Chapter XI: Part 11

In the return made to King Henry the Eighth, preserved in the Augmentation Office, of the property belonging to this monastery, are these entries:

£. _s._ _d._
Com. Cornub. Paulyn firma rectorie 41 0 0
S. Breac firma rectorie 47 0 0

This reign, more unsettled, and more disturbed by domestic wars throughout its whole extent than any other, was nevertheless most fertile in the production of monasteries; and the honour and castle of Wallingford, accidentally united with the Duchy of Cornwall in the person of Richard Plantagenet, King of the Romans, remained so till it was taken in exchange by Henry the Eighth for certain manors and lands in Cornwall, known as the new Duchy holdings.

A great part of the lands surrendered by the Abbey of Hailes are in possession of the Tracy family; but the impropriated tithes of Paul belonged, in the early part of the last century, to the family of Gwavas, since which time they have passed with two coheiresses to Veale and Carlyon.

The church is placed a little beyond the brow of a lofty ridge ascending from the sea, so that it is not much seen, but the tower rising above the ridge is visible from a great distance. The church is large, and contains several monuments to members of different families,――Godolphin, Pendarves, Hitchins, &c.

In this parish are situated Mousehole and Newlyn, two towns of pretty considerable size, although, being very near to Penzance, they have not any regular market.

MOUSEHOLE, formerly called Porth Enys, the Island Port, on account of a small island close in upon the shore, had in remote times not the privilege merely, but the actual possession of a market and fairs, but having been destroyed by a predatory invasion of some Spaniards in July 1595, and Penzance rising fast into importance, the practice of holding them has been discontinued ever since.

Mr. Carew, p. 156 (p. 381 of Lord de Dunstanville’s edition), gives a detailed account of this invasion, which is said to have occasioned the capture of Cadiz by a combined English and Dutch squadron in the ensuing year. In Paul church is the following inscription, recording the savage conduct of these invaders:

“The Spanyer burnt this church in the year 1595.”

And the parish register commences with this notice:

“Register of St. Pawle in the countie of Cornwall, from the
23 daye of Julie, the year of our gracious Lord God 1595, on
which daie, soon after the sun was risen, the church, tower,
bells, and all other things pertaining to the same, together
with the houses and goods, was burned and spoiled by the
Spaniards in the said parish, being Wensdaie the daye
aforesaid, in the 37th year of the raigne of our Soveraine
Ladie Elezabeth, by the grace of God of England, France, and
Ireland Queene, Defender of the Faith, &c.
“Per me, JOH’NEM TREMEARNE, Vicarium.”

Entries, 1595:

“Jenken Keigwyn, of Mousehole, being killed by the
Spaniards, was buried the 24th of Julie.

Jacobus de Newlyn occisus fuit per inimicos, et sepultus est
26 die Julie.

Similiter Teek Cornall, et sepultus the 26 Julie.”

The cannon ball which caused the death of Mr. Keigwyn, the principal inhabitant of the place, is still preserved; and to within these few years an implacable hatred was entertained against the very name of a Spaniard.

There is said to have been a chapel at Mousehole; and another, on the island dedicated to St. Clement, served probably for St. Michael’s Mount, as the island is understood to remain an appendage to that place.

No satisfactory account has ever been given of the change of name from Porth Enys to the ludicrous one now in use; there is indeed a cavern at some distance beyond, spacious, lofty, and strewed with large rocks, therefore as unlikely to suggest the name as any thing that can well be imagined. It most likely arose from some trifling circumstance now forgotten.

NEWLYN is somewhat larger than Mousehole, having annexed to it a collection of houses called by a mixture of English and Cornish, “Street Nowan,” the New street.

Both the towns are provided with a pier capable of sheltering small vessels, and above all of protecting the immense assemblage of boats employed in the seine fishery, and in driving for pilchards, mackarel, and herrings; from which large supplies, especially of mackarel, are sent in the spring to London, and pilchards exported to the amount of several thousand hogsheads.

The principal family of this parish in early times was probably Keigwin. To Mr. John Keigwin, born in 1641, we are indebted for the Translations of Mount Calvary, and of the Creation of the World with Noah’s Flood, both of which have been printed by the Editor of this Work, with the original Cornish on the opposite pages; he died about the year 1710. The affairs of the Keigwins got entangled in family disputes, accompanied by protracted litigation in the Court of Chancery, which occasioned their estates to be sold in parcels, and thus gave rise to the extraordinary number of freeholders in the parish of Paul.

Mr. Lysons gives the history of several manors, but they do not contain any thing curious.

The younger branch of the Godolphins, which settled at Treworveneth, having acquired it by a marriage with the daughter and heiress of John Cowling of that place, became extinct by the death of Col. William Godolphin in 1689.

Trungle was the seat of Mr. Hitchens, and afterwards became the residence of Capt. Clutterbuck, a gentleman from Kent, who came into Cornwall as commandant of the garrison at Scilly. He married a Cornish lady, and settled there. His son practised the law at Marazion.

The late Mr. John Price commenced the formation of a pretty retreat in a small declivity near the ridge of this parish, at a place called Chi-owne, the house in a croft. Trees were found to flourish there, and the whole promised so much that his son Mr. Rose Price began to lay the foundation of a handsome seat on an adjoining farm; and he went so far as to construct an immense mound to act as a shelter for trees, and also to give them an elevation on its slope, a work which the country people named “The Chinese Wall:” the whole was, however, discontinued for want of sufficient space, which was afterwards afforded in the adjacent parish of Maddern by the purchase of Trengwainton.

