Chapter IX: Part 9

In the following year he married Ann Hamlyn, the elder of the two daughters of Mr. Ackland Hamlyn, of Galsham, and his wife Ann, who was one of the last of the ancient and gentle family of Velly of Velly, a family which had held a prominent position in the parish for at least five hundred years. The marriage is thus entered in the parish register:--

“Daniel Herbert Coppinger of the King’s Royal Navy and Ann Hamlyn
mar^d (by licence) 3 Aug.”

Far from being “a young damsel,” the bride was of the mature age of forty-two. Two years later her sister, Mary, was married to William Randal, but there is no record or local tradition of any issue from either marriage. What rank Coppinger held in the Navy is not known, but his name does not appear in the lists of commissioned officers.

For about two years he carried on his nefarious business of smuggling, and stories are still told of the various methods he adopted of outwitting the gauger. His chief cave was in the cliff at Sandhole, but another is pointed out in Henstridge Wood, a couple of miles inland. On one occasion, perhaps after Coppinger’s time, the caves were watched so closely that the kegs of brandy which had been landed were deposited at the bottom of the _zess_, as the pile of sheaves in a barn is called, of an accommodating farmer. The gauger, who had his suspicions, wished to search the zess, but the farmer was so willing to help him in turning over the sheaves that his suspicions were allayed, and he went away without finding any of the incriminating articles. On another occasion the result was not so satisfactory for the farmer. On the arrival of the gauger, he produced some empty kegs in order to give his wife an opportunity of hiding a supply of valuable silks which had been left in their care. The safest place she could think of in her hurry was the oven, but she forgot that it had been heated for baking a batch of bread. The result was that, although the gauger failed to find them, they were burnt to ashes.

Mrs. Coppinger’s mother went to live with her other daughter and son-in-law at Cross House in Harton. She was the owner of Galsham, and retained possession of her husband’s money, and the tale runs that, in order to obtain money from her, Coppinger, having been refused admission, had been known to stand, with a pistol in each hand, on the _lepping-stock_, or horse-block, in front of the house and threaten to shoot any person who appeared at the door or any of the windows unless the required sum was produced. It is even said that once, as he was passing the house, he saw his brother-in-law, Randal, at the window, and fired at him without provocation, but luckily missed his aim.

Mrs. Ann Hamlyn was buried on September 7th, 1800, after which date the farm became the property of Mrs. Coppinger. Coppinger spent what he could, but apparently became bankrupt, for in October, 1802, he was a prisoner in the King’s Bench, in company with a Richard Copinger, who is stated to have been a merchant in the island of Martinique. What became of him afterwards does not seem to be known, but it is said that he lived for many years at Barnstaple, in receipt of an allowance from his wife. She herself went there to live out her days, and died there on August 31st, 1833, at the age of eighty-two. She was buried in the chancel of Hartland Church, in the grave of her friend, Alice Western, and by the side of her mother. Coppinger’s name can still be seen, inscribed in bold characters “D. H. Copinger” on a window-pane at Galsham. Galsham is now the property of Major Kirkwood of Yeo Vale.

Writing to his brother-in-law, Mr. J. Sommers James, in September, 1866, Mr. Hawker asks him, “Do you remember Bold Coppinger the Marsland Pirate? He died eighty-seven (?) years ago. I am collecting materials for his Life for _All the Year Round_;” and again in November of the same year, “Hadn’t you an Aunt called Coppinger?”

It is interesting to note that Coppinger has “entered fiction” through the pages of Mr. Baring-Gould’s “In the Roar of the Sea.”

APPENDIX G (p. 139)

THOMASINE BONAVENTURE

BY R. PEARSE CHOPE

The tale of the shepherdess who became Lady Mayoress was told by Carew in his “Survey of Cornwall,” and her biography has since been sketched by many different authors, such as Lysons in “Magna Britannia,” W. H. Tregellas in “Cornish Worthies,” and in the “Dictionary of National Biography,” and G. C. Boase in “Collectanea Cornubiensia.” An account appears also in the “Parochial History of Cornwall;” and a book by E. Nicolls, entitled “Thomazine Bonaventure; or, the Maid of Week St. Mary,” was published at Callington in 1865, only two years before Mr. Hawker’s article appeared in _All the Year Round_. The Churchwardens’ Accounts of St. Mary Woolnoth, from which extracts were given in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1854 (vol. xlii. p. 41), and in the “Transcript of the Registers of the United Parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Mary Woolnoth Haw,” by J. M. S. Brooke and A. W. C. Hallen (1886, p. xvi.), contain the following entries:--

