Chapter VIII: Part 8

Tre-vanion, alias Tre-vanyon, in this parish, which place gave name and original to an old British and knightly family of gentlemen, surnamed de Trevanyon, now in possession thereof, and also of Cary-hayes aforesaid; which latter came to those gentlemen’s ancestors by marriage with the daughter and heir of Arundell, lord thereof, temp. Edward III.; since which time they have flourished, at Cary-hayes and Trevanion in great fame, wealth, and reputation in their country. Who have also had bestowed upon them, as tradition saith, by their princes, for their good services, the lands of several rebels and traitors, forfeited by attainder of treason, in those parts; in the York and Lancaster wars, and Flamock’s, Arundell’s, and other Cornish rebellions.

Of this family was Witte, or William, Trevanion, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 17 Henry VII. 1503; Witte, or Sir William, Trevanion, knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall the 8th of Henry VIII. 1517; Hugh Trevanion, esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall 19 Henry VIII.; Sir William Trevanion, knight, that married Edgcumbe, was Sheriff of Cornwall 23d of Henry VIII. He had issue Hugh Trevanion, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 34th of Henry VIII. 1543; he had issue Hugh Trevanion, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 6th of Elizabeth, 1564; who had issue Charles Trevanion, esq. that married the daughter and heir of Witchalse, descended from Benet Witchalse, Steward of Exeter 1440, Sheriff of Cornwall 37th of Elizabeth, 1595; he had issue by her Charles Trevanion, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 9 Charles I. and by him knighted; who had issue John Trevanion, esq. that married Anne, daughter of John Arundell, of Trerice, esq. slain on the part of King Charles I. at Lansdown; by whom he had issue Amey, married to Joseph Sawle, esq. and Charles Trevanion, esq. Member of Parliament for Tregony, that married one of the coheirs of Sir William Drummond, knight, by the daughter and heir of Sir Nicholas Lower, of St. Wenow, knight; by whom he had issue John Trevanion, esq. twice chosen one of the Shire Knights for this county in Parliament, now living, that married Anne, daughter of Sir Francis Blake, knight. Charles Trevanion, esq. had also issue a son, educated beyond the seas, who entered into Holy Orders after the doctrine and discipline of Rome, as I am informed.

The arms of these gentlemen are, in a field Argent, a fess Azure, charged with three escallops Or, between two chevronels Gules; which arms I suppose heretofore were the arms of two distinct families, and for some peculiar reason united.

TONKIN.

This parish has its name from the Archangel, conjoined to that of the principal place in it.

THE MANOR OF CARHAYES.

The name of this place is derived from caer, a castle, a house, or dwelling, and hay a hazel hedge, as the situation does plainly make out; and did much more so before the great alterations which Mr. Trevanion hath lately made here.

I have reason to believe that this place was part of Carminow’s lands, and that it came into the Arundell family on the match with Jane, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Carminow, in the reign of Edward the Third. Of this family, in recent times, Col. John Trevanion was killed in his father’s lifetime, at the head of his regiment before Bristol, whose character may be seen in Clarendon. His father, Sir Charles Trevanion, was a very worthy honest gentleman, and suffered much for the king’s cause, to the great detriment of his estate, and dying before the Restoration, lived not long enough to have those amends made to his family, which his own merits and their losses deserved. Col. John Trevanion married Anne, daughter of John Arundell, of Trerice, esq. by whom he had a numerous issue, and among the rest Richard Trevanion, a famous sea commander, under King Charles the Second, and King James the Second, with which last he went to France, and died there in exile. The said Anne, his mother, was afterwards remarried to Sir John Arundell, of Lanherne, by whom she had not any issue.

Sir Charles Trevanion was succeeded by his grandson, of the same name, who first married the daughter and coheir of Sir Adam Drummond, by the heiress of the Lowers of St. Winnow, and had two sons. He died on the night of the great storm, Nov. 26, 1703; being succeeded by his eldest son, John Trevanion, who first married Anne, one of the daughters and coheirs of Sir Francis Blake, of Ford Castle in Northumberland, by whom he had no issue; and secondly Barbara, the daughter of William Lord Berkeley of Stratton, by whom he has one son William, and two daughters, all very young. Mr. John Trevanion has been three times elected knight of the shire for this county, in the 9th and 12th of Queen Ann, and in the 1st of King George the First.

He has bestowed a great deal of money in buildings, gardens, &c. on this place; but as there is nothing of regularity observed, it may more properly be called a pleasant romantic seat than a complete habitation; and although it faces the south, yet it lies too much under an hill, and is therefore cold and damp in winter. The house anciently stood to the north of the present, towards the brow of the hill, according to my opinion in a far better situation. The place where it was built is still called the haller, that is the hall; but the odd desire of our ancestors to settle in our vallies, and to get, as they called it, in _the luthe_, inclined one of the Arundells to remove the house to where it now stands, and that was done so long since that nothing remains but the name to point out this ancient dwelling.

Trevanion, formerly written Trevagnion, that is, the town or dwelling in an hollow, gave name and was the ancient inheritance of this very eminent family, which they left on their marriage with Arundell’s heiress, for Carhayes. The house at Trevanion is now so wholly destroyed, that it would be hard to guess where it stood, had not the footsteps of two or three ways leading towards it pointed out the former situation. The park is at this place, and not at Carhayes, being well wooded, and having a fine river flowing through it. A portion of the park is in the parish of Gorran, called by the name of Porown Berry, and paying a quit-rent to the duchy manor of Trevennen, out of which it plainly appears to have been taken.

