Chapter I: Part 1

THE

PAROCHIAL HISTORY

OF

CORNWALL.

J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, 25, PARLIAMENT-STREET.

THE

PAROCHIAL HISTORY

OF

CORNWALL,

FOUNDED ON THE MANUSCRIPT HISTORIES

OF

MR. HALS AND MR. TONKIN;

WITH ADDITIONS AND VARIOUS APPENDICES,

BY

DAVIES GILBERT,

SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, F.A.S. F.R.S.E. M.R.I.A. &c. &c. AND D.C.L. BY DIPLOMA FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

_IN FOUR VOLUMES._

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY J. B. NICHOLS AND SON; AND SOLD BY

J. LIDDELL, BODMIN; J. LAKE, FALMOUTH; O. MATTHEWS, HELSTON; MESSRS. BRAY AND ROWE, LAUNCESTON; T. VIGURS, PENZANCE; MRS. HEARD, TRURO; W. H. ROBERTS, EXETER; J. B. ROWE, PLYMOUTH; AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS IN CORNWALL AND DEVON.

1838.

PREFACE.

Having read in the earliest portion of my life the small part of Mr. Hals’ Parochial History published about the year 1750, I entertained from that time a strong desire for seeing the remainder also in print; this desire grew up with my years, increased perhaps by an understanding that the manuscript had disappeared, no one seemed to know in what way, and that it might possibly have been destroyed.

At last, the manuscript was recovered by the most justly celebrated Mr. Whitaker, from a bookseller at Exeter, who had retained the papers as a pledge for some debt; from Mr. Whitaker they have come to his son-in-law Richard Taunton, Esq. M.D. who has with great liberality placed them in my hands; mutilated, however, as to the histories of several parishes, from want of care and of attention on the part of the individual holding them as a deposit, although he must have deemed them to be of pecuniary value.

Mr. Tonkin’s papers were preserved by his niece Miss Fosse, who died more than fifty years ago, at a place that may now be termed, without offence, the village of Michell. This lady must have been the last of Mr. Tonkin’s near relations; for, although the property left at her decease could not have amounted to anything of importance, the funeral was attended by many scores of persons, claiming shares of whatever could be found. Under such circumstances every moveable was soon converted into money, and the manuscript of the Parochial History, complete as Mr. Tonkin left it, got into the possession of Lord Dunstanville, by whom it was instantly offered to me, on my preparing to edit the Parochial History of Mr. Hals. And as Mr. Tonkin copied largely from Mr. Hals, many of the lost parishes are at least partially supplied.

The late Mr. Lysons got possession of a beautifully transcribed copy of the whole that remains of Mr. Hals’ Parochial History; this was purchased at the sale of his books by the Earl of Aylesford, who without any personal acquaintance whatever, has had the liberality to allow me the use of this splendid folio volume, during the whole time of my work passing through the press.

Mr. Gregor has supplied me with an original copy of the last Heraldic Visitation of Cornwall; and to Doctor Boase I am indebted for a geological description of every parish.

Previously to my taking this task on myself, I endeavoured to preserve the works of Mr. Hals and Mr. Tonkin for the public, by the more easy expedient of advancing money in aid of the publication; but not having obtained success, I at last adventured on what is now done, little aware, however, of the pains, and time, required for editing the histories of more than two hundred parishes; although I have to a considerable extent relieved myself from the most irksome duty of correcting the press, by obtaining the assistance of Messrs. Nichols and Son, on the condition of their taking, what is very unlikely to accrue, any profit arising from the publication, and my sustaining, the more probable alternative, all the loss.

Mr. Hals’ work is given without alteration, except considerable omissions of long histories, from the Bollandists and other writers of legends, relative to obscure Saints, little known, or deserving of being known; and in many cases owing their supposed connection with Cornwall, entirely to the writer’s imagination; and in the opposite extreme, of the lives of personages most worthy of being preserved and studied in general history, of Apostles, of Emperors of Rome, and Kings, but quite as irrelevant as the former, to a History of Cornwall.

I have been also unable to retain the greater part of the derivations assigned to the names of manors, families, or places; they are generally referred to some word of a similar sound in modern English, after a manner scarcely less ludicrous than the mock etymologies of Dr. Swift.

Lastly, I have omitted various anecdotes, containing simple scandal, without any thing illustrative of the age or country.

Other anecdotes of a public nature are retained; on a conviction that events long passed by, and incapable from their very nature of being suppressed, neither will, nor ought to excite any unpleasing feeling in the minds of those who may be directly or collaterally descended from the persons to whom they relate.

I have not throughout the whole work intentionally used a single expression disrespectful to any one, nor have I retained from either of the manuscripts, nor added of my own one new anecdote or tale capable by possibility of giving the least pain.

If an expression should be found, which in the opinion of any individual is at variance with these assertions, I beg permission to apologize before I am accused, and to declare that the fault has been involuntary, and that I am not aware, at this instant, of any such fault existing.

Mr. Tonkin has mainly copied from Mr. Hals, and these portions of course have not been printed over again; but all his additions are preserved, with the greater part of his derivations, apparently much more accurate than those they are intended to confute.

Here it would have been wise, certainly it would have been prudent, for me to have concluded the work; but having acquired, through the course of a long life, the knowledge of many incidents, which, although of little general importance, may amuse persons taking an interest even in trifles connected with their immediate neighbourhoods, I have been induced to add under each parish, such matters as happened to occur to my recollection; using also in many cases the information drawn by Mr. Lysons from sources accessible only to himself, in consequence of his situation in the Tower.

I have further had recourse to the works treating on monasteries and religious establishments; but without considering myself bound or pledged to make out a complete history in any case, either by researches into documents not in my possession, or, still less, (at my time of life and distant residence) by investigations on the spot.

This part of the work will be found very unequally executed; but it was never intended to be otherwise.

