Chapter XIII: Part 13

Mr. Whitaker, who captivates every reader by the brilliancy of his style, and astonishes by the extent of his multifarious reading, draws, however, without reserve on his fertile imagination for whatever facts may be requisite to construct the fabric of a theory. He has made Riviere the palace and residence of Theodore, a sovereign Prince of Cornwall, and conducts St. Breca, St. Iva, with several companions, not only into Hayle and to this palace, after their voyage from Ireland, but fixes the time of their arrival so exactly as to make it take place in the night. In recent times the name of Riviere, which had been lost in the common pronunciation, Rovier, has revived in a very excellent house built by Mr. Edwards on the farm, which he completed in 1791.

The place of most importance in Phillack was Trevassack, for many years the residence of the Yorkes, a considerable family from Somersetshire.

Richard Yorke, of Wellington, married a daughter of Andrew Luttrell, of Dunster Castle; and his grandson, Humphry Yorke, settled at Trevassack; married Barbara, daughter of John Vyvyan, of Trelowarren; and their granddaughter, Sarah Yorke, was the mother of Attorney-general Noye. Some traces of its former splendour may still be discovered. Erasmus Pascoe, who served the office of Sheriff in 1720, resided at this place; it now belongs to the partnership carrying on copper-smelting and trade at Hoyle.

In much more modern times a good house has been built on Bodrigy, which belonged to a branch of the Pendarveses, then to Williams, and was sold by three sisters, coheiresses of that family, to Mr. John Curnow, who acquired a large fortune by carrying on the trade of Hoyle for more than half a century, before modern energies altered and extended the scale of every mercantile transaction.

Mr. Curnow also purchased Penpoll, and resided there. His property became ultimately divided between three daughters, one of whom married Mr. Robert Oke Millett, who succeeded Mr. Curnow at Penpoll, and has made it a handsome place. It now belongs to his son, the Rev. John Curnow Millett. Another daughter married the Rev. William Hocken, the late Rector of the parish: and the third married Mr. Parmenter from Ilfracombe. Mr. Curnow was of the family mentioned under Lugvan.

Treglisson is a large farm, having on it a good house inhabited for many years by the family of Nichols, proprietors of the freehold.

Phillack, in addition to the copper works at Hoyle, possesses also a tin smelting house at a village called indifferently Angarrack or Vellarvrane. It is said to be the first smelting house established by Becher and the other Germans for smelting tin ores in reverberatory furnaces by means of coal. During the life of Mr. William Tremaine the late managing partner, this place was decorated with the finest garden in the West of Cornwall.

The advowson of this Rectory was in the Arundell family, but held for a considerable time on a lease for lives, by the Collinses of Treworgan in St. Erme: but on the death of Mr. Edward Collins in Jan. 1734, the lease having expired, and the presentation having reverted to Lord Arundell, a Catholic, the exercise of the right for that turn lapsed to the University of Oxford; and the living was given by convocation to the Rev. William Glover from Worcestershire, originally a member of Balliol College, and afterwards one of the Chaplains of All Souls. He married a daughter of the preceding Rector, and resided at Phillack all the remainder of his life.

To guard against a similar lapse, a new lease for lives was granted by Lord Arundell to Mr. Hockin of Gwithian, whose son succeeded to Mr. Glover; and on the general sale of the Arundell property, this gentleman had the opportunity of purchasing the freehold, and his son the Rev. William Hockin is now the Patron and Rector of Phillack.

The parish feast is kept on the nearest Sunday to the 23d of November, being the day consecrated to St. Clement, Pope and Martyr.

Phillack measures 2575 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 16,393 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 352 19 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1475 | 2119 | 2529 | 3053
giving an increase of 107 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish, like those of Gwinear adjoining, belong to the prophyritic series; the northern part is covered with hillocks of sand, a considerable portion of which, as on some part of Gwithian, has been drifted from place to place by the action of the wind; this to a certain extent is now prevented by a covering of arenaceous plants, the extensive fibrous roots of which form a loose spongy net work, which serves to retain the sand in its place. This sand was originally of marine origin, being at low levels entirely composed of fragments of marine shells; but inland, on more elevated places, a considerable portion of terrestrial shell enters into its composition: these have been derived from the myriads of the snail tribe, which browse on the scanty herbage of these dreary _Towans_. The inland drifts, after a strong wind, will be found to consist almost entirely of the fragments of those land shells. On the coast this testaceous sand is in several places consolidated into calcareous sandstone; but this has taken place on a more extended scale in the parish of Crantock.

THE EDITOR.

This parish, like Guinear, has large copper lodes running through it, and elvan courses of an extraordinary breadth. Whele Alfred has been wrought on a larger scale than any copper mine so far west.

PILLATON.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Pillaton, in the hundred of East, joins to the west with Quethiock and Lanrake, to the north with St. Mellyn, to the east with St. Dominick and Landulph, to the south with Botusfleming.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book at £16. 15_s._ 6_d._; the patronage in Sir John Coryton, Bart. In 1291, 12 Edw. I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at xlvi_s._ viii_d._ having never been appropriated.

The manor is called in Domesday Book “Pileton,” being one of the manors which William the Conqueror gave to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons gives a short history of the principal or only manors in this parish. The manors of Pillaton and Hardenfast were at an early period in a family bearing the singular name of Inkpen; then they belonged to Dorothy Dillington, heiress of John Charles, esq. who sold them to Thomas Moone. From this gentleman, Mr. Lysons says the manors passed to the family of Coryton, although he does not state in what way. They were ultimately devised by Sir John Coryton, who died in 1739, to his widow, and by her to the family of Helyar.

