of rocks as those of the adjoining parish of St. Teath.

TYWARDRETH.

HALS.

Tywardreth is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Lanlivery and Luxillian, south the British Channel, east Giant and Fowey Town, west St. Blazey. The name signifieth the house upon the sand; and by the same name of Tywardrai, it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices 1294, Ecclesia de Tywardreth, in decanatu de Powdre, was valued at cvis. viiid.; in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £9. 6s. 8d.; the patronage formerly in the abbat of Tywardreth, now Rashleigh; the incumbent —— Woolridge; the rectory in Rashleigh; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year £205. This church is wholly appropriated or impropriated to the prior or abbat of Tywardreth, before the statute of Richard II.; and the vicar was paid only with £11 modus or stipend per annum, out of the Duchy Exchequer of Lestwithiel. It was the chief alien priory in those parts, which name of alien priors or abbats arose soon after the Norman Conquest, when certain Englishmen, Normans, and French, gave lands in England to Monasteries beyond the seas; upon which the monks built convenient houses 100 for increasing the number of those under their own rule, and to inspect their revenues and tithes, in which houses they planted a suitable number of monks, under a superior or steward. This priory or abbey was therefore accordingly made subject to the Abbey of St. Sergius and Bacchus of Angiers in France, soon after the Norman Conquest (to whom also is dedicated their church of Luxillian).

The history of whom is as followeth: These saints were Christians and Noblemen of the City of Constantinople; the one Primicerius, and the other Secondicerius; that is to say, Sergius the First, and Bacchus the Second, Secretaries of State to the Emperor Maximian; who for that they would not join with him in sacrificing to the Roman gods or idols, were cruelly tormented by the common hangman, and lastly had their heads chopped off, 7th October 310. There is pious mention of those saints in the Second Nicene Council, Martyrologers, and otherwise; and many churches are dedicated to them in Constantinople, and other parts of Christendom; and the place in Asia where St. Sergius suffered, is called Sergiopolis to this day.

This abbey was first founded by William Earl of Morton and Cornwall, according to the rule of Augustine and Benedict. It was afterwards re-edified and greatly augmented in its revenues by Robert de Cardinham, tempore Richard I. 1190, (see the Monasticon Anglicanum of Dugdale); for which reason he is by some persons taken to be the founder thereof.

This Robert de Cardinham I take to be the same person mentioned by the name of Robert de Cardinam, (Survey Cornwall, page 44), who held by the tenure of knight service seventy-one knight’s fees of Morton in Cornwall, tempore Richard I.

This abbey or priory house and church of Tywardreth, was dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle and Martyr of Christ, whose history followeth. He was born at Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, elder brother of St. Peter, 101 and disciple of St. John Baptist, and was present when he pointed at Jesus, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world;” whereupon he left St. John Baptist and followed Christ. Who, for that, after our Saviour’s Crucifixion, he would not sacrifice to the Roman Gods or Idols, at the command of Egeus Proconsul of Rome, sent governor into the province of Achaia, was crucified as his Lord and Master was, 30 November, Anno Dom. 60, in the reign of the Emperor Nero.

His body was afterwards translated to Constantinople, from thence to Italy, and lastly to Amalphy in Naples, where it still remains.

Now, by reason these alien priories transmitted to their superiors beyond the seas the news and state of affairs in this land, whereby the designs and undertakings of our princes were divulged to their enemies in their French wars; therefore all those sort of religious houses of this kind were suppressed by Act of Parliament, tempore Edward III. Richard II. Henry V. and Henry VI.; and amongst them in Cornwall, Minster, alias Tolcarne, in Trigmajor, and Minster in Kerryer; St. Neot and St. Bennett’s in Lanyvet in Pider were put down, and their lands confiscated to the Crown; but this priory of Tywardreth, for its loyalty or integrity, or for some other reason of security, stood firm till the general dissolution of all those religious houses, 26 Henry VIII. when the revenues of this abbey, according to Dugdale, was £123. 9s. 3d. Speed £151. 6s. 8d. as is set down in their Monasticon Anglicanum.