At the end of each parish I have added the common statistics:――the number of acres from the measurement of Mr. Hitchins; the value of the real property; the account of poor rate, and of the population at the four periods of numeration, from the Parliamentary Returns. And through the great kindness and liberality of Doctor Boase, I have been enabled to subjoin to these the geology of each parish, deduced from an actual survey in person of the whole county, by that very intelligent and experienced geologist, chemist, and physiologist.

And here it may be right to observe, that, as the formations are not merely similar, but identical, over many contiguous parishes, and again in parishes disjoined from each other, the plan of referring from one to another became indispensable, to avoid repetition after repetition, and adding, without any utility, to the size of the work.

In the form of Appendices will be found several matters relative to Cornwall, either not previously in print, or that cannot be obtained separately from large works, of which they form a part.

Mr. Scawen’s Works, so far as they are contained in the Bodleian Library.

Leland’s Itinerary.

Drayton’s Polyolbion.

The Transcript of a Manuscript from the British Museum; proving, I believe, that even Mr. Whitaker, one without doubt among our most able and learned antiquaries, may be mistaken on a subject connected with the objects of his peculiar research.

There will be also some miscellaneous matters, and among them an Index to Mr. Carew’s History; an addition greatly demanded also by another work, which would then become the most useful Corpus Historicum relating to our county.

There are several other manuscripts of Mr. Tonkin, chiefly copies from Mr. Hals of pedigrees, &c. but these I have not touched. And I have purposely abstained from every general topic relating to the county at large, as these have been amply discussed by our various historians.

The first in order of time, the most interesting and most entertaining, is Mr. Carew.

This work was first published in 1602, a second edition came out in 1723, and a third, chiefly through the exertions of the late Mr. John Price of Penzance, in 1769. But the edition far exceeding all the others, with highly valuable additions, and with copious notes, was given to the public in 1811 by the late Lord Dunstanville, in one vol. 4to, 457 pages, with an excellent engraving of the author, from a picture at Anthony.

Mr. RICHARD CAREW was of a very ancient and respectable family; he inherited Anthony from a long line of ancestors, and has transmitted it to his descendants.

Wood says, in the Athenæ Oxonienses, that he was born in the year 1555, became a gentleman commoner of Christ Church at a very early age, but had his chambers in Bradgate Hall (since Pembroke College), and that at fourteen he disputed, extempore, with Sir Philip Sidney, in the presence of several distinguished visitants to the university.

After three years’ residence at Oxford, Mr. Carew removed to the Middle Temple, where he passed three years more, and then went with his uncle on an embassy to Poland.

In the year 1577 Mr. Carew married Juliana Arundell, of Trerice, and served the office of Sheriff in 1586. It is recorded that he was intimate with most of the noted scholars of those times, and especially with Sir Henry Spelman.

He died in November 1620, and is buried in his parish church of Anthony, (see the epitaph, p. xxiv).

Mr. Carew’s life is given in considerable detail as an introduction to his History of Cornwall. He wrote and translated several other works; but they seem not to have survived.

Soon after Mr. Carew’s History, Mr. JOHN NORDEN’S was composed, with the title of “Speculi Britanniæ Pars. A Topographical and Historical Description of Cornwall, by the Perambulation, View, and Delineation of John Norden.”

This work has been well characterized by Mr. Tonkin, as “a mean performance, full of egregious mistakes, with most defective and erroneous maps of every hundred, yet containing several things in it not to be met with elsewhere.”

Our next historian, but after a considerable interval of time, was Mr. WILLIAM SCAWEN, a fragment only of whose work is known to be extant, and which will appear in these volumes.

He was of an ancient family, well educated, and possessed of an ample fortune. He represented St. German’s in Parliament, and received the appointment of Vice-Warden of the Stannaries, immediately after the Restoration of King Charles the Second.

Of Mr. Hals and Mr. Tonkin I have not any better information than what is given by Mr. Lysons. He says:

“About the year 1685, Mr. WILLIAM HALS, a gentleman of an
ancient Devonshire family, which had been some time settled
at Fentongollan, in St. Michael-Penkevill, began to make
collections for a parochial history of Cornwall, which he
continued for at least half a century; it was brought down
by him to about the year 1736. Mr. Hals died in 1739; his
parochial history being at that time nearly completed. About
the year 1750, the publication of this work was undertaken
by Mr. Andrew Brice, then a printer at Truro, who afterwards
removed to Exeter, where he published an useful geographical
dictionary and other books. The account of seventy-two
parishes arranged alphabetically, from Advent to Helston
inclusive, was printed in folio in ten numbers, which are
extremely scarce. The publication is said to have been
suspended for want of purchasers; occasioned by the
scurrilous anecdotes it contained, and reflections thrown on
some of the principal families. It is probable, however,
that the inaccuracies with which it abounds, and the tedious
legends of saints to whom the churches are dedicated, which
occupy at least half the work, would have operated more to
the prejudice of its sale than the scandalous anecdotes
which occasionally occur, many of which had been omitted by
the editor. The most valuable part of the work is the
account of families and the descent of property; but in
these he is frequently inaccurate; and, as Dr. Borlase
observes, ‘what he says should not have too great stress
laid upon it, when it stands upon his single authority.’