Pentillie Castle is in this parish, one of the most splendid seats in the whole county, as well in regard to the magnificence of the castellated house constructed by the present proprietor, John Tillie Coryton, esq. on the site of a former house called Pentillie Castle, as to the beauty and grandeur of the scenery, and to the romantic hill and dale of the grounds.

This place was the seat of Sir James Tillie, who left the property to his sister’s son, Mr. James Woolley, who took the name of Tillie, and his granddaughter brought the estate to the late John Coryton, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall in 1782, as his son has been in 1808.

The church and tower are not distinguished from others in the neighbourhood, except by a south transverse aisle belonging to Pentillie, and containing monuments to different members of the family. In the body of the church is an inscription commemorating the Rev. Ralph Eliot, who died in 1625, having been Rector of the parish during fifty years.

The church town is small, and there is but one other village, called Penters Cross.

The late Mr. Weston Helyar was patron of the rectory.

Pillaton measures 1957 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2,236 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 185 6 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 336 | 477 | 452 | 413
giving an increase of 23 per cent. in 30 years, but in a
progression so irregular as to indicate some local cause
affecting it.
Present Rector, the Rev. H. Woolcombe, instituted in 1816.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

Like the adjoining parishes of St. Mellion and Landrake, this parish is confined within the limits of the calcareous series, and rests on similar kinds of rocks.

ST. PINNOCK.

HALS.

The manuscript of this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

St. Pinnock is in the hundred of West; hath to the west Bradock and Boconnock, to the north St. Neot, to the east Liskeard, to the south Lanreath and Duloe.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book at of £17. 13_s._ 6_d._; the patronage in Mrs. Manley, widow of John Manley, esq. in her own right, John Trefry, esq. and Robert Hoblyn, esq. _alternis vicibus_; the incumbent Mr. Bishop. In 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church is not valued at all; for what reason I cannot guess; and hath never been appropriated. [It has been taken, no doubt, out of one of the adjoining parishes, since the formation of that Valor. _Whitaker._]

THE EDITOR.

There seems to be very little worthy of notice in this parish.

The only village in the parish is Trevillis, which, with a manor of the same name, belonged in early times to the family of Willington, but were purchased by the family of Robarts of Truro, and now belong to their representative Mrs. Agar.

The chief proprietors of other lands in St. Pinnock are J. T. Austen, esq. of Place in Fowey, Thomas Bond, esq. of Looe, as heir of the Colliers, who resided at Bosent, the Rev. Joseph Pomery, &c. The church tower may be seen from the turnpike road about three miles westward from Leskeard.

The advowson of the rectory is now divided between Mr. Joseph Pomery, Mr. Austen, and Mr. Coryton.

St. Pinnock measures 2674 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1816 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 189 12 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 302 | 316 | 431 | 425
giving an increase of 40 per cent. in thirty years.
Present Rector, the Rev. George Fortescue, instituted in 1789.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish is situated on the same kind of rocks as those of the adjacent parishes of Broadoak and Leskeard, which belong to the calcareous series.

POUGHILL.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Poughill is in the hundred of Stratton, and is washed to the west by the sea and Bude Bay, to the north joins Kilkhampton, to the east and south Stratton.

This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, at £6. 12_s._ 6_d._; the patronage in the Crown, or in the Duke of Cornwall; the incumbent Mr. Charles Orchard.

In the year 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory of this church, by the name of Ecclesia de Pegwille, is valued at liij_s._ iv_d._ it being then appropriated to the Abbey of Cleve in Somersetshire; and the vicarage, “Nihil propter paupertatem.”

In Domesday Book, amongst the manors given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother, Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall, is Pochehelle, which probably gave name to this parish, turned euphoniæ gratiâ to Poughill.

THE EDITOR.

This parish, although it is small and situated in a remote part of the county, possesses several ancient family seats, and a well-built church, with various monuments, placed in a valley full of trees, and opening immediately to the sea.

The manor, including the whole parish, originally without doubt in possession of the lands, although it is now become, like innumerable other manors, a mere royalty, was given by Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, to the Abbey of Clyve in Somersetshire. It is an instance, however, of the small reliance that can be placed on the orthography of ancient names, since the charter of Hubert de Burgo is in these words:

“Sciant præsentes et futuri, quod ego Hubertus de Burgo Domini Regis Camerarius, dedi, concessi, et hac præsenti cartâ mea confirmavi, Deo et Beatæ Mariæ et monachis de Cliva, ibidem Deo servientibus et servituris, pro salute animæ meæ, et patris et matris meæ, et omnium antecessorum et parentum et herædum meorum, in perpetuam elemosinam, totum dominicum quod habui in Rugeham,” which must be Poughill.

And in a charter of confirmation by Richard Earl of Cornwall it is thus mentioned:

“Richardus comes Pictaviæ et Cornubiæ, &c. &c. noverit universitas vestra me concessisse, et hac præsenti cartâ meâ confirmasse, &c. totas terras quas habuerunt in Cornubiâ, videlicet Pochewille,” et Treglastan, cum pertinendis, quas prius habuerunt ex dono domini Huberti de Burgo comitis Kanc. &c.

Mr. Lysons, who, from his situation in the Tower, possessed the most ample means of ascertaining all transactions with the Crown, states that King James the First sold this manor to two gentlemen, Mr. George Salter and Mr. John Williams; in more recent times it belonged to the family of Stanbury, and is now the property of Thomas Troad, esq.

