Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

His bodily strength and firmness of mind seem to have been commensurate with those abilities, which displayed themselves most conspicuously in after life. Within my recollection, the people of Breage and Germoe were fond of relating that Squire Lemon in his youth made the foremost link of a living chain, which, connected only by the grasp of their hands, extended itself into a tremendous surf, and rescued various human beings from a watery grave.

At a very early age, Mr. Lemon became one of the managers of a tin-smelting house at Chiandower, near Penzance; and the career which he pursued with so much ability and success, was traced for him at this place.

The ancient mining of Cornwall, like that of Banka in the present day, had been confined for a long succession of ages to merely collecting diluvial deposits of tin ore, which, from its great specific gravity, is always found beneath every other debrit, and immediately incumbent on the solid rock, or unmoved strata, provincially called “the Fast.” As the first operation invariably consists in washing away the lighter ingredients, by agitating the whole in streams, which never fail of gliding through the vallies where alone these deposits are found, the name “stream-work” has been adopted, to distinguish these sources of tin from mines which descend on the lodes themselves.

Mines invariably grew out of the stream-works, but with a progress so very slow as scarcely to be imagined by persons conversant only with the rapid improvements of modern times. Pits were at first sunk on the backs of lodes, till the presence of water impeded the work. Shallow adits, or drains, were obviously used in favourable situations, and the windlass, with its bucket and rope, must be of great antiquity. To this succeeded the rack and chain pump, identical with those still used in large ships; but the span beam and cage, moving on a perpendicular axis, by which the labour of horses became applicable to what had previously been done by the human arm, are so very modern, that the Editor remembers a carpenter who used to boast that he assisted in making the first whim ever seen westward Hayle.

A new era had, however, now commenced. The steam-engine, which consists essentially in a piston alternately sliding through a cylindrical vessel, invented by Mr. Newcomen, of Dartmouth, had been used at least on one mine, called the Great Work, in Breage, when Mr. Lemon came forward, gifted with the ability and the energy which enabled him to anticipate, by nearly half a century, everything that could add to the wealth and to the prosperity of his native county.

Mr. Lemon first associating himself with Mr. George Blewett, of Marasion, and with Mr. Dewen, commenced working a mine on a farm called Trowel, in the parish of Luddvan, the property of Lord Godolphin, and named Whele Fortune, where the second steam-engine was used. Capital was of course requisite for the undertaking, and that is said to have been supplied to Mr. Lemon by his marriage. It appears, from the register of Gulval, that “William Lemon and Isabel Vibert were married April the 22d, 1724.” The Viberts were among what are termed the good lines in Gulval parish, and Mrs. Lemon had recently succeeded by will to the property of Mrs. Elizabeth Noles her godmother, and probably relation, who had acquired a fortune by some business at Chiandower.

But fortune, except perhaps for its timely supply of capital, was the least of Mrs. Lemon’s recommendations; uniform report has represented her as entirely worthy of the very extraordinary person to whom she was united.

Mr. Lemon is said to have gained from Whele Fortune ten thousand pounds; and, thus enabled to execute more extensive plans, he removed to Truro, and commenced working the great Gwennap mines, on a scale never witnessed before, and perhaps never contemplated, in Cornwall. Cavnon Adit was either actually commenced, or at the least was effectually prosecuted, by Mr. Lemon; a work unrivalled for extent or for utility in the mines of England, and his exertions increasing as his means enlarged, Mr. Lemon soon became the principal merchant and tin-smelter of Cornwall. But the energies of his mind were not limited to these undertakings, great as they were; he cultivated a taste for literature, and, what is extremely unusual, acquired, amidst business, and at a middle age, the power of reading the Classic authors in their original language. In the year 1742, we find his name in the list of Sheriffs. He became one of the magistrates of Truro, and might have represented the borough in Parliament. He obtained from Government a drawback of the duty on coal used in mines, when Sir Robert Walpole, then at the head of public affairs, complimented him on the clear and able manner in which he had made every statement; and a present of silver plate from Frederick Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall, is preserved in his family.

About the same time he was mainly distinguished as “the great Mr. Lemon;” but, above all, so strongly were the impressions received of his abilities, his exertions, and general merit, that a progress so rapid and unexampled does not appear to have excited envy, or any of those bad passions which usually alloy the enjoyments of prosperity.

Mr. and Mrs. Lemon had but one son, and no daughters. Mr. William Lemon, Jun. married Ann, only daughter of Mr. John Willyams, of Cannerton, near St. Colomb, and sister of the late Mr. John Oliver Willyams, many years Colonel of the Cornwall Militia. He died at an early period of life, and several years before his father, who lived to the 25th of March 1760, and is buried in Truro church, where he had built by far the largest and most decorated house in the town. He had also purchased and improved Carclew, since become the family seat.

The younger Mr. William Lemon left two sons and a daughter. The elder of the sons, Sir William, represented the County of Cornwall in Parliament during fifty years, and commanded the regiment of militia. The second son, John, became a Colonel in the Guards, represented Truro, and commanded the Miners’ Militia. The daughter married Mr. John Buller, of Morval, near Looe.

As instances of the respect paid to the commanding genius of Mr. Lemon, the people of Truro are said to have drawn back from their doors or windows as he passed through the street. And the Rev. Samuel Walker, a respectable although a fanatical clergyman, exhorting the children to be circumspect in the presence of Almighty God, incautiously added, “Only think, my dear children, how careful you would be if Mr. Lemon were looking upon you.”