Hurris, or Herys, was formerly the seat of a knightly family, of which family I believe was Henricus de Herys, mentioned by Carew to have held a knight’s fee in the reign of Richard the First.

Near to this place is Treberrick, the fruitful or fertile town. Treberrick in this parish (for there is another place of the same name in St. Ewe) carries with it not only the advowson of St. Michael Carhayes, but also of St. Stephen’s, and St. Dennis in Branwell. It was sold by John Tanner, esq. to Charles Trevanion, of Carhayes. This place is now the seat, under lease, of Simon Slade, gent. a younger brother of the late Mr. William Slade, of Trevennen. Mr. Simon Slade was twice married, first to one of the daughters of Mr. Thomas Hancock, of Pengelly in Creed, and not having any surviving children, he married secondly the daughter of Stephen Thomas, of Tregamena in Verian, gent. by whom he has two sons and two daughters.

The church is but small: being seated however on a hill, it is a good sea mark. This church consists of a nave, a south aisle extending about half its length, a north cross aisle, and a small confessionary to the north of the chancel. The tower is low and without pinnacles, provided with three bells.

A broken flat stone in the chancel has this inscription round its margin:

Here lyeth the bodie of Mr. Zacharie Hooker, of this parish rector, who was buried yᵉ XXV day of Nov. 1643.

On the middle of the stone,

Si genus aut nomen quæras, insignia monstrant:
Si vitam, aut mortem, sat pia facta docent.
Non opus est tumulo, cujus tot viva sepulchra
Commemorant meritum, terra quot ora tenet.

At the end of the verses is an achievement, containing the arms of Hooker, with several quarterings.

THE EDITOR.

The ancient and respectable family of Trevanion, like all others able to trace themselves back, in influential situations, to remote periods, has experienced the vicissitudes arising from civil dissensions. In those times it is quite clear, that love of plunder, and eagerness after confiscations, must have been the sole motives of action on either side; since, trifling as have been the causes of domestic as well as of foreign wars, no one can believe that, in the absence of all contested political principles, men could be found who would deluge their country with blood for the sake of seating on the throne an individual whose name was Edward instead of another designated as Henry, on the frivolous pretence, that, had England been a farm, and its inhabitants farm stock, one of the parties possessed a claim through females superior to the other, if it were not defeated by legal fiction, or by the lapse of time.

In such a conflict three families at the least from Cornwall were engaged, Bodrigan, Trevanion, and Edgecumbe; and when Richard the Third obtained sovereign power, on the division which then look place in the York faction, Bodrigan endeavoured to seize the property of Edgcumbe, with little respect, as it would seem, for the life of the possessor; but in the final struggle at Bosworth Field, where Henry Tudor put an entire end to this contest for power under the guise of property, by seizing the whole to himself, Trevanion and Edgcumbe had the good fortune to appear on the winning side, and subsequently availed themselves to the utmost of belligerent rights against Bodrigan, as he had attempted to do before against them. The last of that family was driven from his home, and seems to have perished in exile. His property was divided between the two families opposed to him, and after the lapse of three hundred and fifty years continues to form a large portion of their respective possessions.

At a subsequent period, when wars were levied in support of principles, and when men of honour and of virtue engaged on either side, as their early prejudices, investigations, or accidental experience induced them to believe that one or the other would prove most conducive to the public good――the Trevanions were less successful. They asserted their conviction in arms, that the country would be best governed by concentrating hereditary power in a single man; and Mr. John Trevanion, bearing a Colonel’s commission, shared in the military glories of the western army, and fell under the walls of Bristol. His father experienced the mitigated fate of those who were vanquished in this contest, by compounding for his estate; and when, after a long interval, his friends came again into power, and succeeded in placing at the head of affairs the son of their former chief, those immediately surrounding the seat of government possessed but slender means, and still less inclination, to risk their own safety by indemnifying those at a distance, who had suffered in the Good Old Cause.

The grandson obtained however the popular reward of representing Cornwall in parliament; and the Editor has in his possesssion a letter addressed by Mr. John Trevanion to his great uncle Mr. Henry Davies, a hundred and twenty-five years ago, declaring his readiness to spend his fortune and to shed his blood, as his ancestors had done, in support of the same cause. This gentleman died in 1740, leaving William Trevanion his son and heir, and two daughters, the eldest of whom married John Bettesworth, LL.D. Dean of the Arches, and the younger married Admiral John Byron, well known in his younger days by a narrative of the disastrous expedition of the Wager Store ship, commanded by Captain Cheep, as a part of the fleet conducted by Commodore Anson round the promontory of South America, in the year 1740, and of his own adventures after the ship was wrecked on the coast of Patagonia, the dead reckoning giving them an erroneous longitude of fifteen degrees to the west, till his return in 1746. Admiral Byron is now better known as grandfather to the most popular of recent poets.

William Trevanion served in parliament for the borough of Tregoney, and died in 1767 without children, when the male line of this family became extinct. He was succeeded by Mr. John Bettesworth, his sister’s son, and his son John Trevanion Purnel Bettesworth Trevanion, esq. is now the possessor of Carhayes, where he has substituted a magnificent gothic castle, after a plan of Nash, the architect of Buckingham Palace and of Regent Street, for the house described by Mr. Tonkin.

Mr. Trevanion married early in life, and was left a widower with several children. He has for his second wife Miss Burdett, daughter of the individual to whom the country mainly owes the great alteration in the constitution of its government, on the ultimate effects of which no one is yet qualified to form even a conjecture, still less an opinion.

