Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

THE

PAROCHIAL HISTORY

OF

CORNWALL.

J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, 25, PARLIAMENT-STREET.

THE

PAROCHIAL HISTORY

OF

CORNWALL,

FOUNDED ON THE MANUSCRIPT HISTORIES

OF

MR. HALS AND MR. TONKIN;

WITH ADDITIONS AND VARIOUS APPENDICES,

BY

DAVIES GILBERT,

SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, F.A.S. F.R.S.E. M.R.I.A. &c. &c. AND D.C.L. BY DIPLOMA FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

_IN FOUR VOLUMES._

VOL. IV.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY J. B. NICHOLS AND SON;

AND SOLD BY

J. LIDDELL, BODMIN; J. LAKE, FALMOUTH; O. MATTHEWS, HELSTON; MESSRS.
BRAY AND ROWE, LAUNCESTON; T. VIGURS, PENZANCE; MRS. HEARD, TRURO;
W. H. ROBERTS, EXETER; J. B. ROWE, PLYMOUTH; AND ALL OTHER
BOOKSELLERS IN CORNWALL AND DEVON.

1838.

HISTORY

OF THE

PARISHES OF CORNWALL.

STITHIANS.

HALS.

Stithians is situate in the hundred of Kerrier, and hath upon the north Gwenap, west Gwendron, east Gluvias and Peran-well, south Mabe.

I take it to be the same place taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, by the corrupt name of Stachenue.[1] At the time of the first inquisition into the value of Cornish Benefices this church was not endowed if extant, nor its daughter church Peranwell; but in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was rated by the name of Stedians, £14. 0_s._ 8_d._ The patronage formerly, as I am informed, either in the rector and fellows of the College of Regular Priests at Glasnith, or the Governor of St. John’s Hospital at Sithney, now in Boscawen; the incumbent ―――― Hillman, and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, £104. 4_s._ 0_d._; the rectory in ―――― Boscawen.

This church is dedicated to St. Thomas à Beckett, and accordingly their parish festival is kept on St. Thomas’s Day, July 7th, as was its superior collegiate church of Glasnith, founded by Walter Branscomb, Bishop of Exeter, A. D. 1256.

The barton and manor of Penalmicke, id est, the head or chief coat of mail armour, so called for that such armour was made or lodged in this place in former ages by the possessors or proprietors thereof; which place gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen from thence surnamed de Penalmick; from whose heirs it passed to Skewish, tempore Queen Mary, of whose posterity Collan Skewish, gent. tempore 3d of James I. sold the same to Sir Nicholas Hals of Fentongollan, knight, whose son John Hals, esq. sold the same to Pendarves, now in possession thereof as I am informed.

Tretheage, alias Tredeage, in this parish, is the dwelling of John Morton, gent. that married ―――― Wilton.

On the south-west part of this parish towards Gwendron, near the highway, are still to be seen nine stones perpendicularly erected in the earth, in a direct manner, called the Nine Maids or Sisters, probably set up there in memory of nine religious sisters or nuns in that place, before the fifth century (See St. Colomb Major and Buryan); not women turned into stones as the English name implies, and as the country people thereabout will tell you. See also Gwendron.

This parish is enriched with streams and lodes of tin in abundance.

TONKIN.

Stithians is in the hundred of Kerrier, and hath to the west Gwendron, to the north Gwenap, to the east St. Piran Arwothall, and to the south Constanton and Mabe.

This parish takes its name from its guardian saint St. Stithians [rather Stithian. But who was he? W.]

It is a vicarage, valued together with St. Piran Arwothall in the King’s Book [see Piran Arwothall before], and hath the same patron, impropriator, and incumbent with that. I shall begin with the chief estate in it,

THE MANOR OF TRETHEAGE,

――the fair town or dwelling. [The fair house. W.] And so it may be well called, considering the country it lies in, as being for that pleasantly situated on the river which runs under Ponsannowth or New Bridge, and emptieth itself under Piran Arwothall church. This was formerly a manor of large extent, but now strangely curtailed.