The parish of Germow measures 1,062 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1,373 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 180 11 0
Population, {in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 629 | 735 | 830 | 1175
giving an increase of 87 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The geology of this parish is identical with that of Breage, of which in fact it forms a part, occupying only a segment of the Godolphin Hills.

ST. GENNYS.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north the Irish sea, west St. Juliot, east Jacobstow, south Otterham.

In Domesday Roll, 20 William I. 1087, this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Otterham. In the taxation of benefices, made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the value of benefices in Cornwall, Ecclesia de Sancto Genesy, in Decanatu de Trigmajorshire, is rated c._s._; Vicar ejusdem £iiii. vi_s._ viii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition and Valor Beneficiorum, St. Genis is taxed £8. The patronage in ――――. The incumbent Crew. The rectory or sheaf in possession of ―――― and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, £160. 6_s._

TONKIN

has not added any thing to the little said by Mr. Hals.

THE EDITOR.

It seems to be quite uncertain to whom this parish is dedicated.

There was a St. Genesius, or St. Genes, of Auvergne in France; he exterminated heresies and founded monasteries. His festival is kept on the third of June, and he is said to have died in the year 662. Such were the heroes of those days, and therefore he may possibly have been selected as patron of this church.

Mr. Lysons states that Treveeg, formerly a seat of the Yeos, is now the property of Lord Eliot, and that the great tithes, with the advowson of the vicarage, have passed to him with the priory of St. German’s.

The Yeos were persons of consequence in the north of Cornwall and of Devonshire; they bore arms, Argent, a chevron Gules, between three birds.

Mr. Lysons further states that the manor of St. Gennis was for some time the property of Treise, from whom it passed by marriage to Morshead. It must since have been sold in the general wreck of that family.

Lord Rolle has also a manor in this parish. And another manor, called Treworgy, (a name common in Cornwall, and meaning a house or village on a stream,) belonged to the Priory of Canons of the Order of St. Augustine, founded at Launceston by William Warlewast, Bishop of Exeter from 1150 to 1159, in the time of King Stephen and of Henry the 2d.

Treworgy appears among the lands of this priory in the roll of 31 Henry VIII. preserved in the Augmentation Office; where it is stated as then paying the following sums, £4. 13_s._ 7_d._, £3. 17_s._, and 6_s._ 8_d._

This is one of the manors given to the Duchy of Cornwall, in exchange for the manor of Wallingford, and it has been held for a long time under the Duchy by the family of Braddon.

One of this family, Captain William Braddon, was an officer of some distinction on the Parliamentary side in the Civil War. He is buried in the chancel of this church, where some verses to his memory begin with these lines:

In war and peace I bore command,
Both gown and sword I wore.

Henry Braddon, his son, or grandson, has the following verses:

In peace I lived, and in peace did die,
And now translated am to peace on high;
Where I in peace perpetual shall remain,
Until the Prince of Peace return again.

This parish is said to afford an excellent specimen of the romantic scenery distinguishing many portions of the north coast, from Cornwall, through Devonshire, to Somersetshire. The cliffs are bold, and the land is intersected by deep narrow vallies.

The parish of St. Gennys measures 5350 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2,562 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 308 2 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 597 | 658 | 680 | 761
giving an increase of 27½ per cent. in 30 years.
The Rev. John Symmons, Vicar, was presented by Sir W. Molesworth in
1783.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The whole of this parish is situated on the massive and schistose varieties of Dunstone, which are so prevalent in the northern parts of Cornwall and Devon. The Dunstone is in general very silicious, and it thus constitutes high and barren hills. A very curious variety of this rock occurs at Tresparret Down. It is in a state of decomposition, but when it is broken numerous hard rounded nodules fall out, having uniformly small crystals of pyrites in their centres. The same rock, in an unaltered state, forms the cliff on the left side of Crackington Cave, near the church, where it is inclined at an angle of 40°, having the entire surface covered with projecting nodules, which give it a blistered appearance not unlike that of hæmatites.

GLANT, GOLANT, OR ST. SAMPSON’S.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north Lanlivery, east part of Foye Harbour, south Foye town, west Tywardreth.

At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was taxed under the name of Tywardreth, or Lan-tine. In the taxation of benefices made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, in this province, the church is not named, probably it was not then extant, or not endowed; neither is it mentioned in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, or Valor Beneficiorum, so that I take it to be wholly impropriated under Tywardreth. However, 24 Henry VI. St. Sampson’s was rated to the Cornish clergy’s fifteenths 35_s._ Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 91. It was endowed by the prior of Tywardreth. The patronage now in Barret, the curate or vicar Hosken, the sheaf or rectory in Barrett. The parish of St. Sampson’s was rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. £103. 2_s._

Pen-coit, alias Pen-coid, alias Pen-quite, all synonymous words, signifying head or chief wood, or head of the wood, is a name given and taken from the once natural circumstances of the place, from whence was denominated an ancient family of gentlemen, surnamed de Pencoit. And here lived John de Pencoit, temp. Henry III. and Edward I. who held one acre of land in Lamellyn of 5_s._ price, (that is to say a Cornish acre, consisting of 60 statute acres) for making and keeping the king’s grey coat when he came into Cornwall, due out of Cabulion, from Peter, the son of Orger. [Carew’s Sur. Corn. p. 45. See also Pengelly in St. Breock, Pyder, and Warliggan.]