The family of Bettesworth have been settled on the manor of Fyning, a part of Rogate parish in Sussex, since about the year 1570; and a pedigree of nine descents is given in Dallaway’s History of the Rape of Chichester, ending with Thomas Bettesworth, who assumed the name of Bilson in 1740, and died in 1754, aged 58. This gentleman bequeathed a life interest in his property to Thomas Bettesworth, of Chithurst, and after his decease gave it to Henry Legge, fourth son of William Legge, first Earl of Dartmouth, on condition of taking the name of Bilson.

Mr. Henry Bilson Legge married Mary Stawel, daughter and heir of Edward Stawel, Lord Stawel, and was in consequence himself created Lord Stawel in 1760. They were succeeded by their son Henry Stawel Bilson Legge, who died in 1820.

The parish of Rogate is situated between Petersfield and Midhurst, on the bank of a small river, which (after watering Selborne, a name made familiar to every one by the admirable work of its vicar, Mr. White,) flows into the county of Sussex, and joining the Arun, finally reaches the sea through Arundale, a name mistaken by the Normans for that of a swallow.

The manor of Fyning belonged to a monastery of Premonstratensian Canons, founded at Dureford, an adjacent parish, about the year 1160, by Henry Hosatus, or Husey, and augmented three hundred years afterwards by Henry Guldeford. It was surrendered to King Henry the Eighth, by John Simpson, the last superior. Temporary grants were made of the lands, till they were finally bestowed in fee on Sir Edmund Merwyn, a gentleman of Sussex, from whose descendants they passed to the Bettesworths.

In the church of St. Michael Carhayes are several monuments to the Trevanions, and pieces of armour, the trophies of former days; also a sword, believed to have been the very one used by Sir Hugh Trevanion at Bosworth Field.

Etymologies, deceptive at all times, become so in a tenfold degree when they are sought in the varying pronunciations of an unwritten language. But car, caer, &c. are known (like Rocca in the Italian) to mean a fortress, a castellated house, a dwelling; and hay, running colloquially into hayes, is an enclosed fence or yard. Carhayes may therefore signify the castle surrounded by a basse court or enclosure.

Although Carhayes is several miles detached from the two adjoining parishes of St. Stephen and St. Dennis, yet it forms with them one united benefice, purchased by Mr. Pitt, with the other Mahon property. This more than usually improper association cannot by possibility escape the attention of those, who are engaged in reforming such abuses as may have crept into our Church Establishment.

This parish measures 815 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815, 1,114 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 188 9 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 86 | 104 | 174 | 197
giving an increase of 129 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. Charles Trevanion Kempe, presented in 1806
by Arthur Kempe, esq.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish is composed of the series of rocks extending over the adjoining parishes of St. Ewe and Gorran.

ST. MICHAEL PENKEVIL.

HALS.

St. Michael Penkevil rectory is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north and east Merther and Lammoran, and is otherwise wholly encompassed with the sea arm of Falmouth harbour, that extends towards Tregony, Truro, and Tresilian bridges. At the time of the Norman Conquest there was an endowed church extant in this place, for then this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Penkevil, of which more under. Neither had it any other appellation at the time of the Inquisition into the value of Cornish Benefices, so often mentioned, 1294, than Ecclesia de Penkevill, in decanatu de Powdre; and was valued at 40_s._ Which probably was extant, as aforesaid, before the Norman Conquest, and held its name to that time; but afterwards, when the present church was rebuilt or augmented in the place thereof in the form of a cross, and was one of the quarter cathedrals of the Cornish diocese, it was then dedicated to God in the name of St. Michael the Archangel, and is commonly called St. Michael Penkivell church, as under. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it was valued for its first fruits £9. 14_s._ 0½. The patronage formerly in Tregago, Trenowth, Carmenow, Hals, now Boscawen; the incumbent Hillman; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1596, temp. William III. £83. 8_s._ by the name of St. Michael Penkivell. This church of St. Michael was endowed by the Fentongollans, or de Tregagos, lords of the manor of Fentongollan, upon whose lands it was built (out of which is since taken the manor of Tregothnan), who also at their own proper cost and charges, built the south chapel or aisle thereof, as a peculiar to them and their families, and obliged those lands for ever to repair the same, (both over and under) as they still do. Besides this they founded in this church a chantry, together with a convent house in the churchyard still extant, for the chanter’s residence; and endowed the same with competent lands for their subsistence, to pray for the souls of them and their ancestors, that after death they might be delivered from the flames of purgatory, and transported into heaven; now these funeral songs or offices for the dead are commonly called obits.

By the statute 27 Henry VIII. also 1 Edward VI. all chantrys, colleges, free chapels and hospitals, were given to the king; at which time John Carmenow, esq. obtained by gift or purchase the grant of this chantry from the crown, and annexed it, together with its lands and revenues, to the manor of Fentongollan, out of which at first it was taken; all of which at length John Hals, esq. lord of the manor, together with the patronage of this church, sold to Hugh Boscawen, esq. temp. Charles II.

Fenton-gollan, Venton gollan, was and is the voke lands of a considerable manor, which heretofore comprehended the whole parishes of St. Michael Penkevil and Merther; except the tenements of Penkevill, Tregothnan, (Treganyan, Penhell, Eglesmerther, and some others,) now as above subdivided into the manors of Tregothnan and Fentongollan; which latter had heretofore upon its lands many large and commodious houses, as halls, parlours, and dining rooms, a notable tower and bell, three stories high, and a chapel adjoining thereto for divine service, and two large gatehouses at each end of the town, which fabric the writer hereof hath often seen in his youth, when his grandmother lived in it, and enjoyed the same lordship, together with the manor of Bohurro, alias St. Anthony, as her jointure or freehold for life. But now, alas! since her death, those lands have been sold and transferred to several persons by her son John Hals, and those houses are all pulled down, and the chief stones thereof carried to build the gates and houses of Tregothnan.