Of late years it hath been the seat of the family of Morton; the last of which who lived here, John Morton, gent. who married ―――― the daughter of John Wilton of Dunveth, gent. was oddly outed of it (169..) by Nicholas Pearce; who having gotten a great deal of money in Magdalen Ball in Gluvias, settled it on his son Nicholas Pearce, lately dead, leaving by ―――― his wife, the daughter of ―――― Trewren, esq. of Trewardreva, one son Nicholas Pearce, a minor, who is the present lord of this manor. Morton’s arms were, Argent, a chevron between three moorcocks Sable.

THE EDITOR.

The church and tower of this parish are handsome objects built of granite, which abounds throughout all that district.

Mr. Lysons gives, as usual, on account of the ancient manors. The manor of Kennal, he says, belonged in the reign of Edward the Second to Matthew Penfern, afterwards to the Carminows, one of whose coheiresses brought it to the Arundells of Lanherne; by whom, in the year 1800, it was sold to three brothers of the name of Bath, who are the present proprietors. The manor of Roseeth is the property of Thomas Hocker, esq. the devisee of Thomas Reed, esq. The barton of Tretheage is the residence of Mrs. Curgenven, widow of the late proprietor, Captain Curgenven, of the Royal Navy. The barton of Penalurick belongs to Mr. Hocker, and Stephen Ustick, esq. The bartons of Treweek and Tresavren belonged to the family of Hawes, but now to Mr. James Brown.

Tretheage, situated near the turnpike road leading from Truro to Helston, has a very pleasing appearance in the midst of a country almost bare of trees. About fifty or sixty years ago this place was the residence of a gentleman called Tincombe, who had been a practitioner of medicine, but retired to Tretheage, where either he or his father had built the present house. He married a Miss Kniverton of Tredreath in Lelant, but died without children.

Trevales has been for many years the residence of the late Mr. Thomas Reed, and of his ancestors; who having been long what is termed good livers in the parish, advanced themselves by successful adventures in mines, and by conducting a tin smelting house in the parish of Perran Arworthall. Mr. Thomas Reed never married, and devised the greater part of his property to Mr. Hocker his near relation.

Mr. Lysons says, the church of Stithians was given by Edward the Black Prince, to the abbey of Rewley near Oxford, in exchange for the manor of Nettlebed. It appears from the printed documents relative to that abbey, that Edmund Earl of Cornwall, in pursuance of his father’s direction, Richard King of the Romans, founded Rewley Abbey in the year 1280.

His charter, inter alia, has these words:

Sciant præsentes et futuri quod nos Edmundus, claræ memoriæ domini Ricardi regis Alemanniæ filius, et Comes Cornubiæ, dedimus, concessimus, et hac præsenti carta nostra confirmavimus Deo et Ecclesiæ beatæ Mariæ de Regali-loco juxta Oxon. et Abbati inibi commoranti, et quindecim Monachis capellanis ordinis Cisterciensis sibi professis, pro anima Ricardi quondam Regis Alemanniæ patris nostri divina celebrantibus, et eorum successoribus ibidem commorantibus, Deo servientibus et imperpetuum servituris, omnes terras et tenementa quæ habuimus in North Oseneye juxta Oxon ―――― cum Advocatione Ecclesiæ de Sancta Wendrona et aliis pertinentiis suis in hundredo de Kerier in Cornubia. Preterea dedimus ―――― totum nemus quod habuimus apud Netlebedde ――――

And in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, taken after the dissolution by Henry the Eighth, is this entry:

Com. Cornub.
Wendrono et Stadyon, Firma Rector’ £22. 0_s._ 0_d._

But nothing appears relative to the exchange of Nettlebed for Stithians.

The late vicar, the Rev. Edward Nankivell from St. Agnes, had been for several years Chaplain to the Factory at Smyrna.

Stithians measures 3987 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4110 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 910 12 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1269 | 1394 | 1688 | 1874.
giving an increase of 47½ per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. C. W. Woodley, presented by the Earl of
Falmouth in 1829.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

With the exception of a small patch on its eastern extremity, this parish is situated entirely on granite, affording varieties similar to those of Gwennap, Redruth, Camborne, and Crowan, all of which are intersected by beds of porphyry, called by the miners elvan courses. The slate which occurs on the eastern side of this parish is felspathic, resembling that of the adjoining parish of Gwennap.

[1] There is no such name in Domesday Books; Mr. Hals must
have misread Stratone or some similar name.