It is not easy to imagine a more beautiful view than the one obtained from the summit of the hill above Newlyn; the ascent is, however, extremely steep, and in consequence a new line of road has been projected; but the great value and subdivision of land will probably defeat the execution of a plan having more for its object the decoration of the country than any facility of communication, although that would be found important.

Not far from the top of this hill is erected a small stone monument by the late Mr. John Price, to commemorate a circumstance scarcely deserving of such attention, which was no more than the finding of a gold ring with the motto on it, “In hac spe vivo.” Mr. Price indeed conjectured that it had belonged to some gentleman engaged in the remote Plantagenet Civil Wars, and with much ingenuity contrived a series of adventures to suit the occasion and the sentiment.

Another curiosity, discovered much about the same time, is far more deserving of regard. Of this Mr. Lysons has given an engraved plate with the following description:

“In 1783, one of the ancient British ornaments of gold, in
the form of a crescent, with a narrow zigzag pattern
slightly engraven on it, and weighing two ounces, four penny
weights, and six grains, was discovered near the remains of
one of the circular earthworks in the neighbourhood of
Penzance. This curious relic is now in the possession of
Rose Price, esq.”

Gold ornaments, similar if not identical with this very curious remnant of remote antiquity, have been found in other parts of this island, and also in Ireland. One very like it in bronze, taken from a stream pool in 1802, is in the possession of Mr. William Rashleigh at Menabilly.

Objects so interesting have not failed of exciting investigation and conjecture; and they have been fancied to be a decoration of the chief priest among the Druids, worn round his head, and indicating by the crescent shape the exact age of the moon best adapted for ensuring the greatest possible virtues to the holy misletoe, which was then to be severed from its parent oak.

Paul measures 2,865 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 7,464 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 785 7 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 2937 | 3371 | 3790 | 4191
giving an increase of 42½ per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. C. G. Ruddock Festing, presented by Lord
Chancellor Eldon in 1826.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

A narrow belt of slate, belonging to the porphyritic series, bounds this parish on its eastern side, as far south as the village of Mousehole; it consists for the most part of hard massive and schistose varieties of compact felspar, occasionally spotted or intimately blended with actynolite and hornblend, or with some mineral intermediate between them. The rest of this parish is situated on granite, exhibiting the same varieties as that of Burian and St. Levan. At Mousehole the slate and granite may be seen in contact with each other, the granite occurring as veins in the former rock.

[7] He was consecrated a Bishop by Justus, then Bishop of
Rochester, before he went.

PELYNT, OR PLYNT.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Pelynt, vulgo Plynt, lies in the hundred of West, and joins to the west with Lantegles and Lansallas, to the north with Lanreath, to the east with Duloe and the river Loo, to the south with Tallant. In Domesday Book this parish is called Pluwent.

This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book at £17. 18_s._ 6_d._; the patronage in John Francis Buller, esq. the incumbent Mr. Howell.

This church, in anno 1291, 20 Edward I. was valued, (Tax. Benef.) viz. the rectory at £8, being then appropriated to the abbey of Wilton, in Wiltshire; and the vicarage at 40_s._

The manor of Plunent, vulgo Plynt. By Domesday Book it appears that this was one of the two hundred and eighty-eight manors given by William the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall. In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. (Carew, fol. 49,) Plenynt is valued in nine.

THE EDITOR.

This parish is named in the valuation of Pope Nicholas, Pleymut or Palemyt. It paid at the general suppression of religious houses, £4. 15_s._ a year to the priors of Wilton.

The church is spacious, although it has only two principal aisles, with two family aisles, standing across the other on the south side.

There are various monuments in the church. A very large monument to Francis Buller, esq. ornamented with the figures of himself and of his wife in an upper compartment, and of twelve children below, besides other figures, and numerous coats of arms. This gentleman died in 1615. There is also a monument to Edward Trelawny, a barrister, much noted on account of its quaint and singular inscription, said to have originated from his never having practised his profession, except once gratuitously, to vindicate an individual suffering under some oppression:

Edward Trelawny. Ana:
We wander, alter, dy.

O what a bubble, vapour, puff of breath,
A nest of worms, a lump of pallid earth,
Is mud-wall man; before we mount on high,
We cope with change, we wander, alter, dy.

Causidicum claudit tumulus (miraris) honestum.
Gentibus hoc cunctis dixeris esse novum.

Here lyes an honest lawyer, wot you what?
A thing for all the world to wonder at.

June the 7th, 1630.

There are memorials to William Achym, Esq. as far back as 1589; to a de Bodrigan; and several to the Trelawnys.

William of Worcester states this church to have been the burial place of St. Juncus, a holy personage not recorded in the Roman calendar. But Mr. Whitaker, without citing any authority, gives the patronage of the church and parish to St. Nunn, the mother of St. David, the Apostle of Wales, the first Archbishop of Menevia, since called after his name, and according to romance writers the champion, who having distinguished his levies by a leek as a cognizance, defeated the Saxons in a night attack, and drove them beyond the confines of his province.

This church belonged to the Cistercian abbey of Newenham, in Devonshire, founded by Reginald de Mohun, lord of Dunster, about the year 1241.

In the return made to King Henry the Eighth, and preserved in the Augmentation Office, occur these entries:

£. _s._ _d._
Plenynt Redd. lib. ten. 1 15 4
Redd. tam cust’ quam convent’ ten’ 21 5 7
Redd. Firma Rector’ 14 0 0
Redd. Perquis. cur’ 0 11 10
―――――――――――――
£37 12 9

The site of this monastery was granted by Queen Elizabeth to Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, but sold by one of his sons to Sir John Petre, in whose family it continued till so recently as the year 1824. It was then sold to James Alexander Frampton, esq.