“Contemporary with Hals, as a collector of materials for a
parochial history of Cornwall, was THOMAS TONKIN, Esq. of
Trevaunance, some time member for Helston, a gentleman of an
ancient family, who had made great progress in preparing
such a history for the press, and had completed several
parishes. Mr. Tonkin began to write his parochial history in
1702, at which time he had the use of Hals’s collections.
Dr. Borlase seems to have supposed that Hals’s collections
were brought down from 1702 to 1736 by Tonkin; the truth is,
that they both brought down their collections to that
period, without any communication with each other, which
seems to have ceased soon after the first period
above-mentioned. Mr. Tonkin himself says, speaking of Hals
in the year 1739, ‘it is between twenty-five and thirty
years since I have seen any of his collections, and, I
believe, at least twenty since I have seen him. I am told
that he has greatly improved and polished them since that
time; but as his method is quite different from mine, and
that I have some other reasons not necessary to be mentioned
for not corresponding with him, I can safely say, that in
this present work of mine, I have not made use of one single
line out of his compositions.’ Mr. Tonkin, in one of his
MSS. dated March 27th, 1733, desires that, ‘if by death, or
any other accident, his MSS. should fall into other hands,
they would by no means publish them in the dress in which
they then appeared, but be pleased to new-model them after
the method followed in those few which had received his last
corrections, such as at St. Agnes, St. Piran in the Sands,
St. Michael-Penkevil,’ &c. In 1737 he had made sufficient
progress in his collections to enable him to put forth
proposals, in which he announced the plan of his
publication.

“In the year 1739, Mr. Tonkin had completed his MS. of the
first part of his work, which was to treat of the county of
Cornwall in general; his epistle dedicatory of that date is
printed at the beginning of Lord de Dunstanville’s edition
of Carew, addressed to Sir William Carew, Bart. and Sir John
St. Aubyn, Bart. then representatives in Parliament for the
county of Cornwall. In this letter he recapitulates what had
been done towards the topography of his native county.
Besides the works of Leland, Camden, Norden, and Carew, he
mentions the general collections of Hals and Anstis, and
those of Pearce and Gwavas on the Stannaries, the Cornish
language, &c. Towards the conclusion of his epistle, he
says, ‘I wish I could say that many more of my countrymen
had assisted me with their kind endeavours. I do not yet
despair of having several; for which reasons I have, in my
proposals, enlarged the designed time of the publication of
this part. I hope they will be so good as to send in
contributions. If they persist in their refusal, they must
be contented with such coarse fare as I am able to give
them, which I will endeavour to make as palatable for them
as I can; perhaps, when they come to taste of this, they may
be prevailed on to supply me with something better towards
the two remaining parts. All that I can promise them is,
that I will give them the best account I can, without the
least partiality; neither shall any one person have a just
occasion given him to charge me with any wilful omission or
sophisticated truth.”

Very little was done by Mr. Tonkin to the parochial department of his intended history after the date of this letter; he died in 1742, and in the latter part of his life, being unhappily involved in pecuniary difficulties, he grew less attentive to study, and died without printing any part of his intended history.

Doctor WILLIAM BORLASE more than meditated a parochial history, having made some collections towards it. If this design had been carried into execution, all further attempts might have been deemed superfluous.

His Antiquities and Natural History of Cornwall gave ample proof of the ability, the ingenuity, and of the diligence possessed by this excellent man, who had the deserved good fortune of being equally esteemed and admired, not by the neighbourhood alone, but by the most learned and scientific persons throughout Europe.

The Antiquities were first published in 1754.

The second edition in 1769.

The Natural History in 1758. All in quarto.

Respecting the Natural History, it may be expedient to remind the reader, that in the last edition of Chambers’s Encyclopædia, four volumes of the largest size, with one volume of plates, printed in 1783, the very word Geology does not occur; and that some years later, chemical lectures were publicly given on the phlogistic theory of Becher and Stahl.

Mr. POLWHELE has published in seven parts, beginning with the date 1803, and ending with that of 1816, making in all two quarto volumes, of about 1200 pages, in small type, and abounding with notes and extracts in a type still smaller, an immense collection of matter relative to the antiquities, the biography, the literature, the history military and civil, &c. of Cornwall; arranged under distinct heads, and enriched with prints of distinguished persons, with figures of ancient castles, churches, monuments, &c. and with views of towns, and of romantic scenery. One is astonished at the great labour bestowed on this work, and still more so when it is recollected, that the author has distinguished himself in every branch of elegant literature, and most of all in that department, where the fire of genius is believed somewhat to diminish the aptitude for patient toil.

The next work on Cornwall deserves particular attention on various grounds,――its extensive plan, arrangement, and parochial history, and the situation in life of its author, Mr. C. S. GILBERT, who at the time of his executing “An Historical Survey of the County of Cornwall; to which is added a complete Heraldry of the same, with numerous engravings,” resided as a druggist in Plymouth or Devonport; and he is said to have acquired a knowledge of this trade by accompanying one of those itinerant doctors in medicine, who are in the habit of attracting customers by exhibitions little suited to the gravity of a profound science.

Mr. Gilbert is understood to have collected information which induced him to believe, that he might claim a descent from the Gilberts of Compton Castle; and under that persuasion he applied himself to the study of antiquities, with genealogy, heraldry, and every collateral science, which led him by degrees to undertake the History of Cornwall, and to complete it in two quarto volumes, usually bound in three; all which he executed with such eagerness, zeal, and disregard of expense, as to involve him during the latter part of his life in considerable difficulties. For Compton Castle, and the family from which this gentleman thought himself derived, and which is now represented by the Reverend J. Pomeroy Gilbert, of Bodmin, see Prince’s Worthies of Devon, p. 420, edition of 1810.

About the same time that Mr. C. S. Gilbert’s work appeared, another very similar to it came out sanctioned by the names of Mr. SAMUEL DREW of St. Austell, well known by his profound metaphysical writings, and of Mr. MALACHY HITCHINS, son of the celebrated astronomer, who, residing at St. Hilary, three hundred miles from London, conducted the Nautical Almanack from the second year of its appearance 1768, to the conclusion of his life in 1809, during a period of more than forty years.