STOKE CLIMSLAND.

HALS.

Stoke Climsland is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Lezant, west Southill, east Calstock and the Tamar River, south Killington.

This parish and church take their name from the manor of Stow Climsland in this parish aforesaid, and by that name it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. It was first given by Orgar Duke of Devon, or Elphrida his lady, to Tavistock Abbey in Devon, which he had founded. (Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, page 360.) Afterwards it became the possession of the Kings of England or Earls of Cornwall, and was by King Edward III. incorporated into the Duchy of Cornwall 1336. (See the charter under Lestwithiel.) And to remove an action at law out of the Court Leet of this Duchy or Stannary Manor, or any other in Devon, as I have elsewhere noted under Helleston, the writ must be thus directed:――

Gardiano Stannarum Devon et Cornubiæ, Capitali Senescallo Ducatus sui Cornubiæ, aut suo Deputat. ibidem. Et precipue sibi aut suo Deputat. Senescallo infra manerium de Stow Climsland parcell. Ducatus Cornub. pred. infra Com. Cornub. &c.

Of Hengiston Downs, King Egbright’s victory, and tin works in this parish, I have spoken under Killington. And of this manor of Climsland, and the park of Cari Bollock in this parish are mention made in the Duke’s Charter aforesaid. Now the modern name Cary-Bollock, I take to be only a corruption of Carow-Bollogk, female deer of a stag, probably kept here in the Duke’s park, when brought out of the forest of Dartmoor.

It appears from the ancient Survey of the Duchy of Cornwall in the Exchequer, tempore Edward III. (and Blount’s Tenures, from thence also extracted page 107), that the old tenure of this Duchy Manor of Climsland or Clemsland, was villanage.

The manor of Rillaton in this parish, was invested with the jurisdiction of a Court Leet, and is annexed to the Duchy of Stoke Climsland, with all its privileges, as I am imformed. To remove an action at law from which, the writ must be thus directed: Senescallo Decanorum, Præposit. et liberis tenent. Manerii sui de Rillaton, parcell. Ducatus sui Cornub. in Com. Cornub. salutem.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Stoke, in decanatu de Est, was rated at cvi_s._ viii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, Stoke Climsland Church was valued at £40, the patronage in the Dukes and Earls of Cornwall that endowed it; the incumbent ; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, £424. 14_s._

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Is situate in the hundred of East, and hath to the west Linkinhorne and Southill, to the north Lezant, to the east the river Tamar, to the south Kellington and Calstock.

Stoke is the same with Stow, a place; and hath the adjunct of Climsland from the great duchy manor here.

[The word is Clema’s land, Clemmow being a personal name still in Cornwall, pronounced there Clemma, and meaning Clement. W.]

This is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book £40; the patronage in the Duke of Cornwall, the incumbent Mr. John Heron.

THE MANOR OF CLIMSLAND.

This, in the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edw. I. (Carew, fol. 48) is valued in fifty, by the name of Clemysland, in which I suppose is comprehended the park of Carybullock belonging thereto. This being one of the ancient manors belonging to the Duke of Cornwall, and so settled by Edward the Third on his son Edward the Black Prince in the eleventh year of his reign, I shall say no more of it here, but come to the most remarkable places in it; and first to

CARY BULLOCK PARK.