“1539.--Item receyved of the Master and Wardens of the Merchint
Tayllours for the beame light of this church according to the
devyse of Dame Thomasyn Percyvall widow late wyf of Sir John
Percyvall Knight deceased

xxvj^{s.} viij^{d.}

Item receyved more of the Master and Wardens of Merchint Tayllors
for ij tapers thoon of vij _lb._ and the other of v LB. to brenne
about the Sepulture in this Church at Ester ij^{s.} iiij^{d.} and
for the churchwardens labor of this church to gyve attendance at
the obit of Sir John Percyvall and otherwyse according to the
devyse of Dame Thomasyn Percyvall his wyf

iiij^{s.} vj^{s.} iiij^{d.}

Item receyved of the said Master and Wardens of Merchint Taillors
for the Repacions of the ornaments of this church according to the
will of the said Sir John Percyvall

vj^{s.}

Item receyved of the Maister and Wardens of Merchint taillors for a
hole yere for our Conduct for kepying the Antempur afore Saint John
with his children according to the will of the said Dame Thomasyn
Percyvall

xx^{s.}”

A monument erected to Sir John Percival in the old church is mentioned by Stow, but it is no longer in existence. Sir John’s will hangs in the present church.

The following account of the chantry founded by Dame Percival at Week St. Mary was extracted by Oliver from the Chantry Rolls of Devon and Cornwall, preserved among the records of the Court of Augmentations:--

“SAYNT MARYE WEKE.--See Cert. 9, No. 6. The chauntrye called Dame
Percyvalls, at the altar of Seynt John Baptist, in the north yeld
within the same church. Founded by Dame Tomasyne Percyvall, wyf of
syr John Percival, knt., and alderman of London. To fynd a pryste
to praye for her sowle in the paryshe churche of Saynt Marye Weke;
also [to] teach children freelye in a scole founded by [her] not
farr distant from the sayd parishe churche; and he to receyve for
his yerelye stipend xij^{li.} vj^{s.} To fynde a mancyple also
to instructe children under the sayd scolemaster, and he to have
yerelye xxvj^{s.} viij^{d.} To a laundresse for the scolemaster and
mancyple yerelye xiij^{s.} iiij^{d.} And the remayne of the lands
(all charges of reparacons of the tenements and houses, chalys and
ornaments, being first allowed) should be expended in an obytt
yerelye for her in the paryshe church.--Cert. 10, No. 8, xiij^{s.}
iiij^{d.} to y^e pore peple yerelye.

“The yerelye value of the lands and possessions,

xv^{li.} xiiij^{s.} viij^{d.}

“Cert. 9, No. 6. M^{d.}That one John Denham, of Tyston [Devon], one
of y^e feoffees of founders of the said scole, kepyth land named
Ashe in Broadworth and other quylytts thereto adjoinyng, parcel of
possessions gyven for sayd scole; and with y^e profytts thereof
payeth iiij^{li.} yerely to y^e manciple ther, and xiij^{s.}
iiij^{d.} to y^e launder of y^e said scole-house.” (Oliver,
“Monasticon Dioecesis Exoniensis,” p. 483.)

Carew’s quaint account is worth quoting in full:--

“_S. Marie Wike_ standeth in a fruitfull soyle, skirted with a
moore, course for pasture, and combrous for travellers. This
village was the birth-place of _Thomasine Bonaventure_, I know not,
whether by descent, or event, so called: for whiles in her girlish
age she kept sheepe on the fore-remembred moore, it chanced, that a
London marchant passing by, saw her, heeded her, liked her, begged
her of her poore parents, and carried her to his home. In processe
of time, her mistres was summoned by death to appeare in the other
world, and her good thewes, no lesse than her seemely personage, so
much contented her master, that he advanced her from a servant to
a wife, and left her a wealthy widow. Her second marriage befell
with one _Henry Gall_: her third and last, Sir _John Percival_,
Lord Maior of London, whom she also overlived. And to shew, that
vertue as well bare a part in the desert, as fortune in the meanes
of her preferment, she employed the whole residue of her life and
last widdowhood, to works no lesse bountifull, than charitable:
namely, repayring of high waies, building of bridges, endowing
of maydens, relieving of prisoners, feeding and apparelling the
poor, &c. Amongst the rest, at this _S. Mary Wike_, she founded a
Chauntery and free-schoole, together with faire lodgings, for the
Schoolemasters, schollers, and officers, and added twenty pound
of yeerely revennue, for supporting the incident charges: wherein
as the bent of her desire was holy, so God blessed the same with
al wished successe: for divers the best Gent. sonnes of _Devon_
and _Cornwall_ were there vertuously trained up, in both kinds of
divine and humane learning, under one _Cholwel_, an honest and
religious teacher, which caused the neighbours so much the rather,
and the more to rewe, that a petty smacke onely of Popery, opened a
gap to the oppression of the whole, by the statute made in _Edw._
the 6. raigne, touching the suppression of Chaunteries.” (Carew,
“Survey of Cornwall,” edit. 1769, p. 119.)