The manor of Pelynt, with the privilege of a fair on Midsummer day, parcel of this abbey, have travelled by some other channel to Colonel Frederick William Buller; and the manor of Hall, the great tithes, and the advowson of the living, belong to Mr. John Buller, of Morvall.

On the barton of Hall are some remains of ancient military works.

But the place of greatest note in this parish is Trelawn, for more than two centuries the principal seat of the Trelawnys; but, notwithstanding the great similarity of the two names, not having any connection one with the other, although, by a temptation too strong to be withstood, the place has recently been known by the name of its proprietor.

THE HISTORY, AS GIVEN BY MR. BOND.

This place, at an early period, belonged to the Bodrigans. Sir Henry de Bodrigan gave it as a marriage portion with his daughter to Henry Champernowne. The heiress of this branch of the Champernownes married Polglass Herle. Sir John Herle the younger, who died without issue, settled the reversion of Trelawn on Sir William Bonville, the last of an ancient Devonshire family (summoned to Parliament Sept. the 23d, in the 28th year of Henry the Sixth, as Baron Bonville, which barony in fee became forfeited by the attainder of his great-grandson Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, in the first year of Philip and Mary. Ed.) It was a very remarkable circumstance attending this family, that the havoc of Civil War annihilated three generations within the space of two months. At the battle of Wakefield Lord Bonville witnessed the death of his son Sir William Bonville, and of his grandson William Lord Harrington, who enjoyed that title according to the custom of those days, as having married Elizabeth, the daughter and heiress of Lord Harrington, of Harrington, possessed of a barony in fee. This battle took place on the last day of December 1460. And in the month of February following the aged grandfather, Lord Bonville himself, was taken prisoner at the second battle of St. Alban’s, and although his life had been promised, he was beheaded by the order of Queen Margaret, who bore resentment against him, as being one of those who had custody of the king’s person after the battle of Northampton. Elizabeth Lady Harrington, after the accession of Edward the Fourth, had a large dower assigned her out of Lord Bonville’s estates in Cornwall. Her only daughter by Bonville brought Trelawn, and other estates, to Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset. On the attainder of his grandson Henry Duke of Suffolk, they were seized by the Crown. Queen Elizabeth, in the 42d year of her reign, sold the manor of Trelawn and the lands of Hendersich and Portello, in Talland prrish, to Sir Jonathan Trelawny. The old and famous family of Trelawny take their name from the barton of Trelawny, in the parish of Alternun. The arms of this family are Argent, a chevron Sable, sometimes charged with three oak-leaves Proper.

It is said that Sir John Trelawny was so eminent in the wars of France, that King Henry the Fifth, on the 27th of September, in the seventh year of his reign, at Gison in Normandy, granted him £20 yearly for life, as a just recompense for his signal services; and that Henry the Sixth was pleased to confirm it to him in the first year of his reign, and granted to him an augmentation to his arms, the three oak-leaves. He was certainly the first of this family who bore that addition. Under the picture of Henry the Fifth, which stood formerly on the gate at Launceston, was this rhyme:

He that will do aught for me,
Let him love well Sir John Trelawnee.

There was an ancient saying in Cornwall, That a Godolphin was never known to want wit, a Trelawny courage, or a Glanville loyalty.

Mr. Lysons says, Lord Bonville built a castellated mansion at Trelawny, a part of which, with two towers, remain on the eastern side of the present house. Sir John Trelawny nearly rebuilt the house, soon after his purchase of the estate. It was again nearly rebuilt by Edward Trelawny, esq. Governor of Jamaica, after a fire, which happened about the middle of the last century. There are several family portraits in the house, two of the Bishop of Winchester; he built a chapel there, on the site of a former one, and the following inscription remains:

“This Chapel was consecrated by the Right Rev.
Father in God, Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bart. Lord Bishop
of Exeter, on Monday, 23d day of November,
Anno Dom. 1701.”

Without adverting to ancient times, two members of this family have been distinguished in times more recent, Doctor Jonathan Trelawny, and one of his sons, Edward Trelawny, esq.

Of the first Wood says, in his Athenæ Oxonienses:――

Jonathan Trelawny, son of Sir Jonathan Trelawny, of Trelawny, in Cornwall, Baronet, was born, as I have been informed, at Pelent, or Pelynt, in the same county, educated at Westminster School, entered into Christ Church in Michaelmas Term 1668, aged 18 (born therefore in 1650); and in the year following was made student thereof. Afterwards he took the degrees in arts, holy orders, and one or two benefices in his own county, conferred upon him by his relations.

In 1680 his eldest brother died, and thereupon, though the title of baronet and the paternal estate of his family were to come to him after the death of his father, yet he stuck to his holy orders, continued in his functions, and upon the translation of Doctor John Lake to the see of Chichester, was nominated Bishop of Bristol by his Majesty, (King James the Second, Nov. 8, 1685,) whereupon, after he had been diplomated doctor of divinity, he was consecrated, November the 8th 1685, in the Archbishop’s Chapel at Lambeth, and introduced into the House of Lords with Dr. Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, on the 11th day of the same month. On the 8th of June 1688 he was one of the six Bishops, besides Doctor Sancroft the Archbishop, that were committed prisoners to the Tower of London, for the alleged offence of contriving, making, and publishing a seditious libel against his Majesty and his government; that is for subscribing a petition to his Majesty, wherein he and the rest of the said Bishops showed the great averseness that they found in themselves to the distributing and publishing in all their churches his Majesty’s late declaration for liberty of conscience, &c. Where continuing till they were publicly tried in Westminster Hall for the same, they were, to the great joy of the true sons of the Church of England, released thence on the 15th of the same month. Subsequently, however, the see of Exeter was conferred on him by King James, vacant by the translation thence to York of Doctor Lamplugh; and about the 7th of April following, his Majesty King William the Third was pleased to give his royal assent for him, the said Doctor Jonathan Trelawny, Bishop of Bristol, to be Bishop of Exeter, in the place of Doctor Lamplugh, beforementioned.

