Chapter XVI: Part 16

Trevear in this parish, i. e. the great or greater town, is the dwelling of John Ellis, gent. Attorney at Law, who married ―――― Davies, and giveth for his arms in a field Argent, three eels Proper, after the English, out of a supposed allusion to the name Ellis; whereas, ellis, elles, in British, is a son-in-law by the wife; and els, ells, a son-in-law by the husband. And as gealvy is an eel fish in Scotch and Irish, so malsay is an eel in Welsh British. See Floyd, page 218; and sleane is a conger fish in Cornish; and lilly, silli, is an ele or eele, in that language. See Floyd on Anguilla.

This parish affords very little wheat corn, by reason it is a naked country exposed to the wind and sharp air of the sea in winter season, which washes or frets the same out of the ground at that time, unless it stands in the valleys or close places between the hills against the south or east; nevertheless it is abundantly supplied with barley corn, the soil producing, generally, with little husbandry or cultivation, twenty Cornish bushels in most acres; that is to say, about sixty Winchesters.

In this parish is situate the most remote north-west promontory or head-land of the Island of Great Britain, where it is not above an arrow’s flight breadth (at the end thereof), the lands naturally or gradually declining from St. Just, and Chapel Carne Braye, four miles distant, to this place, and the sea at least eighty fathom under those places; where, as it were in a low valley, it meets the waves of the Atlantic Sea, or West Ocean, and parts some of the Irish Sea and British Channel asunder by its horned promontory of land; which shows that opinion and tradition of the lands extending further west of old towards Scilly, to be a vulgar error and a fable; for if it had stretched more westerly than it doth in this lower valley, and no higher pitch or degree, the flux and reflux of the sea or tides would inevitably overflow it. Or had there been any considerable parcel of ground there broke off from the insular continent of Britain, (as tradition saith the country of Lioness was,) by some inundation, earthquake, or accidental concussion, it must have been much higher land than the contiguous country of the Land’s End is. Otherwise it could not exist there as aforesaid; but it is not likely there was ever any such land, since no fracture or disjointing of the earth appears on the confines or summit thereof.

Though at low water there is to be seen far off towards Scilly, (probably so called from the abundance of eel or conger fishes taken there, called sillys or lillis,) for a mile or more a dangerous strag of ragged rocks, amongst which the Atlantic Sea, and the waves of St. George’s and the British Channel meeting, make a dreadful bellowing and rumbling noise at half ebb and half flood: which let seamen take notice of, to avoid them.

Of old there was one of those rocks more notable than the rest, which, tradition saith, was ninety feet above the flux and reflux of the sea, with an iron spire at the top thereof, which was overturned or thrown down by a violent storm 1647, and the rock broken in three pieces. This iron spire, as the additions to Camden’s Britannia inform us, was thought to have been erected there by the Romans, or set up as a trophy there by King Athelstan when he first conquered the Scilly Islands (and was in those parts); but it is not very probable such a piece of iron in this salt sea and air, without being consumed by rust, could endure so long a time. However it is or was, certain I am it commonly was called in Cornish, An Marogeth Arvowed, i. e. the armed knight; for what reason I know not, except erected by or in memory of some armed knight; as also carne-an peul, id est, the spile, spire, pole, or javelin rock. Again, remember silly, lilly, is in Cornish and Armoric language a conger fish or fishes, from whence Silly Islands is probably denominated, as elsewhere noted.

This place is called by the Welsh Bards Pen-ryn-Pen-wid, that is to say, Penwith Hill Head Tree, or the hill of the Head Tree, or Penwith Cantred. By the Cornish Britains, Pedn-an-lase, i. e. the Green Head or Promontory, and by others, Antyer Deweth, the Land’s End.

TONKIN.

This parish takes its name from its tutelar saint St. Sennan, or Sinninus, an Irish Abbat, who (saith Leland) was at Rome with St. Patrick, and came over from Ireland to Cornwall with St. Breage. The church hath dedicated the 30th of June to his memory. It is a daughter church to St. Burien, and is valued, together with that and St. Levan, in the King’s Book, at £48. 12_s._

[The passage alluded to above as in Leland, is this, and in Itin. III. 15, “Breaca,” he says, out of a Life of St. Breage which he met with in Cornwall, “venit in Cornubiam, comitata multis Sanctis; inter quos fuerunt Sinninus Abbas, qui Romæ cum Patritio fuit.”]

THE EDITOR.

This parish is greatly distinguished as being the most western in England, and containing within it the promontory, which, without reference to the cardinal points, evidently terminates the granite chain, which stretching out from Dartmoor, extends by links, apparent at intervals at the surface, to this point, the most distant on the continent of England. The same range appears again in the Scilly Islands, and it may possibly join the similar granitic districts in France.

It is a very curious circumstance, that, notwithstanding the great numbers of square leagues composed entirely of granite in Cornwall and in Devonshire, that magnificent rock never appears in the cliff except for a few miles on each side of the Land’s End; but there it is seen piled in high masses one on the other, which, coupled with the great Atlantic swell of the waves, present a general effect the most magnificent that can well be imagined. And what adds still more to the grandeur of the scene, about a mile from the extreme point, a lofty range of rocks, called the Longships, rises out of the sea. On the most elevated point of this rock a light-house was constructed about fifty years ago, nearly after the model of Mr. Smeaton’s building on the Eddystone; this column has the advantage, however, of standing at a great height above the water, so as, perhaps, never to receive an actual blow from the most violent wave; yet so tempestuous is the sea, that for three months together all communication has been intercepted between the lampmen and the shore.