Mena-belly, alias Mena-billy, in this parish, is the dwelling of Jonathan Rashleigh, esq. Commissioner for the Peace and Taxes, and some time Member of Parliament for Fowey, that married Carew of Anthony, his father Sawle, his grandfather Bonython, his great-grandfather Lanyon. Originally descended and denominated from the 102 local place of Rashleigh house, in or about Raneleigh parish in Chulmleigh Hundred in Devon.

In this parish, towards the sea coast, is that famous camp or treble intrenchment, called Castle Dore, consisting of a threefold trench cast up of earth, in which heretofore our ancestors the Britons fortified themselves against their enemies; out of which, as common report saith, tempore Charles II. some dreamers of money hid in this camp or place, upon search made, accordingly found such treasure as they much enriched themselves thereby.

TONKIN.

Trewardreth is in the hundred of Powder; for the name, it signifies the village or the house upon the sand. It is a vicarage, not valued in the King’s Book, as having been but lately endowed; the late incumbent was Mr. May, likewise Rector of St. Mewan, who died this year (1732).

In the year 1291, 20th Edward I. the rectory of this church was valued at £5. 6s. 8d. being appropriated to the priory here; and the vicarage at 13s. 4d.

In 3 Henry IV. William de Campo Arnulphi [or Champernoun] held here one fee, from whom the prior held three acres and a half in the same. There are what are still called the priory lands. But to go further back, as Robert de Cardinam was the founder of this priory in the time of Richard the First, according to Bishop Tanner in his Notitia Monastica, this must be one of the seventy knight’s fees, which the said Robert held in this county, 6th Richard I. who by consequence must then have been lord of this manor. In Domesday Book it is, by the name of Tiwardrai, numbered among the manors which William the Conqueror gave to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall.

Leland says of this place, Tywardreth, “A praty town, but no market, lieth a quarter of a mile from the east side of the bay; there is a parish church, and there was a priory 103 of black monks, a cell sometime to a house in Normandy. Some say Campernulphus was founder of this priory; some say that Cardinham was founder. Arundell of Lanherne was of late taken for the founder.

“I saw a tomb in the west part of the church of this priory, with this inscription:

Hæc est Tumba Roberti filii Wilhelmi.

“This Robert Fitz William was a man of fair lands, tempore Edwardi tertii Regis Angliæ.”

THE EDITOR.

The parish church and tower bear on the exterior an appearance of antiquity. Internally, much decoration was displayed, and especially by a rood-loft which has been recently taken down. These alterations of our ancient churches are justly lamented by all persons capable of admiring the beauty and imposing splendour of Gothic architecture, but they seem to have almost inevitably grown out of the change of purpose to which churches are applied. Originally, the chancel, protected by the rood loft and by a veiled entrance, was destined for the astounding miracle of repeatedly transforming bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ, while the outward or less sacred part of the edifice, was used for processions and scenic exhibitions; accompanied by dirges or by triumphant choruses, adapted either to the death or to the resurrection of our Saviour. In modern times, on the contrary, a room is required so constructed as to admit of whole congregations joining with an individual in prayers, or of listening to his instruction.

The monastery has so completely disappeared, that its precise locality was not remembered; but a gentleman of the neighbourhood having taken considerable pains to 104 ascertain whatever could yet be discovered about it, made the following communication to the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1822.

“The ancient priory of Tywardreth has long been so entirely levelled with the ground, that it is not very easy even to ascertain its site. Some time ago the present vicar obtained leave to dig the ground on its supposed site in search of stones for erecting a vicarage house. The place where he made an excavation for this purpose appears to have been the east end of the priory chapel; and as some measurements were taken at the time, and I have, with the permission of the landlord, opened the ground in several places, partly with the hope of ascertaining the form of the chapel, and partly of throwing some light on its architecture, the following particulars may not be unacceptable.