Mr. Lysons relates, on the authority of William of Worcester, that Nicholas Radford, counsel for Lord Bonville, against Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon, was slain in his own house in the year 1437, by Thomas Courtenay, eldest son, and afterwards successor to his father. There is, however, an anachronism as to William Bonville, who was first summoned to Parliament twelve years afterwards, as Baron Bonville, and died in 1480, leaving the barony in fee to his great-granddaughter, married to Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset.

The Reverend Charles Dayman, lately deceased, resided, as his family had done for several generations, at Flexbury in this parish; and Mr. John Bryant is said to have succeeded a long line of ancestors at Bushill, a seat decorated by several remains of the magnificent house at Stowe.

The great tithes belong to George Boughton Kingdon, esq.; but the distinguishing honor of this parish is Stamford Hill, so called from the position taken there by Lord Stamford, commanding the parliamentary army in 1643; and where Sir Beville Granville, commanding the Cornish army, obtained one of the most splendid victories achieved during the whole course of the civil war. It is unnecessary to repeat the details of this battle, which are given by Hyde and by most of our general historians. Its effects nearly decided the struggle in favour of the party supporting the system of hereditary power in a single hand.

This parish measures 1,759 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1979 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 176 15 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 297 | 355 | 378 | 300
giving an increase of 21 per cent. in 30 years, with a decrease,
however, of 78 persons in the last 10 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. John Davis, presented in 1810 by Lord
Chancellor Eldon.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The small parish of Poughill is composed of compact and schistose dunstone, similar to the adjacent parish of Kilkhampton.

POUNDSTOCK.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Poundstock is in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath to the west St. Ginnis, to the north the sea and Stratton, to the east Marhamchurch, to the south Jacobstow.

In anno 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church was valued at £8 (Tax. Benef.); being since appropriated to the college of Slapton in Devon.

This is a vicarage valued in the King’s Book, £13. 6_s._ 8_d._; the patronage in Lord Arundell of Wardour; the incumbent Mr. ―――― Whitford, who was presented to it by the University of Oxford, on account of the recusancy of the patron, the Lord Arundell of Wardour.

The first place in it to the west, is Trebarfoot; this gave name and habitation to a race of gentlemen.

Penfoune was likewise the seat of a very ancient family, from hence denominated.

But this family, by Mr. Hals’s mistake, being already treated of in Jacobstowe, I shall only add here, that in Domesday Book is a manor called Penfon, by which probably this place is meant; and if so, it was one of those given by William the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall.

The manor of Poundstock is called in Domesday Book Ponpestock, and was one of the manors given by William the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall.

THE EDITOR.

The church of this parish is situated in a pleasant valley, but without any thing peculiar by which it may be distinguished from others.

The principal village in the parish is called Tregoll.

Mr. Lysons says that Poundstock was held under the manor of Launcels, citing the Exeter Domesday; and that the manor of West Widemouth was granted by Reginald Earl of Cornwall, to William Botreaux, from whom it passed by female heirs to the families of Hungerford and Hastings; from the last it was purchased by the Granvilles, and now belongs to Lord Carteret.

The manor of Woolston was purchased by the late Lord Dunstanville.

The great tithes of this parish were purchased by Mr. George Browne of Bodmin, when the whole Arundell property in Cornwall was sold, about fifty years ago; and now belong to his grandson.

The advowson of the vicarage is in John Dayman, esq. and the Rev. Charles Dayman, was instituted as Vicar in 1809.

This parish measures 4304 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2984 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 389 0 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 617 | 635 | 744 | 727
giving an increase of 18 per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish resemble those of Jacobstow and St. Gennis.

PROBUS.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

St. Probus is situate in the hundred of Powder, and is bounded to the west by St. Erme, St. Clement’s, St. Michael Penkivell and Merther, to the north by Ladock and St. Stephen’s, to the east by St. Stephen’s also and Creed, to the south by St. Cuby and Cornelly.

In the year 1291, the 20th of Edward the First, the rectory of this parish was valued at £12, being then appropriated to the college there; the vicarage, i_l._ vi_s._ viii_d._; and the prebends,

£. _s._ _d._
Porcio Mag’ri Thome de Ainton (or Bucton) 2 0 0
Porcio Joh’is de Bristol 2 10 0
Porcio Gilb’ti de Frendon 1 0 0
Porcio Mag’ri de Hendre 2 0 0

In Wolsey’s valuation, the vicarage of this parish with Cornelly, and under the denomination of Probus Groguth, are valued at £13. 6_s._ 8_d._ The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter. The sheaf held partly by impropriation, and partly by lease from the Bishop of Exeter, by Philip Hawkins, esq. The incumbent is Mr. Reynolds.

That part of the parish which joins with St. Clement’s is held from the great Duchy manor of Moresk.

The barton of Trehane, which signifies the Old Town, gave name to an ancient family who flourished a long time in this place, and gave for their arms, Argent, three bars Sable, charged with nine martlets of the First.

―― Scawen, gent. sold this barton in the early part of the 17th century, to John Williams of Carvean, esq. only brother to William Williams of Trewithgy, esq. Mr. Williams built a large brick house here, but died very soon after that he got into it, leaving three daughters by his wife, the only daughter and heir of John Courtenay of Tregelles, gent. who died a few days before him in childbed; for grief of which, it is said, he broke his heart: he left three daughters, Mary, Ann, and Catherine, all very young, and up to this time all unmarried (about 1730). But that his estate might not be divided, he gave it solely to his eldest daughter Mary, who now possesses it, with a considerable estate of the duchy adjoining. The arms are the same with Williams of Trevorva.