A well written and perspicuous life of Mr. Drew, has been given to the public by his son Mr. Jacob Halls Drew, in which many interesting particulars are given of this distinguished writer; together with a fair and impartial account of his various works, of which the most known, and perhaps the best, is his Essay on the Human Soul. This treatise, published in 1802, contains every argument that can be found in the Phædon of Plato, with additions; and the whole is not inferior to its prototype. But the observation of an ancient peripatetic philosopher, Alexander of Appodisia, a city of Caria in Lesser Asia, is equally applicable to both:

Αλλ’ εστι πολλα των ὁντων, ἁ την μεν ὑπαρξιν εχει
γνωριμωτατην, αγνωστοτατην δε την ουσιαν· ὡσπερ ἡτε Κινησις,
και ὁ Τοπος, ετι δε μαλλον ὁ Χρονος. Εκαστου γαρ τουτων το
μεν ειναι γνωριμον και αναμφιλεκτον· τις δε ποτε εστιν αυτων
ἡ ουσια των χαλεπωτατων οραθηναι.

Εστι δε δη τι των τοιουτων και Ἡ Ψυχη· το μεν γαρ ειναι τι
την Ψυχην γνωριμωτατον και φανερωτατον· τι δε ποτε εστιν, ου
ῥαδιον καταμαθειν.

Our reason convinces us of its own separate existence apart from matter and organization; beyond that, we must submit to learn from higher authority.

Alexander, therefore, does not go beyond the sphere of human knowledge, when he adds of the soul as capable of a separate existence, Μηδε την αρχην Οργανῳ τινι Σωματικῳ προσχρησθαι προς την ληψιν των νοουμενων, αλλ’ αρκεισθαι αυτον αυτῳ προς το γνωναι το νοουμενον.

Mr. Hitchins gave several proofs of genius; but his life was cut short at an early period.

Various descriptions and accounts of local districts, and of particular places in Cornwall may be found; of these I shall mention three as by far the best, and highly deserving of attention.

Topographical and Historical Sketches of the Boroughs of East and West Looe, with an account of the Natural and Artificial Curiosities and Picturesque Scenery in the Neighbourhood. By Thomas Bond, Esq.

Dr. Maton’s Tour; and

A Guide to the Mount’s Bay and the Land’s End. By Dr. Paris.

As this must in all probability be the last time of my addressing the inhabitants of my native county through the medium of any permanent work, I shall so far presume as to offer a few lines respecting myself, nearly in the words used by two among the most distinguished of modern writers.

Since it has pleased Almighty God so to constitute the world, that the human race should every where increase up to the very limit of subsistence, all countries must witness by far the greater portion of their inhabitants exposed to the dangers of privation, of poverty, and of distress, incapable of being mitigated in any way, except by the prudence, the care, and the general good conduct of the parties themselves; but easily and fatally susceptible of being augmented, almost to an unlimited degree, by the establishment of permanent charities, by distributions in the shape of largesses, and above all, by the greatest and most melancholy achievement of human weakness and short-sighted folly, the English system of poor laws, extending premiums to idleness and improvidence, on a basis of indefinite relief to claimants multiplying without end.

“My lot might have been thrown among these; it might have
been that of a savage, or a slave: nor can I reflect without
gratitude on the bounty of Nature, which has cast my birth
in a free and civilized country, in a family decently
endowed with the gifts of Fortune, in an age of science and
of philosophy, where years outrun in discoveries and in
improvements the advances of former centuries.”

It is not for me to determine how far these advantages have been improved by myself; but at the age of threescore years and ten, I may justly say with the other writer alluded to――

“The retrospect of life recalls to my view many
opportunities of good neglected, much time squandered upon
trifles, and more lost in idleness and vacancy. I leave many
great designs unattempted, and many great attempts
unfinished; but, my mind being free from the burden of any
heavy crime, I compose myself to tranquillity: I endeavour
to abstract my thoughts from hopes and cares, which, though
reason knows them to be vain, still try to keep their old
possession of my heart: I humbly expect the hour which
Nature cannot long delay; and with the most profound
adoration of the Divinity, I hope to possess in a better
state of existence, that happiness which here I could not
find, and that virtue which here I have been unable to
attain.”

DAVIES GILBERT, 1837.

POSTSCRIPT.

I have to acknowledge my obligations to various gentlemen for assistance in the progress of this work, but especially to the following:

To RICHARD TAUNTON, Esq. M.D. for his loan of Mr Hals’s Manuscript.

To the late Right Honorable FRANCIS BASSET, BARON DE DUNSTANVILLE,
for his supplying me with Mr. Tonkin’s Manuscript.

To HENRY S. BOASE, Esq. M.D. for his most liberal communication of
an abstract for each Parish, taken from an accurate and minute
Geological Survey of the whole County, made by himself.

To the Right Honorable HENEAGE FINCH, EARL OF AYLESFORD, for his
allowing me the use of a Transcript of Mr. Hals’ Parochial History
as it now exists, formerly belonging to the late Mr. Lysons.

To GORDON WILLIAM FRANCIS GREGOR, Esq. for his supplying me with an
emblazoned copy of the last Visitation of Cornwall by the Heralds
in 1620.

To Sir HENRY ELLIS, K.H. F.R.S. Sec. S.A. for the communication of
his MS. additions to Tanner’s Notitia Monastica for Cornwall.

To the Rev. JOSIAH FORSHALL, M.A. F.R.S. late Fellow of Exeter
College, Oxford, and now Keeper of the Manuscripts in the British
Museum, for his extracts from a very ancient Manuscript relative to
the See of Bodmin.

I have to acknowledge, with my best thanks, the assistance of THOMAS
HINGSTON, Esq. M.D. afforded by his arrangement of Extracts
relating to Cornwall, from the Itinerary of William of Worcester;
and by an original communication on the Etymology of Names of
Places within the county.[1]

The only existing Manuscript of Mr. Tonkin’s Work having remained for some years in the possession of Mr. Whitaker, he added to it various notes and ilustrations, frequently interlined, or blended with the original writing, so as to render the task difficult, in many cases, to distinguish the one from the other. In almost every passage of any length, Mr. Whitaker’s additions are marked with a [W.]