“The chapel appears, so far as could be ascertained by measurement, to have been eighty feet long, by fifty-seven wide, with a semicircular end towards the east, strengthened by four buttresses of wrought Pentewan stone, two feet wide, and ornamented by four pilasters; within the shafts are a single half-column, fourteen inches in diameter. At each angle was a handsome piece of architecture, as it was described to me, of which pilasters, resembling those already described, formed a part, but with the base five inches wide, and the mouldings in proportion.

“In the vicarage garden, adjoining the west end of the chapel, a fragment of a stone arch was found, with a fleur-de-lis elegantly carved in deep relief; the same devise appears on the church stile, and in a coat of arms in one of the windows of the church, and appears from Tanner to have been part of the arms of the priory. The wall of the chapel is the south wall of the churchyard.

“The chapel was paved with beach pebbles, and was built partly of common clay slate raised on the spot; the wrought stones were of compact hard porphyry, from Pentewan Quarry in the parish of St. Austell, and hornblende from the cliff between Duporth and Charlestown in the same 105 parish. All the carved work is executed with much skill and taste.”

Several charters granted to this monastery are preserved in Dugdale’s Monasticon. The earliest is in the 19th year of Henry the Third, A. D. 1234, as follows:

“Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, Dominus Hiberniæ Dux Normandiæ et Aquitaniæ, et Comes Andegaviæ, omnibus Archiepiscopis, &c. salutem. Inspeximus cartam Roberti de Cardinam, in hæc verba:—

“Robertus de Cardinam omnibus Sanctæ Matris Ecclesiæ filiis salutem. Sciatis me, pro Dei amore et animæ meæ salute, concessisse et præsenti carta mea confirmasse ecclesiæ sanctorum martyrum, Sergii et Bachi Andegavi, et ecclesiæ Sancti Andreæ de Tywordrait et Monachis ibidem Deo servientibus et servituris, omnes donationes et concessiones quas antecessores mei, seu quicunque fideles de feodo meo ipsis fecerint,” &c.

The seal of the convent is understood to have been a saltire, or St. Andrew’s cross Or, between four fleurs-de-lis, which accounts for the sculptures noticed above.

St. Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland, and popular throughout the whole island, after an Abbat, said to have borne the name of Regulus, had brought some of his relics to a place then called Abernethy, but where a Monastery, a University, and a city, have since arisen to commemorate the Apostle.

The priory of Tywardreth appears to have been suppressed with the other alien houses, but afterwards to have been re-established as an independent society, or made denizen according to the legal phrase, having at the time of the general dissolution the Priory of Minster attached to it as a cell, which had been originally dependent with itself on the Abbey of St. Sergius and St. Bacchus at Angiers, the former capital of Anjou, and now of the department of the Maine and Loire.

A very curious correspondence between Thomas Cromwell, Vicar-General and Vicegerent of the King’s Supremacy on the one part, and Thomas Collyns the last Prior 106 on the other, is said to exist among the papers and documents preserved by the Arundells of Lanhearn, and of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire.[14]

In one of the letters Cromwell is understood to have complimented the Prior on the possession of every active virtue, especially as displayed in the good government of his convent; he assures him that the King is fully sensible of his merits; and in consideration of his great age and faithful services, the King out of special grace and favour would allow him not only to resign the painful office of governing such a society, but would admit of his recommending a successor.

Collyns’s answer is full of thanks to the Lord Vicegerent, and of gratitude to the King, whose approbation he esteemed above all worldly matters, and next to the conscious satisfaction of having discharged faithfully his duties towards the Almighty in the station to which it pleased God that, without any merits of his own, he should be advanced. He offered his most humble and grateful thanks to the King for the great favours profferred to him; but that, feeling his health and strength sufficient for enabling him to continue the discharge of duties which the King had approved, he owed it to his conscience not to withdraw from them.