Not far from Trehane is Carvean, or the Little Town, which was the seat in lease (it belonging to the manor of Gowlden) to the above mentioned John Williams, esq. on whose death it fell into the lord’s hand, who granted a new lease of it to William Hobbs, gent.

Joining with Carvean, there being nothing between them but a road, is Trewother, which was for several generations the seat in lease of the family of Huddy, the freehold being in the Trevanions of Carhays.

I next come to the manor of Trelowthes, which I take to be the same which is called by Mr. Carew Trelowith, which means the town place of trees.

Next is the manor of Trewithgy, alias Trenowith, alias Treworgy; but as I take the first to be the right name, I give its interpretation, which doth signify a town of trees by the river.

Francis Tregian, pronounced Trudgean, forfeited this with his other estates.

Trevorva, which may mean Trevor and va, for da, the dwelling on the good road, but called so, I suppose, by the rule of contraries, the road being one of the deepest and worst in the whole country; but which according to the old proverb is

Bad for the rider, but good for the bider――

making amends by the richness of its soil.

This barton, which is of a very good yearly value, was once the dwelling of a family bearing the same name; the last of which family had an only daughter and heir, who married ______ Williams of Herringstone in the county of Dorset, which match was the first settling of that family in Cornwall.

The arms of Williams are, Argent, a greyhound current between three Cornish choughs Proper, within a plain border Gules, charged with six crosses formee Or and as many Bezants.

The present Mr. Williams, owner of this barton, lives at a place adjoining called Trewithan, where the family removed, probably disliking the dirty situation of Trevorva.

TREWITHAN, THE TOWN OR DWELLING OF TREES.

This place lies high and very pleasantly.

After the Williams’s had flourished for some time at Trewithan, Courtenay Williams, when he had foolishly squandered away a pretty estate, and a good fortune too, which he had with his wife Elizabeth, the eldest daughter and coheir of the Rev. ―――― May, also M.D. sold this barton for £2700 to Philip Hawkins, esq. brother to the Rev. Dr. Hawkins of Pennance, and a member in this present Parliament (1730) for Granpont. He now resides here, has very much improved this seat, new built a great part of the house, made good gardens, &c.

THE MANOR OF WALVEDEN, GULDEN, OR GOLDEN.

There flourished for a long series of years a family of the same name, the last of which, John Walveden, esq. had only two daughters and coheirs, of whom the eldest having married ―――― Tregion, esq. brought to her husband this and several other fair estates. The other sister, Catherine, married Nicholas Carminow, esq. of Trenouth in this parish. On the decease of his father-in-law, which happened in the year 1514, Mr. Tregian settled himself here, and lived in great splendour. Leland mentions the house as building, and Carew says, Walvedon, alias Golden, fell into Tregion, by match with the inheritrix thereof.

Their son married an Arundell of Lanherne. Their grandson with the Lord Stourton’s daughter.

The arms of Tregion are Ermine, on a chief Sable, three birds Or, beaked and legged Argent.

But Mr. Carew, though it happened in his time, does not mention the great misfortune which befel their grandchild, Francis Tregian, esq. though it was not long before (twenty-five years) and ended in the total ruin of this wealthy and flourishing family; in giving an account of which I will be as brief as the thing will bear. Mr. Camden has touched on it in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth, (A. D. 1577, Reg. 19): “Hactenus serena tranquillitas Pontificiis in Angliâ affulsit, qui quâdam misericordi conniventiâ sua sacra inter privatos parietes, licet illa legibus interdicta, pecuniariâ mulctâ inflictâ, quodam modo impune celebrarant, nec Regina vim conscientiæ afferendam censuit. Verùm postquam illud fulmen excommunicationis Romæ in Reginam fuisset ejaculatum, in nubes et tempestates serenitas illa paulatim abiit, legemque elicuit anno 1571, contra eos, qui ejusmodi Bullas, Agnos Dei, et grana benedicta, papalis obsequii tesseras, in regnum intulerint, aut aliquum Romanæ ecclesiæ reconciliarint, ut diximus. Primus hâc lege tenebatur Cuthbertus Mainus sacerdos, qui Pontificiæ contra Principem potentiæ assertor pervicax,” without any overt act, as far as appears here, against the new law, by bringing in any bulls, &c. or by reconciling any to the Church of Rome, “ad fanum Stephani (Launston vulgo vocant) in Cornwalliâ supplicio affectus, et Trugionis nobilis qui eum hospitio acceperat” [only had entertained him in his house], “fortunas eversus perpetuoque carceri adjudicatus.” And that you may see what a noble fortune he lost, it being his hard hap to be the first, as Cuthbert Maine to suffer death, so he to lose his estate and liberty by this severe law; and being besides myself descended from this gentleman’s sister, Jane Tregian, married to Thomas Tonkin of Trevaunance, I shall here set down an abstract of an exemplification of the inquisition taken at Lanceston, 5 Car. I. in the lands, &c. of the said Mr. Tregian, of which I shall give only the substance. Inquisitio indentat. capt. apud Lanceston in com. prædict. on Monday the 1st of March, anno 5 Car. before William Wray, knight, Walter Langden, knight, James Bagg, knight, Nicholas Borlase, esq. Peter Hussey, esq. and William Stowell, gent. Commissioners, &c. on the oaths of Sampson Manington, esq. Robert Dodson, esq. Nicholas Leach, esq. Christopher Pollard, gent. Humfrey Lower, gent. James Hoskins, gent. Richard Bettison, gent. Digory Prouse, gent. John Rawlyn, gent, and Roger Edgcumbe, gent. That the said Francis Trugeon, in the said commission named, was indicted, convicted, and attainted of præmunire, as in the said commission is contained, on the said 20 April, 19 Elizabeth, and also on Monday aforesaid, in the said fourth week in Lent, anno 21 Elizabeth, was seized