This barton is now the dwelling of John Barret, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 3 William III. whose ancestor is said to have come out of Normandy with William the Conqueror, 1066, an ensign under Colonel Henry de Ferrers, commonly called Henry Earl Ferrars, son of Wakelyn; to whom the Conqueror gave the castles of Tutbury in Staffordshire, and Oncomb in Rutlandshire. Since which time this gentle family of Barrets have flourished in this county in good fame and reputation for above twenty descents. The present possessor of Pencoit married Kendall of Medroff, and giveth for his arms, Gules, a bend Varry.

In this parish is the dwelling of Reginald Couch, gent. Attorney at Law, that married Vincent of Creed; his father, Hawkey of St. Wenowe.

TONKIN.

How these names of Glant or Golant prevailed over that of St. Sampson I am not able to determine, unless perhaps it was the primitive name thereof before the parish church was erected, consecrated, and endowed to God under the name of St. Sampson. For in Cardinal Wolsey’s Inquisition, and in Carew’s Survey, it is called St. Sampson.

The name Golant is obviously compounded of Gol, holy, and of lan, a church. (Mr. Whitaker remarks that Y-Gol, by the Holy One, is still an oath in Cornwall.)

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Hals has given a very long and uninteresting account of St. Sampson, the patron saint of Golant, involving a dissertation on the antiquity of archbishops.

He is reported to have commenced his ecclesiastical career by the practice of ascetic observances, in due time he became the chief of a monastic institution, from whence he was taken to be Archbishop of York; but the north of England being at that time ravaged by the northern pirates, he was driven from thence, and going over into Brittany he founded a monastery at Dal, and became the first Bishop of that place, where a see was created at his request by Pope Pelegius the First, who honoured him moreover personally with the pallium or pale. He was present at the Second Council of Paris, held in 557, and died about the year 564. His remains were enshrined at Dal, but when the Normans began in the tenth century to invade and pillage Neustria, these barbarians, equally hostile to the saint alive or dead, obliged his brethren to remove the relics to Paris, where they are supposed to have been preserved up to the period of the great revolution.

Penquite was acquired by purchase about the beginning or towards the middle of last century from the Prestwoods, by Mr. Rashleigh, of Menwhilly, by whom a perpetual lease was soon after granted in favour of a relation, which has since passed through various hands.

Mr. Lysons says that the manor of Lentyon in this parish, belonged to the Montacutes Earls of Salisbury.

It appears from Dugdale’s Baronage that this property was seized by king Henry VIII., on his judicial murder of the last Plantagenet, Margaret Countess of Salisbury. It now belongs to Mr. William Rashleigh, who is impropriator of the great and small tithes, and appoints the perpetual curate, in right of the monastery of Tywardreth.

A castle is said to have belonged to this manor, but no traces of it remain; the appellation seems indeed to have been very loosely applied in the latter part of our feudal times, so as frequently to indicate no more than the residence of a chief.

The village round the church, or, according to the expression used in Cornwall, “the church town,” is always called Golant. The houses are situated in a romantic cross valley, nearly where it terminates in Fowey River.

The inhabitants boast that in this village was established the first boarding-school for young ladies that appeared in Cornwall, and they call the attention of visitors to these peculiarities connected with this church:――“That it has a fire-place within it; that a well of water flows over in the porch; and that a tree in the churchyard o’ertops the tower.”

This parish measures 1340 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1874 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 185 5 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 164 | 186 | 248 | 314
giving an increase of 86 per cent. in 30 years.
The Rev. Thomas Pearse was presented to St. Sampson’s chapel in
1815, by W. Rashleigh, Esq.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are intermediate between those of the porphyritic and calcareous series: on the northern part passing into the former, which are better developed as they pass on towards the granite in Tywardrath; on the southern part the rocks begin to assume the character of the calcareous series, which is complete in Fowey.

GLUVIAS.

HALS.

Is situated in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north Peran-Arwothan, east Mylor, west Mabe, south Budock. Here was an endowed church or chapel, or place of jurisdiction, before the Norman conquest; for in the Domesday Roll, 20 William I. 1087, Gluvias is rated as such. In the taxation of benefices in Cornwall, made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia de Sancto Gluviano, in Decanatu de Penryn, is rated xl_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it is valued together with Budock, in 21_l._ 16_s._ 9_d._; before which time it seems those churches were united and consolidated by the Bishops of Exeter, the patrons and endowers thereof; the incumbent Collyer; the rectory, or sheaf, in possession of Enys; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 132_l._ 11_s._

Roscrow is the dwelling of Alexander Pendarves, Esq. that married the Lady Dorothy Burke, daughter of the Earl of Clanricarde, and afterwards the daughter of Colonel Granville; his father Carew, his grandfather St. Aubyn, his great-grandfather (Roberts of Truro); viz. Samuel Pendarves, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall, 19th James I. who gave for his arms, Sable, a falcon rising between three mullets Or; originally descended from the Pendarves of Pendarves, or Constenton, as I am informed.

Roscrow gave name and origin to an old family of gentlemen surnamed Roscrow, whose heir, about the time of Richard II. was married to one of the Seneschalls of Holland, where John de Seneschall held by the tenure of knight’s service part of a knight’s fee of land, 3 Henry IV. (See CAREW’S Survey of Cornwall, p. 40.) from whence it appears also that Luke, the son of Bernard Seneschallus, was by letters mandatory, or a mandamus, made one of the Barons of the Exchequer, by King Richard I. (See his arms under GWENDRON.)

Innis, Enys, Ennis, is an island or place encircled with water, in this place to be construed as a river island; where two rivers in their confluence meet, and shape the land between them in form of a corner, or triangle; from which place was denominated an old British family of gentlemen now in possession thereof, surnamed Enys; particularly John Enys, Esq. that married the inheritrix of Gregor of Truro, his father Pendarves, his grandfather Winifred, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Price, of Trewardreva; and giveth for his arms, Argent, three water enets Vert, creatures frequently seen in the rivers by which those lands are insulated.