The latitude and longitude of the Land’s End appear, from the Trigonometrical Survey, to be, latitude 50° 4′ 7″; longitude 5° 41′ 32″; in time 22m. 46s. west from Greenwich.

The church of this parish is a very conspicuous object in every direction. It is on the usual plan of churches in this district, and is built of granite with a granite tower. In it are some monuments, particularly to the Ellises, who have relinquished the three eels mentioned by Mr. Hals as an armorial bearing, and instead have sculptured on these stones the blazon appropriated to the name throughout England, Argent, on a cross Sable five crescents of the Field.

The church town has a pretty good inn, capable of affording entertainment, and even beds to parties――

Led by the fable of Belerus old,
Or the Great Vision of the Guarded Mount.

This inn is distinguished by a sign bearing two inscriptions suited to its peculiar situation. Travellers proceeding to the Land’s End, find the board inscribed with these words,

The last public house in England;

returning, they see on the other side,

The first public house in England.

About half a mile further eastward than the church town, is a village called Mean, probably from the great number of large rocks interspersed among the houses. In the very midst of the village is a large flat rock, on which three kings are reported to have dined together at some remote period; and a prophecy of Merlin is added to the tale, that a larger number of kings will be assembled round this rock for the same purpose previously to some great catastrophe, or to the destruction of the world itself.

Not far from Mean is Whitsand Bay, from whence Athelstan is said to have embarked for the Scilly Islands, and to have landed on his return. King Stephen is also said to have landed here; and King John on his return from Ireland; and lastly, Perkin Warbeck; but various other bays have derived a similar name from their white sands, and therefore the honours bestowed on this remote and dangerous cove may be very doubtful.

Mr. Hals has adverted to the fertility of this parish, and noticed the production of twenty Cornish bushels, equaling sixty Winchester bushels, of barley on one acre. The parish certainly is very fertile, being situated on granite peculiarly abounding in felspar; but the Cornish acre, derived from the Saxon pole of eighteen feet, exceeds the Norman acre in the proportion of six to five, therefore the produce is reduced to fifty bushels.

It is much to be lamented that a variety of measures should remain in different parts of the United Kingdom.

In Ireland the pole is 21 feet. Their mile consists, like our own, of 320 poles, but of course exceeds our measure in the proportion of 21 to 16½, or as 14 to 11.

The Irish acre, like our own, contains 160 square poles, but exceeds it in the proportion of 21 squared to 16½ squared, or as 14 squared to 11 squared, as 196 to 121, as 13 to 8 very nearly.

The patron saint selected for this parish by Mr. Hals, is stated to be a Persian of that name, who was seized at Babylon, and delivered to the fury of wild beasts at Rome, which, as in the case of Daniel, became mild and abstained from hurting him; but here the parallel ends, for Valerianus, instead of acknowledging the God of one so miraculously preserved, ordered gladiators immediately to kill the saint, and they obeyed. Reference is made to the Agonal of Baronius; but this saint is little known in England or by English writers.

A much more likely patron may therefore be discovered with Mr. Tonkin, in another St. Senan, of whom Dr. Butler gives the following account:

“St. Senan, Bishop and Confessor, was born in the county of
Hy-Conalls in Ireland, about the latter part of the fifth
century, and was a disciple of the Abbots Cassiolus and
Natal or Naal. He then travelled for spiritual improvement
to Rome, and thence into Britain. In this kingdom he
contracted a close friendship with St. David. After his
return to Ireland he founded many churches; and a great
monastery in Inis Cathaig, an island lying at the mouth of
the river Shannon, which he governed, and in which he
continued to reside after he was advanced to the episcopal
dignity. The abbots his successors, for several centuries,
were all bishops till this great diocese was divided into
three, namely, Limerick, Killaloe, and Ardfert.

“St. Senan died on the same day and year with St. David; but
he was honoured in the Irish church on the 8th of March. A
town in Cornwall bears the name of St. Senan. See his Acts
in Colgan, p. 602.”

The Persian saint is said to be honoured on the 30th of July in the Greek church, so that the parish feast, which is kept on the nearest Sunday to St. Andrew’s day, has not any reference to either of the supposed patrons.

Sennen measures 2223 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2148 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 161 2 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 431 | 495 | 637 | 689
giving an increase of 60 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish, like the last, rests only on granite; at low water, however, some felspathic rocks may be seen.

The granite exhibits the common varieties of this part of Cornwall, and is traversed by porphyritic beds; one of which at Mean is a compound of granular felspar and shorl in various proportions. This kind is of rare occurrence; it is traversed by veins of quartz, which are occasionally much intermixed with shorl; this mineral also abounds in the adjoining granite, but more particularly in the veins by which it is traversed.

Whitsand Bay is covered with a testaceous sand like that of St. Ives, of Padstow, and of other places on the north coast; a large tract of this sand is exposed at low water to the action of the wind, by which it has been drifted in considerable quantities inland so far as Sennen Green.

SHEVIOCK.

HALS.

Sheviock is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north St. German’s Creek, east Anthony, west St. German’s, south the British channel.

At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of the Abbey town, now St. German’s. In the inquisition of the Bishop of Lincoln aforesaid 1294, Ecclesia de Sevyock, in decanatu de Est, was rated cvi_s._ viij_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, at £26. 14_s._ 6_d._; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, at £166.