“in dominico suo ut de feodo de et in” the
manor of Digembris, alias Degembris, “in
p’och. de Newlyn,” et alibi, in com. dict.
quæ valent per ann. in omnibus exitibus
ultra reprisas, £21. 4_s._ 8_d._

The manor of Trewithgy cum p’tiis, in
p’och. de Probus, &c. 15 2 0

The manor of Tregyn, alias Tregion, cum
p’tiis, in p’och. de St. Ewe 4 0 0

The manor of Tremolla, alias Tremolleth,
cum p’tiis, in p’och. de Northill,
Linkinhorne, and Leskeard, &c. 5 12 8

The manor of Bodmin, alias Bodman, et
Keyland, cum p’tiis, in p’och. de Bodman
et Lostwithiel, &c. 13 0 0

The manor of Landegey and Lanner, cum
p’tiis, in p’och. de St. Key, et alibi,
quæ valent, &c. 36 10 8

The manor of Carvolghe, alias Carvaghe,
cum p’tiis, in p’och. de Morvan, et St.
Tes, et alibi 4 14 6

The manor of Tollays, alias Tolgus, cum
p’tiis, in p’och. de Redruth et St. Just,
et alibi 23 10 0

The manor of Truro et Tregrewe, cum
p’tiis, in p’och. de Kenwyn et Truro, et
alibi, quæ valent 22 15 4

The manor of Bedoche, alias Besache, cum
p’tiis, in p’och. de Lazache, et alibi,
&c. 11 8 1

The manor of Wolvedon, alias Goulden,
cum p’tiis, in p’och. de St. Probus et
Tregony, et alibi, &c. 242 13 10

The manor of Treleigh, cum p’tiis, in
p’och. de Redruth, &c. 4 1 0

The manor of East Drayns, cum p’tiis, in
p’och. de St. Nyott, et St. Cleere, four
parts in five, quæ valent 10 0 0

The manor of Kalerso, cum p’tiis, in
p’och. de Hilary et Sythney, four parts
in five, quæ valent, &c. 10 11 6

The manor of Elerkey and Lanyhorne, alias
Rewyn Lanyhorne, cum p’tiis in p’och. de
Ruan et St. Veryan, one half, quæ valent 17 17 3

The manor of Penpoll, alias Penpole, cum
p’tiis, in p’och. de St. Germyns et
Quethiocke, one half, quæ valent, &c. 32 14 8

The manor of Bunerdake, cum p’tiis, in
p’och. de St. Ive, one half, quæ valent,
&c. 4 10 6

A burgage in Leskeard, &c. cum p’tiis 1 0 0

Several tenements in Rogroci et
Lestreiake, in Germow et Brake 0 13 4

A tenement in Trewerrys, alias Tregwerys,
in p’och. de Probus 0 2 0

A tenement in Villa de Grampont, valet,
&c. 0 8 0

The manor of Rosemodens, alias Rosemodros,
cum p’tiis, in p’och. de Buryan, St.
Hillarie, Pawle, et Gwynneier, four parts
in five, quæ valent, &c. 15 0 0
――――――――――――
Total 497 0 0
――――――――――――

But note here that you are not to judge of the real value of Mr. Tregian’s estate by this return, except it be in the manor of Gowlden, where the demesne is valued as well as the rents. I have heard several intelligent people say, that the estate of this family in this county alone, was worth at the least £3000 per annum, besides a large sum they were possessed of in ready money, which enabled them to build such a noble house here, of which the remains are still magnificent; and among these, under an old tower, they still show the place where Cuthbert Mayne the priest was found concealed.

Norden says, that Mr. Tregion remained in prison full twenty years, but that he was released by an order of Queen Elizabeth herself about 1597, and that he afterwards lived near London, supported, as was believed, by the bounty of his friends. Francis Tregion the son, having repossessed himself by purchase and by favour of some part of the property taken from his father, found that he could not stem the tide raised against him by persons envious of his returning prosperity, or eager to obtain the plunder of his possessions, as had been done by his father; for in January 1608, this persecuted family suffered in his person a further and second loss of their estates, in some degree owing perhaps to the strong feelings of apprehension and of resentment occasioned by the Gunpowder Plot of November the 5th, three years before.

Mr. Tregion, resolving to do the best that he could, received some money by compounding with various parties to confirm their titles, and thus embarked for Spain, where, as it is said, he was very well received on account of his own and his father’s sufferings for religion, and that he was made a grandee of that Kingdom; and that his posterity still flourish there with the title of Marquis of St. Angelo. Whether this be true or not I cannot affirm, having it only by tradition; however, we hear no more of him in this country.

The next that we find in possession of this barton, and living there, was Ezekiel Grose: he died here, and left it to his only daughter and heir, married to ―――― Buller, esq. of Shillingham, with a great estate in other parishes, in whose posterity it continued till the year 1710, when James Buller, esq. the last of that branch, dying without issue, gave the whole by will to his great-uncle, who had acquired Morval through a marriage with the heiress of Coode.

Talbot, which is an abbreviation of Haleboat, says Norden, p. 61, is a rock called Ha-le-boate rock, wherein to this day are seen many great iron rings, whereunto boats have been tied, although there is now no show of an haven, but only a little brook running through the valley into a branch of the River Fall.