This lordship, as I have been informed, soon after the Norman Conquest passed from the family from thence denominated de Fentongollan, to that of Tregaga, or Tresaga aforesaid, who for many generations were gentlemen of great fame and wealth, and in all probability were so denominated from Tregaga, or Tregage, house and tower, or castle, yet extant at Ruan Lanyhorne.

In the rector’s chancel or chapel of this church is yet to be seen a marble tombstone, with this inscription on it: Here lieth the body of John Trembraze, Master of Art and Law, and sometime rector of this church, who departed this life 12 November 1503, upon whose soul Jesus have mercy. Trembraze is a place in Leskeard parish.

This church, as I said before, being a quarter cathedral to the Bishop of Exeter, the old bells in this tower of St. Michael Penkevil were baptized, as appears from their names subscribed in them, St. Michael and St. Mary; the manner of which baptizing bells was thus: After the bell was cast and set up in the tower, the suffragan bishop called the chief inhabitants of the parish together to be godfathers and godmothers of the bell; who all holding the rope in their hand after prayers, the suffragan demanded the name of the bell of them, which being given he sprinkles water upon him or it, saying, “Michael, I baptise thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost; be thou henceforth efficacious in driving thunder, lightning, evil spirits, and tempest, from the living and the dead in this place;” whereupon the gossips toll the bell; having prepared a new white garment, then put it upon the bell (as was used to be done amongst new baptized Christians of the primitive church) afterwards a great banquet is prepared by the gossips for the suffragan, his chaplains, and ministers, who are there fed and rewarded. Now it is a doubtful question amongst the canonists whether the gossips to such bells may marry with each other afterwards by canonical law. (See also to this purpose Fox’s Acts and Monuments, temp. Henry VIII. p. 84.)

TONKIN.

St. Michael Penkevil is in the hundred of Powder, and is surrounded to the west and south by branches of the river Fale.

This parish hath the adjunct of Penkivell from Penkivell therein, although I should think it ought rather to have had that of Fentongollan, since that always, till of late, hath been the principal place in this parish, and the patronage of it belonged thereto. I shall therefore in the first place treat of the manor of Fentongollan.

The name of this manor does not bear the meaning assigned to it by Mr. Carew, but it signifies the holy well. The Saint’s well of the parish being on the barton. But note that a part of the barton, and the greater portion of the manor, are in the adjoining parish of Merthyr; but as the house is wholly in St. Michael Penkevil, this is the most proper parish wherein to treat of it.

Fentongollan has been the seat of several considerable families; the first that I meet with as lord of this place is John de Trejago, or Trejano, Sheriff of Cornwall in the time of Edward the Second, whose son Stephen Trejago left an only daughter Jane, married to John Trenoweth, of Trenoweth, in whose posterity it continued, and was their principal residence till about the middle of the reign of Edward the Fourth, when John Trenoweth, of this place, left four daughters and coheiresses.

Philippa, married to John Carminow, who obtained with her this place.

Maud, married to Thomas St. Aubyn, of Clowance.

Catherine, married to John Raynwood, and secondly to Edmund Stradling, of Dunlery.

Margaret, to John Godolphin, of Godolphin; and between these his large inheritance was divided.

But this lordship, with many adjacent estates, came entire to Philippa, his eldest daughter and coheir, the wife of John Carminow, esq. whose posterity lived here in great splendour, and went by the name of the great Carminows.

John Carminow, of Fentongollan, was Sheriff of Cornwall in the fifth year of Henry the Eighth. His son, Thomas Carminow, was a gallant courtier and gentleman of the privy chamber to the same king; but his grandson, Oliver Carminow, put a final end to the greatness of his family, having squandered away a vast estate, no less it is said than eight thousand pounds a year of actual receipts, leaving two daughters coheirs to what remained.

Ann, married to William Salter, of Devonshire.

Margaret, to Philip Cole, also of Devonshire, who sold this lordship to one Mr. Holcomb, in the latter part of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. The Carminow family was, however, continued through George, younger brother to Oliver, who lived at Polmawgan, in St. Winnow, as his posterity did at Trehanick, in St. Teath, where the last male of this family died, in the reign of King Charles the Second.

Mr. Holcomb sold this place in the reign of James the First to Sir Nicholas Hals, who resided here. His son John Hals, parted with it to Ezekiel Grosse, esq. whose daughter carried this, together with sixteen other manors, to the family of Buller, of Shillingham; and Francis Buller sold it in King Charles the Second’s reign to Hugh Boscawen, esq. who pulled down this noble old mansion, the lofty tower and fine chapel, and carried the stones to build his new house at Tregothnan, so that not a footstep is to be seen of this once magnificent place, and a poor farm-house is built for a tenant in its stead.

Under Fentongollan is a passage or ferry boat to go to Truro, and likewise to Kea, which is called Mopas; this place was formerly famous for oysters, which are now spoiled by the vessels that carry off the copper ore, which vessels, lying generally at this place, and pumping up the poisonous water from the ore, let in by leakage, have infected them with a strong brassy taste, so that eating a few of them will make any one ill; and yet, what is very remarkable, the oysters themselves grow large and fatten as well as ever.