A great number of places, or lands, in Cornwall, under the like circumstances, are from thence denominated Enys, Ennis, and Ennys in St. Erme, Roach, Luxsilian, Peransand, taken some times with other words.

Gosose river, in this parish (the slow-wood river), situate upon Gosose creek of the sea: from whence was denominated Gosose tenement, the native place of Captain Henry Carverth (i. e. rock-strength, or car-veth, rock-grave), who being bred to sea affairs and navigation in his youth, was taken into the service of King Charles II. in the beginning of his Dutch and French war, 1665, to whom he gave the command of a frigate, in the several engagements of the Dukes of York and Albemarle in their sea-fights with those nations; wherein he demeaned himself so well in point of valour and conduct, that after those wars were ended he was chosen one of the standing Captains under the Earl of Ossory, for which he received about 300_l._ per annum salary, during his life, which ended about the year 1684, when he had a military interment in this church: who dying without legitimate issue, left his brother, Thomas Carveth, of this place, gentleman, his heir and executor, who giveth for his arms, Argent, a chevron between three talbots Sable. Those gentlemen, from living at Carveth, or Carverth, in Mabe, were transnominated from Thoms to Carverth; as another family of those Thomses, from living at Carnsew, in the said parish, were transnominated to Carnsew; and there are some deeds yet extant dated tempore Henry VIII. which will evidence the truth of this fact, as Mr. Carverth told me.

Between the parishes of Budock and Gluvias, on a promontory of land shooting into the sea creek of Falmouth harbour, between two vales and hills, where the tide daily makes its flux and reflux, stands the ancient borough of Penrin, or Penryn, a name given and taken from the natural circumstances of the place; and by the name of Penrin it was taxed as the voke lands of a considerable manor in Domesday Roll, 20 William I. 1087. (See BRIN, BRYN, in WITHELL.)

This place I take to be the Οκρινυμ (Ocrinum) of Ptolemy. The town was a privileged manor, with a court leet, before the Norman Conquest; and in the year 1230 King Henry III. granted a charter to William Brewer, Bishop of Exeter, then lord thereof, as his successors still are, in right of the bishopric of Bodman, or Cornwall, long before annexed to Exeter. (See more in LANWHITTON.) It was also incorporated by King James I. by another charter, consisting of a Mayor, Recorder, and Portreeve, eleven Magistrates, and twelve Assistants; with liberty to send two of its members to sit in the Commons’ House of Parliament, to be elected by the majority of those that are freemen, and pay rates and taxes. It is also, amongst many other things, appurtenanced with markets weekly, upon Wednesdays and Saturdays; fairs on May 1, July 7, December 21; and of old had free warren in all the King’s lands. The arms of this town are a Saracen’s head couped at the shoulder, and crowned, or environed, with a laurel.

The precept from the Sheriff on the Parliament writ, as also to remove an action at law depending in this leet to a superior court, must be thus directed: “Majori et Burgensibus Burgi sui de Penrin in Comitatu Cornubiæ salutem,” otherwise, “Proposito, Ballivis, et Burgensibus Burgi sui de Penryn;” and to remove an action from the court leet of Penryn foreign: “Senescallo et Ballivis manerij de Penrin forreigne salutem.”

But, alas! notwithstanding all its privileges, our Cornish historian, Mr. Carew, in his time, tells us that on the top of a creek Penrin town hath taken up its seat; rather passable than notable for wealth, buildings, or inhabitants. Though now, _tempore_ Charles II. I take it to be much altered for the better in these particulars, and to be parallel with, or equal therein, with any other town in Cornwall. And, moreover, I look upon it as the most commodious, pleasantly situated, and healthful borough within that province, it being situated upon a hill, and having continually passing through its streets a useful river of water, and through the gardens and orchards of the town, behind the street-houses on each side, pass two considerable mill-leats, or rivers of water, met daily by the flux and reflux of the sea.

Where, on the south of this town, on one of those rivers, Walter Brounscomb, Bishop of Exeter, 1260, at a place called Glasnith, or green-ford, so named from the estuaries, or ebbing and flowing of the sea under it, founded and endowed a collegiate church of Black Canons, or Canons Augustine, that could not marry wives, consisting of twelve prebends and a dean; “Clerici tresdecem, personæ discretæ,” are the very words of the leger book of its foundation; and then endowed and confirmed all by a charter in these words, as translated from Bishop Brounscomb’s original Latin.

“To give to God, the blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Thomas of
Canterbury, in Budock, Penryn, and Glasnith College, and his
thirteen canonical brothers and their successors, all lands,
woods, meadows, waters, pastures, mills, laws, rents, and courts,
and all things to the same pertaining, to possess, have, hold,
and enjoy for ever. This agrees with the register,
ROBERT MICHELL, Register, 1611.”

Afterwards this collegiate church, thus founded and endowed, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, received a greater augmentation of wealth, lands, and revenues from John Grandison, Bishop of Exeter, 1358, who had persuaded all rich priests of his diocese to make him his heir and executor, in order to build and endow churches with their riches; which trust, in a great measure, he performed to his lasting credit and renown; so that at length, amongst others, this collegiate church’s yearly revenues, at the suppression, 26 Henry VIII. was valued at 205_l._ 10_s._ 6_d._ according to Speed and Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, now worth 1200_l._

This collegiate church is now entirely demolished. Since the beginning of this century there was one of its towers standing, but it is lately pulled down, and a dwelling-house built in the place where it stood.