To the north-east of Gowlden lies Tredenham, a small manor which the late Sir Joseph Tredenham believed to be Denhamstown, and derived himself from a younger branch of the family which formerly resided there, which he also testified by his arms, Argent, a bend lozengy Gules, by way of distinction, as was usual in former times, from the parent stock, which gave Gules, three lozenges in fess Ermine. But however that may be, this was the seat of the Tredenhams for many generations, till they removed, first to Kellion in Cornelly, and then to Tregonnan in St. Ewe.

This small manor, from which some estates are held, particularly Corvith in St. Cuby, was sold with the greater part of the Tredenham property in 1727, to Doctor John Hawkins of Pennance, who is the present lord of it.

CURVOZA.

That is the walled or fortified town, so called from an intrenchment, for voza properly signifies a trench or place cast up. This trench was measured for me by Mr. Joseph Webber, steward to Miss Mary Williams of Trehane, the proprietor; and it proved to be two hundred and ten paces in circumference.

[Car or Cair is a fort, and voza and voran are the plural of voz or vore, a ditch (see Pryce’s Vocabulary). Corvoza would therefore be the entrenched fort. ED.]

THE EDITOR.

The church at Probus is large, but not remarkable for any thing beyond other churches in the neighbourhood. In it are some monuments, and especially one to Mr. Thomas Hawkins of Trewithon, sometime member for Grampound, who died in 1766. This gentleman not having passed the small-pox, and resolving on being inoculated, thought it was his duty to extend the same benefit to all his neighbours in the parish. Several scores had in consequence this dreadful disease communicated to them in its mitigated form, and all recovered except the benevolent individual himself, who thus extensively introduced inoculation, at that time a novelty in Cornwall among the great mass of the people. He is supposed to have carried too far the asthenic system for counteracting fever, and perhaps to have taken the contagion, in what is termed the natural way, previously to the artificial communication.

Although the church is not superior to others around it, the tower is on the whole more magnificent than any other in the county. The tower at Weck St. Mary, near Stratton, is said to be somewhat more lofty; and several exceed that at Probus in elegance and lightness of proportions, but this combines massiveness, altitude, and elaborate decoration; moreover, it has been built since the Reformation, and according to tradition, by the voluntary contributions of the unmarried inhabitants of the parish; but the same is said of a lofty tower at Derby; and of the windows of St. Neot’s Church, one is given by the unmarried men, and another by the single women of that parish.

It is quite clear that this church was collegiate, having a dean and a certain number of prebendaries, founded in very early times before the Norman Conquest, and probably by St. Edward. The Deanery became attached with its share of the endowments to the Church of Exeter, but in a way which Mr. Whitaker himself has not succeeded in clearly making out. The prebendaries or some of them remained till the general dissolution, when the prebends were given or sold, and have passed through the Williams’s, by purchase to the Hawkins family, with some fairs. One fair, however, is the grant of King Charles the Second. Few gentlemen’s houses in the west of Cornwall were without the honour of receiving Prince Charles during his residence in Cornwall, about the middle part of the civil wars; and he is said to have remained for a time longer than usual with Mr. Williams, who, after the Restoration, waited on the King with congratulations from the parish; and on being complimented by him with the question whether he could do any thing for his friends, answered that the parish would esteem themselves highly honoured and distinguished by the grant of a fair, which was accordingly done for the 17th of September; this fair coming the last in succession after three others, has acquired for itself a curious appellation derived from the two patron saints, and from the peculiar pronunciation in that neighbourhood of the word last, somewhat like _laest_:――

Saint Probus and Grace,
Not the first but the last,

――and from this distinction it is usually called Probus and Grace fair.

It is utterly impossible now to give any account of these two personages, except that they were in all probability missionaries from Ireland. Nor is the Roman name of Probus any objection against this supposition, since such names were frequently assumed. The apostle of Ireland has a Roman name, and many of the religious must have been foreigners.

On repairing the east wall of the chancel some few years since, two skeletons were found in different niches, and one of these was declared by anatomists to have been a female. These were supposed to be the relics of St. Probus and of St. Grace, which may have been true, although the present church cannot be less than eight hundred or a thousand years later than their time.

No obvious indication can be discovered of the ancient college; perhaps the prebendaries ceased to reside after the deanery became absorbed at Exeter.

Mr. Whitaker has left several pages of memoranda on this parish, evidently notes made at the time of his visit there, and not arranged in any order. The Editor thinks it therefore most expedient to adopt such parts only as seem to explain the etymologies, or to give information respecting facts.

Mr. Whitaker observes, that, although the dedication of this parish is to St. Probus alone, yet assuredly St. Grace should be adopted also as a patron saint. The parish feast kept in the early part of July, is always designated by their joint names. No notice is taken of either in Bede.

On Carvean, Mr. Whitaker says, that it means the Little Marsh, as cars is a bay, a marsh, or a moor, corsen a reed, cors-hwyad in Welsh, is a fen-duck, a moorhen.

On Trewithgy.――In English a house surrounded by trees, and lying in the water. Trewithgy, Trenowith, and Treworgy, are different parts of the same manor. Trenowith signifies the New Town, and Treworgy a local name, remarkably common, as it is sure to be from its signification, being the town upon the water, or rather perhaps, upon the running stream.

Mr. Whitaker says, the manor of Probus appears from Domesday Book to have been possessed by St. Edward the Confessor; it was therefore one of the demesnes of the Crown at that time, and probably one of those belonging to the sovereigns of Cornwall previously to the conquest by the Saxons. Then I presume that an English family settled on those lands, and held them of the Crown; probably the Walvedons, who held them with Gowlden.