So Mr. Carew calls it (fol. 115), “Carybullock,” saith he “some time a parke of the Duke’s, but best brooking that name now it hath lost its qualitie, through exchanging deere for bullocks.” Sir John Dodridge (History of Wal. and Corn. p. 84, &c.) calls it Kerry-bollock; but what if I should say the right name was Caer-bollick, and did signify the intrenched inclosure on the river?――the situation would exactly answer this derivation; but, since the writing of this, I find (Salmon’s Survey of England, vol. II. p. 714) that Mr. Baxter, in Bullœum or Buelt (according to Mr. Camden) in Brecknockshire, interprets it to be Caer-Bulack or “Principis Domus,” the Prince’s town or inclosure, which (if true) would suit very well with this. [This is a judicious application of one of Mr. Baxter’s etymons to the present place; Bulœum, as Baxter says the name is written in the superior copies of Ptolemy’s Geography, Baxter thinks with Lhwyd to be the modern Caer Phylli. Bel, he says, is properly a head, and figuratively a king. This makes Caer Bulack, “quod ara est Regia.” “Certe,” he adds, very usefully, “vel ipsi novimus in Montegomerica nostra Regione Domunculam antiqua Rhesi filii Theodori progenie nobilem;” ennobled by the birth of Rhys ap Tudor, “vel hodie nominatam Caer Bulach, tanquam Principis dicatur domus.” In proof of Mr. Baxter’s seemingly unfounded interpretation of Bel, Bol, or Bul, a head and a king, we may observe the name of the sun Beal, in the Beal-tine of Cornwall and the Beil-tine of Ireland for the fires on May-day in honour of the sun; Beal, Bil (I.) a mouth; Bil (W.) the mouth of the vessel; Bollog (I.) a shell, a scull, the top of the head; Fal (I.) a king or great personage; Folar (I.) to command; Folarthoir (I.) an emperor; Folladh (I.) government; Ffelaig (W.) a general, a captain, a leader; Belee, plural Belein (C.) a priest or priests; Belek (A.) a priest; Pol-kil (C.) the hinder part of the head or the top of the neck; and in Belinus, Cunobelinus, and the promontory Bolerium of the ancient Britons; and Caer-Bulack, as a royal house is called equally in Wales, would in the Cornish mode of pronunciation be Cerry-bullock, as Car-hayes is Carry-hayes at present. W.]

Which since its being disparked by King Henry VIII. has been set out at lease to several gentlemen, and is now held by Sir John Coryton, of Newton, Bart.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons enumerates the manors; the principal of which are the manor giving its name to the parish, part of the ancient possessions of the duchy of Cornwall, and the manor of Climsland Prior, extending into Linkinhorne, which formerly belonged to the priory of Launceston; and after the general dissolution was given with many other manors forming the modern duchy in exchange for the honour and castle of Wallingford.

Carrybullock, disparked by King Henry the Eighth, was held under a lease from the duchy by Mr. Weston Helyar.

Mr. Lysons mentions other manors and bartons of no general interest, with the exception of Whiteford, on account of its late proprietor.

Mr. John Call was one of those individuals of whom the country adjacent to the Tamar may be proud.

It is understood that he was born on the Devonshire side of the river, and various tales are related of his first advancement in life; these are usually little worthy of attention, and are most frequently exaggerated from an innate love of the marvellous. Mr. Call having proceeded to India as an engineer, most eminently distinguished himself in that field, more ample than any recorded in history for the successful display of abilities, and active persevering industry; and where, for the first time since distinct nations have been brought into contact by the improvements of navigation and of commerce, the vanquished have become debtors to the more successful party for protection, for the administration of equal laws and of impartial justice, and for the introduction among the inhabitants of the spirit of honour, the glory of modern Europe.

Here Mr. Call having served his country, and justly acquired the legitimate rewards of fame and of ample fortune, retired to his native country, purchased Whiteford, which he converted into a handsome seat, and much other property in the neighbourhood. His active mind could not, however, remain unemployed; he became a banker, a manufacturer of plate-glass, and a copper smelter. He served the office of Sheriff for Cornwall in the year 1771; afterwards represented Callington in Parliament, and was finally created a Baronet.

It may be interesting to insert some miscellaneous information which the gentleman communicated to this Editor in Oct. 1798, while he resided for a few weeks or months at Marazion, and which was imperfectly noted at the time.

He received the whole of his education as an engineer under Mr. Benjamin Robins, F.R.S. Engineer-General to the East India Company, the well-known author of various mathematical tracts, and especially of a treatise on the principles of gunnery, the force of gunpowder, and on the resisting power of the air to bodies in swift and in slow motion. This treatise his pupil Mr. Call transcribed for the press; and no doubt he assisted in making those admirable experiments and mathematical deductions from them, which have given a new character to this important branch of military science, as well in respect to small arms, and more especially to rifled barrels, as to cannon and mortars, in reference to which Mr. Call made an additional improvement so as to discharge shells from long guns by placing the fusee internally, with its orifice concentric to the surface instead of projecting, and thereby securing it from injury as the shot rolls in passing out of the gun.