This church was founded and endowed by those knightly gentlemen, lords of the barton and manor aforesaid, surnamed Daunye or Dawney. Mr. Carew tells us in his Survey of Cornwall, that the funeral monuments of two of those knights are yet extant in this church, though the inscriptions about them are worn out by time. Certes, this was a very famous and flourishing family on the barton of Shevyock aforesaid, for several descents, till the time of King Richard II. when the sole daughter and heir of Sir John de Dawney, knight, named Emelyn, was married to Edward Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon, 1380, by whom he had issue Edward Courtenay, surnamed the blind, the 12th Earl of Devon, and Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccomb, knight; the which Edward, at the request of his said mother, by his deed bearing date the 2d of King Henry Fifth, settled upon the said Sir Hugh Courtenay his brother, the manors of Gotherington, South Allington, and Stancomb Dawney in Devon, which were the lands of her ancestors the Dawneys. Afterwards, the said Edward died, 7th Henry V. 1418. (See Brooke in his Catalogue of Devon Earls.)

By this Emelyn Dawney, as traditions amongst the family of the Courtenays have it, Boconock came first into their tribe, though others say that it came to Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccomb, by Lerchdeacon’s heir, but more truly that his said mother settled it upon him on his marriage with Lerchdeacon of Haccomb’s heir.

One Nicholas de Dawney, 3 Henry IV. held in the hundred of East, by the tenure of knight service, two knight’s fees and a half. (Survey of Cornwall, page 41.) Of the arms of those gentlemen thus speaks Nicholas Upton in his Latin manuscript, before printing was invented 1440. Monsieur Gwilliam Dawney port d’Argent, oue trois popinjays en bend oue deux cottises. Again, Monsieur John Dawney port d’Argent, en une bende Vert trois rose de Or, oue deux costs de Azure; from whence I infer there were either several families of those Dawneys, that gave different arms, or that in those days they had no positive record of their bearings.

One Sir John Dawney, knt. of Cowick, in Yorkshire, Sheriff of that county 35 Henry VIII. gave for his arms, in a field Argent, on a bend cottised Sable, three annulets of the Field, which is the recorded arms of Dawney.

TONKIN.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book at £26. 14_s._ 6_d._ The patronage in Sir William Carew, Bart.; the incumbent Mr. Archdeacon Kendall.

In anno 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at 106_s._ 8_d._ having never been appropriated.

THE MANOR OF SHEVIOCK.

“The next parish upon this river (Lyner),” saith Mr. Carew, (lib. 2, fol. 108), “is called Sheviock, sometimes the ancient Dauny’s inheritance and inhabitance, by whose daughter and heir the same, together with other fair possesions, descended to the Earls of Devon.”

In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edw. I. (Carew, fol. 486) Sheviock is valued in £100, to which no other manor in the county comes up, but that of Lanrake and Pawton.

In 40 Hen. III. (Ibid. fol. 50), Henricus de Dones (whom I take to be the same with Dawney) is certified to hold £15 per annum by knight’s service.

In 3 Hen. IV. (Ibid. fol. 41) Johanna de Rame ten. 1 fe. magnum de Seviock; probably this Joanna was the mother of the following Nicholas, and held this estate in jointure, for this manor was at this time his inheritance.

Nicholas Danne ten. 1 partem feod. dict. feod. de Morteynne in Tregantle de Modeton.

Idem Nich. ten. 1 magnum feod. de Trecan et Trecarnel et Charleton de prædict. Abbate.

THE EDITOR.

The church has the appearance of being very old, but the exterior does not possess any beauty, and the whole is disfigured by an irregular truncated pyramid adjoined to the western end as a tower. Within, the church is neat although it is unusually small, but containing a series of splendid monuments, ancient and modern.

Mr. Carew says, “The next parish on this river (the Liner) is Sheviock, some time the ancient Daunyes’ inheritance, by whose daughter and heir the same (together with other fair possessions) descended to the Earls of Devon. In the church there lie two knights of that name, and one of their ladies by her husband’s side, having their pictures embossed on their tombs in the side walls, and their arms once painted round about; but now, by the malice, not of men, but of time, defaced. They are held to be father and son; and that the son was slain in our wars with France, and was from thence brought home to be here interred;” but Mr. Lysons conjectures that one of those monuments is to a Courtenay.

“There runneth also a tale amongst the parishioners, how one of the Daunyes’ ancestors undertook to build the church, and his wife the barn adjoining; and that, casting up their accounts upon finishing of their works, the barn was found to have cost three halfpence more than the church: and so it might well fall out, for it is a great barn, and a little church.” The advowson belongs to Mr. Carew’s descendant, the Rt. Hon. R. P. Carew, of Anthony.

The barn, or what remains of it, almost adjoining to the church, adds to the very singular appearance of the whole group. Scarcely any remains of the mansion house, the residence for several ages of a family so distinguished as the Dauneys, can now be discovered.

The principal village in this parish is Crofthole, situated on what was till very lately the turnpike road from Tor Point to Leskeard, and just at the point where the road branches off to Looe and Fowey.

This village stands nearly on the brow of a lofty cliff, down which the road to Looe descends by repeated turnings. Mr. Lysons says the ancient name was Croftilborowe, and that it possessed a weekly market on Wednesdays, granted to Nicholas Dauney, then Lord of Sheviock, with a Fair for three days at the Festival of St. James. The market has long been discontinued. The village is at this time far from large, or from presenting any appearance of opulence. Mr. Carew says it then contained but twelve dwellings, and adds one of those coarse tales, which are usually applied as jokes against any small place, endowed with privileges or immunities above what its importance would seem to justify.