Geology having pressed forward during the present century, at a pace unexampled in other sciences, may reasonably be expected to reach new discoveries in comparatively short intervals of time; these have been reduced, however, almost to instants in respect to Cornwall. After the very able, minute, and laborious investigation made by Doctor Boase, of every district, of every parish in the whole county, the work of discovery would seem to have been completed, at the least for several years; but Mr. de la Beche came soon afterwards into Cornwall, under the sanction of Government, assisted by officers of the Engineers employed on the great Trigonometrical Survey; and this eminent Geologist has, in consequence, been enabled to lay down the various main lodes, the cross courses, the elvans, &c. together with the junctions of granite, greenstone, and killas, with an accuracy and discrimination never before attained, nor ever approximated to, except by Mr. Richard Thomas, in his survey of the mining district, made about twenty years ago.

Mr. De la Beche has also been enabled to deduce several general laws observed in the direction of cleavages, in the dip of strata, in the heaves and slides of lodes, all of which will be detailed in an eagerly expected volume, together with a discovery most unexpected. The saxa metallifera of Cornwall had always been supposed referable to a very remote period of geological epochs, far anterior to the age of organic remains; till this opinion became shaken by the discovery of shells, or of their impressions, in the hard schist rocks near Tintagell: others were subsequently found more to the south and west; till at last Mr. De la Beche has detected the remains of organized life adjacent to a productive Copper Lode.

Two other eminent geologists, whom it would be equally idle and presumptuous for me to praise, have established the fact of a formation in the northern parts of Cornwall and Devon, not less unexpected than the discovery just noticed.

Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison having investigated the deep-seated rocks in Wales, and in the adjacent districts, have finally traced the carboniferous series under the Severn, and so far west as the level ridge of land, extending from near Launceston to the sea coast between St. Gennys and Botreaux Castle, along which plane the escarpment manifests itself in a very conspicuous manner.

While these discoveries may be considered as in progress, a Cornish gentleman, but one whose genius does honour to the nation, Mr. Robert Weare Fox, has deduced from galvanic action on metals, on their oxides, on their sulphurets, and on their saline solutions in water, the only theory that has yet accounted for the various phenomena observed in metallic lodes; and extending still further his investigations to the recently discovered connection between electric energies and terrestrial magnetism, Mr. Fox has been enabled to give more than probable reasons for the extraordinary fact of some metals usually selecting, in all parts of the world, lodes or fissures running nearly east and west, and why other metals prefer rents at right angles to the former; and in respect to the fissures themselves, Mr. Fox has remarked appearances inducing him to believe that lodes of considerable breadth have not been formed by any one great and sudden rending of the earth; but that, in a manner similar to the rising or to the sinking of land, by the gradual action of causes now well known to exist, those clefts have been enlarged from time to time, and have as frequently received additional deposits, easily discriminated from each other.

Mr. Fox appears also to have settled beyond the possibility of doubt, the long-agitated question respecting the temperature of mines, by establishing a general relation between increases of heat and depth; although the ratio cannot be reduced to any definite formula, being liable to vary with the presence of more or less water, and with the different conducting power of rocks, since mines in granite and in killas differ by several degrees of heat at the same level: yet the increase corresponds so generally with greater descents into the earth, that elevation of temperature, and not the expense, nor the difficulty of exhausting water, appears likely to oppose the final limit to the progress of mines in depth.

In continuation of the same trains of reasoning and of thought, Mr. Fox has been led to investigate the important elements of variation and dip of the magnetic needle; and in pursuing these inquiries, he has invented an instrument possessed of far greater accuracy than any one previously employed, and which at this moment is in actual use, through the enlightened liberality of our own and other governments, in various and distant portions of the globe.

Mr. Henwood is about to lay before the Public a Work containing the results of more extensive and scientific researches into the nature of Lodes and Fissures, than have perhaps been ever executed by any individual. Mr. Henwood is well known to geologists: I shall therefore only add what I think myself bound in duty to notice, that an original appointment in the Stanneries, and a subsequent promotion, have been bestowed on Mr. Henwood, through the medium of Her Majesty’s Duchy Officers, and principally of Sir George Harrison, in consideration of his scientific attainments, and of his desire to render these attainments available to the development of further inductions.

* * * * *

I have endeavoured to render the work cheap by adopting the octavo form, and by abstaining from all decoration, except a slight sketch of the Pitt Diamond, which by raising that family into an influential situation, has modified the fate of Europe in a degree impossible to have been contemplated by the Regent Duke of Orleans, when he purchased that bauble at the expense of an hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds; and excepting also the Tomb of Archbishop Tregury, a view of Cotehele house, and the Seal of a Corporation, all of which had been previously cut on wood. I have abstained from further expense with the view of placing my work in the hands of as many persons in Cornwall as I possibly could, thereby diffusing the entertainment likely to arise from Local Anecdotes, from Provincial Occurrences, and from Historical Events, not of sufficient general importance for securing to themselves a place in national records. I have caused an ample Index to be prepared for the whole work; and among the Appendixes will be found an Index to the Survey of our most respected historian Mr. Carew; and I will add as a proof of my own disinterestedness, that I have engaged to leave with the Publishers all the profits, if any should arise, reserving to myself the much more probable alternative of sustaining the loss.

The concluding paragraph proves the least agreeable of my work. I am sorry to say, that the Typographical errors far exceed my expectation. I must entreat of all my readers to excuse them, and to correct the Text from the too extensive Tables of Errata. The want of early habit, dimness of sight, and absence from the Press, must be alleged on my behalf; perhaps the compositor may plead unusual names or terms, and subjects not rendered familiar by his ordinary practice.

DAVIES GILBERT, 1837.

[1] While this sheet is passing through the press, we have
to lament the premature decease of Dr. Hingston, at
Falmouth, on the 15th July 1837.

AN INTRODUCTION

TO

THE GEOLOGY OF CORNWALL.

BY DR. BOASE.