He successfully defended Fort St. George at Madras; and in 1761 conducted the siege of Pondicherry, which ended in the capture of that place, the chief seat of the French power in India. Sir John Call also mentions as a curious circumstance, illustrative of the decisive effects produced by the well-directed fire of field artillery, that in a battle where he was present (query, was it Plassey?) a shell from an howitzer caused the explosion of a carriage containing gunpowder, which produced some confusion and disorder in the enemy’s line; the commander instantly ordered a charge, and the victory was decided.

And he related another anecdote on a very different subject. That having with other amateurs of astronomy made preparations for observing the transit of Venus by constructing a temporary observatory on the flat roof of the government house at Madras, they waited with impatience after a long continuance of fine weather, for the important 3d of June 1761, when a most violent storm on the preceding night injured or destroyed their instruments so as to render any observation impossible; and, what added to their mortification and disappointment, a long continuance of fine weather succeeded this tempest.

Whiteford is now the residence of his son Sir William Pratt Call, who was Sheriff of Cornwall in 1807, and has a family.

The manor of Climsland Prior paid to the monastery at Launceston, the free tenants 8_s._ the conventionary tenants £6. 13_s._ 9_d._

The advowson of the living seems to have been appurtenant to the ancient duchy manor of Stokeclimsland.

This parish measures 7973 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 6010 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 2084 17 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1153 | 1237 | 1524 | 1608
giving an increase of 39½ per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector the Rev. C. Lethbridge, presented by the Prince of
Wales in 1805.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The southern part of this parish includes the whole of the granite of Kit Hill, which is for the most part of the coarse-grained crystalline variety so common in Cornwall. Proceeding northward, the rest of the parish is found to belong to the schistose rocks; those next to the granite are felspathic, and contain beds of porphyry, but those more remote, which form the greater part, must be referred to the calcareous series.

STRATTON.

HALS.

Stratton is now situate in the hundred from thence denominated Stratton, (formerly Major Trigshire Cantred) and hath upon the north Powghill, east Lancells, south Marhamchurch, west Bude Bay and the Channel. As for the name, after the Saxon, it is compounded of Strat-ton, i. e. street or highway town, a lane or public road, derived perhaps from the Latin strata, a street or Roman highway; and by this name of Stratton, it is taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester aforesaid 1294, Ecclesia de Stratone, in decanatu de Major Trigshire, was rated £7. 13_s._ 4_d._ vicar’ ibidem 20_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was valued £10. 11_s._ 6½_d._ The patronage formerly in the prior of Lancells, who endowed it as I am informed; now ――――; the incumbent ――――; and the rectory in possession of ――――; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, £290. 18_s._ The town of Stratton is privileged with a weekly market on Tuesdays, and Fairs annually on the 8th of May, 28th of October, and 30th of November.

Thurlebere, Thurle-ber, bir, in this parish, was another district taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, from whence was denominated an ancient family of gentlemen surnamed De Thurlebere, or whurle-ber; i. e. cast, whirle, twine, the spit, short spear, dart, pike, lance or broach, for so the terminative particle ber, bere, bir, indifferently signifies. See Floyd upon Obelus. In this place John de Thurlebere held by the tenure of knight’s service, twenty pounds per annum in lands, tempore Edward III. and John de Cobham had likewise in it by the same tenure the third part of a knight’s fee. (Survey of Cornwall, page 40 and 52.) One of those Thurleberes married the daughter and heir of Thomas de Waunford, Lord of Ebbingford, alias Efford in Bude Bay, and afterwards made it the place of their residence, tempore Henry V. till at length the daughter and heir of those Thurleberes was married to Arundell of Trerice, tempore Edward IV. whose posterity are now in possession thereof.

Near this town of Stratton, in a field called ―――― there happened on Tuesday the 16th of May 1643, a sore and bloody battle between the army or soldiers of King Charles I. under conduct of his general Sir Ralph Hopton, knight, and Major-General Chudleigh, Commander of the Parliament Forces in those parts; where, after a sharp contest from five of the clock in the morning till three in the afternoon, the fight or success continued doubtful: so that Sir Bevill Grenvill, knight, was unhorsed, and his troop put into disorder by Chudleigh’s men; and the king’s party had been totally overthrown had not Sir John Berkeley with great courage and conduct led up the musketeers he commanded to their seasonable assistance, maintaining the charge with that stoutness, that the Parliament army, after the loss of about three hundred soldiers, gave ground, and Chudleigh was taken prisoner, with seventeen hundred more of his party. The king’s army having sustained the loss of about two hundred persons, had the plunder of the field, wherein they found seventeen brass pieces of ordinance, seventy barrels of powder, three thousand arms, with ammunition, provision, and biscuit, proportionable.