Bishop Brounscomb died 1280, and lies buried in his cathedral church of Exeter.

The chief inhabitants of this town of Penrin are Mr. Hallamore, Mr. Worth, Mr. Hearle, Mr. Kempe, Mr. Bloyse, Mr. Melhuish, Mr. Vellhuish.

The Lady Jane Killigrew, of Arwinick (see FALMOUTH), for some protection and favour shewn her in her troubles by the Mayor of this town, gave a silver cup and cover to the Mayor of this town and his successors for ever, containing about three quarts, and about 12_l._ value, whereon is this inscription: “From Mayor to Mayor, to the town of Penryn, when they received me in great misery.

JANE KILLYGREW, 1613.” (of which before).

TONKIN.

After transcribing, with little variation, what has been stated from Mr. Hals, Mr. Tonkins adds,

Enis, in this parish, gave name to an old family of gentlemen from thence, denominated de Enis; that is to say, of this island; for innis, ennis, enys, signify in Cornish, an island, and also a tongue of land where two rivers meet.

John Enys, Esq. acquired a great flow of wealth by his marriage with Ann, only daughter of Mr. Henry Greys of Truro. His son, Samuel Enys, is the present possessor of the estate; he married Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Willis, of London, merchant, and has lately succeeded to a considerable fortune by the decease of her two brothers, Sir Thomas and Sir William Willis, of Fen Ditton, in Cambridgeshire, Baronets, the last in the year 1733. This gentleman is in the commission of the Peace, and was Sheriff of Cornwall, 8 Anne, A.D. 1709. He has expended large sums of money in the improvement of his seat, as well by enlarging the house as by making beautiful gardens.

Roscrow means clearly the valley cross; although the house stands on a very elevated station.

The family of Pendarves settled here, have far outstripped all the other branches in estates, and have served their country as Members of Parliament, Commissioners of the Peace, Sheriffs, and Deputy-Lieutenants. The arms of Pendarves are, Sab. a falcon rising Arg. between three mullets, Or. I cannot refrain from making some remarks on Alexander Pendarves, Esq. the last of this family.

He was Surveyor-general of the Crown and Duchy lands in Cornwall to Queen Anne, and a Member of Parliament the greatest part of his life. He married Mary, eldest daughter of the Honourable Bernard Grenville, brother of Lord Lansdowne, a beautiful young lady, but she did not bring him any children. He died in 1726, very suddenly, at his house in London, being then a burgess for the town of Launceston. His death was a great surprise to all his friends, and especially to me, with whom I had taken a hearty breakfast that very morning at my aunt Vincent’s, at Chelsea. I must add, that on the Sunday before he and I bore up the pall to John Goodall, of Fowey, Esq. buried in St. Margaret’s, Westminster; and that on the Sunday fortnight after, I had the misfortune to bear up his in St. Mary’s, Savoy. He was the last male of the family of Pendarves in this place, which, with the rest of his property, has devolved to his niece, Mary, the only daughter and heiress of his brother, John Pendarves, clerk, Rector of Drews Teignton, in Devonshire, and relict of Francis Basset, of Tehidy, Esq.; and this lady is now the possessor, paying an annuity of £.400 a-year to her uncle’s widow. But before I leave this place I must not forget to give this just character of my deceased friend, with whom I had the honour to serve as burgess for Helston, in Queen Anne’s last Parliament; that for good humour, good sense, for a true and sincere adherence to the interests of his country, and for a harmless merry disposition, he hath left not many his equals, and none that exceed him, in this county.

This parish takes its name from the saint to whom the church is dedicated.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Hals gives a very improbable etymology for the name of this parish, deriving it from the Cornish verb, _glewas_, to hear, which he quotes from the 12th stanza of Mount Calvary.

An ger a Du maga del wrei neb vynno tro glewas.
Lavar Du maga del wrei neb a vynno y glewas.
The word (of) God feed so will do (he) who is willing to hear,

The first line is transcribed from Mr. Hals, the second is the line as it stands in the MS. from which the editor of this work has printed Mount Calvary.

The Editor has not been able to find any traces of St. Gluvias, but these may have easily disappeared amidst the throng of our provincial hierarchy.

The borough of Penryn, with enlarged limits, has been united with Falmouth in sending two Members to Parliament under the constitution of 1832. Of the principal inhabitants noticed by Mr. Hals, the Hearles had risen into most importance. They were the younger branch of a family said to have migrated into Cornwall, and to have settled at Prideaux, in Luxulian, and afterwards at Trelawn, in Pelynt, usually written Trelawny, since it was purchased by a gentleman of that name. The last Mr. Hearle, of Penryn, married the heiress of Paynter, of Trelisick, in St. Erth; and having lost an only son, his daughters became coheiresses, who married Mr. Rodd, of Trebartha, the Rev. Henry Hawkins Tremayne, and Captain Wallis of the R. N.

Enys is now the property of John Samuel Enys, Esq. where his family are ascertained, by authentic documents, to have been seated from times far back in the reign of the Plantagenets, and probably from periods antecedent to them. Samuel Enys represented Penryn in the first Parliament of Charles II. and they appear in every page of our list of Sheriffs. Mr. Enys has built an excellent new house on the foundation of the old; and very recently (1834) he has married Catherine Gilbert, the Editor’s eldest daughter.