The geological notices inserted in this Work, are necessarily so brief and so unconnected, on account of the alphabetical arrangement of the parishes, that it is desirable that a few introductory remarks should be made that this defect may be in some measure obviated.

Cornwall does not possess a great variety of rock formations, being composed of primary and transition or intermediate groups, covered here and there with deposits of gravel, sand, and clay, which belong to the modern epoch. But this limited range of formations is more than compensated for by the great facilities which the geologist here enjoys in his investigations; the very extended line of cliffs which deeply indent the Cornish shores proffer numerous and instructive sections; and the vast mining operations have brought to light most important phenomena. Indeed, no country of equal extent can, in these combined advantages, be compared with Cornwall.

On a general view of this country, the surface exhibits two systems of valleys; one running parallel with the central ridge, which is highest near Launceston, and gradually, but irregularly, declines till it terminates at the Land’s End, in cliffs about a hundred feet in height; the other intersecting the longitudinal valleys at right angles; and as all the intermediate hills are more or less rounded, the country has an undulating appearance in both directions, not unaptly compared to the waves of the sea. Through these two systems of valleys, the rivers flow, seeking outlets into the sea by the nearest continuous descent; sometimes they effect this along the longitudinal, at others through the transverse valleys, receiving tributary streams on either hand from the lateral valleys, or curved hollows which they intersect. But sometimes the river is diverted in its course more than once, in consequence of the concavity of a cross curve rising above its level――or by that of the other system descending below this point――by which irregularity the stream is compelled to flow along the more favourable drainage; thus the Camel rises about four miles from the sea, in the moors near Davidstow, and flows more than twenty-five before it empties itself into the sea at Padstow. In the hollows of these valleys the drainage is often sufficiently obstructed to produce marshy ground; but seldom of such extent as to deserve the name of a lake.

As regards the soil, on the high grounds it is frequently very shallow and barren; but in the valleys it is very productive, and here and there is well wooded, more particularly on the southern coast. On the northern coast, in the vicinity of the sea, it is very sandy, owing to the light testaceous sand of the shore being carried inland by high winds; in this manner no inconsiderable tracts of fertile land have been devastated.

Let us now turn our attention to the internal or geological structure of Cornwall. The highest parts of the central ridge, already alluded to, are composed of granite, which occurs in the form of four large insulated patches, so disposed at nearly equal distances from each other as to resemble a chain of islands extending from Launceston to the Land’s End, that is in the direction of N.E. and S.W. On the same ridge, but rather parallel than continuous thereto, is the great granitic group of Dartmoor in Devon, the whole of which is sometimes called the Ocrynian Range.

The granitic patch of Dartmoor is by far the most extensive, being nearly twenty miles in diameter; that of Launceston is ten miles in length by six or seven in breadth at its widest part; and its most elevated hills, Rough-tor and Brown-Willy, do not much exceed 1,300 feet in height. The granitic rocks of this patch, like that of Dartmoor, are not much exposed by artificial excavations, so that their varieties cannot be easily examined; the _weathered_ blocks, which on the summit and sides of the hills form tors and detached masses, consist of the hard or siliceous varieties of the common and fine-grained granites, such as have withstood the action of the elements. One of the most curious of these tors is the _Cheese Wring_, near Liskeard, a pile of single blocks, each being larger than the one immediately beneath. Proceeding along the ridge towards the Land’s End, the next, or St. Austel patch of granite will be found, much less than the last, but more interesting both in a scientific and a commercial point of view. In addition to the kinds of granite already noticed, it contains beds of talcose granite, or protogine, which by its decomposition furnishes that valuable substance _china clay_ or _kaolin_, many thousand tons of which are annually exported for the potteries. The third, or Redruth patch of granite, affords many varieties of this rock, and has been well explored by numerous mines which have been productive in both tin and copper ores, affording also to the mineralogist a great variety of rare specimens. But the fourth, or Land’s End granite, is by far the most important to the geologist, for the land becoming here very narrow, the sea has produced cliff-sections, both in the granite, and also at its point of junction with the slate, exhibiting many interesting phenomena. Among these, the veins of granite in the slate are beautifully displayed, and have long been a great attraction to geologists; but the modes in which these rocks meet and unite, are not less deserving of notice. But for a detailed description of these curious facts, the reader may be referred to my “Treatise on Primary Geology.”

Besides these four principal patches of granite, there are four others: 1st. that of Kitt Hill, near Callington; 2nd. that of Tregonning and Godolphin, near Helston; 3d. that of Cligga Point, near St. Agnes; and lastly, that of the celebrated St. Michael’s Mount. The two first are of some size, and at the surface are both subdivided near the middle, by the overlapping of the slate: the other two are small, but very interesting to the geologist.

It is worthy of remark that the fertility of these granitic groups gradually increases as they diminish in elevation; and it is a curious but not surprising coincidence, that the number of parish churches thereon follows the same order:――thus on the eastern and most extensive tract of granite, near Launceston, there is only one church; on the next there are three; on the Redruth patch six; and on the Land’s End granite no less than nine, within a space considerably less than that of the eastern tract.

Each of these insulated groups of granite is surrounded by schistose rocks, the layers of which, on all sides, incline from the granite at various angles, from 20° to 40°. Although these groups are thus separated from each other by the slate at the surface, yet it is the general opinion that they gradually approach beneath, until they are all united into one and the same mass――the intermediate hollow spaces (the valleys, as it were, between the granitic mountains) being occupied by the slate. It might, however, be maintained that the granite is imbedded in the slate, in large rounded masses, which would also account for the former rock underlying the other, within the limits of mining operations: and such an opinion would derive some support from the fact, that small insulated masses of granite in the slate are not of unfrequent occurrence.