The country people hereabout will tell you, that the field aforesaid where this battle was fought, being afterwards tilled to barley, produced sixty bushels of corn, Winchester measure, in every acre (See St. Sennan); the fertility whereof is ascribed to the virtue the lands received from the blood of slain men and horses, and the trampling of their feet in this battle.

For this victory, Sir Ralph Hopton, knight of the Bath, was by Letters Patent dated at Oxford, 4th September, 19 Charles I. by him created Baron Hopton of Stratton; but he dying without issue at Bruges in Flanders, King Charles the Second, in the 12th year of his reign, conferred that honorary title of Straton, upon Sir John Berkeley aforesaid (younger son of Sir Maurice Barkley of Bruton in Somerset) who also was one of the four managers of martial affairs in Cornwall for King Charles I. together with the Lord Mohun, Sir Ralph Hopton aforesaid, and Colonel Ashburnham; he also reduced Exeter, and was made governor thereof, and gave for his arms in a field Ruby a chevron Ermine, between ten crosses pattee Pearl, six in chief, and four in base.

The ancestor of this Sir Ralph Hopton, knight, came out of France or Normandy, a soldier or huntsman under William the Conqueror 1066, by the name of the Norman Hunter, to whom he gave Hopton in the Hole in the county of Salop, (from whence afterwards he was denominated De Hopton,) which he conveyed to him and his heirs, and failing the remainder, to the crown.

Sir William de Mohun, one of the founders of the Abbey of Newham in Devon, 30th Henry III. gave to the same the bailiwick of the hundred of Axminster, and also the manor of Norton, with the hundred and bailiwick of Major Trigshire, now Stratton in Cornwall. (See Prince’s Worthies of Devon.) After the dissolution of Newham Abbey, 26 Henry VIII. it fell to the crown, from whence the present titles of those bailiwicks are derived.

TONKIN.

Stratton is in the hundred of the same name, and is bounded to the west by the north or Severn channel and Poughill, to the north by Kilkhampton, to the east by the river Tamar, to the south by Lancells, Marhamchurch, and Poundstock.

As for the name, it is no other than the street town, from its consisting chiefly of one street, and being a great thoroughfare, but more probably from a Roman Way. [from the Roman stratum or street certainly, on which it lies. W.]

In anno 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory was valued (Tax. Ben.) at £7. 13_s._ 4_d._ being appropriated to the Priory of Lanceston; and the vicar at 20_s._

This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, at £10. 11_s._ 6_d._ ob.; the patronage in the crown.

THE MANOR OF STRATTON.

In Domesday Book Stratone was one of the manors given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall.

In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. (Carew, fol. 48), it is valued in 21. In 3 of Henry IV. (Id. fol. 40 b.) Ranulph de Albo Monasterio (Whitchurch) [a family in this parish, formerly called Blancminster] held here one knight’s fee.

THE EDITOR.

Stratton is a neat although a small town. Before the great roads were made through the middle of the county along the central ridge and above the formation of deep valleys, a northern entrance into Cornwall passed through this town.

Mr. Lysons says, that the manors of Stratton and Binomy belonged at an early period to an ancient family called in various records De Albo Monasterio, or Blanchminster and Whitminster. The property passed by an heiress to the family of Hiwis; and Emmeline the heiress of Hiwis, married first, Sir Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, who lost his life through popular violence in the year 1388; and secondly, Sir John Coleshill.

Sir John Coleshill, son of the above, was killed at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, leaving an infant son; after whose death in 1483 the large estates of this family passed by a female heir to a younger branch of the Arundells, and were afterwards divided among its numerous representatives.

The manors of Binomy and Stratton having been purchased by the Grenvilles, have descended to Lord Carteret.

The manor of Efford or Ebbingford, belonged at an early period to the Waumfords or Waunfords, from whom it passed by a coheiress to the Durants, and from them by an heiress to the Arundells of Trerice, from whom it is derived to Sir Thomas Dyke Acland of Killerton.