The manor of Cosawis, or Gosose, was a part of the large possessions taken from the Bodrugons by Henry VII. and given by him to Sir Richard Edgecumbe, whose descendant, Lord Mount Edgecumbe, parted with it to the late Sir William Lemon.

But a farm called Bohelland has for two centuries continued to excite great curiosity and attention on account of its having been the place where events occurred in real life more horrible than the most heated and gloomy imagination could well invent. Mr. Lysons refers to a small pamphlet of eight leaves, printed in black letter, and accompanied with several wood-cuts, entitled, “News from Perin, in Cornwall, of a most bloody and unexampled Murder, &c.” but not having given any clue for finding it, the Editor has examined several public libraries without success. The following narrative has, however, been extracted from a work entitled “The Reign and Death of King James, of Great Britain:”

“He had been blessed with ample possessions and fruitful issue,
unhappy only in a younger son, who taking liberty from his
father’s bounty, and with a crew of like condition, that wearied
on land, they went roving to sea, and in a small vessel
southward, took boot from all they could master, and so
increasing force and wealth, ventured on a Turk’s man in the
Streights; but by mischance their own powder fired themselves,
and our gallant, trusting to his skilful swimming, got on shore
upon Rhodes, with the best of his jewels about him; where
offering some to sale to a Jew, who knew them to be the
Governor’s of Algier, he was apprehended, and, as a pirate,
sentenced to the gallies among other Christians, whose miserable
slavery made them all studious of freedom, and with wit and
valour took opportunity and means to murther some officers, got
on board of an English ship, and came safe to London; where his
misery, and some skill, made him servant to a surgeon, and sudden
preferment to the East Indies. There, by this means he got money;
with which returning back, he designed himself for his native
county, Cornwall. And in a small ship from London, sailing to the
west, was cast away upon that coast. But his excellent skill in
swimming, and former fate to boot, brought him safe to shore;
where, since his fifteen years’ absence, his father’s former
fortunes much decayed, now retired him not far off to a country
habitation, in debt and danger.

“His sister he finds married to a mercer, a meaner match than her
birth promised. To her, at first, he appears a poor stranger, but
in private reveals himself, and withall what jewels and gold he
had concealed in a bow-case about him; and concluded that the
next day he intended to appear to his parents, and to keep his
disguise till she and her husband should meet, and make their
common joy complete.

“Being come to his parents, his humble behaviour, suitable to his
suit of clothes, melted the old couple to so much compassion as
to give him covering from the cold season under their outward
roof, and by degrees his travelling tales, told with passion to
the aged people, made him their guest so long by the kitchen
fire, that the husband took leave and went to bed. And soon after
his true stories working compassion in the weaker vessel, she
wept, and so did he; but compassionate of her tears, he comforted
her with a piece of gold, which gave assurance that he deserved a
lodging, to which she brought him; and being in bed, shewed her
his girdled wealth, which he said was sufficient to relieve her
husband’s wants, and to spare for himself, and being very weary
fell fast asleep.

“The wife, tempted with the golden bait of what she had, and
eager of enjoying all, awakened her husband with this news, and
her contrivance what to do; and though with horrid apprehension
he oft refused, yet her puling fondness (Eve’s enchantments)
moved him to consent, and rise to be master of all, and both of
them to murder the man, which instantly they did; covering the
corpse under the clothes till opportunity to convey it out of the
way.

“The early morning hastens the sister to her father’s house,
where she, with signs of joy, enquires for a sailor that should
lodge there the last night; the parents slightly denied to have
seen any such, until she told them that he was her brother, her
lost brother; by that assured scar upon his arm, cut with a sword
in his youth she knew him; and were all resolved this morning to
meet there and be merry.

“The father hastily runs up, finds the mark, and with horrid
regret of this monstrous murther of his own son, with the same
knife cuts his own throat.

“The wife went up to consult with him, where in a most strange
manner beholding them both in blood, wild and aghast, with the
instrument at hand, readily rips herself up, and perishes on the
same spot.

“The daughter, doubting the delay of their absence, searches for
them all, whom she found out too soon; with the sad sight of this
scene, and being overcome with horror and amaze of this deluge of
destruction, she sank down and died; the fatal end of that
family.

“The truth of which was frequently known, and flew to court in
this guise; but the imprinted relation conceals their names, in
favour to some neighbour of repute and kin to that family. The
same sense makes me therein silent also.”

These dreadful events have been wrought into a drama by Lillo, the author of George Barnwell; and if terror and pity form the essential bases of tragedy, the “Fatal Curiosity” is built on a most ample foundation; the sister, of course, changes her character to heighten the effect, but in other respects the play scarcely differs from the actual course of events.

The celebrated Mr. Harris of Salisbury, has given the following account of this drama in his last work, entitled, “Philological Inquiries.”

“A long lost son, returning home unexpectedly, finds his parents
alive, but perishing with indigence.

“The young man, whom from his long absence his parents never
expected, discovers himself to an amiable friend, his long-loved
Charlotte, and with her concerts the manner how to discover
himself to his parents.

“It is agreed that he should go to their house, and there remain
unknown till Charlotte should arrive and make the happy
discovery.

“He goes thither accordingly, and having by a letter of
Charlotte’s been admitted, converses, though unknown, both with
father and mother, and beholds their misery with filial
affection; complains, at length, he was fatigued (which, in fact,
he really was), and begs he may be admitted for a while to
repose. Retiring he delivers a casket to his mother, and tells
her it is a deposit she must guard till he awake.