The slate formation consists of two very distinct groups, when the most characteristic rocks are alone regarded; but it is not easy to trace the boundary between them, as the contiguous rocks appear to pass gradually into each other. These groups have one character in common: viz. that they consist of several distinct kinds of rocks, each genus of which respectively may be subdivided into schistose and compact rocks; the latter are imbedded in the former――are more crystalline――and often contain clusters of their constituent minerals: so that the complicated composition of these rocks is made known by Nature’s own analysis.

The group next the granite is _primary_, the more remote one is _transition_, or as they are termed in the following pages the _porphyritic_ and _calcareous_ series of the slate formation. The series next the granite is characterised by its beds of porphyry, and by its abounding in veins of tin and copper ores; the other series by the frequent occurrence of calcareous spar and strata of limestone, with occasional organic remains, and by its being sparingly metalliferous, containing no tin-ore, but being productive of lead and antimony. It is within the last series that the magnesian or serpentine rocks occur, and which in the Lizard district are developed to a large extent, forming one of the most interesting geological features of Cornwall. Those who are desirous of more information concerning this slate formation, will find a copious account in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall. It is there proposed to give these rocks, whenever they possess well-marked characters, distinct names, and not to refer a great variety of rocks to the vague and indefinite genera of clay-slate and greywacké. An accurate and more extended nomenclature would have rendered the following notices much more intelligible.

In describing the general features of Cornwall, we must not omit to mention the metalliferous veins――the great source of its commercial prosperity――and the channel through which much curious information has been obtained, concerning the structure of the earth. These veins traverse indifferently both the granite and the slate, but are most abundant in the latter rock, in the vicinity of the granite. The general direction of the tin and copper veins (or _lodes_, as they are provincially called) is nearly E.N.E. and W.S.W., and they are crossed by another system of veins, nearly at right angles, which are not commonly metalliferous, and when they do contain ores these are often of lead, antimony, silver, and other metals. This is not however a general rule, for in the parish of St. Just, Penwith, the tin and copper ores occur in the cross veins. The course of the veins is not straight, but they are always more or less undulating, both in their direction and in their dip or underlie. Various interesting phenomena result from their meeting with and intersecting each other, known to the miner under the names of _heaves_, _throws_, and _slides_. This subject is replete with curious facts, but would require considerable space for their enumeration; the reader must therefore be again referred to the work already alluded to on “_Primary Geology_.”

Before concluding this brief sketch, a few words must be said on the beds of clay, sand, and gravel which cover the low grounds, both on the granite and on the slate. These may be resolved into two kinds: 1st. those resulting from the decomposition of the rocks, and which are in their original position; and 2d. those which are not _in situ_, affording by their appearance, composition, and position, evidence of their having been transported. These deposits belong to three distinct periods, and alternate with terrestrial and marine remains, according to their situation in respect to the sea-level at their respective epochs. Each of these transports was accompanied, or followed by, a change in the sea-level: the last corresponds with that now existing; the previous one, by the elevated ancient beaches, indicates that the sea was about fifty feet above its present level; and the earliest transport, being covered with sub-marine forests, shows that the sea was at that epoch at least fifty feet lower than it now is. (See 4th vol. Geol. Trans. of Cornwall, p. 466, et seq.) In the lowest or oldest deposit the tin-ore (_stream-tin_) is found in the form of sand and gravel mixed with earthy substances: it affords the purest kind of tin, known in the market by the name of _grain-tin_; and appears to be the source from which the ancients derived all their tin. The notices under each parish will furnish more particulars concerning these interesting deposits.

ERRATA.

VOLUME I.

P. 16, note, _for_ Glaveney, _read_ Glaseney.
P. 29, line 22, _for_ points, _read_ parishes.
P. 45, lines 9 and 12, _for_ Perr, _read_ Parr.
P. 47, lines 7 and 8, _for_ Pentwan, _read_ Pentewan.
P. 48, line 15, _for_ Puntner, _read_ Pentewan.
P. 52, line 4, _for_ Parc, _read_ Parr.
P. 76, line 20, _for_ Beni, _read_ Berri.
P. 87, line 18, _for_ Kint, _read_ Kent;
line 31, _for_ has, _read_ had.
P. 113, line 2, _for_ 1623, _read_ 1643.
P. 141, line 5 of note, _for_ Penrith, _read_ Penwith.
P. 151, In Callington, line 8, _for_ Mellior, _read_ Mellion.
P. 153, line 27, _for_ sine, _read_ sive.
P. 158, line 15, _for_ Bodrigar, _read_ Bodrigan.
P. 210, line 18, _for_ Ludgnan, _read_ Ludgvan.
P. 222, line 7 from foot, _for_ Solverne, _read_ Talverne.
P. 226, _for_ Mane Mine, _read_ Manor Mine.
P. 244, line 3 from foot, _read_ Glanville, of Catchfrench.
P. 260, line 15, _for_ Disporth, _read_ Duporth.
P. 298, line 11 from foot, _for_ Carreth, _read_ Carveth.
P. 328, line 12 from foot, _for_ St. Veye or St. Vewe,
_read_ St. Udey or St. Kewe.
P. 342, line 14, _for_ Donechenir, _read_ Donechenin.
P. 360, line 20, _read_ a small neat house.
P. 397, line 19, _for_ Seawen, _read_ Scawen;
line 25, _for_ Treladra, _read_ Treludra.

VOLUME II.

P. 7, line 20, _for_ Poble, _read_ Poole.
P. 90, line 5 from foot, _for_ pale, _read_ pall.
P. 123, line 13 from foot, _for_ Pennerks, _read_ Pennecks.
P. 151, line 5 from foot, _for_ Tress, _read_ Trese.
P. 203, line 2 from foot, _for_ exepecierint, _read_ expedierint.
P. 213, line 5 from foot, _for_ Appeninnes, _read_ Apennines.
P. 215, line 12 from foot, _after_ western, _read_ limit of.
P. 224, last word, _add_ baptismal name;
and in first line of p. 225, _after_ Cornwall, _add_ and.
P. 240, lines 2 from foot; and in p. 241, _for_ Angowe, _read_ Angove.
P. 250, lines 9 and 11 from foot, _for_ Perth, _read_ Porth.
P. 282, line 2, _for_ Morsa, _read_ Morva.
P. 283, line 13, _for_ Leucan and St. Lennan,
_read_ Levan and St. Sennan.
P. 290, line 6 and 7 from foot, _for_ Juest and Jeast,
_read_ Tuest _and_ Teast.
P. 313, line 2, _for_ Bavi, _read_ Bari.
P. 319, line 9, _for_ seers, _read_ peers.
P. 339, line 19, _for_ Glanville, _read_ Grenville.