From the Fasti it appears that Jonathan Trelawny, of Christ Church, was admitted Bachelor of Arts on the 14th of May 1672, and Master of Arts April the 29th, 1675. And on October the 26th, 1685, Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bart. Master of Arts of Christ Church, the nominated Bishop of Bristol, was diplomated Doctor of Divinity.

As this gentleman was made Bishop of Bristol by King James the Second, and after his commitment to the Tower and acquittal, accepted from him an appointment to the bishopric of Exeter, almost the last act of that king’s government, which appointment was almost immediately confirmed to him by King William on his joining in the Revolution, one may apply in his case the observation made by the most philosophical writer of English history, on the Duke of Marlborough, when he led over Queen Anne to the Prince of Orange.

“This conduct was a singular sacrifice to public virtue of
every duty in private life, and required for ever after the
most upright, disinterested, and public-spirited behaviour
to render it justifiable.”

He was further advanced by Queen Anne, being again translated, on the 14th of January 1707, to the see of Winchester. He died on the 21st of June 1721.

He married Rebecca, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Hele, esq. of Boscome, in Devonshire, and left a numerous family, but none of his sons left families, and only two of his daughters; Letitia, who married her cousin Henry Trelawny; and Rebecca, married to Mr. John Buller, of Morvall.

Few men ever obtained so great a share of popularity among all ranks and degrees in his own country as did the Bishop, when he protested against the insidious declaration of King James the Second, and sustained persecution in consequence of the support he had given to the Church of England. Fears were entertained, or apprehensions were industriously circulated, of extremities never contemplated; and the prompt acquittal of the Bishops seems alone to have prevented Cornwall from rising in arms.

A Song was made on the occasion, of which all the exact words, except those of what may be called the burden, were lost, but the whole has recently been restored, modernized, and improved by the Rev. Robert Stephen Hawker, of Whitstone, near Stratton.

The strong sensation excited throughout England, by that decisive act of bigotry, tyranny, and imprudence, on the part of King James the Second, by which he committed the seven Bishops to the Tower, was in no district more manifestly displayed than in Cornwall, notwithstanding the part taken by that county in the Civil War. This was, probably, in a great degree occasioned by sympathy with this respected Cornish gentleman, then Bishop of Bristol. The following Song is said to have resounded in every house, in every highway, and in every street.

A good sword and a trusty hand,
A merry heart and true;
King James’s men shall understand
What Cornish men can do.

And have they fix’d the Where and When?
And shall TRELAWNY die?
Then twenty thousand Cornish Men
Will know the reason why!

Out spake the Captain brave and bold,
A merry wight was he,
Tho’ London Tower were [8]Michael’s Hold,
We’d set TRELAWNY free!

We’ll cross the Tamar, land to land,
The Severn is no stay;
And side by side, and hand in hand,
And who shall bid us nay!

And when we come to London Wall,
A pleasant sight to view,
Come forth! come forth! ye cowards all;
Here are better men than you.

TRELAWNY he’s in Keep and Hold;
TRELAWNY he may die!――――
But twenty thousand Cornish bold
Will know “The Reason Why.”

The song may be sung to the tune of “Auld lang syne.”

The seven Bishops were:

William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury; consecrated
1678; deprived 1690-1; ob. 1693.

William Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph; consecrated 1680;
translated to Lichfield and Coventry, 1692; and to Worcester
1699; ob. 1717.

Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells; consecrated 1683;
deprived 1690-1; ob. 1710.

Francis Turner, Bishop of Ely; consecrated 1683; deprived
1690-1; ob. 1700.

John Lake, Bishop of Chichester; consecrated 1682; suspended
at the Revolution, but died 1689.

Thomas White, Bishop of Peterborough; consecrated 1685;
deprived 1890-1; ob. 1698.

Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bishop of Bristol; consecrated 1685;
translated to Exeter in 1689, to Winchester in 1707; ob.
1721.

Bishop Trelawny has left at Christ Church a very valuable, esteemed, and appropriate memorial of himself, and of the Founder. Over the south-east gate of the great quadrangle, leading to the staircase of the hall, is a fine statue of Cardinal Wolsey, with the following inscription:

Eminentissimo Cardinali Thomæ Wolseio,
viro inter hæc menia semper memorando,
P.
Reverendus in Christo Pater Jonathan Trelawny,
de Trelawny, in comitatu Cornubiæ Baronettus,
hujusce Ædis olim Alumnus,
Wolseii in Episcopatu Wintoniensi successor,
et Wolseianæ erga hanc Domum munificentiæ æmulus,
A. D. M.DCC.XIX.

Edward Trelawny, esq. one of the Bishop’s sons, had the honour of being made Governor of Jamaica; and most fortunately for the Island, besides many other prudent and judicious acts, he pacified a formidable body of revolted negroes, who had long sustained a savage independence, held the fastnesses belonging to the chain of mountains which divides Jamaica throughout its whole length, and maintained a predatory war against all the settlers. The treaty with these people, called Maroons, was in itself so equitable that it continued to be observed up to the period when the whirl of political opinions in Europe, mingled with others of fanatical enthusiasm, extended to these people, and in consequence they were all either exterminated or sent to perish in distant countries.

Sir William Trelawny, the sixth Bart. great-nephew of Edward Trelawny, was also Governor of Jamaica, in less trying times, and the period of his service was cut short by a premature death in 1772, when the property descended to his only son, Harry Trelawny, then a boy at school.

The career of this individual, though extraordinary and eccentric, need not be given in any detail. He appears to have been a man of naturally a strong understanding, but having imbibed the spirit of fanaticism in early youth, it carried him in all directions, as fancy guided, with equal facility; but in general directly against the consent of modern opinions, which have repudiated implicit confidence in traditions, in the decrees of councils, and in the dicta of ancient fathers, or of popes, substituting in their place the exercise of private judgment; guided no doubt in practice by the teacher who happens to carry with him the fashion of the day.

Sir Harry Trelawny commenced preaching at Westminster school. He proceeded to Oxford, where in consequence of nonconformity he could not obtain a degree. He then took orders in the church of Scotland, and began a course of preaching in various meeting houses, especially in one of his own erecting at West Looe. In the course of a few years, after the novelty had worn away, he complied with the requisite observances at Oxford and was admitted to a degree. He then received orders as a clergyman of the Church of England from Doctor John Ross, Bishop of Exeter, and soon afterwards the living of St. Allan, which he exchanged with his relation Dr. William Buller, the succeeding Bishop, for Egloshayle. This living he ultimately resigned on becoming a Roman Catholic, and died in Italy, February the 25th, 1834, having, as it is said, received the nominal honour from the holy See of being appointed a Bishop in Partibus Infidelium. He married Anne, daughter of the Rev. James Brown, of Somersetshire, and has left a large family.

An event connected with the death of this gentleman, and which occurred about a year afterwards, roused the scorn of the whole parish, and of the neighbourhood, more than any thing that has taken place there within the memory of the oldest person.

Several priests arrived from the continent, bringing with them an empty coffin, and the various apparatus used in Catholic services, when masses were said and requiems sung at Trelawny for the peace of this individual’s soul, who had died and was buried in Italy, where it would seem that these pageants should have been celebrated, on the double supposition of their being really efficacious, and that the Almighty is incapable of hearing them from any other than a single spot. For if the latter supposition were not admitted, they might as well have been performed in France, from whence it is apprehended the priests embarked, unless indeed we suppose of these as of other histriones, that Μονον αργυρον βλεπουσιν; and in regard to such a subject, we may fairly go on to add, without want of charity, Απολοιτο πρωτος αυτος ὁ τον αργυρον φιλησας.

His eldest son, Sir William Lewis Salusbury Trelawny, married Patience, only daughter of John Phillipps Carpenter, esq. of Mount Tavey, near Tavistock, and is now one of the members in parliament for Cornwall, residing for the present at Harewood, on the banks of the Tamar.

Pelynt measures 4,170 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4,732 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 594 19 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 630 | 708 | 750 | 804
giving an increase of 27½ per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The rocks of this parish resemble those of Lanreath and Duloe, the adjoining parishes; and belong, therefore, to the same calcareous series.

[8] St. Michael’s Mount.

ST. PIRAN, OR PERRAN ARWORTHALL, IN KERRIER.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.[9]

The manor of Arworthal (which signifies, upon the noted river,) giving the name of distinction to this parish, and taking in the greatest part of the lands thereof, I shall begin with it.

In 3 Henry IV. John Fitz William held half a knight’s fee in Arworthall, per cartam Edwardi quondam com. Cornub. dict. feod. Mortan. (Carew, p. 126, Lord Dunstanville’s edition,) which Edward Earl of Cornwall must be Edward de Caernarvon, afterwards King of England, the 2d of that name, for there was no other Edward Earl of Cornwall. Elizabeth, the daughter and heir of this Sir John Fitz William (for he was a knight) brought the manor, &c. into the family of Mohun in which it continued till the reign of James the 1st, when Sir Reginald Mohun, to raise fortunes for his children by his third wife, sold this manor to Samuel Pendarves of Roscrow, esq. in whose posterity it yet remaineth, Mrs. Bassett, the sole heir of that family, being the present lady thereof.

On the wastrell of this manor have been large quantities of tin dug up from time to time; and just above the village of Perran Arworthall, by the pound near Perran Well, there is a strong chalybeate spring much frequented of late years.

In this parish did antiently dwell the family of Renaudin, by their name of French extraction, but where I cannot positively say; and here dwelt, temp. Ricardi II. David Renaudin, who married Margaret, the eldest daughter and coheir of James Daungers of Carnclew. John Renaudin, their son, dying without issue temp. Henry V. this estate fell to Richard Bonython of Carclew, who had married Isabel, the other daughter and coheir of the said James Daungers, in which family of Bonython (whose heiress still lays claim to it, and, as by original deeds, it appears very justly,) it continued to the reign of Charles I. when Peter Beauchamp of Trevince, esq. having a lease of it for three lives, from John Bonython, esq. his posterity have been strangely outed of the fee ever since; which has of late years past through several hands, and is now vested in Thomas Hearle of Penryn, esq.

The arms of Renaudin, as painted in the old glass windows at Carnclew, were Sable, a chevron between three swans Argent.

THE EDITOR.

This parish, with two others, are dedicated to St. Perran, the most distinguished among the missionaries from Ireland, who converted the Pagan inhabitants of Cornwall to the Christian faith; but his history properly falls under the head of Perran Zabuloe, where he fixed his residence and breathed his last.