“CURIOSITY tempts her to open the casket, when she is dazzled
with the splendour of innumerable jewels. Objects so alluring
suggest bad ideas; and poverty soon gives to those ideas a
sanction. Black as they are, she communicates them to her
husband; who, at first reluctant, is at length persuaded, and for
the sake of the jewels stabs the stranger while he sleeps.

“The fatal murder is perpetrating, or at least but barely
perpetrated, when Charlotte arrives, full of joy, to inform them
that the stranger within their walls was their long-lost son.

“What a discovery? What a revolution? How irresistibly are the
tragic passions of terror and pity excited?”

It is no small praise to this affecting fable that it so much resembles the Œdipus Tyrannus of Sophocles. In both tragedies, that which apparently leads to joy, leads in its completion to misery; both tragedies concur in the horror of their discoveries, and both in those great outlines of a truly tragic revolution, where (according to the nervous sentiment of Lillo himself) we see

―――――――――――― the two extremes of life,
The highest happiness and deepest woe,
With all the sharp and bitter aggravations
Of such a vast transition.

It is a very curious circumstance that the name of these wretched people, having been kept back at first from compassion towards their relatives, it is now actually unknown.

This parish has been peculiarly fortunate in its succession of clergymen. The Rev. John Penrose, who died in 1776, after being thirty-five years Vicar, has left the reputation of learning, of piety, and of all the virtues which adorn a clergyman. Mr. Temple bore a very high reputation as a man of letters; Mr. Howell was universally esteemed; and the present vicar, Mr. Sheepshanks, ranked in the first lists of science and of literature at Cambridge, and became a distinguished tutor in a college, which continues to support the rank bestowed upon it by the greatest of philosophers.

The town, lying on the back of a sharp ridge of land dividing two deep vallies, has great beauty of situation, and deserves in other respects the praises bestowed by Mr. Tonkin. To travellers, however, all the circumstances are quite different; the main street descending with the ridge is scarcely safe for carriages; and the great road from London through Truro to Falmouth, passing directly across the ridge, has to go up and then down through streets so steep and narrow, and in parts so turned, as to make the safe-passage of the mail-coach a matter of wonder; these defects have been, however, completely remedied by a road carried round the point and accommodated with a drawbridge; thus reducing the road to a level, and preserving the communication by water; this improvement was made about the year 1830.

This parish measures 2,271 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815
The Parish £.3951 0 0 }
The Town 5117 0 0 } 9068 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831,
The Parish 584 3 0 }
The Town 1162 8 0 } 1746 11 0

Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
The Parish { 624 | 714 | 745 | 969
The Town { 2324 | 2713 | 2933 | 3521
{ -------+----------+----------+---------
{ 2948 | 3427 | 3678 | 4490
giving an increase on the Parish of 55⅓, on the Town 51½,
on both 52¼,――per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Sheepshanks, collated by
the Bishop of Exeter in 1824.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The western side of this parish skirts along the boundary of the granite of Mabe; but it does not extend on this rock, with the exception of a small triangular space near Chywoon, at its northern corner. The rest of the parish lies on felspar rocks, both slaty and massive; some of which contain hornblende, whence it passes into green stone.

These felspar rocks, when they are disintegrated, afford a soil which is covered with luxuriant vegetation, forming a striking contrast with the utter barrenness of the adjacent granite.

GORAN.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north St. Ewe, east Mevaguisey, south the British Channel. By this name it was taxed in Domesday Roll, 20th William I. 1087. Also in the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln, &c. into the value of Cornish benefices, 1294, Ecclesia Sancti Goran in Decanatu de Powdre, was valued in vi_l._ xiii_s._ iiii_d._ Vicar ibidem, xxvi_s._ viii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it was rated by the same name of Goran at 20_l._ The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, who endowed it; and when it was made a Vicarage reserved to him and his successors 100_l._ per annum rent out of the garb, or sheaf, which is in the possession of Ratcliff. The Incumbent Shapter. And the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. by the name of Goran, 317_l._ 14_s._ This, undoubtedly, was an endowed church before the Norman Conquest, or, at least, a privileged manor, since it appears from that time to this it hath not admitted of any mutation of name.

Goran-hoane, in this parish, signifies Goran-haven, bay, winding of the sea, or harbour. A place much frequented by ships, boats, barges, and lighters, for fishing and carrying and re-carrying fish, goods, and merchandizes; and wherein is a convenient quay, or landing-place, for that purpose, made secure by a considerable promontory of land that shoots far out into the sea on the west side thereof, commonly called (for what reason I have not learned) the Dead-man; which forms a large bay, or winding bosom of the sea, on the east, betwixt it and Ram Head, twenty miles distant; and such another west, to the Lizard Point, at a like distance, all notable and well-known places, and sea-marks to such mariners as navigate the British Channel in those parts. In this haven town is still extant the ruins of an ancient free chapel, wherein God was duly worshipped in former ages by the inhabitants of the place.

The barton of Bo-drig-ham, or Bod-rig-an, also Botrigan (for in British _d_ and _t_ are indifferently used and pronounced for each other) gave name and origin to an old family of gentlemen surnamed de Bodrigham, or Bodrigan, also Botrigan, who flourished here in great fame, wealth, and reputation for several descents; and in particular here lived Otho de Bodrigan, temp. 17th Edward II. of whom we read in Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 51: viz. “Otto de Bodrugan peregrinatus est ad San. Jacobum licentia Domini Regis;” i. e. Otho de Bodrigan, by license of our Lord the King, is gone a pilgrimage to St. James; that is to say, to the apostle St. James’s Church, at Compostella, in Spain; who had for his fellow-traveller Radolphus de Belloprato, “qui peregrinatus est cum Ottone de Bodrigan, cum licentia Regis, pro se et duobus valectis;” that is to say, Ralph of the fair meadow, who by license of the King for himself and two servants, or young gentlemen, is gone a pilgrimage with Otho of Bodrigan. And of those it follows, in the same page, “isti prænominati habent 40 libras terræ et redditus per ann.;” that is to say, held by the tenure of knight’s service.