On the edge of the sea, nearly under Croftshole, is a small pier protecting a narrow beach of sand between rocks, called Porth Wrinkle: it gives shelter to fishing boats and small vessels. The ancient pier, which had stood during a great number of years, was destroyed by the violent storm of Feb. 2, 1822. It is however replaced.

Trethil belonged for some time to the family of Wallis.

The family became represented by two brothers――

John Wallis, who had an only daughter married to Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth; and Samuel Wallis, Captain in the Royal Navy, the celebrated circumnavigator and discoverer of Otaheite. This gentleman married Miss Betty Hearle of Penryn, and has also left an only daughter, now the widow of the late Samuel Stephens, esq. of Tregenna in St. Ives. Most of the recent monuments are connected with this family.

Sheviock measures 2122 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2787 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 418 6 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 409 | 428 | 491 | 453
giving an increase of 10½ per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. Reginald Pole, presented by the Right Hon.
R. P. Carew in 1825.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The rocks of which this parish is composed belong to the calcareous series, and are similar to those of the southern part of St. German’s.

SITHNEY.

HALS.

Sithney is situate in the hundred of Kerrier, and hath upon the north Crowan, east Helleston and Gwendron, south the Loo Pool and British Channel.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Trew-thall or Truthall. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, into the value of the Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Sancti Sithany, in decanatu de Kerryer, was rated at £6. 6_s._ 8_d._ Vicar ibidem xxxiii_s._ iiii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was valued to first fruits £19. 11_s._ 4_d._ The patronage formerly in the master or governor of St. John the Baptist’s Hospital in this parish, who endowed it, now in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent ―――― Hawkins; the rectory in possession of ―――― Paynter; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, 1696, £147. 9_s._ by the name of Sithney.

In this parish at St. John’s formerly stood an hospital, commandery, or preceptory, dedicated to St. John Baptist, and distinguished by the name of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist of Jerusalem, for Christians that were sick or wounded in the war; also for entertainment of Christian pilgrims and travellers that came to that city. This hospital of St. John’s in this parish was subject to the master of St. John’s Hospital in London, as all other in England were, and was valued at the suppression thereof 26 Henry VIII. at £12. 6_s._ 8_d._ saith Dugdale, £14. 7_s._ 4_d._ Speed. This sum it seems was the value of their rents on leases, so what their domains were I know not.

Here the MS. is again deficient.

However, those who pretend to skill in taste and palate eating, prefer the saltwater trout before this Loo trout; nevertheless, I take it to be a fish of good taste and digestion, and when killed in his proper season not inferior in redness to the sea-trout; this pool on the one side being situate on Mr. Penrose’s lands, hath entitled him to free fishing therein time out of mind.

But the absolute royalty and jurisdiction of this river pertained to the ancient earls now dukes of Cornwall, or to the kings of England, in right of their adjacent manor of Helleston in Kerryer; and for further proof thereof, I will give an ancient testimony out of the pleas of the Crown in the Exchequer 12 Edward I. 1282, (See also Blount’s Ancient Tenures, from thence, p. 52.) where we may read these words.

Wilhelmus de Trevelle tenet unam acram terræ Cornubiensem, in Degemue et Eglesderry in Kerrier, per serjantiam inveniendi unum Batellum et Rethiam, ad piscandum in Lacu de Helleston, quandocunque Dominus Rex venerit apud Hellestone, et quamdiu moram ibi fecerit.

From whence I conclude that this William de Trevelle either had or was keeper of the royalty of this lake or pool by inheritance, and held one Cornish acre of land in Eglesderry, that is to say, one hundred and eighty English acres by the tenure of Sergeanty for that purpose, and providing a fishing hook or iron crook and a net, as long as the king should stay or tarry in the manor of Helleston, fishing or so doing. This Degemue and Eglesderry are lands in the manor of Helston Chaumond in Kerrier. This name and tribe of Treveale are still extant in Roach and elsewhere in Cornwall.

TONKIN.

Sithney is in the hundred of Kerrier, and is bounded to the west by St. Breage, to the north by Crowan, to the east by Gwendon and Helston, to the south by the British Channel.

This parish is denominated from its tutelar Saint (with a little variation, euphoniæ gratiâ) St. Midinnia (Tax. Benef.)

It is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book £19. 11_s._ 4_d._ The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, the incumbent ――――.

In 1291, 20 Edw. I, the rectory of this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at £6. 6_s._ 8_d._ and was appropriated to the priory of Montacute in Somersetshire; the vicarage being valued at 33_s._ 4_d._

I shall begin with

THE MANOR OF PENROSE.

The head of the valley [or rather, the Hill of the Heath,] which hath given a name and dwelling to a very ancient family, seated there (it is said) before the Conquest.

It is pleasantly seated on the side of the Looe Pool, which for the most part belongs to it, of which Mr. Carew (fol. 152) thus, “Under it (Heilston) runneth the river Lo, whose passage into the sea is thwarted by a sandy bank, which forceth the same to quurt back a great way, and so to make a pool of some miles in compass. It breedeth a peculiar kind of bastard trout, in bigness and goodness exceeding such as live in the fresh water, but coming short of those who frequent the salt. The fore-remembered bank serveth as a bridge to deliver wayfarers, with a compendious passage, to the other side; howbeit sometimes with more haste than good speed, for now and then it is so pressed on the inside with the increasing river’s weight, and a portion of the outer sand so washed down by the waves, that at a sudden out breaketh the upper part of the Poole and away goeth a great deal of the sand, water, and fish, which instant, if it take any passenger tardy, shrewdly endangereth him to flit for company, and some have so miscarried.