The church of Perran Arworthall is very small but neat, and it is decorated with a tower in due proportion to the whole fabric. The only ancient village of any consequence in the whole parish, is called Perran Well, probably from the chalybeate spring flowing near it; and this village has imparted its name in common parlance to the whole parish.

Perran Well is situated in a deep valley, having a hill and a corresponding vale on either side, terminating in the Carnon branch of Falmouth harbour: over all these the high road leading from Truro to Falmouth used to pass; but by a most judicious improvement a causeway has been laid over Carnon, and these transverse hills and valleys entirely avoided.

Not far below the village stood one of the tin-smelting houses constructed after the Germans introduced reverberatory furnaces; it has been used for the last thirty years for refining arsenic. This metal and its oxide, most destructive to animal or to vegetable life, is extensively useful in metallurgic operations and in the arts. Few substances are more generally diffused throughout mining districts: it unites with most other metals, sometimes alone, but more frequently in union with sulphur, and converts them into minerals. Metals are therefore said to be mineralized by arrenic, by sulphur, &c. The first operation used in extracting metals from their ores, is one for driving off by heat such substances as are volatile. Arsenic is eminently so: it therefore sublimes, and is deposited in long flues or chambers made to prevent the destructive consequences of its being diffused through the atmosphere, and scattered over the country. From these chambers or flues the refiners of arsenic obtain their supplies, and are thereby enabled to afford it in a state of purity, at such prices as would be wholly inadequate for defraying the expense necessarily to be incurred, if the operation had commenced on the ores containing this metal in the mines.

Partly in this parish, but principally in Milor, on the next creek towards Falmouth, are situated the great iron works, conducted by Messrs. Fox, a family distinguished for ability, exertion, and liberality, from generation to generation. These works were the first constructed of any magnitude in Cornwall. Previously, all the cast-iron materials for steam engines were brought from Glamorganshire, and the working of an important mine very frequently depended on the uncertain direction of the wind; now every thing that can be required, even cylinders of the largest dimensions, seven feet and a half (90 in.) in diameter, and ten or twelve feet long, are cast and bored with the utmost accuracy here and at Hoyle, where similar works have arisen, to the incalculable benefit of the mining concerns.

The valley above and below these works is perhaps the most beautiful in the west of Cornwall, and it has recently been adorned, just opposite the fine woods of Carclew, by the elegant and tasteful residence of Benjamin Sampson, esq. who conducts an extensive manufactory for supplying the mines with gunpowder made in their immediate neighbourhood.

This parish, and the adjacent one of Stithyans, to which it is annexed, are believed to have been appropriated to the religious establishment at Penrey. The impropriation of the great tithes, and the advowson of the vicarage, have for a considerable time belonged to the Boscawens of Tregothnan.

Perran Arworthall measures 1,229 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2165 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 451 15 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 884 | 1104 | 1362 | 1504
giving an increase of 70 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The western part of this parish is similar to the slate of Gwennap: the whole appears to belong to the porphyritic series; but on the extreme eastern part it makes a nearer approach to the calcareous series of Feock.

[9] The observations made on Mr. Tonkin’s narrative in this
and in other parishes, usually marked with brackets, are by
Mr. Whitaker.

PERRAN UTHNO, OR LITTLE PERRAN.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

St. Piran Uthno, commonly called Little Perran, is in the hundred of Penwith, and is wholly surrounded to the north, west, and east, by St. Hilary, and to the south by the sea. In the Tax. Benefic. this is called Ecclesia de Udnow Parva, and in common speech Little Piran, from its smallness, not containing above 900 acres in all; but it was of greater extent formerly, the sea having much encroached upon it.

This is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book, £17. 11_s._ 3_d._; the patronage in Sir John Trevillian, bart.; the incumbent Mr. John Davies. It hath its other adjunct of Uthno [which appears from the Tax. Benef. above, to be the original name of the parish, and to have since had the name of the saint prefixed to it] from the manor of Uthno.

In the 3d of Henry IV. the heir of Mark de Walesbreu held two parts of a fee here, for Veno there is plainly a mistake for Uthno: since which time it has had the same lords as Whalesborough; the present lord of this manor being Sir John Trevelyan of Nettlecomb in Somersetshire, bart. as heir to that family.

THE EDITOR.

The church and the tower of this parish are small, but distinguished for their simple and neat appearance. They are situated with the church town in a valley opening to the sea. In the church is a plain memorial of Mr. Henry Davies, great-uncle to the editor, who died in 1737. Two of his relations, Mr. Davies father and son, were successive rectors of this parish, through the bounty of the Trevelyan family.

And it may be a matter of some curiosity to insert the oath administered a century ago to clergymen taking on themselves the office of Dean Rural, or Decanus Episcopus. The oath is now omitted, but the office itself has been uniformly preserved throughout the Diocese of Exeter, and this useful institution is revived in various parts of the kingdom.

The copy was found by the editor at Tredrea, his place in Cornwall, among other old papers.

TENOR JURAMENTI

Decani Episcopi, in Comitatu Cornubiæ et Diœcesi Exoniensi.

YOU GEORGE DAVIES shall swear, That you will well and truly
execute the Office of DEAN RURAL, within your Deanery, for
the Year ensuing. You shall diligently, in the year, visit
all Churches and Chapels within your Deanery; and also all
Parsonage and Vicarage Houses. You shall make true
Presentments of such Defaults, as you shall find therein; as
also the defect of Books, Ornaments, Utensils, and other
Furniture belonging to each Church. You shall observe the
Manners and Conversation of your Brethren the Clergy; whom
(if obnoxious) You shall admonish; and, if thereupon they
shall not reform, You shall detect, and present them to The
Ordinary; that they may be proceeded against according to
Law. You shall, either by yourself or deputy, faithfully
execute, or cause to be executed, all such processes and
mandates, as shall be sent you from your Ordinary, and make
true Returns of the same.
So help you God.

Sacramentum superscriptum præstabat Clericus prædictus
GEORGIUS DAVIES de Parochia Sancti Perrani
de Uthno in Diaconatu Penwith Rector.
Tertio die mensis Decembris, Anno 1730.
Coram me Ricardo W――[The name is defaced.]

Near the church used to flow a well, which, in addition to supplying ample quantities of excellent water, gave responses to the most interesting questions respecting life, deaths, marriages, &c. under the superintendence of a Pythian hierophant (since peeth, pythe, is Cornish for a well); but this oracle has ceased within the last twenty years, after a manner fairly appropriate to the county; the working of a mine having taken away all the water.

There are several good farm houses in the parish, formerly the residences of gentlemen; but, excepting the church town, only one place deserving the name of a village, which is Goldsithney, commonly pronounced Gulzinney, lying on the road from Redruth to Marazion. In this village was formerly a chapel dedicated to St. James, as Doctor Borlase has ascertained from documents in the cathedral at Exeter. No memory remains of this chapel having ever been used for divine service; but within the editor’s recollection a small image might be seen over the door, said by the inhabitants to be St. Perran; but if the records consulted by Doctor Borlase are correct, more probably of St. James.

Mr. Lysons mentions the fair which is annually holden here on the fifth of August, St. James’s day, by the old style; and he also takes notice of a tale, which the editor has heard a thousand times, of the fair having been originally kept in the church town of Sithney, near Helston, by virtue of a glove, which was annually displayed there, till the men of Perran, by force or cunning, or by proposing to exchange new gloves for old ones, bore off the talisman, and have by its authority held the fair at Goldsithney ever since, paying one shilling every year as a poor compensation to the party bereaved.

It is needless to add that this tale, as it is related, cannot be true; but the names Sithney and Goldsithney, with the payment to the churchwardens of the parish, seem to indicate some relation between the parish and this village. The displaying of a glove at fairs is an ancient and widely extended custom. Mr. Lysons says it is continued at Chester. The editor has seen a large ornamented glove displayed on a lofty pole over the Guild Hall at Exeter, during the fairs. Was the glove used to receive the tolls, as shillings are still collected in some courts of justice; or had it any reference to hand payments on delivery, as is usual in fairs; or has it a more noble origin in chivalry?

A cove is pointed out in Perran, where the ancestor of the Trevelyans is said to have been borne on shore by the strength of his horse, from the destruction of the Lionesse country, west of the Land’s End. The Trevelyan family are too old, too honourable, and now too much distinguished by science, for them to covet any addition of honour through the medium of fabulous history.

It is recorded in the Saxon Chronicle, that in the year 1099, on St. Martin’s day, there was so very high a tide, and the damage so great in consequence, that men remembered not the like to have ever happened before, and the same day was the first of the new moon.

Stow, who wrote his History of England about the year 1580, notices the great tide of 1099, when he says, The sea brake in over the banks of the Thames and other ryvers, drowning many towns, and much people, with innumerable numbers of oxen and sheepe; at which time the lands in Kent, that sometime belonged to Duke Godwyne, Earle of Kent, were covered with sandes and drowned, which are to this day called Godwyne Sandes. On the slender foundation of these alluvial catastrophies, Florence of Worcester either invented, or with more than monkish credulity, received the tale of a whole district being ingulphed; not at some remote geological period, but in what may be considered as the recent times of authentic history, after the existence of systematic registers and records; a district, covered as he states, by a city, and by a hundred and forty churches, with their accompanying villages, farms, &c. an event that must have shaken the whole of Europe: and, to increase the wonder, a gentleman accidentally on horseback, is carried by this animal to the neighbouring shore of Whitsend Bay, or twenty miles further off, to Perran, through a sea which had swallowed an entire country, and from which the largest of modern vessels could not by possibility have escaped. This idle tale, related by one writer after another, has almost reached our own times. The editor remembers a female relation of a former vicar of St. Erth, who, instructed by a dream, prepared decoctions of various herbs, and repairing to the Land’s End, poured them into the sea, with certain incantations, expecting to see the Lionesse country rise immediately out of the water, having all its inhabitants alive, notwithstanding their long submersion. But

Perchance some form was unobserved,
Perchance in prayer or faith she swerved;

――no country appeared, and, although the love of marvellous events and of tales exciting the passions, seems not to have diminished in recent times, yet the editor is unaware of any subsequent attempt having been made to rescue those unfortunate people from their protracted state of suspended animation.

Perran Uthnow has to boast of but one modern addition to its residences. About the year 1775, the late Mr. John Shakspeare of Pendarves, built a house similar to the one previously erected by Mr. Stephens at Tregorne, and gave it the name of the family with which he was connected by his marriage.

About half a mile beyond this house, called Acton Castle, Cudden Point projects into the sea, entirely covered with rock, and affording, in many respects, the most pleasing view of any spot in the whole Bay. From St. Michael’s Mount itself, the feature transcendent above all others is lost; but from Cudden all the western objects are seen, without including the long flat land of the Lizard.