Mr. W. H. Tregellas states that at the death of Sir John Percyvall, about 1504, his widow retired to her native place; but Carew’s words do not appear to justify this inference, and it is stated in the Stocken MSS. in the Guildhall Library that she was buried at St. Mary Woolnoth. Mr. Tregellas does not appear to have been able to trace the will; but Lysons, whose account was published in 1814, says definitely that the will was dated 1512, and this statement has been accepted by subsequent writers. By this will she bequeathed to her brother, John Bonaventer, £20; she made her cousin, John Dinham, who had married her sister’s daughter, residuary legatee, and committed to his discretion the chantry and grammar school founded in her lifetime; she gave a little gilt goblet, having a blue flower in the bottom, to the Vicar of Liskeard, to the intent that he should pray for her soul; and towards the building of the tower of St. Stephen’s by Launceston she left 20 marks. Robert Hunt, in his “Popular Romances of the West of England,” says that Berry Comb, in Jacobstow, was once the residence of Thomasine, and was given at her death to the poor of Week St. Mary. The “Parochial History of Cornwall” gives 1530 as the approximate date of her death.

APPENDIX H (pp. 161-62)

EPITAPHS OF RUDDLE AND BLIGH

The following is extracted from a little book entitled “Some Account of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Launceston,” by S. R. Pattison, 1852:--

“Adjoining is a marble monument, in memory of Sarah, the wife of
the Rev. John Ruddle, interred near this place, in 1667. Below
the family arms is the following epitaph, entitled “The Husband’s
Valediction:”--

“Blest soul, since thou art fled into the slumbers of the dead,
Why should mine eyes
Let fall unfruitful tears, the offspring of despair and fears,
To interrupt thine obsequies.
No no, I won’t lament to see thy day of trouble spent;
But since thou art gone,
Farewell! sleep, take thy rest, upon a better Husband’s breast,
Until the resurrection.”

A stately monument of fine variegated marble, in the south aisle,
is charged with the arms of Bligh, and the following Latin
inscription:--

“Juxta hoc marmor jacet Carolus Bligh, Gen.
Aldermanus et hujus municipii sæpius Prætor
Qui cum sibe satis, suis parum diu vixerat
Pietate plenus obiit A.D. 1716, Die 8bris 2do
Hunc jam Æternitatem inhians Iudith uxor 27 Maii
An. Dni.
1717mo secuta est.”

The Botathen Ghost story, as told by “the Rev. Mr. Ruddell” himself, occupies five pages of C. S. Gilbert’s “History Survey of Cornwall, 1817” (vol. i. pp. 115-119). Gilbert does not mention how he came by it. Hawker’s version is obviously a paraphrase of this, with some embellishments of his own.

APPENDIX J (p. 185)

MICHAEL SCOTT AND EILDON HILL

Michael Scott, the Wizard of the North, was a mediæval scientist around whose memory many traditions have gathered. Compare “The Lay of the Last Minstrel,” canto 2, stanza 13. The Monk speaks.

“In these far climes it was my lot
To meet the wondrous Michael Scott;
A wizard of such dreaded fame,
That when, in Salamanca’s cave,
Him listed his magic wand to wave,
The bells would ring in Notre Dame!
Some of his skill he taught to me,
And, warrior, I could say to thee
The words that cleft Eildon Hills in three,
And bridled the Tweed with a curb of stone:
But to speak them were a deadly sin;
And for having but thought them my heart within,
A treble penance must be done.”

In the note on this passage Sir Walter says--

“In the South of Scotland any work of great labour or antiquity
is ascribed either to the agency of Auld Michael, of Sir William
Wallace, or of the devil.”

Gilfillan tells an amusing anecdote that--

“when Sir Walter was in Italy he happened to remark to Mr. Cheney
that it was mortifying to think how Dante thought none worth
sending to hell except Italians, on which Mr. C. remarked that he
of all men had no right to make this complaint, as his ancestor
Michael is introduced in the ‘Inferno.’ This seemed to delight
Scott.”

The passage in the “Inferno” occurs in Canto 20--

“Quell’ altro che ne’ fianchi è così poco,
Michele Scotto fu, che veramente
Delle magiche frode seppe il giuocho.”

translated by Cary thus:--

“That other, round the loins
So slender of his shape, was Michael Scott,
Practised in every slight of magic wile.”

Boccaccio also mentions him (Dec. Giorn. VIII., Nov. 9): “It is not long since there was in this city (Florence) a great master in necromancy, who was called Michele Scotto, because he was from Scotland.” Legend has obscured the real fame of Michael Scott. He lived between 1175 and 1234, studied at Oxford, Paris, Palermo, Toledo (where he translated Aristotle from Arabic), and became court physician and astrologer to the Emperor Frederick II. He took Holy Orders, but declined the Pope’s offer of an Irish archbishopric on the ground of not knowing the Irish language. He probably died in Italy, but fable connects his burial with Holme Coltrame in Cumberland, or with Melrose Abbey. It is said that Sir Walter Scott confused him with another Michael Scott, of Balwearie, and that he “more probably belonged to the border country whence all the families of Scot originally came, and where the traditions of his magic power are common” (“Dict. of Nat. Biog.”). The best book on the subject is the “Life and Legend of Michael Scot (1175-1232),” by Rev. J. Wood Brown, M.A., 1897.

[_IN PREPARATION_]

The Life and Letters

of

Robert Stephen Hawker

Vicar of Morwenstow

A full and authentic biography of the late Rev. R. S. Hawker, by his son-in-law, is in course of preparation, and will be issued next Spring. It was originally intended to prefix this as an introduction to the present volume, but so much new material has come to light that it could not well be compressed within the limits of a short memoir. This new material includes a most interesting account, written by Hawker himself, of Tennyson’s visit to Morwenstow in 1848, and their conversation. Many unpublished letters of Hawker’s have also been collected. The book will contain numerous illustrations, consisting partly of photographic reproductions, and partly of lithographic drawings by Mr. J. Ley Pethybridge. No pains or expense will be spared to produce a picturesque record of the man and his environment, both so picturesque and romantic in themselves.

Should this notice meet the eye of any one who knew Hawker, or could in any way supply further material for the biography, in the shape of letters, manuscripts, relics, anecdotes, or reminiscences, such will be gladly received, and may be addressed to the editor of the present volume, care of the publisher.

_July, 1903._

JOHN LANE, PUBLISHER, LONDON & NEW YORK

[_IN PREPARATION_]

Cornish Ballads
and
Other Poems

by
ROBERT STEPHEN HAWKER
Vicar of Morwenstow

Illustrated by
J. LEY PETHYBRIDGE

Price 5_s._ net.

This book will be issued in the Autumn of the present year (1903). It is a revised edition of Hawker’s Complete Poems, published in 1899 at 7_s._ 6_d._ The chief differences consist of the reduction in price, the inclusion of a number of fresh illustrations and a few additional poems, and a general improvement in the “get-up” of the book. In binding it will be uniform with “Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall.” The new illustrations will include some or all of the following:--

ILLUSTRATION. _To illustrate_ POEM.

Clovelly “Clovelly.”
The Black Rock, Widemouth “Featherstone’s Doom.”
St. Nectan’s Kieve “The Sisters of Glen Nectan.”
Morwenstow Church (Exterior) “Morwennae Statio.”
The Well of St. Morwenna “The Well of St. Morwenna.”
The Well of St. John “The Well of St. John.”
The Source of the Tamar “The Tamar Spring.”
Launcells Church “The Ringers of Launcells Tower.”
The Figure-head of the “The Figure-head of the _Caledonia_
_Caledonia_ at her Captain’s Grave.”
Boscastle cliffs in a storm “The Silent Tower at Bottreaux.”
Hartland Church “The Cell by the Sea.”
St. Madron’s Well “The Doom-Well of St. Madron.”
Hennacliff “A Croon on Hennacliff.”
Tintagel “The Quest of the Sangraal.”
Effigy of Sir Ralph de “Sir Ralph de Blanc-Minster of
Blanc-Minster in Stratton Church Bien-Aimé.”
Sharpnose Point “The Smuggler’s Song.”
Portrait of Sir Bevill Granville “The Gate Song of Stowe.”
The Font in Morwenstow Church “The Font.”

JOHN LANE, PUBLISHER, LONDON & NEW YORK

* * * * *

Transcriber's Note

Illustrations have been moved next to the text to which they relate. The back cover referred to in the List of Illustrations was not included in the scanned book.

The following apparent errors have been corrected:

p. 86 (note) "’ee.’" changed to "’ee.”"

p. 158 (note) "1867" changed to "1867."

p. 186 "canon-ball" changed to "cannon-ball"

p. 199 footnote anchor added

p. 203 (note) "head." changed to "head.”"

The following possible errors have been left as printed:

p. 221 ‘Make, haste,

p. 237 of it.

Inconsistent hyphenation has not been changed, nor has use of both Morwennæ and Morwennae. An inscription is given as both MVCLX4 (p. 246) and MDLX4 (p. 251).