Adjoining to Fentongollan is Treganyan, which I take to be a contraction of Tre-gan-ythan, the fursy town on the downs: however, its present plight may be better. This was anciently the seat of the family of Sayer.

To the south of Treganyan is the church town and rectory house, and near to them is Tregothnan, which signifies the old town in the valley, a name suitable to the situation of the old house, although not of the new one. This place was anciently the seat of a family of the same name, till Johanna, the daughter and heir of John Tregothnan, by her marriage in the 8th year of Edward the Third, 1334, with John Boscawen, of Boscawen Rose, in the parish of St. Burian, brought Tregothnan to this family, whose principal seat it hath been ever since, now just upon four hundred years; who have greatly enriched themselves, as well as ennobled their blood, since that time, by marriages with the heiresses of Albalanda, Trenoweth, &c. and by matching themselves into the most eminent families of the county.

By a bill indented, bearing date the 4th of July 20th of Henry the Seventh, Thomas Hobbs, clerk, witnesseth to have received for the king’s use, of Richard Boscawen, esq. five pounds of lawful money, in full of his fine to be released from the dignity of Knight of the Bath, at the creation of Prince Henry.

Sir John Arundell, of Trerice, knight, late Sheriff, acknowledges to have received of Hugh Boscawen, esq. four marks of lawful money of England to their Majesties’ use, for that he repaired not to the Queen’s coronation to receive the honour of knighthood, dated January the 18th, the 1st and 2d of Philip and Mary. This is the gentleman said in “the Bayliff of Blackmore,” to have been a wise man, learned in the laws of the realm, who yet was outwitted, or rather cheated, by a family of Truro, of which he tells a long story.

Hugh Boscawen, esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall the 10th of King Charles the First, and was grandson to the above Hugh Boscawen, through his eldest surviving son Nicholas Boscawen and Alice his wife, one of the daughters and coheirs of John Trevanion, of Trevoster.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Hals has very naturally been induced to give the history of this parish, particularly of Fentongollan, and of every one connected with it, at great length; but he has done this in a manner so diffuse and incoherent, that the Editor has thought it expedient to omit nearly the whole, and to substitute a short abridgment made by Mr. Lysons from Hals and Tonkin, although this will include some repetition from the latter.

LYSONS.

The manor and barton of Penkevil belonged in the reign of Edward the First to the family of De Wen, from whom Hals supposes it passed in marriage to the Penkevils; it is however quite as probable that the property remained in the same family, they assuming a new name from the place of their abode. This family, says Hals, flourished for several descents in a genteel degree, till the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when Penkevil was given or sold to George Courtenay, gent. whose great-grandson alienated it to Hender Molesworth, esq. by whom it was conveyed to Hugh Boscawen, esq.

The manor of Fentongolland, which extends into the parish of Merther, is said to have belonged at an early period to a family of the same name, from whom it passed by a succession of female heirs, to the families of Trejago and Trenoweth. John Trenoweth, who died in 1497, left four daughters, coheirs. The eldest, Philippa, brought this manor to John Carminow, of Resprin, (a younger branch of the Carminows, of Carminow,) who became, in consequence of this match, as Mr. Hals says, “more famous for his wealth than any other of his name or house, or than any other family in Cornwall.” Thomas, son of this John Carminow, was gentleman of the privy chamber to King Henry the Eighth. Hals, speaking of the hospitality of John Carminow, the grandson, says, “That he kept open house for all comers and goers, drinkers, minstrels, dancers, and what not, during Christmas time; and that his usual allowances of provisions for these twelve days were twelve fat bullocks, sixty statute bushels of wheat, thirty-six sheep, with hogs, lambs, and fowls of all sorts, and drink made of wheat and oat malt proportionable, for at that time barley malt was little known or used in those parts.”

Oliver Carminow, son of this John, is said to have squandered away the greater part of his very valuable estates. He left two daughters, married to Salter and Cole, by whom this manor was sold, in the year 1600, to the Holcombes. Sir Nicholas Hals purchased this estate in 1603, and made Fentongollan his residence; his son sold it to Ezekiel Grosse, whose daughter and heiress brought this and several other estates to Francis Buller, Esq. of Shillingham. It was purchased of that family about the year 1676, by Hugh Boscawen, Esq. who soon afterwards pulled down the fine old mansion-house of the Carminows, with its lofty towers and chapel. A farm-house now occupies the site.

Tregothnan, the seat of Lord Viscount Falmouth, came to the Boscawens in marriage with the heiress of Tregothnan in the fourteenth century.

Treganyan, or Tregonian, formerly the seat of a family bearing the same name, passed by successive female heirs to the Haleps and Sayers; by bequest from the latter to Trevelyan; and by a coheiress of Trevelyan to Rowe. It was purchased of the Rowes by Mr. George Simmons, who conveyed it to Lord Falmouth. The barton-house is now occupied by a farmer.

Nancarrow, in this parish, was also the property of a family to whom it gave its name.

* * * * *

The family of Boscawen is unquestionably of very great antiquity, of Norman or British origin, having either imparted their name to Boscawen Rose, in St. Burian, or received it from that place.