“To this Pool adjoineth Mr. Penrose his house, whose kind
entertainment hath given me and many others experience of
these matters. He married the daughter of Rashleigh. He
beareth, Argent, three bends Sable, charged with nine roses
of the Field.” But before I leave the Loo Pool, I must
observe that the name of the river is taken from the Pool,
for such are called Loghs or Los in our ancient tongue.
Neither is the bar which forms it of sand; but Leland gives
this account of it (Itin. vol. VIII. fol. 3), “Lo-Poole is a
two miles in length, and betwixt it and the mayn se is but a
barre of sande; and ons in three or four years, what by the
wait of the fresch water and rage of the se, it brekith out,
and then the fresch and salt water meting makith a wonderful
noise; but soon after the mouth is barred again with sande.
At other tymes the superfluitie of the water of Lo-Poole
drenith out through the sandy barre unto the se. If this
barre might be alway kept open, it would be a goodly haven up
to Heilston. The commune fische of this Poole is trout and
ele.”

The present lord of this manor is Edward Penrose, Esq. who is yet unmarried. He succeeded Robert Corker, Esq. on his death, A.D. 1731, as receiver of the duchy of Cornwall, and is in the Commission of the Peace and Lieutenancy. His father, Edward Penrose, Esq. was a very worthy good-natured gentleman, and was likewise a Justice of the Peace. He married ――――, the daughter of James Praed, of Trevetho, Esq. by whom he had also one daughter ――――, married to James Keigwyn, of Mousehole, Esq. and since dead without issue. His grandfather Richard Penrose, Esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall 17 Henry VIII.

THE EDITOR.

There is not any thing remarkable about this parish church; it is distant no more than a mile and quarter from Breage Church, but divided from it by a deep valley, which runs down to Porthleaven, heretofore a small fishing cove, till some projectors induced credulous persons to contribute large sums of money, for the purpose of making a harbour for vessels at this place, under the vague pretence of saving human life, a matter on which all mankind are agreed, but without being able to show that their plans would have that effect: assuming it, however, they had the hardihood to solicit from Parliament an impost on all vessels passing within a certain distance of the Land’s End and the Lizard. Several tens of thousands of pounds have been expended on this senseless undertaking, which has utterly failed of its object, and made the small harbour less commodious for boats than it was before.

The principal seat in this parish is Penrose, the residence for centuries of a very ancient family bearing the same name, till the heiress of Penrose married Pearce of Penryn, and their only daughter married Alexander Cuming, esq. from Scotland. They parted with this property to Mr. John Rogers of Helston, younger brother of Mr. Hugh Rogers of Treasow in Ludgvan, to whom he ultimately succeeded.

Mr. John Rogers left an only son Hugh Rogers, Sheriff of Cornwall in the year 1770. This gentleman married Ann, daughter of Mr. James of St. Columb. They also left an only son Mr. John Rogers, member of Parliament for West Looe and for Helston: he married Margaret, eldest daughter of Francis Basset, esq. of Tehidy: and died the 22d of February, 1832, leaving a very numerous family. He is succeeded by his eldest son the Rev. John Rogers, Canon Residentiary of Exeter, and Rector of Mawnan.

The late Mr. Rogers added very considerably to the property purchased by his grandfather, more especially on the sales by the Arundell family; so that the Penrose domain now extends round the Lake, and affords a scope for improvements, which may convert this place into one of the most beautiful in Cornwall, and such are expected from the talents, liberality, and taste of the present opulent possessor.

Antron appears to have been a place of consequence in former times. Mr. Lysons says that it belonged to an ancient family of the same name, from whom it passed with an heiress in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to the Paynters; that it was purchased of them by the Hoblyns in 1670, and sold by the Rev. Robert Hoblyn, to John Rogers, esq. late Captain in the Naval Service of the East India Company, who restored the place by building a new house, and by other improvements. It now belongs to his son.

Trevarnoe was purchased by the late Mr. Christopher Wallis, a gentleman who made a large fortune in Helston and in this place, by the practice of the law. He had an only daughter, married to Captain Popham, a brother of the adventurous navigator who distinguished himself at Buenos Ayres. Their son now resides here; he served the office of Sheriff in 1834, and has married a daughter of the late Sir Vyell Vyvyan, of Trelowarren.

Very little is known about the hospital of St. John in this parish. The following short notice is all that occurs in Dugdale’s Monasticon:

“Helston.――Leland, in his Itinerary, mentions an hospital of St. John yet standing at the west-south-west end of the town of Helston, of the foundation of one Killigion or Killegrew. It is mentioned in the Register of Edmund Stafford, Bishop of Exeter (from 1395 to 1419) fol. 135. In the 26th of Henry VIII. the total revenue of this hospital amounted to £14. 7_s._ 4_d._ The net receipts to £12. 16_s._ 4_d._ per annum.” At the foot of the hill, and on the south side of the road leading from Mirazion, just as it turns almost at a right angle, is a large stone placed upright, bearing in relief the sword of St. John, having its guard in such a position as to represent the potence of a cross; and this stone is believed to point out very nearly the site of the ancient hospital.

The great tithes of this parish were appropriated to the monastery of Glaseney, near Penryn; they have since the reformation passed through different hands, and belong to Sir Samuel-Thomas Spry, M.P. for Bodmin, son of the late Admiral Spry.

The present incumbent is the Rev. Samuel Cole, D.D. Chaplain General to the Navy. About a century ago this living was held, together with Phillack and Gwithian, by the Rev. Edward Collins, the Editor’s great-grandfather.

The parish feast is kept on the first Sunday in August.

Sithney measures 4896 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 5,839 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 904 14 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1420 | 1552 | 2238 | 2772
giving an increase of 95 per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish extends from near Wendron Church almost to the Loo Bar, in the form of a long stripe running a little west of south; rather more than a quarter part of this stripe, at its northern extremity, rests on granite; all the remainder belongs to rocks of the porphyritic series. The extensive workings of Whele Vor mine are partly situated in this parish, which is intersected by numerous veins and courses of porphyry.

SOUTHILL.

This parish will be found in vol. II. p. 229.

ST. STEPHEN’S IN BRANNEL.

HALS.

St. Stephen’s in Brannel is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Roach and St. Denis, east St. Mewan, west Probus, south Creed.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices 1294, Ecclesia de Sancti Stephani, in decanatu de Powdre, was rated at £8. 7. 5_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1221, it was valued to First Fruits, together with St. Denis and Carhayes, and goes in consolidation and presentation with it, £27. 10_s._ 6½_d._ as a rectory, and for the vicarages of St. Stephen’s and St. Denis £14.; in all £41. 10_s._ 6½.: all which churches were endowed by Richard Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans, who annexed the patronage thereof to his lordship and manor of Branel aforesaid. The patronage now in Tanner; the incumbent Tanner: to which rectory of St. Michael Caryhayes those vicarages are appropriated or impropriated, and the rectories thereof for life. This parish was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, £283. 4_s._ 9_d._ But whether those vicarages are obliged to the residence of the said rector for certain times with cura animarum, or are sinecures, I know not.

Court in this parish is the chief barton of the manor and lordship of Brannel, both which appertained to the Earls of Cornwall in right of that earldom; which King John, who also was Earl of Cornwall, settled upon his second son Richard, born in the 11th year of his reign, Anno Dom. 1209, afterwards King of the Romans, who had issue by his concubine Joan de Valletorta, widow of Sir Alexander Oakeston aforesaid, a base son named Richard de Cornwall, (and a daughter named Joan, married to Champernowne) on whom he settled this manor of Brannel and barton of Court; who had issue Wiliam de Cornwall or Plantagenet, and Geffery de Cornwall, afterwards knighted by King Edward I. ancestor of the famous family of the Cornwalls of Burford in Shropshire, whose posterity had been twenty-two times sheriffs of those counties and Bedfordshire to the 10th of King James.

Boden-ike aforesaid, was formerly the lands of Pye, who sold it to Tanner; some of which family afterwards, in the interregnum of Cromwell, turned decimators and sequestrators with the Sprys, upon the lands and revenues of the royal laity and clergy of this county, to that degree of hurt and damage, that it occasioned the making of that short litany not yet forgotten in Cornwall:

“From the Pyes and the Spryes, good Lord, deliver us.”

The arms of Pye are, Argent, on a fess Azure three escallops of the Field.

Lastly, in this place, to refresh the tired reader, I will recount a story of the unfortunate amours of John Tanner aforesaid, with his lady Madam Windham, to whom he made his first addresses of marriage, and after some time good liking fell deeply into each other’s affection; but the conditions of marriage proposed by Mr. Tanner not being hastily agreed upon by her father Mr. Windham, gave opportunity to Charles Speccott, esq. a gentleman of much greater estate than Mr. Tanner had, to make an overture of marriage to the lady aforesaid, together with a larger settlement in jointure than Mr. Tanner was able to grant or perform; which proposals were forthwith accepted by Mr. Windham, so that he soon after constrained his daughter, notwithstanding what amours had passed between her and Mr. Tanner, to marry Mr. Speccott.

At the news of which cross accident, Mr. Tanner, her former inamorato, was so discontented and perplexed in mind, that in order to quiet his disturbed soul, and obliterate or extinguish the memory of this beautiful woman (for such she was), he forsook this land and travelled into France.

In brief, Tanner, having been eighteen months in France, notwithstanding the variety of faces and company he met with, grew there also discontented with himself, and a continual impulse lay upon his spirit which he could not suppress, that he must return back again into England, for what reason he knew not; whereupon he went on board a ship, and came safe into the port of London, where he had not remained scarce ten days before he heard of the news of Mr. Speccott’s death within that time; upon which intelligence he forthwith posted from London to Thornbury in Devon, where she then resided in a mourning state, who received him in such joyful and welcome manner, that soon after the marriage was concluded betwixt them, by whom he had a great estate as aforesaid,

TONKIN.

St. Stephen’s in Brannel is in the hundred of Powder, and hath to the west Ladock, to the north St. Dennis and Roche, to the east St. Austell and St. Mewan, to the south St. Probus and Creed. This church and the two following ones are dedicated to the famous protomartyr St. Stephen, and have their different adjuncts, to distinguish them the one from the other.

As it is a rectory, it is with St. Denis a daughter church to St. Michael Carhays, and valued, together with it, in the King’s Book, at £27. 0_s._ 0_d._, but as it hath a vicarage joined with it likewise, it is the mother church to St. Dennis, and valued with it in the King’s Book, at £14. The rectory and vicarage have both the same patron, Thomas Pitt, esq. (purchased by governor Pitt, from the heirs and assigns of John Tanner, esq.); and at this time the same incumbent, Mr. William Sutton; who keeps a curate here, at present Mr. William Wood, junior, to serve this church and St. Denis, and makes it up to him (I speak it to his praise) the best curacy in this county.

I shall begin with that great manor, from whence this parish hath its adjunct of distinction.

THE MANOR OF BRANNEL.

In Carew, (fol. 47), in the extent of Cornish acres, Beranel is valued in thirty-six, the 12 Edw. I.

I take this to be the same which is called in Doomsday Book Bernel, being one of the manors given by William the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall,

WHITAKER.

There is a very striking singularity in the nature of the present parish, which is but slightly or hardly noticed, by Mr. Tonkin. It has been taken out of the parish of Carhayes, and yet is actually distant from it. It is considered as one living with Carhayes, and yet has Probus and Creed in a first line, Tregony and Cuby in a second, Veryan and St. Ewe in a third, successively coming betwixt Carhayes and it. It is now held with St. Dennis as its daughter, and Carhayes as its mother, by a clergyman who holds Boconnock and Braddock as one church, together with it; and who therefore stands forward to the curious eye, a most singular instance under the present forms of ecclesiastical law, of one man lawfully possessing five churches. But how is all this phenomenon in parochial formations to be accounted for? It can be accounted for, I think, only in this manner. The manor of Carhayes was originally a royal one, I suppose. The house was therefore the seat occasionally of our Cornish kings. It was a seat peculiarly frequented, I also suppose, for the sake of the adjoining forest of Brannel. And the donation of Brannel by William the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall, proves it to have been in the hands of the Crown at the time, and intimates it to have been a part of the Cornish demesnes originally. The lands that had belonged to the Cornish Crown, would certainly be attached to the English, on the suppression of kings, and would assuredly be conferred on the Earldom of Cornwall, when the Kings were succeeded by Earls. In this condition of the parish and the forest, when the latter was annexed to the house, and so became a part of the former, any house that was raised in the forest for the temporary reception of the king, was necessarily considered to be as much in the parish as it was in the manor. When other houses were built, and a perpetual inhabitancy took place in them, a chapel was naturally erected for the participation of the inhabitants in divine offices, and the rector of Carhayes was called upon to officiate in person or by proxy at it; in person while the king was there, by proxy when he was not. And he had the tithes of this newly cultivated part of the woodland, to repay him for his trouble or his expense. This accounts satisfactorily, I think, for the strange extension of the parochial compasses here. One leg was centered at the house of Carhayes, and therefore the other stretched over all the intermediate regions, and took its footing on the woodland of Brannel beyond. Nothing but the regality of both could have permitted such a vast stride as this. A Neptune may stalk from promontory to promontory, and a king may take a colossal step from Carhayes to Brannel. The very name too seems to concur with all this: called Bernel, Beranel, and Brannel, and originally belonging to the crown, it speaks the royal relationship at once; Brenhin, or Brennin (W.) being a king, brennyn, brein, brenn (C.) royal, Bran being the Welsh name for the famous Brenhind (W.) and consequently brennol (C.) once, being kingly or royal. The house also at Carhayes has a royal kind of appearance with it, being built in the old style of grandeur round a court having a chapel, a wall, and all the uncomfortable vastness of a princely house. In this manner did St. Stephen’s go on to form a new kind of parish, by encroaching upon the royal woodland, and peopling these gloomy deserts. Considered at first as a chapelry to Carhayes, it was valued with it in 1291. It afterwards became parochiated, and is valued as a distinct parish in the Valor of Henry VIII.; but before the period of this second Valor, St. Dennis, which was wholly unknown in 1291, had risen upon St. Stephen’s, just as St. Stephen’s had risen upon Carhayes before. The daughter of Carhayes thus became a mother to St. Dennis; and the wildest and remotest part of this antient forest of our kings coming to be peopled, and requiring a church for its inhabitants, St. Stephen’s stands in the new Valor, accompanied with its chapel of St. Dennis.

N. B. The only variation from the account here given, is what a sight of Pope Nicholas’s Valor has suggested to me. There Caerhayes is not mentioned at all. The only church noticed is “Ecclesia Sancti Stephani.” This, therefore, included Caerhayes, then the larger included the smaller; and Caerhayes, which is little more (I believe) as a parish, than its own demense and park, (which, as royal demesne, I suppose, was not parochiated,) became annexed to St. Stephen’s, when this was parochiated,――when, therefore, the royal relation of both had ceased; and was so annexed in the Valor of 1291. June 16, 1794.

THE EDITOR.

This parish, like the other dedicated to St. Stephen, has a lofty tower placed, with the church, in a position commanding the adjacent country, which retains, however, much of its former character; yet cultivation is gradually extending itself here, as in other wild tracts of Cornwall, through the medium of potatoe cultivation; but if the mines should fail, or if the system itself goes to a great extent, we have a tremendous example before our eyes of the inevitable consequences resulting from this subdivision of property.

The church contains but one monument of any curiosity, and that is to the memory of Doctor Hugh Wolrige, a physician who died in 1652.

Ingenuas didicit (quas optimè coluit) artes;
Ægrotis didicit pharmaca sana dare,
In Christo didicit tantum succumbere morti,
Desinit ulterius discere Doctor Hugo.

This is accompanied by an English inscription in quaint rhymes, from which it appears, that after quitting Cambridge he went to complete his medical education at Breda, where the miasmata of that unhealthy country so injured his constitution as to close his days at the early period of thirty years.

The epitaph states him to have been born at Penkevill, but the family were seated at Garlenick in Creed, and there, eighty years afterwards, John Wolrige, esq. is found among the subscribers to Martyn’s Map of Cornwall, but deceased before the map appeared in 1748.

St. Stephen’s in Brannel measures 8,556 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 6696 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 1190 5 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1738 | 1904 | 2479 | 2477
giving an increase of 42½ per cent. in 30 years.

It may be remarked, that the increase was rather more in the first twenty years, an anomaly in all likelihood occasioned by the fluctuation in mining concerns, and to the preparation of China clay having reached its limit.

If the increase had uniformly continued for a century at this rate, the population at the end of that time would reach the great number of 14,635.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

A line drawn N. W. and S. E. about a mile due N. from the church, would divide this parish into nearly two equal parts, the northern parts consisting of granite, and the southern of schistose rocks, belonging to the porphyritic series.

The granite stretches completely across the large central mass of this district, and contains many varieties. Next to the slate, the rock generally contains a considerable portion of shorl, which sometimes takes the place of the mica altogether; both of these kinds abound in large veins and courses of quartz and shorl rock. But the most abundant variety is that extensively decomposed into a white friable mass; of this substance the more compact and perfect parts are quarried, and exported under the name of China stone, whilst the earthy parts are washed to separate the fine argillaceous particles from the grains of quartz, and from other hard minerals with which they are mixed in their natural state. The water, rendered white like milk by this operation, is received in large pits, where the earthy part subsides, and then after being dried is sent to the potteries under the name of China clay. The manipulations which this substance undergoes during its preparation are simple, but very tedious; and they afford employment to several hundred persons. The extent of this branch of commerce is so great, that about seven thousand tons of clay, and five thousand tons of China stone are exported from Cornwall every year, of which by far the greater part is raised in this parish.

The rocks of the slate series are similar to those of St. Mewan and St. Austell, containing also metalliferous veins.

ST. STEPHEN’S NEAR LAUNCESTON.

HALS.

St. Stephen’s near Launceston, is situated in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Werrington, east the Tamer river, south Launceston, west St. Thomas.

At the time of the Norman Conquest, this district (in the Domesday Book 1087,) was taxed under the jurisdiction of Lan-san, or Lan-sen, i. e. signifying a holy church or temple, though at that time this superior church had in this place a famous collegiate church dedicated to St. Stephen, consisting of secular priests, who might marry wives, founded and endowed by the Bishops of Bodman, and Earls of Cornwall, long before William the Conqueror’s days. Reginald Fitz-Harry, base son of King Henry I. by Anne Corbet, created Earl of Cornwall by King Stephen, in the 5th year of his reign 1140, was a great benefactor to this collegiate church; and besides all that, endeavoured with all his power and interest with King Stephen to bring back the bishopric of Cornwall, transferred or translated to Kirton and Exeter, and fix the bishop’s see and cathedral in this place and church of St. Stephen 1150, which Robert Warlewast, then Bishop of Exeter, opposed; and in his first triennial visitation of the Cornish Diocese from Lanwhitton, came and visited this collegiate church, and suppressed the order of secular priests conversing at large in the world, not tied to monastic life, and in the room of them brought in black monks or canons Augustine (see St. Anthony,) and converted this church and college into an abbey or priory of monks, by the name of the abbey or priory of St. Stephen’s, whose governor was indifferently called the abbat and prior of St. Stephen’s and Launceston.

And to this purpose we read in the first inquisition into the value of Cornish Benefices before-mentioned 1294, these words: Prior de Lanceston precipit de Vicar’ de Lankinhorne, xxvi_s._ viii_d._ Those monks before that inquisition, out of a covetous desire after wealth and riches, which they had obtained by gift or purchase, had wholly impropriated and turned into small vicarages the revenues of all such churches as to their abbey were annexed, and of which they were patrons.

None of which churches’ revenues, because wholly impropriated before the first inquisition, are rated or named in the Pope’s or King’s Books of First Fruits to this day. This parish of St. Stephen’s was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, £174. 18_s._

In this parish are kept annually three fairs or public marts, viz. the 1st May, the 20th of July, and the 14th of September.

In this parish or Launceston was also a Friary.

TONKIN.

St. Stephen’s, near Launceston, lies in the hundred of East, and is bounded to the west by Egloskerry and Trewenn, to the north the River Artrie and part of Devonshire, to the east by the Tamar, to the south by Launceston, St. Thomas, and St. Pedyrwyn.

This church is not at all valued in the King’s Book; but in the Taxatio Benefic. in anno 1291, 20 Edward I. being totally appropriated to the Priory of Launceston, it is valued at £10.

THE EDITOR.

The history relating to the more ancient ecclesiastical establishments in this parish does not seem to be very clear or distinct, although the general facts are well ascertained, and accord with the prevailing spirit of the times in which they occurred.

William Warlewast, who held the see of Exeter about twenty years in the beginning of the twelfth century, suppressed a college of secular priests attached to St. Stephen’s Church, and founded a monastery of regular monks near the place where St. Thomas’s Church now stands. This house he endowed with the lands of the former college, and dedicated it to the same saint. It was constituted a priory of the order of St. Austin, and remained till the general dissolution.