On this barton is an angular fort, says Borlase, p. 313 of his Antiquities, second edition, “on the barton of Wolvedon, alias Golden, in the parish of Probus, which has a wide deep ditch, the entire edge or counterscarp of which was faced upwards with masonry of thin stones in cement, which had round turrets or buttresses (such as neither Saxons, Danes, nor Britons had, as far as ever I can find) of the same masonry, interspersed with the straight lines of the ditch. This is very singular in our county, where most of our ancient fortifications are of a circular plan, without any projections (angular or circular) from the master line. I can judge this, therefore, neither to be British, Saxon, nor Danish, as being like no other work of these people, and from the artful fence of this ditch, as well as from the polygon which the whole forms, I guess it to be a Roman work. There is a large avenue or way from the north, rising from an adjoining valley.

This fortified ground I examined in August 1792. It is an earthwork denominated Warren, containing six Cornish acres, as the farmer told me, or about seven statute acres. It has a high and broad rampart twelve or fourteen feet high, and a deep ditch fourteen or sixteen feet wide. The whole forms a long square, the greatest length from east to west. It has two gateways on the north, and two on the south, one on the east, and one on the west, each answering to the other, and having a raised avenue across the ditch. I therefore conclude it to be a Roman camp, made at the period when that people subdued Cornwall, and calculated for the reception of a large detachment. The revetments mentioned by Dr. Borlase do not appear, nor the projecting turrets. About a mile to the north of this, beyond a deep gully, may be found what is noticed by Mr. Tonkin as Caer Voza, and noticed by Doctor Borlase in his Natural History, p. 324, as Caerfos or Caerfosou. This is an estate, called so from a field close to the house, which has a strong and lofty rampart upon the north side, and a large deep ditch upon the north of that. These continue all along the northern side of the field, and have a slight return on the east and west towards the south; but then they cease, nor can any traces be found of them afterwards. Perhaps this imperfect work may have been a camp of the Britons opposed to that of the Romans, or one commenced at least for that purpose.

Thus far Mr. Whitaker.

* * * * *

Trehane, with a considerable property around it, were given, as Mr. Tonkin has stated, by the last Mr. Williams of that place, to his eldest daughter Mary, who married the Rev. William Stackhouse, D.D. Rector of St. Erme, the adjoining parish. Doctor Stackhouse was from the county of Durham, a brother of the Rev. Thomas Stackhouse, Vicar of Beenham, Berks, well known by his learned works.

A complete body of Divinity――A fair statement of the controversy between Mr. Woolston and his adversaries,――and various others; but above all by an History of the Bible from the beginning of the World to the establishment of Christianity, in two volumes folio, first printed in 1732, a work that has gone through various editions, and may be found in every good library.

Doctor Stackhouse left two sons, William and John. His eldest son William, married one of the Miss Rashleighs of Menabilly, and settled at Trehane, where he lived universally esteemed and respected till June 1830, when he departed this life in his 90th year, leaving Trehane to his eldest son, who resides there at present. Mr. John Stackhouse, whose son Edward William Wynne Pendarves represents the county in Parliament, is noticed under Cambourne.

TREWITHAN.

This place ranks among the principal seats in Cornwall. It stands on a commanding situation, possesses extensive plantations, and looks over those to the south and east into vallies highly cultivated and rendered beautiful by wood and water, the two most pleasing ingredients in rural landscapes. The house was in part built by Mr. Courtenay Williams, who is said to have dissipated a handsome fortune by indulging himself in low pursuits and in low company, and especially by maintaining a set of people to accompany him from parish to parish, for (what seems quite ludicrous in present times) the purpose of ringing the bells; yet about the middle of the last century a new peal of bells was procured for Kenwyn Church, to accommodate the principal inhabitants of Truro with that exercise and amusement.

After the purchase of this place, together with the manor of Probus, the appropriated share of the great tithes, the lease under the Church of Exeter conveying the remainder part for lives, &c. Mr. Philip Hawkins made Trewithan his residence, and represented Grampound in three or four Parliaments in the Reign of George the Second; but not having any family himself, nor his brothers, almost the whole of their landed properties were devised to their eldest sister Mary, who had married her distant relation, Mr. Christopher Hawkins of Helston, and of Trewinnard in St. Erth. Their only son Mr. Thomas Hawkins, succeeded his uncle at Trewithan, and also represented Grampound: he married Ann, daughter of James Heywood, esq. of London; but being unfortunately taken out of this life while he endeavoured to introduce the most important discovery ever made in medicine, for the benefit of others as well as of himself, he left five children minors, Philip, Christopher, Thomas, John, and a daughter. Philip and Thomas died in early life; the estate, therefore, devolved on Christopher, who having never married, died in May 1829, and in consideration probably of the large fortune possessed by his brother, devised the whole of his real property to Henry Hawkins, his brother’s younger son, then about eight years old, to whom it now belongs.

But the affair which most peculiarly distinguishes this parish is the persecution of Mr. Tregion.

It appears from Camden’s Annales of Queen Elizabeth, inserted above, and from contemporary historians, that, although enactments were made (they must not be honoured with the name of laws) against Catholics, imposing penalties and disabilities, and prohibiting altogether the celebration of their peculiar rites supposed to conciliate the Divine favour――yet if masses were performed without ostentation, and under a decent veil of secrecy, or if auricular confessions were made and absolutions received in private, little notice was taken of them, nor were priests eagerly sought after, who divested themselves in public of all peculiar and discriminating habits, and abstained from attempting proselytism. But when the Church of Rome thundered its excommunications against the Queen, when plots became more manifest at home, connected also with the individual nearest to the Crown, if the custom of hereditary succession were preserved; measures of great severity were adopted, on the ever doubtful plea of state necessity: so that more victims to religious opinions are said to have suffered death, banishment, or the loss of liberty, under this reign, than under that of Mary Tudor, whose very name we have all been taught to associate with an epithet denoting the utmost horror: but her persecutions were conducted without disguise, in the name of religion, and to make forced converts, while Elizabeth professed to act from motives of temporal policy; moreover, the religion of one has been deprived of all its endowments, and been proscribed for two centuries; that of the other, most happily for ourselves, has flourished through the whole period.