The peninsula west of the Mount’s Bay, little frequented in former ages, and scarcely accessible to strangers, abounded, as all similar districts have been found to do, with long settled possessors of landed property; who, content with the small fortunes transmitted from their ancestors, lived on in succession the protectors, the benefactors, and the paternal governors of their neighbourhoods. Such were the Boscawens, Vyvyans, Levelas, Trevilians, Noyes, and perhaps Usticks, Davieses, Kegwins, and some others, all inhabitants for centuries of this remote portion of Cornwall, and all arranged on similar scales of property and influence. The Boscawens however emerged in the fourteenth century, and pursued with great perseverance and success the only path then leading to advancement in the world. They married heiress after heiress, and acquired extensive properties in various parts of the county.

The Boscawens were among the few Cornish gentlemen in the western division, who took what may now be called the liberal side in the Civil War, and they continued to oppose the arbitrary principles of the faction, having at its head the two last brothers of the house of Stuart――and assisted in the glorious Revolution which secured us from civil and religious despotism, by placing the Prince of Orange on our vacant throne.

Hugh Boscawen married Margaret Clinton, eventually coheiress of the Earl of Lincoln, by whom he had a numerous family, all of whom died before him, with the exception of Bridget, married to Hugh Fortescue, ancestor of Earl Fortescue; and with this lady, Mr. Hals states that Mr. Boscawen gave lands and money to the value of a hundred thousand pounds; he died in 1701, and was succeeded by his relation of the same name. This gentleman is understood to have possessed very considerable talents, and powers of exerting them. He continued ably to support the Revolution government, and brought to it a powerful aid arising from the peculiar feature which distinguished Cornwall up to the year 1832.

In 1714, on the German accession, hopes, fears, expectation, and party violence, burst forth with all the fury that had driven them into action thirty years before. Vigorous proceedings were therefore demanded, and may be justified by the exhortation at Salamis, Νυν ὑπερ παντων Αγων. Yet in moments of cool reflection, and at the distance of a hundred and twenty years from this agitated period, one cannot refrain from thinking that Mr. Boscawen was carried beyond the limits of duty to his country, or zeal for his associates embarked in the same cause, when he undertook and executed the task of arresting his countrymen, and probably his former friends, on the suspicion of their entertaining opinions more favourable than his own to monarchical power, and to what in modern phrase might perhaps be termed conservative principles.

Sir Richard Vyvyan was seized at Trelowarren, conveyed by water to Pendennis Castle, and from thence to the Tower. Mr. Basset, of Tehidy, would also have been arrested if he had not left his house; and other proceedings were taken of equal violence.

These acts, however necessary at the time, produced their moral effects of creating feuds and permanent irritations, so that while the principal agent was admired by one party, and received the reward of an hereditary seat in parliament, as was industriously propagated, in return for these services, the opposite party detested his name, and usually joined to it an epithet drawn from the inferior apparitors of the common law.

This gentleman, created Viscount Falmouth in 1720, married Charlotte, daughter and coheir of Charles Godfrey, Esq. and his wife Charlotte Churchill, sister of the great Duke of Marlborough. They had a very numerous family; the eldest son, Hugh Boscawen, succeeded of course to his father’s estate and hereditary seat in parliament; very little is remembered about him. He is believed to have been kind and benevolent in private life, and the Editor is anxious to avail himself of this opportunity for acknowledging an act of generous and feeling liberality exercised by this gentleman to the benefit of a near relation, about fourscore years ago. In ability he probably fell much below the usual standard of his family, for he is known to have been cajoled into marrying a kept mistress; and idle tales are circulated of his mistaking “Optat ephippia Bos” for the Latin of his own name, and Horace Walpole for the Roman poet. It is probable these mistakes never literally happened, but such anecdotes are usually characteristic of the individual; if however they really were made, the credit of the family has been amply redeemed by a nephew, who has given to the public one of the best translations of Horace extant in any language.

Of his various brothers very little also is known or remembered, excepting of one, and that one is Admiral Boscawen, the glory not of Cornwall but of his country, the Nelson of his time.

Edward Boscawen went early to sea, expecting (as the Editor has heard from one to whom he related the circumstances) to be advanced almost immediately through family interest and connection to the station of a Lieutenant; when the order was suddenly made for subjecting all midshipmen to a service of six years at the least. “To this order,” he was accustomed to say, “I owe all my knowledge of seamanship, and to this order the British Fleet is mainly indebted for the superior knowledge and skill of its officers.”

The young man was properly advanced as occasions offered themselves; and from the period of his commanding a ship, his whole career was one of glory and of deserved success. Besides engagements with single ships, and their capture, his achievements are recorded at Porto Bello, Carthagena, Cape Finisterre, the East Indies, the Coast of Spain, and above all at Louisbourgh Harbour, in Cape Breton, where he effected a conquest most gallant in itself, and essential to the subjugation of Canada by General Wolfe; and what may equal the spolia opima of Rome, he three times made M. Hoquart, the French commander, a prisoner in the course of one war.

Admiral Boscawen was beloved throughout the navy for his care and attention to the health, the comfort, and the happiness of every one under his command, to as high a degree as he was admired for skill, for prudence, and for valour; throughout Cornwall he was adored. So that, notwithstanding the rule observed in that county, of considering every gentleman who obtains a seat in the Upper House of Parliament, as relinquishing for himself of course, and also for his family, in favour of other gentlemen, all claim to the county representation, Admiral Boscawen, standing completely on his own personal merits, and founding a new branch from an ancient family, was invited to accept the situation of member for Cornwall. The general election arising from the accession of George the Third was approaching, when a fever closed the life of this great man, on the 10th of January 1761, in the 50th year of his age.

Admiral Boscawen married Frances, daughter of William Evelyn Glanville, a lady possessed of every quality that could adorn the highest station, or that could render her amiable in domestic life.

They had several children:

The eldest, called after his father’s name, died at Spa in Germany, in early life, on the 17th of July 1774.

The second son, William Glanville Boscawen, having engaged in the sea service, anxious to emulate the splendid example given by his father, and having become a Lieutenant, was most unfortunately drowned in Jamaica, on the 21st of April 1769. On this melancholy occasion the following elegy was composed by Doctor John Walcot.

This gentleman was bred to the medical profession under an uncle at Fowey, where he afterwards practised, but standing high in the estimation of Sir William Trelawny, appointed Governor of Jamaica, Doctor Walcot, provided with a medical degree, went out with him as his physician; and in times when propriety and decorum were less attended to than at present, he was also admitted into holy orders, and thus became qualified for holding a living in the Island, one of which he actually obtained; but having returned to England after the Governor’s decease, he relinquished the preferment, which could not be held without residence, and abandoned the character of a clergyman.

No one can read this poem, somewhat perhaps too nearly resembling an ode of Collins, nor many other of his more elegant productions, his sonnets set to music by Jackson, &c. without regretting the change of style and of subject which he afterwards adopted under the assumed name ―――― Pindar.

Along the twilight vale I rove
My sorrows o’er the youth to shed,
Where Honour wraps the silent grave,
That darkling seems to mourn the dead.

And oh! tho’ far from thee I stray,
Remembrance oft shall haunt the gloom,
Her tear bedew thy lonely clay,
Her hand with roses strew thy tomb.

On Fancy’s ear shall swell the sigh
By blooming virgins breath’d in vain,
On Fancy’s ear the knell shall die,
That sadden’d all the weeping plain.

Tho’ forced from thee I wander far,
Thy fate shall cloud my rising Morn;
And oft with Evening’s silent star
I’ll hover o’er thy distant urn.

And when to Melancholy’s sigh
The Muse her sorrowing voice shall join,
Thy hapless fate shall fill her eye,
And melt with woe the tender line.

And oft shall memory impart
The smile that shone on Albion’s brow,
When kindling in thy youthful heart
She saw the beams of valour glow.

How few the sighs of Virtue mourn;
How few, alas! the friends she knows;
But here she comes, a pilgrim lorn,
To bid thy gentle ghost repose.

With sculpture let the marble groan,
Let Flattery mock the lifeless ear;
How nobler far the nameless stone
Bedew’d by Pity’s generous tear.

Mr. George Evelyn Boscawen, third son of the Admiral, succeeded his uncle as third Viscount Falmouth in July 1782, and married two years afterwards Elizabeth Anne, daughter of John Crewe, esq. Their eldest son, Edward Boscawen, advanced to the dignity of an Earl, married in August 1810, Ann Frances, daughter of Henry Bankes, esq. repeatedly member for Corfe Castle, and for the county of Dorset; they have an only son, who with the double portion of honour that invests young men who apply themselves to learning or science, without the ordinary stimuli of pecuniary benefit, or of advancement in the world, obtained the high distinction at Oxford in 1832 of being included in the first class of literary merit.

Tregothnan, from its bold and elevated situation, commanding an extensive view, intersected by various branches of the Falmouth river, and of the harbour, from the abundance of its trees and woods, and from the integrity of its surrounding property fenced in by natural boundaries, must be considered as the first gentleman’s seat in Cornwall, with the exception perhaps of Mount Edgcumbe. The house standing there till within these few years, bore the appearance of considerable antiquity, and harmonized with the surrounding scenery; the ruins of Fentongollan could not have been used for building this house, as Mr. Hals relates: they may have supplied materials for repair, or for additional offices.

The present proprietor has taken down the old house, and replaced it by a new one, that may compete with the best in England for real utility, and for decorations harmonizing with its bold situation and surrounding landscape.

The old parish church, and its massive tower, supported by immense buttresses, form altogether a venerable and impressive group, visible for a great distance in almost every direction. The advowson of the living was acquired with Fentongollan.

This parish measures 961 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815: 847 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 84 3 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 154 | 178 | 167 | 179
giving an increase of 16 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. Granville Leveson Gower, presented in 1818
by the Earl of Falmouth.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish is entirely situated in the calcareous series, and consists of the same rocks as Lamoran, and the eastern part of the parish of Kea.

MICHAELSTOW.

HALS.

St. Michaelstow rectory is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north Lantegles by Camelford, south Brewer, west St. Udye, east Advent. For the name of this parish, it is taken from the church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel.

At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was rated under the jurisdiction either of Lantegles or St. Vaye. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, it was rated by the name of Ecclesia de Sancto Michaelstow, 40_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, £10. 13_s._ 8_d._; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. £72.

In this parish formerly lived the genteel family of Michaelstow, that married one of the heirs of Gifford, of Fewborough in Devon, and had issue by her a daughter named Mary, married to Wollacomb, of Devon, temp. Henry VI. (Prince’s Worthies of Devon, in Wollacomb).

TONKIN.

This parish, named Michaelstow, which signifies Michael’s Place, is a rectory. The patronage in the Crown: the incumbent Cloak.

THE EDITOR.

There is little deserving of remark in this parish, except some doubtful remains of military antiquities. Mr. Lysons says, that the great duchy manor of Helston in Trig, extends over the greater part of this parish, and that what was formerly called Helsbury Park, is possessed by the Duke of Bedford, under a lease; and that just without the former boundary of the park are extensive earthworks, which Mr. Lysons conjectures to be the spot described as a castle by William of Worcester, and probably of great antiquity. The church has a few monuments to the Lowers and others. The only village in this parish, in addition to the church town, is called Treveighan.