VOLUME III.

P. 30, line 20, _for_ towers, _read_ tors.
P. 55, line 12, _for_ scale, _read_ scales.
P. 85, line 7 from the foot, _for_ thus, _read_ then.
P. 86, line 10, _for_ Whilstone, _read_ Whitstone.
P. 87, lines 14 and 18, _for_ Perkin, _read_ Parkin.
P. 88, line 16, _for_ Heckens, _read_ Hechins.
P. 91, line 7, _for_ Heckins, _read_ Hechins.
P. 136, last line, _for_ Modford, _read_ Madford.
P. 138, lines 28, 29, _dele_ the present rector.
P. 178, line 15, _for_ St. Ives, _read_ St. Ive.
P. 230, line 21, _for_ eria, _read_ erica.
P. 307, line 22, _for_ Episcopus, _read_ Episcopi.
P. 350, line 27, _for_ Troad, _read_ Trood.
P. 461, line 7, _for_ Coat, _read_ Cock.

VOLUME IV.

P. 36, line 10, _for_ Polbenro, _read_ Polperro.
P. 41, line 10, _read_ Horningcote.
P. 44, line 2 from bottom, _for_ Mr. _read_ Mrs.
P. 45, line 2, _for_ Dinnavale, _read_ Dellabole;
line 6, _for_ Treveares, _read_ Treveans;
line 14, _for_ brother, _read_ brothers.
P. 46, line 19, _for_ an entire, _read_ a complete.
P. 54, line 7 from foot, _after_ ecclesiastical, _read_ and Duchy.
P. 67, line 19, _read_ from whom it has descended.
P. 74, line 11, _for_ Ballivor, _read_ Ballivo.
P. 93, line 20, _for_ he, _read_ she.
P. 114, line 6 from foot, _for_ Trevilyan, _read_ Tresilyan.
P. 138, line 17, _for_ bold, _read_ bald.
P. 139, line 14, _dele_ (S. T.)
P. 161, _add to the note_, and the name should be Trewren.

HISTORY

OF THE

PARISHES OF CORNWALL.

ADVENT, ALIAS ST. ANNE.

HALS.

Advent is situate in the hundred of Les-newith, i. e. new breadth, extent, or division.[2] It hath upon the north Lantegles; east, Altar Nun and St. Cloather; south, Brewer; west, Michaelstow. In the Domesday (Roll or) Tax, 2d of Will. I. 1068, this district was rated either under the names of Tegleston or Helleston, manors contiguous therewith.

For the modern appellations of this parish, they were taken from the church after its erection and consecration (which goes in presentation and consolidation with Lanteglos), and is called Advent, from Advent Sunday, (on which probably it was consecrated and dedicated to God, in the name of St. Anne, by the Bishop of Exon,) viz. the nearest to the feast of St. Andrew, and refers to the coming of Christ,――Advent pro adveniant, coming.

This church is consolidated in Lanteglos, and goes in presentation with it; the patronage in the Duke of Cornwall, who endowed it.[3]

This parish of Advent alias St. Anne was rated at the 4_s._ per pound land tax,[4] ann. Dom. 1696; at which time the author of this work, with other commissioners at Bodmin, settled the respective charges or sums upon all the parishes or towns in Cornwall for all future ages.

TONKIN.

The right name of this parish is St. Alhawyn, by abbreviation Advent.

The place of chief note in this parish is Trethym. In the time of the Usurpation, Sir Henry Rolle, of Honiton, retired here, as being a pleasant seat (especially in summer) for hunting; and soon after it was the seat, by lease from him, of Matthew Vivian, Gent. a younger brother of John Vivian, Esq. of Truan, and as noted a cavalier as his brother was a partisan on the other side. Mr. Matthew Vivian had several daughters, one of whom being the first wife of ―――― Beale, of St. Teath, brought him this barton, which he gave to her eldest son, Matthew Beale, Gent. whose widow now enjoys it (1715): of whom see more in St. Teath. [From them it passed to the Gwatkins, by which family it was held until the year 1814, when it was sold by Robert Lovell Gwatkin, Esq. to Mr. Allen Searell. _Hitchins._]

WHITAKER.

Ridiculing the etymology of Advent suggested by Hals, Mr. Whitaker says, “The appellation is merely personal, and that of the church’s saint,” Adwen. This was one of a numerous family of saints, whose history, as they have left their names to several parishes and churches in Cornwall, it may be desirable to detail in this place, as it is quoted by Leland from the Life of St. Nectan, who was the eldest brother. “Brechan, a petty king of Wales, from whom the district of Brocchanoc (Brecknock) derived its name, had by his wife Gladwise twenty-four sons and daughters, whose names were: Nectan, John (or Ivan), Endelient, Menfre, Dilic; Tedda, Maben, Wencu, Wensent; Merewenna, Wenna, Juliana, Yse; Morwenna, Wymp, Wenheder, Cleder, Keri; Jona, Kananc (or Lalant), Kerhender, _Adwen_, Helie, Tamalanc. All these sons and daughters were afterwards saints, martyrs, or confessors, leading the life of hermits in Devon and Cornwall.” The same story is related by Giraldus Cambrensis and William of Worcester. Whitaker’s Cathedral, vol. II. pp. 91, 98.