The church and tower are fine specimens of the style of architecture prevalent throughout the West of England. There are also several monuments; and Mr. Lysons quotes from the register, the baptism and death of Elizabeth Cornish, who lived between these two dates, 113 years 4 months and 13 days. She was baptized in Oct. 1578, and was buried March the 10th, 1691.

The great tithes and the manor denominated Sanctuary, or Sentery, as was usual with such professions, belonged to the Priory of Launceston. After the dissolution of monasteries, this manor carrying with it the advowson of the vicarage, was annexed to the Duchy of Cornwall, with various other lands, in exchange for the honour and castle of Wallingford.

The great tithes were granted to the family of Wadder, but they have since been sold in parcels.

The place of most importance in this parish after the town, is Bude. This place has always given some shelter for boats, and afforded sand for manure. It has within about twenty years received most essential improvement. A pier or jetty has been built out into the sea, and a canal with inclined planes has been made for the conveyance of coal and merchandise into the country, and for bringing down slate and the produce of land; but above all, for supplying sand as a manure. The sand at this place consists entirely of powdered shells, as it does along the whole north coast of Cornwall, and it is found to be so efficacious for imparting fertility to clay lands, that it is frequently conveyed in wheel carriages to so great a distance from the coast, as to require the draft cattle remaining out a night.

The boats used on this coast are formed like boxes, having within each side a closed trough containing two wheels, which project a very little beyond the lower surface. These wheels are consequently no impediment to the boats floating on the water, but they enable them to ascend or to descend the inclined planes with the facility of other carriages. See a Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation, by R. Fulton, 1 vol. 4to, London, 1796, p. 32, where this plan is suggested perhaps for the first time.

Bude is also become a place of resort for sea bathing; and several houses for the accommodation of strangers have been built by Sir Thomas Acland, so that it has acquired the well-known appellation of a watering place.

The Editor having omitted through inadvertence to notice in the adjoining parish of Launcels a gentleman one of the most respectable in the north-eastern part of Cornwall, hopes that he may be excused for inserting his name here.

Launcells House, a modern building on the spot where formerly stood the residence of the Chamonds, is the seat of George Boughton Kingdon, esq. respected by every one who has the honour of his acquaintance, for scientific and literary acquirements, and esteemed as a benefactor to his neighbourhood in the characters of a magistrate and of a worthy country gentleman.

An instance of longevity has been given in the parish of Stratton, and an occurrence has been stated to the Editor, which proves that Launcells participates in the general healthiness of that district.

It seems the identical six men who rang the bells in Launcells tower on the Coronation of King George the Third, rang them also on the day of his jubilee, having continued the parish ringers during all that time.

Their names are recorded in the parish, and may therefore be inserted here.

John Lyle, Henry Cadd, Richard Venning, John Ham, John Allin, Richard Hayman.

And of these, John Lyle rang at the accession of King George the Fourth, and of his present Majesty King William the Fourth, being then in his ninety-sixth year: but all are now gathered to their fathers.

And here, as appertaining more to the general character of the country than to any particular parish, in reference to the terrific cliffs which surround this coast, it may be proper to state a fact communicated by Mr. Kingdon; that, from actual measurement taken by himself, Hennacleve cliff on Westcot Down, in the parish of Moorwinstow, is 430 feet above the level of the beach.

Stratton measures 2300 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 3563 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 710 19 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 960 | 1094 | 1580 | 1613
giving an increase of 68 per cent in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. Jacob Hawker, presented by the King as
Prince of Wales in 1833.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish, like the adjoining one of Kilkhampton, is composed of compact and of schistose varieties of dunstone, occasionally interspersed with beds of calcareous schist and limestone.

TALLAND.

HALS.

Talland is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north Pelynt, east the haven or harbour of Looe, south the British Channel, west Lansallas.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed under the Jurisdiction and in the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Talland 1294, was rated at £8. vicar ejusdem 40_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was not valued or named. The patronage is in ――――; the incumbent ――――; and the rectory in possession of ――――; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year, £156. 15_s._ But if the word Talland be compounded only of Ta-land, it signifies the good acceptable land.