Trevenin was a seat of some branch of the Lower family, now all extinct; and Tregone, heretofore belonging to the Mayows, is now the property of Mr. Hockin.

The advowson is in the Duke of Cornwall. Mr. Tonkin says in the Crown; but much confusion seems to have existed in former times between the claims of these two corporations sole, and if such a subject were worthy of investigation, it is probable that many inaccuracies might still be discovered.

The present Rector is the Rev. Edward Spettigue, presented in 1818 by the King as Prince of Wales.

Michaelstow measures 1,338 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1564 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 141 11 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 158 | 181 | 216 | 215
giving an increase of 36 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish skirts the northern boundary of the granite of St. Breward, reposing on rocks belonging to the porphyritic series, the most interesting of which is a kind of micaceous schist, that occurs near the granite, and may be traced through the parishes of St. Breward and Blisland, and Cardenham.

MYLOR, OR MILOR.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Mylor lieth in the hundred of Kerrier; it has to the west Gluvias, to the north St. Perran Arworthal, with Carnan and Restronget creeks, to the east and south Mylor Pool and Falmouth harbour.

The Saint that gives name to this parish is Meliorus, son of Melianus, Duke of Cornwall.

In the valuation by the Bishop of Lincoln this parish is valued at £6. 13_s._ 4_d._; being about that time appropriated to the College of Glasseney.

The church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Books at £16. 15_s._. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent Mr. Francis St. Barbe; the impropriation of the sheaf in Robert Trefusis, esq.

I shall begin with the barton of Carclew. I find the name of this place anciently written Crucglew. Cruc is a barrow, and also clew I apprehend to be an inclosure; so that the whole signifies the inclosure of barrows, or by barrows, of which there are several in the adjoining commons. The first owner of this place that I can meet with is Dangeros, or Dangers, who married Margery, the daughter of Bartholomew Serischall, whose arms were the same with the Seriseaux: Argent, a saltire Sable, between twelve cherries slipped Proper; in the reign I believe of Henry the Second.

Robert de Cardinan, by a very ancient deed, without date, which I have seen, gave Crucgleu and Pengaer to Richard Dangeros and his heirs.

This family, who by their matches seem to have been gentlemen of considerable note, continued at this place till the beginning of the reign of Henry the Fourth, when James Dangero left two daughters and coheirs:

Margaret, married to David Renaudin, of Arwothal; and Isabella, married to Richard Bonithon, second son of Simon Bonithon, of Bonithon.

This barton fell to the share of the said David Renaudin, but he and Margaret his wife dying without issue, their portion of the whole inheritance, said to be worth £500 per annum, came to Richard Bonithon and Isabella his wife. The last male descendant of this family, Richard Bonithon, esq. a very worthy gentleman, died July the 31st 1697, in the 45th year of his age, leaving by Honor his wife, daughter of Sir Thomas Heale, of Fleet, one daughter and heir, Jane, married to Samuel Kempe, of Penryn, esq.; which said Samuel Kempe died without issue, October the 20th 1728, leaving the said barton of Carclew, and some small part of the ancient lands, (for he had sold off the rest in his lifetime,) to his widow, who now resideth there; a lady who, for her many virtues, bounty, and other accomplishments, deserveth a much better fortune, in every respect, than she has had the luck to meet with.

The said Mr. Kempe built a noble house here, which he did not live to finish, and had laid such a plan for avenues, gardens, &c. as when brought to perfection would have made it one of the pleasantest seats in the county.

There hath been much tin on this barton, and perhaps it would turn to good account if a deep adit were brought in to unwater the shafts in depth. There is also a pretty good lode of antimony not wrought, and perhaps not worth working.

The arms of D’Angers, or Dangeros, as they were painted in the old glass windows at Carclew, were Sable, a chevron between three flowers-de-luce Argent.

Arms of Bonython: Argent, a chevron between three flowers-de-luce Sable. But they likewise gave them, as appear in the old hall, as above, with three pelicans feeding their young ones in the nests, Argent, added.

THE MANOR OF RESTRONGET.

This manor joins with Carclew. It was formerly written Restrongas, and I take the sense of the word to be Res, Ros, Rose, a valley; trong, a nose, used in the same sense as we use ness, from the French, for land jutting into the sea; and gas, or guys, deep; so as to signify altogether, the valley with the deep promontory or point of land. William de Bodrigan was lord of this manor in the 12th of Henry the Fourth. And that family possessed it till the beginning of the reign of Henry the Seventh, when, on the attainder of Bodrigan, it was given to William Trevanion, in which family it still continues, John Trevanion, of Carhayes, Esq. being the present lord thereof. In the village of Restronget have lived in lease for several generations a younger branch of the Leys of Ponacumb.

There is a passing boat kept here, it being the post road, and by much the nearest cut from Falmouth to Truro and the east, called Restronget Passage.

A part of the Bishop’s manor of Penryn extends into this parish.

MANOR OF TREFUSIS AND TREGOSE.

Trefusis, saith the Editor of Camden, in the Additional Part, p. 22, signifies a walled town, or fortified place. This hath been the seat of an eminent family of the same name ever since the Conquest, if not before. The present possessor hereof is Robert Trefusis, Esq. a young gentleman of great hopes, who is yet unmarried. These gentlemen, led away by a false notion, (with many others) of being of French extraction, have given, in allusion to the supposed meaning of their name in the language of that country, for their arms, Argent, a chevron between three fusees, or wharrow spindles, Sable.