It seems this Mr. Tregion and his connections were among the first sufferers under this cruel policy. His father married an Arundell, and himself a daughter of Lord Stourton, both families that have continued up to the present times in the profession of the ancient faith. Mr. Tregion had moreover a very large estate, calculated to excite the zeal of a well-known and detested class of men, who from the time of the Cæsars, and doubtlessly from a period long before, have used all means and all pretences, sacred or profane, to advance their own fortunes by the ruin of others.

Mr. Tregion, it appears, was the first or among the first accused under the inflamed passions and the persecuting spirit of those times, and the sheriff came in person to search his house; but the sheriff is stated to have been a personal friend, or at all events as a countryman and a neighbour, to have made a slight examination, and then to have dined, and unfortunately to have drank with the individual accused: when

――――Subita incantum Dementia cepit,
Ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere Manes,

which induced him, in the pride and confidence inspired by wine, to reproach his guest with the insufficiency of his search, and to conduct him to a part of the house or premises clearly indicative of his temporary imprudence and contempt. The sheriff, probably heated also by wine, immediately renewed his examination, and finally discovered in a secret hole under a turret, a Catholic clergyman, called Cuthbert Mayne.

On this they were both arrested, and subsequently arraigned at the Assizes, and both convicted of those atrocious crimes: Mr. Mayne of being a Catholic Priest, and found in England; and Mr. Tregion of having received into his house a minister of that religion in which he had been bred, of the religion of his forefathers, of the religion of the father and forefathers of the highly talented Female who then mainly directed the affairs of the state, and of the undisputed and sole religion of the whole country about half a century before. And for these ideal offences, (one scruples to stain the paper with so foul a record!) was Mr. Mayne actually hanged, and Mr. Tregion, under the sentence of a premunire, was deprived of his whole property, and suffered an imprisonment of twenty years.

Whether we contemplate the cold-hearted tyranny of Henry the Seventh, the wild despotic sway of Henry the Eighth, the civil dissensions in the nominal reign of his son, the bigotry and unrelenting persecutions of Mary, or the cruelties, however necessary, exercised by Elizabeth, we may indeed rejoice that the great work of the Reformation has been achieved, at any price, by the House of Tudor; but we must join in the exclamation,

Oh! dearest God, forefend
Such times should e’er return.

Probus measures 7349 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 9392 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 902 12 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1013 | 1163 | 1353 | 1350
giving an increase of about 33 per cent in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. Robert Lampen, collated by the Bishop of
Exeter in 1828.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The northern part of this parish rests on the porphyritic series, but no where reaches the granite hills: its rocks are very felspathic and metalliferous. The southern part comes into the calcareous series, and its rocks are like those of Creed, Cuby, and Cornelly; the most interesting of these rocks may be seen on the hill to the westward of Grampound. They appear to afford a most decided example of greywacke, exhibiting large grains, and even nodules of quartz on their fractured surfaces; this however can only be seen on surfaces that have been for some time exposed to the weather; for no such appearance can be observed when the fractures are recent and perfect. These rocks are probably masses of compact felspar, in the bases of which silica so predominated at the time of their formation, as to have given rise to large concretions of quartz.

* * * * *

Since Doctor Boase made the geological examination of Cornwall, an abridgment of which he has had the kindness and the liberality to communicate for this work, the road leading westward from Grampound, has been turned to the north, and thus obviated a steep and even dangerous hill, and in consequence the sections referred to can no longer be seen on the highway.

QUETHIOCK.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Quethiock is in the hundred of East, and joins to the west with St. Cleer and Mehinnet, to the north with St. Ive, to the east with St. Mellyn and Pillaton, to the south with St. German’s and Larnake.

In anno 1291, 20 Edward I. (Tax. Benef.) this church was valued at one hundred shillings, being then appropriated to the Abbey of Tavistock.

This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, £15. 11_s._ 0_d._; the patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent Mr. Daniel Bawdry, rector also of Worlegan.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons says that the ancient name of this parish was Cruetheke; it is commonly pronounced Quithik.

The greater part of this parish belongs to Mr. Coryton of Pentillie. Mr. Lysons gives a detail of the manors, but it is quite uninteresting. One called the manor of Trehunsey, probably gives a name to the principal village, Trehunest.

The church has on the outside an appearance of very great antiquity verging on decay. Within, it contains several remnants of ancient times, and monuments with inscriptions to the memory of former parishioners.

The great tithes were appropriated to a chantry at Haccomb, in the Deanery of Kenn, in Devonshire. Tanner says, in the church of St. Blase here was a college or large chantry of five priests, under the government of an archpresbyter in the reign of King Edward the Third. Dugdale’s Monasticon, new edition, has the following history of this place.

Mr. Oliver, in his Historic Collections, has printed the foundation deed of this college, premising that the public notary has omitted to affix the date to it in Bishop Grandison’s Register: but that by comparing it with the institution of the first archpriest, Andrew de Tregors, in fol. 46 of the 3d vol. of the same register, he was of opinion that it must have been drawn up, either late in the year 1341, or in the early part of 1342.