Children from all the neighbourhood are in the habit of going to Cudden Point at the low water of spring tides, with the hope of finding a silver table, although they know not why. It appears, however, that a Spanish vessel, having much bullion on board, was wrecked there in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

The addition of Uthno made to this saint’s name, designates a manor within the parish; there is also a manor called Lan Uthno, in St. Erth, distinguished in former times as the parish of Lan Uthno; but the editor has never been able to form any conjecture respecting the meaning or the etymology of this word.

The parish feast is celebrated on the nearest Sunday to the fifth of March, St. Perran’s Day.

This parish measures 924 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815: 5530 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 200 0 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 506 | 626 | 786 | 1033
giving an increase of somewhat more than 100 per cent. in 30 years.

This great increase of Population is owing to Perran having become a mining parish, and to the cultivation of an extensive piece of waste ground by individuals, constructing houses on portions of land not exceeding one or two acres, granted on leases for their lives. A spot on this formerly open ground, was called Chapel an Crouse, the chapel and cross; but no record nor trace remains of any such an establishment. Near the same place a bowling green existed about fifty years ago, which is said to have been frequented fifty years prior to that period, by all the gentlemen of the neighbourhood.

Present Rector, the Rev. W. M. Johnson, presented in 1815 by Sir J. Trevelyan.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish is composed of rocks belonging to the porphyritic series, and which are similar to those of St. Hilary.

PERRAN ZABULOE, COMMONLY PERRANSAND, OR PERRAN IN THE SANDS.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

St. Piran lies in the hundred of Pider, and hath to the west St. Agnes, to the north a very troublesome neighbour, the tempestuous ocean, to the east St. Cuthbert and St. Newlin, to the south St. Allen and Kenwin; and is so named from that famous Irish saint, to whose sanctity, saith Mr. Camden, a silly childish writer has attributed the finding provision for ten Irish kings and their armes, for eight days together, with no more than three cows, as also bringing to life dead hogs and dead men. It seems those kings were not very grateful to him, for he was forced (as the same tradition saith) to swim over from Ireland hither on a millstone. And saith Mr. Carew (fol. 58), if my author, the legend, lie not, after that (like another Johannes de Temporibus) he had lived two hundred and six years with perfect health, [he] took his last rest in a Cornish parish, (viz. this) which therethrough he endowed with his name. He is also looked upon as the patron of the Tinners, who keep his feast on the 5th of March, and tell twenty idle stories of him, much derogating from his sanctity. Note, that on that day, 5th of March, there is a fair held near the church, the profit of which belongs to the parish.

This church is a vicarage, and valued, together with St. Agnes, in the King’s Book, £24. 9_s._ 0_d._ The patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter: the sheaf held by lease of the said Dean and Chapter, by Thomas Tonkin, the writer hereof; the incumbent Mr. John Petvin.

All the lands in this parish, except the manor of Penhall and Halwyn, are either part of or held from the manors of Tywarnhaile and Tywarnhaile Tiers. I shall, therefore, first treat of these two manors, and then of the other most memorable places, &c.

The manor of Tywarnhaile is so called from the situation of the once principal place in it, and signifies a house on a river of salt water, it being seated on the west side of Piran Bay, on a small river to which the tide cometh every day.

This, and the manor of Tywarnhaile Tiers, were originally but one manor; and the toll of tin is still amain between them, though all the lands are divided, and the toll of all other metals goes with the lands and owners of the several divisions; but the royalty is amain, and they both hold courts cum visu franci plegii, &c.

THE MANOR OF TYWARNHAILE TIERS.

Sir Henry le Tyes, Lord Tyes, or (as Mr. Camden calls him) de Tiers, was lord of the manor.

Not far from Tywarnhaile house is a small island, upon which are the ruins of a chapel, called Chapel Angarder.

The manor of Penwortha, alias Penwartha, I take to signify the higher head or hill, according to its situation in regard to the places adjacent.

The ancient lords of this manor were the Pentires of Pentire in Minvor, and of Pentewan in Mevagissey; the last of whom, Philip Pentire, esq. left one daughter and heir, Jane, married to Thomas Roscarrock, esq. which Jane died possessed of this manor, 5 Jac. I. 1607 (rent of Tywarnhaile-Tiers, penes me Thomas Tonkin). In Penwortha village is an old chapel still standing, but profaned. This manor is held from that of Tywarnhaile-Tiers, at £1. 2_s._ rent yearly.

―――― Roscarrock, esq. sold this manor in 16 Car. I. to Sir Francis Vyvyan of Trelowarren, knt. in whose posterity it still continueth, Sir Francis Vyvyan, bart. being the present lord thereof.

There have been small parcels of tin discovered in the north-west parts of this manor, as also a vein of lead some few years since, between the village of Penwortha and Lambrigan; but neither have turned to any account.

Lambourne-Wigan, vulgo Lambrigan, is adjoining to Penwortha, and commonly called by abbreviation Lambrigan. The meaning of Lambourn is Lam or Lan, an inclosure, and Wigan, the same as Vycan, Vean, little; the little Lambourn, to distinguish it from the other. This estate is likewise held from the manor of Tywarnhaile-Tyes, and has passed through the same hands as the manor of Penwortha, for two-thirds of it, of which Sir Francis Vyvyan is now lord.

The other third, commonly called the Lower Town, one Bartholomew de Trewenethick (Trenethick in St. Agnes) did possess one half of, in the 21st of Richard II.; which, together with Trevanythick, &c. he settled on Joan, his daughter and heir, and John Hayme: which, by their grand-daughter and heir, came to Luke Beauchamp of Chyton, and was, I suppose, sold by Peter Beauchamp, to the ancestor of Francis Gregor of Trewarthenick, who now possesseth it.