This Otho de Bodrigan, Sheriff of Cornwall, 3d Richard II. anno Dom. 1400, gave for his arms (as appears yet on the door of this house), Argent, three bends or bendlets Gules. And as a further testimony thereof, Nicholas Upton, in his Latin Manuscript of Heraldry, written before printing was invented (now in my custody), said of his son, 1440, “Monsieur William Bodrigham port de Argent trois bends de Gules;” who dying without issue, his two sisters became his heirs; the one married to Champernowne, of Halewin, or Haleworth, who in her right held in this place by the tenure of knight’s service, 3d Henry IV. a Knight’s fee of land (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall).

His other sister, as tradition saith, was married to Trenowith, who thereupon discontinued his own paternal name and arms, viz. in a field Argent, on a fess Sable, three chevrons transverse (to the dexter) of the Field; and assumed those of Bodrigan. He had issue by her Henry Trenowith, or Bodrigham, temp. Henry VI. who married Jane, sixth daughter of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, slain 8th Edward IV. 1469, the relict of Thomas Viscount Lisle, and by her had issue. He was knighted by King Edward IV. or King Richard III. by the name of Sir Henry Bodrigham; who siding with King Richard III. at the battle of Bosworth Field (where he, the said King Richard, was slain by the Earl of Richmond’s soldiers), he was therefore, with many others, attainted of treason against King Henry VII.; and in order to shun justice he made his escape after the battle aforesaid, and secretly repaired to this place, where he was kept close for a season, but not so private but King Henry’s officers got notice thereof, and at an appointed time beset the same in quest of him; which he understanding, by a back-door fled from thence, and ran down the hills to the sea cliff near the same, the officers pursuing so quick after him that he could not possibly make his escape. As soon therefore as he came to the cliff, about a hundred feet high, he leaped down into the sea, upon the little grassy island there, without much hurt or damage; where instantly a boat which he had prepared in the cove, attended him there, which transported him to a ship that carried him into France. Which astonishing fact, and place, is to this day well known and remembered by the name of Harry Bodrigan’s leap, or jump. But notwithstanding his own escape beyond the seas, this lordship and his whole estate were forfeited and seized by King Henry VII. for attainder of treason; and the greatest part thereof he settled upon Sir Richard Edgcumb and his heirs for ever; whose posterity are still in possession thereof. This Sir Richard Edgcumb, not long before, on suspicion of being confederated with the Earl of Richmond against King Richard III. (as tradition saith), was shrewdly sought after and pursued by means of this very Sir Henry Bodrigan, in order to be taken into custody, who from his house at Cotehele, made also a wonderful escape thence, and got into France, to the Earl of Richmond; of which see more in Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 114 (p. 270, Lord Dunstanville’s edition), so unavoidable a thing is fortune or destiny.

Tradition tells us that there was great discord and variance between the families of Bodrigan and the knightly family of the Haleps of Lammoran, either upon account of private affronts or grudges, or upon the different interests or factions, and wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, wherein they were associated and engaged against each other, so that as often as they met between themselves and servants some combat or battle ensued, whereby blood was shed and the peace broken; and they often came to each other’s gates armed in defiance on horseback.

At Tre-garden lived John de Tregarthyn, temp. Edward I. how long before I know not; after which his posterity in this place married with the great inheritrixes of Pever, Chamberlayne, and Hendower, of Court, in Branell, by which last, by the Cornwalls of that place, they were lineally descended from Richard Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans, by his concubine, Joan de Valletort, widow of Sir Alexander Oakeston. (Vide ST. STEPHEN’S.) Certainly this was an ancient, rich, and famous family in those parts, for it appears by their seats, or pews, in Goran church, they had the precedence or right hand of the seats pertaining to the great family of Bodrigan, as is yet to be seen. Thomas Tregarthyn, Esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall, 7 Henry VII. 1492, who married Hendower aforesaid, and removed to Court, in St. Stephen’s, in Branell. He had issue by her, John Tregarthyn, Esq. and two daughters; Margaret, the eldest, married to Richard Whiteleigh, of Efford, in Devon, Esq. Sheriff of that county 16th Henry VII.; from whose two daughters and heirs the Grenvilles of Stowe, and the Halses late of Efford aforesaid, and Fentongallan, in Cornwall, are lineally descended. Catherine, the second daughter of Thomas Tregarthyn, was married to John Carmenow, of Fentongollan, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 5th Henry VIII. whose posterity are extinct.

John Tregarthyn, Esq. aforesaid, son of Thomas, married Jane, daughter of Thomas Trethyrfe, Esq. and had issue by her four daughters that became his heirs; Mary married to Degory Grenvill, of Penheale, Esq.; Jane to Tripcony, who passed those lands to Richard Trevanion, Esq. (ancestor to Richard Trevanion, now in possession of this place); Margaret, married to George Tanner, of Cullumbton, Esq. to whose share and partage the manor of Court and Branell, in St. Stephen’s, fell; Joan married to John Kellaway, of Egge, in Devon, Esq.; after his death to Wadham of Merryfield, in Somerset, as appears from her tombstone in Branscombe church, Devonshire, where is to be read and seen those words: