Chapter VII: Part 7

Archbishop Courtenay appears to have settled the right of presentation to this parish, by giving it to the Chapter of Exeter, with the limitation of their always bestowing it on some one who is at the time, or has been, a Fellow of Exeter College. The vicarage is endowed with the great tithes, on a payment of £20 a year to Exeter College, and it is therefore considered as a rectory. Mr. Carew observes (p. 277, Lord de Dunstanville’s edition) that this parish has been successively graced with three well born and well educated incumbents, Doctor Tremayne, Master Billett, and Master Dennis; and it is believed that William of Wykeham held this preferment for some time previously to Archbishop Courtenay’s endowment.

The late incumbent, the Reverend William Holwell, may be noticed for his taste and skill in the fine arts. He was the son of a medical practitioner at Exeter, and nephew of William Holwell, student and tutor of Christ Church soon after the middle of the last century, and then Vicar of Thornbury, in Gloucestershire, where he died in 1798, having distinguished himself by the following, among other works:

The Beauties of Homer, selected from the Iliad, 8vo.

Extracts from Pope’s Translations of Homer compared with the Beauties of the Original. 8vo.

A Mythological, Etymological, and Historical Dictionary. 8vo.

Mr. William Holwell, the nephew, was of course a Fellow of Exeter College. He travelled through France and Italy about the year 1780, where he began forming a collection of pictures, bequeathed on his decease to the National Gallery. He is said to have taken Orders with some reluctance, for the purpose of accepting this valuable living. But the most important event in this gentleman’s life was his marrying Charlotte, daughter and heiress of James Carr, Earl of Erroll. He in consequence assumed the name of Carr. He died in the year 1830, having survived his wife nearly twenty years, who has a monument to her memory in Menheniot church.

In the valuation of Pope Nicholas, the name of this parish is written Manyhinyhet, or Saihinet, proofs of the small reliance that can be placed on mere phonic etymologies.

Cartuther, noticed by Mr. Hals, became the property and the residence of the Morsheads, but having been sold, with all the other possessions of that family, it was purchased by Mr. Kekewich.

Mr. Lysons gives a detail of other manors and bartons of little interest.

This parish has the reputation of being the most fertile of corn, especially of wheat, in the whole county. The aspect of the church town gives a strong impression of monastic remains, but there is not any tradition on record of a religious establishment in the place.

Menheniot measures 6047 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 10599 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 1422 11 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 918 | 1024 | 1170 | 1253
giving an increase of 36½ per cent. in thirty years.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The southern part of this parish is bounded by the hill of Clicker Tor, which is entirely composed of a dark compact serpentine, abounding in steatite, asbestos, tremolite, and other magnesian minerals. The occurrence of this large mass of serpentine, amidst an extensive tract of rocks belonging to the calcareous series, imparts no little geological interest to this parish, which deserves therefore to be more minutely examined; for the cursory observations hitherto published have not satisfactorily developed the connection of this serpentine with the adjoining rocks. In crossing the parish from north to south, the rocks are first seen to consist of compact felspar and hornblend, resembling those at Rosecradock in St. Clear; next they become more schistose, and the hornblend forms only the colouring material, as it does on the north of Leskeard town; at Pengover the hornblend again abounds, and is intermixed with calcareous spar, as in the vicinity of St. Ives. Approaching the church of Menheniot, the rocks again put on the appearance of a true hornblend schist, and this is succeeded by the serpentine of Clicker Tor.

THE EDITOR.

Not only is the serpentine of the Lizard found at Clicker Tor, but the plant also indicative of that formation, the great ornament of our southern promontory, the ERRICA VAGANS, the multiflora of Hudson and Ray, and the didyma of Withering. Nothing seems to be more extraordinary, nor what, independently of experience, would be more unexpected, than the existence of the same rare plants at distant and unconnected places, where the peculiarities of soil and climate happen to agree; but to increase the wonder still further, even this diffusion has its limits. The southern hemisphere is said not to be decorated by a single wild rose, the Ανασσα Ανθων of the northern world. And the whole continent of America is believed not to produce a single heath.

Our preconceptions of what would be fitting for intelligences superior to our own, and _a fortiori_ as to what might be expected from infinite wisdom and power, have been established beyond the shadow of a doubt by SIR ISAAC NEWTON, in respect to the great bodies moving in our universe. They perform all their revolutions in obedience to the simple and general laws of gravity and inertia; and the rapidly progressive discoveries of each succeeding year, establish the same principle respecting causes acting conformably to general laws in the internal construction, preservation, and renovation of our planet; and we are moreover induced to believe that a like system must prevail in the moral world, not from analogy alone, but from a deep conviction that such a plan, and no other, can reconcile the existence of partial evil with universal good: and thus conciliate the actual state of things with the attributes of unlimited goodness, wisdom, and power; but in respect to animal and vegetable life, although an arrangement as plain and as demonstrative of infinite wisdom may exist, it is, in the actual state of our knowledge, utterly hidden from our view. Thousands of distinct species or genera have ceased to exist, and their remains, varying from the most gigantic skeletons to objects suited for a microscope, are daily brought under our view――animals and plants have succeeded each other in the various geological periods, tending in succession towards more elaborate construction and greater general perfection; but not a trace is laid before us of the plan by which this beautiful system is arranged; our ignorance compels us therefore to suppose the immediate agency of THE DIVINITY itself, when a plant indigenous to an old formation appears on one more recently elevated to the surface; or when any of the innumerable changes take place in an organized inhabitant of this or of some other plant.

ST. MERRAN, MERIN, OR MER-YN.

HALS.

Mer-in or Mer-yn, is situated in the hundred of Pedyr, and hath upon the north the Irish sea, west St. Evall, south St. Ervyn, north-east Padstow.

In the Domesday Book this district was taxed by the name of Trevoes or Trevose, id est, the maid or virgin’s town; then and now the voke lands of a manor annexed to Pawton, or Polton, (parcel of the lands of the Prior of Bodman and Bishop of Exon before the Norman Conquest,) on the confines of which, towards the sea, is yet extant the ruins of an old church, chapel, and cemetery pertaining thereto, dedicated to St. Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome: which, upon the encroachment of the sea-sand on the marsh beneath, which surrounded and overwhelmed the same, was discontinued, and thereby gave occasion to the inhabitants to build their now church of Merin in a more secure place, further up in the country from the sea and sand, and moor or marsh ground; the church of St. Constantine being in part converted now to a dwelling house for poor people.

Near this church is yet extant St. Constantine’s Well, strong built of stone and arched over; on the inner part hereof are places or seats for people to sit and wash themselves in the streams thereof; the consequence of which facts, if the inhabitants may be credited, is not only very refreshing and salubrious, but, if it be dry weather, immediately showers of rain will follow.

The barton of Trevose is now, by lease, in possession of Gregory Peter, Esq. and Lawrence Growden, that well-known Quaker, the reversionary fee pertaining to Sir Nicholas Morice, Baronet, as parcel of his manor of Pawton; and is a large lofty promontory of land, shooting out far into the Irish sea, beyond all other lands there, yet notable for its production of sheep, barley, and rabbits, and not altogether unprofitable for bullocks in winter season; and as fatal and unfortunate for wrecking ships, that happen by night or stormy weather to fall on the rocks thereof, at that or any other time.

Arel-yn, alias Har-lyn, in this parish. This barton is the dwelling of my very kind friend and brother-in-law, Gregory Peter, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall part of the last year of William III. and first of Queen Anne, 1701; he married Elizabeth, daughter of Gove of Devon, the relict of William Wadland, merchant, by whom he had issue two sons, William and John; William died without issue, and John that married Anne, the daughter of Sir John Coryton, of Newton, Baronet, by whom he hath a numerous issue of children of both sexes. After the death of the said Elizabeth, he married the daughter of Anthony Carveth, of Peransand, Gent. his cousin-german removed, and hath issue by her Francis Peter.

Gregory Peter aforesaid was the son of Thomas Peter, of Treater, in Padstow, Gent. who married the daughter and heir of Mitchell, lord of Harlyn; the which Thomas Peter was the son of John Peter, of Trenaran, in Padstow, Gent. that married Toms, as John Peter was the son of John Peter of Trenaran, that married Kestell.

Whether this surname of Peter be derived from the Christian or font name of some of their ancestors, or from their being ancient inhabitants of Pedyrstowe, id est, Peter’s dwelling, now Padstow, I cannot resolve. Their arms are in a field Gules, on a bend between two escallops Argent, two Cornish dawes Proper; much resembling the arms of the Lord Petre of Exeter, now of Essex.

If this church of Merin, or Meran, were extant, it was not endowed with any revenues at the time of the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, since it is not named therein. And the five churches of Peran-sand, St. Agnes, St. Colomb Minor, St. Breock, Lanhidrock, were then under the same circumstances.

The tutelar guardian of this new church of Merin is St. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose festival is duly celebrated by the inhabitants of this parish of Meran on July the 7th, being commonly called his day, a hundred and twenty-two years after his death made a calendered Saint, who was slain at the altar in his cathedral church of Canterbury, the 30th of December 1172.

In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, this vicarage of Merin was valued for its revenues £15. 16_s._ 8_d._ The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, or the Dean and Chapter, who endowed it; the incumbent Gurney; the rectory or sheaf in possession of Francis Peter aforesaid; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £241.

One Margaret Tregoweth, of Crantock, temp. Henry VII. gave lands in Harlyn, viz. a dwelling-house and garden, with commons there, towards the repair of blessed St. Meran and St. Thomas Becket’s church, of about £12 per annum for ever. [But who this Sanctus Meranus, or St. Meran, was I know not.]

TONKIN.

Mr. Tonkin does not add any thing to the history of this parish except the following assertion.

This parish takes its name from a female patroness, Sancta Merina, so that the name should be written Merin.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Tonkin has not given any information respecting St Merina, nor is any such name to be found.

The barton of Harlyn, or Arlyn, belonged to the family of Tregewe; from that family it passed by a marriage to the family of Michell, and with the heiress of Michell to Peter. Perthcothen, which belonged to the family of Trevethen, is now the seat of another Mr. Peter.

The manor of Trevose having formed a part of the very extensive property acquired by the Roberts’s, was purchased from them by the Morices of Werington, and in the division of property between the coheiresses of that family, it fell to the share of Molesworth of Pencanow; one part of it is held on lease by Mr. Peter, of Harlyn, and another belonged to the late Mr. Rawlings, of Padstow.

There is not any thing remarkable about the church. The stone in that immediate neighbourhood, at a place called Catacluse, is very favourable for building, and for ornamental work, as may be seen in the fonts at this church and at Padstow, and also in the ruins of the old church, dedicated to Constantine.

The Editor has been favoured with the following communication respecting this ancient building, by William Peter, Esq. of Harlyn.

“Constantine church is now in ruins, and the parish (if it
ever was one) has been long merged in that of St. Merryn.
The festival of Constantine is still celebrated by an annual
hurling match, on which occasion the owner of Harlyn
supplies, and has (according to parish tradition) from time
immemorial supplied, the silver ball.

“Adjoining the church of Constantine was a cottage which a
family of the name of Edwards held for generations, under
the proprietors of Harlyn, by the annual render of a pie,
made of limpets, raisins, and various herbs, on the eve of
the festival. This pie, as I have heard from my father and
from more ancient members of the family, and from old
servants, was excellent. The Edwards’s had pursued for
centuries the occupation of shepherds on Harlyn and
Constantine commons. The last died about forty years ago,
and the wreck of their cottage is almost buried in sand.”

The font and the pillars of Constantine church are handsomely carved out of Catacluse stone, and Mr. Peter adds, that the font was transferred by his great-grandfather to St. Merryn Church, when it underwent a thorough repair.

Under Catacluse Cliffs is a small pier, constructed by the late Mr. Peter for the shelter of coasting vessels and boats.

The feast of Constantine is kept on the nearest Sunday to the 10th of March.

The feast in honour of the comparatively modern Saint to whom St. Merryn Church is dedicated, is celebrated on the nearest Sunday to July the 7th, the Translation of St. Thomas of Canterbury (Becket).

The great tithes belong to the Chapter of Exeter, and the Bishop collates to the vicarage. It has been remarked that three successive gentlemen of the name of Gurney held the living for above a century.

The diversion of hurling, mentioned by Mr. Peter as taking place on the festival in honour of Constantine, is now wholly discontinued, or kept up on this particular occasion as a mere remembrance of former times, when the manners of society were more adapted to such rude exertions of activity and strength. For an account of hurling see Carew, p. 195, Lord Dunstanville’s edition.

St. Merran measures 3,644 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4,084 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 428 18 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 425 | 458 | 537 | 576
giving an increase of 35½ per cent. in 30 years.
The Rev. John Bayley, the present Vicar of St. Merryn, was collated
in 1803 by the Bishop of Exeter.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The rocks of the southern part of this parish resemble those of St. Ervan, but near the church a lamelar blue slate prevails, like that of Endellion, and like it also abounding in veins of the sulphurets of lead and of antimony.

The western part of the parish, which extends into the sea, forming a promontory called Trevose Head, is composed of crystalline rocks, which are massive, and differ from all the rocks that are interposed between it and the granite of St. Dennis. Both the composition and the relative situation of these rocks are very interesting. They appear to be the equivalents of the masses of serpentine of Clicker Tor, and of the Lizard district; of the felspathic rocks which form the downs between Launceston and Davidstow; and of that curious mass of rock at King Arthur’s Castle, in Tintagel. Geologists have yet to learn the precise relation of these crystalline masses with the calcareous series in which they are situated.

MERTHYR.

HALS.

Merthyr, Murder, vicarage, is situated in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north and east Probus and Tresilian river, south Lamoran and St. Michael Penkivell, west an arm of Falmouth Harbour, towards Clemens. As for the name, it refers to the tutelar patron and guardian saint of the church, who it seems was murdered and slain for the Christian religion, as a martyr; viz. one St. Cohan, a Briton of this parish, whose little well, and consecrated chapel annexed thereto, was lately extant, upon the lands of Egles Merthyr barton, (that is to say upon the lands of the Martyr’s Church,) though now in a manner demolished by greedy searchers for money.

This church goes in presentation and consolidation as a daughter to St. Probus, which vicar is to present the curate, vicar, or chaplain of Merthyr to the Bishop for licence and confirmation; though the eight men of the said parish are by ancient custom to choose and name him, in consideration whereof the vicar of Probus is to receive annually from them, on the high altar, three shillings and four pence.

However, great controversies have happened in the Bishop’s Consistory between the vicar of Probus and the inhabitants of this parish, before and since Henry the Eighth’s days, upon the death, removal, or translations of the vicar of Probus, concerning the right of the jurisdiction, presentation, or patronage of this church; whether in the vicar of Probus, or the eight men of the said parish, the vicar presenting one clerk or curate to be confirmed by the Bishop, and the eight men another; but generally it hath passed as a rule in the Ecclesiastical Court, where this matter, by learned counsel or proctors, hath been debated, that the right of patronage and presentation of this church lay in the eight men of the parish, and not in the vicar of Probus, though the same hath been often controverted.

There is a Latin deed which I have seen yet extant, between Bar. Combe, vicar-general to Dr. Peter Courtenay, Lord Bishop of Exeter, 1480, under seal of the diocese, and John Fullford, perpetual vicar of Probus of the one part, and Thomas Tresithney, John Hallvose, Thomas Webber, and others of the eight men of the parish of Merthyr on the other part, wherein those premises are concerted or regulated; and moreover, therein a confirmation, covenant, or agreement, made and established between them, according to ancient custom; that in case the said eight men and their successors should annually pay to the vicar or curate of the said parish of St. Cohan Martyr, of Merthyr, for ever annually the full and just sum of twenty marks lawful moneys of England, that then the lands of the said parish, and every part and parcel thereof should be exempt and free from the payment of small tithes in kind, oblations, or obventions to the vicar thereof for ever. Which privilege hath ever since been kept and enjoyed by the inhabitants of the said parish accordingly; to the great loss of the vicar, and greater gain of the inhabitants.

Now, though when this compact was made and confirmed, the vicar had much the better bargain, not one vicarage church in Cornwall being of that value in the King’s or Pope’s Books towards Annats in the first inquisition, 1294, nor many in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1520; yet now the inhabitants have great profit thereby, since the plenty or commonness of money lessens the intrinsic value thereof, whereby much number of money will buy but little lands, goods, or chattels, whereas in those days a little quantity of money would purchase much of those things. (Witness Baker, and other our chronologers, temp. Henry VII. soon after the compact aforesaid was made, wherein we may read that a bushel of wheat, Winchester measure, was sold for 6_d._, a bushel of salt for 3½_d._, a ton of Gascoign wines 40_s._, and all other things sold after a proportionable price.)

In the Domesday Book, 1087, this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Penkivell. Afterwards, upon the setting up the vicarage of Probus, it was concerted into that parish about the beginning of King Henry the Third’s days; for in the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, its superior or mother church was rated for it, as also the five chaplains for their salaries, that officiated in Probus, Cornelly, and Merthyr. It was endowed by the treasurer of the cathedral church of Exeter, which must be after that dignitary was first set up there, by William Brewar, Bishop thereof 1224. The patronage as aforesaid; the incumbent, Monsieur Baudree, a French Protestant; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. £83.

At Tre-saws-an, alias Tre-saus-an, id est, the Saxon town, or dwelling, a place heretofore pertaining to some Saxon, is the possession by lease of James Hals, Gent., granted him by his mother in the time of her widowhood, as parcel of the manor of Fentongollan, whereon she had power of leasing during her widowhood. He was a younger son of Sir Nicholas Hals, of Fentongollan, Knight, by Grace his wife, daughter of Sir John Arundell, of Talverne, Knight; and was first bred a soldier in Pendenis Castle, whereof his father was Governor, under King James I. and Charles I. Afterwards he was made lieutenant of his brother Captain William Hals, in the expedition of the Duke of Buckingham in the French war, at the Isle of Rhé and Rochelle. And after that war was over was sent with his said brother by King Charles I. with a foot company of soldiers to supply or reinforce the garrisons of the Barbadoes, St. Christopher’s, and Mountserat Islands in America, where he remained about seven years; and after his brother’s death, who died returning into England, Captain Ayleworth was displaced, and the said James Hals made Governor of Mountserat Island, by King Charles I.

After which, the wars breaking out in England, between that King and his Parliament, he and divers other officers were commanded to return back into England for the King’s service; where soon after his arrival at Plymouth, that stood for the Parliament, then besieged by the King’s army, he was cajoled out of his allegiance to King Charles I. by his country gentlemen then in that place in garrison, and engaged against that King, to become Lieutenant-Colonel to Colonel Nicholas Boscawen’s troop of horse, then posted there. From whence he was commanded, with several other troops of horse, to go outside the lines, under conduct of the Earl of Stamford, then Governor of Plymouth for the Parliament, and to fight the King’s army that besieged it under conduct of Sir Ralph Hopton, Knight, and Sir Richard Grenvill, Knight and Baronet, the King’s Generals in the West; where, after a sharp engagement and loss of many men between both parties, the victory fell to the King’s army; and then and there the said James Hals, and many other gentlemen were taken prisoners of war, and forthwith sent prisoners to Lidford Castle in Devon, under custody of Marshall Ellery, of St. Colomb Major.

Where soon after several of his companions, or fellow officers and soldiers, viz. Mr. Leach, Mr. Morris, Mr. Brabyn, and others, were executed without trial or judgment, as guilty of high treason. But the said James Hals had his life spared or given him by the General Sir Richard Grenville, Knight, upon account of consanguinity, but not without many frowns and angry threats; (a sure token of his clemency, as his smiles and embraces were of death and destruction, suitable to those of King Richard III. and King James I. and Caius Caligula, Emperor of Rome,) to dissuade him from the Parliament service to that of the King’s, with promise of greater preferment in his army; all which proving ineffectual, he was sentenced a straight or close prisoner to that tremendous castle, in daily expectation of death; where he remained immured up for about twenty months space, in great want, durance, and misery, till General Essex came into those parts with the Parliament army, and set at liberty him and other Lidford prisoners, by Captain Braydon raised the siege of Plymouth, and sore distressed Hopton and Grenville in Cornwall.

During the time of this James Hals’ imprisonment in Lidford Castle, amongst others there came to visit him one Mr. Doctor William Brown, of Tavistock, who gave him a copy of rambling verses and observations he had made upon the borough and castle of Lidford, for his diversion; which verses, for want of the original, I find false and imperfectly set forth and printed in Mr. Prince’s Worthies of Devon, therefore I have hereunder set it down verbatim from the Doctor’s own copy, given Mr. Hals, viz.:

I oft have heard of Lidford Lawe,
How in the morn they hang and draw,
And sit in judgment after;
At first I wondered at it much,
But since I find the matter such,
As it deserves noe laughter.

They have a castle on a hill;
I took it for some old windmill,
The vanes blown off by weather;
To lie therein, one night ’tis gast,
’Twere better to be stoned or pressed,
Or hanged when you come thither.

Ten men less room within this cave
Than five mice in a lanthorn have;
The Keepers they are sly ones;
If any could devise by art
To get it up into a cart,
’Twere fit to carry lions.

When I beheld it! Lord thought I,
What justice, truth, or equity,
Hath Lidford Castle hall;
Where every one that there doth stay,
Must first be hanged out of the way,
’Fore he can have his trial.

Prince Charles a hundred pounds hath sent,
To mend the leads and planchins wrent,
Within this living tomb,
Some forty-five pounds more had paid
The debts of all that shall be laid
There till the day of doom.

One lies there for a seam of malt,
Another for two pecks of salt,
Two sureties for a noble;
If this be true or else false news,
You may go ask of Master Crew’s,
John Vaughan, or John Doble.

Near to those men that lie in lurch,
There’s a direful bridge and little church,
Seven ashes and one oak;
Two houses standing and ten down,
They say the Rector hath a gown,
But I saw ne’er a cloak.

Whereby you may consider well,
What plain simplicity doth dwell
At Lidford without bravery;
Since in that town both young and grave
Do love the naked truth to have,
No cloak to hide their knavery.

This town’s inclosed with desert moors,
Where tiger, wolf, and lion roars,
And nought can live but hogs;
All overturn’d with Noah’s flood;
Of fourscore miles scarce one foot good;
Where hills are wholly bogs.

And near unto the Gubbins Cave,
A people that no knowledge have
Of laws of God or men,
Where Cæsar never yet subdued,
Have lawless lived, of manners rude,
All naked in their den.

By whom, if any pass that way,
He dares not any time to stay,
For presently the howl,
Upon which signal they do muster
Their naked forces in a cluster,
Led forth by Roger Rowle.

The people all within this clime,
Are frozen in the Winter time,
Deprest with cold and pain;
But when the Summer is begun,
They lie like silkworms in the sun,
And gather strength again.

’Twas told me, in King Cæsar’s time
The town was built with stone and lime,
But sure the walls are clay,
For they are all fallen for ought I see:
And since the houses are got free
The town is run away.

O Cæsar, if thou there didst reign,
Whilst one house stands come there again;
(Come quickly whilst there is one)
For if thou stay, but little fit,
But five years more, they will commit
The whole town to a prison.

To see it thus much grieved was I,
The proverb saith ’sorrows be dry,’
So was I at this matter;
When by good luck, I know not how,
There thither came a straying cow,
And we had milk and water.

To nine good stomachs, with a wig,
At last we got a tithen pig;
This diet was our bounds;
And this was, just as if ’twere known,
A pound of butter had been thrown
Among a pack of hounds.

One glass of drink I got by chance,
’Twas Claret when it was in France,
But then from it much wider;
I think a man might make as good
With green crabs boiled in Brazil wood,
And half a pint of cider.

I kissed the Mayor’s hand of the town,
Who though he wears no scarlet gown,
Honours the Rose and Thistle;
A piece of coral to the mace,
Which there I saw to serve in place,
Would make a good child’s whistle.

At six o’clock I came away,
And prayed for those that were to stay
Within that place so arrant;
For my part I’ll come there no more,
Unless it be on better score,
Or forced by Tin Warrant.

This custom of executing malefactors before trial on common fame, was also an old law amongst the Germans and Swiss Cantons; and if upon trial, after execution done on the criminal, he or she appeared to be innocent, a priest was appointed to pray for his soul. (See Glover’s Somerset, and Duverdier’s History of the Swiss Cantons.)

The same law was in force amongst the people of Carinthia, a country adjoining to the Alps and Italy on the south, and Styria on the north; moreover, if upon the trial three days after the offender’s execution, he appeared to be guilty, his body should be left so long to hang upon the gibbet, till his members rotted piecemeal from his body. But if innocent they took it thence and gave it venerable obsequies, with prayers, oblations, and alms deed for the salvation of his soul.

This James Hals married Anne, one of the coheirs of John Martin, of Hurston, Gent. attorney-at-law, (lineally descended from the Martins of Pittle Town, in Dorset,) by Anne his wife, daughter of John Mundy, of Rialton, Esq. by Jane his wife, daughter of Walter Kendall, of Pellyn, Esq.; by whom he had issue James Hals, his eldest son and heir, that married Martha, daughter and heir of Thomas Penrose, of Lefeock, Gent. commander of the Bristol, Maidstone, and Monck frigates, during the several Dutch wars of Oliver Cromwell and King Charles II. with the States of Holland; by whom he hath issue James Hals, his eldest son, of Hungerford Park in Berkshire, and Thomas Hals, bred a gentleman volunteer, upon King William the Third’s ship the Sunderland, Captain Tudor Trevor, Commander; but being from thence transferred to the Kingfisher, Captain Tallat, Commander, in order to go to St. Helena, with other men of war, to convoy home the East India fleet, the air on the south part of Africa, near the Cape of Good Hope, not agreeing with his constitution of body, he sickened there of a consumption and died 1702.

James Hals aforesaid, father of those young men, proved a man of ill conduct, and wasted all his lands and leases, of a very considerable value.

James Hals first above-mentioned had also issue William Hals, the author of these lines, who married three wives, Evans of Landrini family in Wales, Carveth of Peransand, and Courtney of Tremeer, but had issue by none of them.

He had also issue Thomas Hals, of the City of London, first bred a merchant, who married Jane, daughter of Captain Richard Bourchier, of that city, and hath been a merchant, factor, and traveller in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Venice, Greece, Smyrna, Egypt, Constantinople, and Alexandria, in which last places he was a factor for several years; afterwards as merchant he went in an East India ship into Africa, Persia, Arabia, India, and China, where he died about the year 1710, without issue.

As also Nicholas Hals, bred a scholar, who died at Leskeard, and lies buried in the minister’s chancel of that church, 1682.

As also Grenvill Hals, that married Martha, daughter of Reginald Hawkey, Gent. attorney-at-law, of Trevego, but died also without issue, 1718, and lies buried in Fentongollan Isle, in St. Michael Penkivell church, near his father and mother’s graves.

As also Henry Hals, bred a merchant, who for several years was a factor at Constantinople and Alexandria. But coming back into England to marry the only daughter and heir of one Doctor Cooke, at London, to whom long before he had been contracted, he sickened of the small-pox, died there, and lies buried at Stepney or Whitechapel, 1689.

Anne, married first to William Roscorla, of Roscorla in St. Austell; and after his death to Thomas Penrose, of Nance, in St. Martin’s in Kerryer, but hath issue by neither. She died in the year ――――, and lies buried in the north isle or chapel of St. Wenn church, in Cornwall.

At Trewortha Vean, in this parish, that is the little higher town, by lease, is the dwelling of Joseph Halsey, clerk, Master of Arts, and some time Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, and rector of St. Michael Penkivell church, in this county; lineally descended from the Halseys of Huntingdonshire, whose arms are Argent, a pile between three griffons’ heads erased Sable, out of a supposed allusion to their name, derived from Alce and Sey. He married Mary, daughter of Henry Vincent, of Tresimple, Gent. attorney-at-law, by whom he had issue Joseph Halsey, practitioner in physic, who took the degree of Doctor beyond the seas, at Leyden in Holland I take it. He now resideth at London, where he married ――――, and hath got himself considerable wealth and reputation in his profession. He had also issue Nathaniel Halsey, bred a merchant, and is now a factor for the East India Company, at Bombay or Bengal in India; also Edward Halsey, of the same occupation, now a factor for the said Company at Surat, or some other part of India; also a daughter, married to Bromley, of Lefeock, a Presbyterian priest.

This Mr. Joseph Halsey being ordained priest, was made rector of the parish aforesaid, in the interregnum of Oliver and Richard Cromwell, after the discipline of Calvin, or Geneva.

TONKIN.

This is a daughter church to St. Probus, with which and Cornelly it is valued in the King’s Book.

The vicar of Probus names the curate, but cannot remove him afterwards. The present curate, who holds both this and Cornelly, is Mr. Jonathan Daddoe.

The manor of Fentongollan comprehends a great part of this parish, but the mansion house is in St. Michael Penkivell.

THE EDITOR.

Trevilian bridge is the most remarkable spot in this parish. It is situated in a beautiful valley, with a fine stream navigable for barges from Falmouth, which conveys large quantities of limestone from Plymouth, and of coast sand dredged in Falmouth harbour.

In consequence also of the new line of road, completed about four years ago from Bodmin, and therefore from London to Truro, through Ladock valley, the Earl of Falmouth has made a private road to his own house, from the eastern end of this bridge, equal perhaps in beauty to any drive of an equal extent in the whole county. Some fairs are annually holden at this place, and it is recorded in history as the place where the treaty was agreed on for the surrender of the army of about five thousand men, commanded by Lord Hopton, then lying in Truro, to the troops of General Fairfax, on the 14th of March 1646.

The church is very small, and, what is quite unusual in Cornwall, has a wooden edifice, it cannot be called a tower, to contain its single bell.

Merthyr measures 1,492 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2103 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 230 8 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 305 | 350 | 370 | 411
giving an increase of 35 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish is composed of the same rocks as St. Clement’s, from which it is divided by one of the streams communicating with Falmouth harbour.

MEVAGISSEY, OR MENA-GUISE-Y.

HALS.

Mena-guise-y vicarage is situated in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north St. Mewan, east St. Austell, south the British Channel, west Gurran. For the modern name it may be interpreted either the hill custom; otherwise, Mena-gusseg, after the Welsh, is the hill and waves or surges of the sea.

I know Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, (contrary to this etymology) tells us that this church is called Menaguisey from its two tutelar guardian Saints, Meny and Isey; query who they are or were, for in the Agonal, or Legend, I can find no such Saints; besides, in the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of benefices in Cornwall, 1294, Ecclesia de la Mor-ike, in decanatu de Powdre, (which must be this church) that is to say the church of the sea cove, lake, or creek place, is valued at 40_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it is called Menage-zey church, with the appellation of Saint, and rated £6. The patronage formerly in Bodrigan, now Edgecumb; the incumbent Mitchell; the rectory I take it in Edgecumb; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, £151. 13_s._

In the Domesday Book, 1087, this district or parish was taxed either under the jurisdiction of Pentewan, or Goran, now on the east and west side thereof.

Penwarne in this parish heretofore, if not now, the voke lands of some manor, (as I take it still it is,) gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, surnamed de Penwarne; whose daughter and heir, together with herself, carried those lands to Cosowarth, by whose heiress it passed to Otwell Hill, Esq. that married Denham, descended from the Hills of Lancashire; who gave for his arms, Gules, a chevron between three garbs Ermine; from whose heir it passed, by sale or descent, to John Carew, merchant, that married Hellman, who by her had issue only five daughters: 1. married to Lewis Tremayne, of Halligan, Esq.; 2. Candia, to Hugh Trevanion, of Treligan, Esq.; 3. Grace, the youngest daughter, was married to Robert Hoblyn, of Nanswiddon, Esq.; 4. to his second brother Richard Hoblyn, of Antron, Esq. barrister-at-law; 5. to Edward Hoblyn, of Bodmin, attorney-at-law.

The which gentlemen, in order to raise their marriage fortunes, sold those lands to Arthur Fortescue, of Filleigh, in Devon, Esq. lineally descended from Sir John Fortescue, Knight, Lord Chief Justice and Lord High Chancellor of England, temp. Henry VI. 1442.

Tre-levan, or Tre-lauan, was formerly the lands of Trewoolla, of Trewoolla, in Gorran; it is now the dwelling of Henry Vincent, Esq. barrister-at-law, and member of parliament for the borough of Truro.

TONKIN.

The church, which is a very indifferent low building, consists of a nave only, with one north aisle and a cross aisle to the south. There was formerly a square tower at the western end with three bells, which being something out of repair, they pulled it down in the rebellious times, and sold the bells, which turned (as all such sacrilegious actions ought to do) to the utter undoing of all those concerned in it; there remaineth however one bell in that part of the tower which is standing, even in height with the roof of the church.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Tonkin has written much more on this parish than on most others, but the details relative to families, and to individuals long since forgotten, and never of any distinction, are quite uninteresting.

Mr. Lysons has abridged it to the following effect, intermixed with additions of his own.

Tonkin says that Mevagissey, lately a poor fishing village, contained in his time two hundred houses; that a pier had been constructed at the expense of the Trewolla family; that it was the most convenient place on the coast for the pilchard fishery; that on an average twelve thousand hogsheads were cured annually. The present number of houses is about 370. The eastern part of the town, which in old deeds is called Porthilly, belongs to the Hoblyns; the middle part to the Grenvilles, of Stowe in Buckinghamshire, as parcel of the manor of Trelevan; the western part is included in Mr. Tremayne’s manor of Penwarne.

Ships of 100 tons burden may ride securely in the pool. The fishing cove of Porthmellin is partly in this parish.

The manor of Trelevan belonged for several generations to the family of Trewolla, of Trewolla in St. Goran. It was by them sold, about the year 1667, to Walter Vincent, Esq. of Truro, who in 1680 was appointed one of the Barons of the Exchequer, but died on his way to London before he had been sworn into that high office. His grandson Nicholas Vincent, who died in 1726, mortgaged this estate, the manor of Tregavethan in Kenwyn, and the greater part of his property, to John Knight, Esq. of Gosfield Hall in Essex. This gentleman’s widow married Lord Nugent, whose only daughter and heiress carried the whole to the Grenvilles, now Dukes of Buckingham.

The barton of Trelevan was successively the seat of the families of Croome and Stevens, as lessees under the Trewollas. The Vincents, having bought in the lease, made it their residence; and, after the decease of the last of the Vincent’s, Mr. Tonkin resided there for some time, being the heir-at-law, but the property was too much incumbered for him to retain the freehold.

The manor of Pentuan was the property and its barton the chief seat of the Pentires, after they removed from Pentire in Endellion. The heiress of Pentire married Roscarrock, from whom this estate passed by a marriage to the Darts, of Dart Ralph in Devonshire, who sold it to Robarts, of Lanhidrock; and the last Earl of Radnor bequeathed it to Mr. James Laroche, a merchant of Bristol, afterwards created a Baronet. This gentleman becoming insolvent, sold the manor, together with a large property scattered over Cornwall, to a friend, who soon afterwards dying restored the whole by his will; but in a little while, and as it would seem with the intention of guarding against the possibility of a similar occurrence, the estate was sold a second time in parcels; when this manor of Pentire was purchased by the late Mr. Tremayne, of Heligon, and the barton, which was reserved by Mr. Dart when he sold the manor, has descended to Mr. Tremayne from that family.

The manor of Penwarne belonged to an ancient family of that name. Vivian Penwarne, who died in the reign of Henry the Seventh, left three daughters, coheiresses, married to Cosworth, Penhallow, and Penwarne, of Penwarne in Mawnan. The elder daughter inherited this manor, which passed in marriage with the heiress of Coswarth to Alan Hill, Esq. There is a monument in the church to his son Otwell Hill, of Penwarne; after his death the estate passed to a nephew, Mr. John Carew, second son of Richard Carew, of Anthony, the Historian of Cornwall.

Mr. John Carew distinguished himself at the siege of Ostend, in 1601, where he lost his right hand by a cannon ball. His only son John died in 1640, leaving five sisters, one of whom married Fortescue, in whom this property continued till within recent times: it is now, however, sold in lots.

The barton of Trewincy, sometime a leasehold seat of the Sprys, is now a farmhouse, the property of Mr. Tremayne.

The vicarage is endowed with the great tithes of about one third part of the parish. The remainder of the great tithes has gone with the manor of Treleven to the Grenvelles. The patronage of the vicarage belongs to the Edgcumbe family, of Mount Edgcumbe; the whole were formerly appropriated to the college of Glaseney at Penryn.

Mevagissey is one of the principal stations for taking of pilchards by seine nets, if it is not the very first. The bay is sheltered, free from rocks, and of a depth which allows the leads on one edge of the net to rest on the smooth sand at the bottom, while the other edge is raised to the surface by corks.

All fish are by custom in this parish liable to tithes, which are payable to the vicar, and amount in some years to much more than the ordinary income of the living.

The vicarage house is very pleasantly situated in a valley rising from the town, and the whole glebe received great improvements from the late vicar, Doctor Lyne, a gentleman of much respectability, but most distinguished by his singularities; among other fancies, he entertained such strong apprehensions and fear of contagion, as not to touch even gold coin till it had been flung into water; but this caution seems to have been compensated by a subsequent attachment to the precious metal, as several thousand pounds in specie were found in his house.

A market is held in Mevagissey on Saturdays.

This parish measures 1222 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4,589 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 1,383 6 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 2052 | 2225 | 2450 | 2169
giving an increase of not quite 6 per cent. in 30 years.
But there appears an extraordinary decrease of population in the
last ten years. In twenty years the increase was 19½ per cent.
very nearly, which, continued for thirty years, would have given
30½ per cent.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Arscott, presented in 1824 by the Earl
of Mount Edgcumbe.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The geological structure of this parish is the same as those of the adjacent parishes St. Eve and Gorran.

ST. MEWAN.

HALS.

St. Mewan rectory is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north St. Stephen’s and Roach, east St. Austell, south Mevagissey, and south-west Creed.

In the Domesday Book this district was taxed either under the jurisdiction of Branell, Tybesta, Towington, or Refishoe, perhaps now Lefisick. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, Ecclesia de St. Mewany in decanatu de Powdre, was rated 40_s._; in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, £10. The patronage in Hamley, formerly in the prior of Tywardreth, who endowed it; the incumbent Mitchell; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. £91. 6_s._ 4_d._

Pol-godh, Pol-goth, is in this parish. Out of which mine hath been taken up, in less than forty years’ space, about five hundred thousand pounds weight of tin; to the great enriching the labourers, adventurers, bond-owners, and lords of the fee or soil; the same lying for the most part in coarse wastrell ground, therefore boundable, in a valley between two lofty hills. Sir John Arundell, of Lanherne, knight, one of the lords of the soil, did for about twenty years space receive alone one thousand pounds per annum free to his part, as the fifth dish of black tin there made, and other lords proportionable quantities of tin or money, as interested in the lands thereof.

Lefisick in this parish, which I take to be that Refishoc taxed in the Domesday Book, is the dwelling of ―――― Edwards, Gent. that married Bedford.

TONKIN.

The patronage of this parish is in John Hawkins, D.D. for two turns in four; in Lewes Tremayne, of Heligan, Esq. for one turn; and in Robert Hoblyn, of Nanswiddan, Esq. for the other. The incumbent Mr. William Hambly; since Mr. May; who dying in this present year, 1732, has been succeeded by Mr. Paget, at the presentation of Mr. Hoblyn, whose turn it happened to be.

The manor of Trewoone. This signifies the dwelling in the downs, or croft, a name suitable to the situation of the place, and of the pretty large village which has grown up in this manor.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Hals has given several etymologies of the word Mewan, but so little probable as not to merit attention. It may be the name of a missionary, as is the case in so many other parishes.

The church does not present any thing remarkable, except a pleasing appearance among trees at a short distance north of the turnpike road leading from Truro to St. Austell, just where a hill has been lowered, and a valley raised within these few years, to the very great improvement of the line of communication westward from Plymouth. A son of our eminently distinguished countryman Doctor William Borlase, was presented to this living by Mr. Christopher Hawkins, of Trewinnard. His grandson is now at the head of that ancient family.

The object of most curiosity in this parish is Polgeoth mine, one of those wrought through the greatest length of time, and with the greatest produce of tin, in the whole county.

Pol-gooth is in Cornish the old pit or mine. Mr. Hals mentions, as a matter of astonishment, its having produced above five hundred thousand pounds weight of tin in less than forty years, and that it paid a fifth dish or share to the proprietor of the soil. Nothing can more clearly evince the enlarged scale of working in modern times; 500,000 pounds weight of tin in forty years would give an average of 12,500 pounds weight for each year, and at the recent price of four pounds sterling for a hundred weight of tin, about £2,200 a year. In some of the later workings perhaps thirty or forty thousand pounds have been expended in an outfit, or what is called bringing the mine into a course of working, in the purchase of steam engines, and of various other elaborate machines; and instead of paying a fifth part of whatever minerals are raised, free of expense to the proprietors of the soil, an eighteenth or perhaps a twenty-fourth share is all that can reasonably be demanded or afforded after such an outlay of capital, which small share, however, usually amounts to a greater value than did the fifth or sixth part received in former times.

The manor and village of Burngullo belonged to the Robarts’s, of Lanhidrock, and have descended to Mrs. Agar.

The manor of Trewoon belongs partly to the family of Hawkins, and partly to Tremayne and Hoblyn.

St. Mewan measures 2,240 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1633 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 322 18 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 780 | 626 | 1174 | 1306
giving an increase of 67 per cent. in 30 years.
The fluctuations in amount of population in this parish are owing to
the occasional working or discontinuance of Polgooth mine.
Present Rector, the Rev. William Hocker, jun. instituted in 1801.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The northern part of this parish extends over the central mass of granite, in the form of a long narrow stripe, the base of which is about one mile north of the church. All the remainder of the parish consists of compact and schistose felspar rocks, traversed by beds of porphyry, and intersected by numerous veins of tin and copper, more particularly of tin. On the whole, this parish bears a very close geological resemblance to St. Austell.

See p. 401 of this Volume.

ST. MICHAEL CARHAYES.

HALS.

St. Michael Cary-hayes rectory, is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Creed and St. Ewe, south the British Ocean, east Goran, west Verian.

In the Domesday Tax, 1087, this parish was taxed under the names of Cari-crougi. At the time of the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, this church was not endowed, if extant; afterwards it was, by the Cornwalls, Hendowers, or Tregarthins, of Court in Branell, and dedicated to God in the name and honour of St. Michael the Archangel; which gentlemen afterwards wholly impropriated or appropriated their churches of St. Stephen’s in Branell, and St. Denis, to the rector of this St. Michael Carhayes; the patronage now in Tanner; the incumbent Tanner. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, the rectory of those three churches was valued at £27. 10_s._ 6½.; the vicarages £14. This parish was rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, temp. William III. 1696, by the name of St. Michael Cary-hayes, £64. 8_s._