West Looe, alias Porth-Vyan, Porth-Byan, alias Porth-Bichan or Porth-Bigan, or Pigan, all synonymous words in British, only varied by the dialect, which signifies the little gate, cove, creek, or entrance, according to the natural circumstances of the place, where daily the sea makes its flux and reflux some miles up into the land or country, through a narrow passage betwixt the parishes of St. Martin’s and Talland aforesaid, over which is a curious and strong stone bridge of about twelve arches, which as an artificial ligament fastens those parishes and the towns of East and West Looe together; which latter, by the name of Porth Byhan, was taxed as the voke lands of a privileged borough or manor in the Domesday Book as aforesaid, 1087, and still known by the name of Porth Byan or West Looe; and by this name all its privileges were confirmed, and the town incorporated 16th of Queen Elizabeth, by the name of the mayor and burgesses thereof, consisting of a mayor and twelve burgesses.

The members of Parliament are elected by the majority of freemen; and the precept from the Sheriff, or the writ for electing those members, as also for removal of an action at law depending in this court to a superior, must be thus directed:

Majori et Liberis Burgensibus Burgi sui de Porth Byan, alias West Looe, in comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem.

And as a further testimony of its present grandeur, though I take it much inferior in riches and building to the late erected town of East Looe, it hath ever, and still stands as a noun substantive in the Exchequer, and was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, by the name of the borough of West Looe, £15. 13_s._ 1696. Whereas, the borough of Michell falls under the tax of Newlan and St. Enedor parishes; Bosinney or Trevena under Dundagell; and Camelford under Lantegles, in the Exchequer, without name or value.

This town is also privileged with a fair yearly, on 25th April, and markets weekly.

The arms of this borough are, a soldier or man of war Proper, with a bow in one hand, and an arrow in the other. For the etymology of Looe, see East Looe.

This manor of borough of Porthbyan, as I am informed, was heretofore villanage tenure, and pertained to the Bodrigans.

In this town of West Looe, was born Charles Wager, as I am informed, son of ―――― Wager; who, being placed an apprentice at sea, grew so expert in navigation and the mathematics, that he became a great master in that art; and being after in the sea fight between Queen Anne and the French and Spaniards, he behaved himself so well in his valour and conduct, though to the loss of one of his arms, that by Queen Anne or King George he was afterwards knighted, and preferred, not only to the command of a third-rate frigate, but made Admiral of the Red Squadron of Men of War, for him and his son King George the Second, in the Baltic Sea and British Channel 1729.

In this parish stands the barton and manor of Killygarth. This lordship, tempore Edward III. was the lands of the Sergeaulxes, and particularly of Richard de Sergeaulx, who is mentioned in Mr. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 52, 25 Edward III. then to have held in Cornwall, by the tenure of knight service, £20 per annum in lands and tenements. His son Sir Richard Sergeaulx, knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall, 12 Richard II. whose son Richard Sergeaulx held in Killygarth, Lanreth, and Lansulhas, three little knight’s fees of land of Morton, as also two fees and a half in Colquite, (idem librum, p. 42,) 3 Henry IV. (five knight’s fees was four thousand acres of land); who dying without issue male, his three daughters or sisters became his heirs, and were married to Seyntaubyn and Beare of Cornwall, and Marney of Essex, as I am informed; after whose decease, Beare became seised of this lordship, was married and had issue Thomas Beare, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall, 4th of Edward IV.; and William Beare, Sheriff of Cornwall, 6th of Edward IV. who gave the bear for his arms, the colours I know not.

This William Beare had issue only one daughter, married to Peter Bevill, a younger brother of John Bevill of Gwarnack, esq. who had issue by her, John Bevill, esq. that married Mileton of Pengersick; who by her had issue Sir William Bevill, knight, Sheriff of Cornwall, 31st of Elizabeth 1591, that married ――――, but had no legitimate issue: so that his brother Philip’s daughter Elizabeth became his heir, and was married to Sir Bernard Grenvill of Stowe, knight, father of Sir Bevill Grenvill, knight, that sold this lordship of Killygarth to Killygrew, from whom it passed to Hallet, and from him to Kendall of Middlesex, now in possession thereof.

The arms of Bevill are Ermine, a bull passant Sable.

Hen-darsike in this parish is a contraction of Hen-dowers-ike, i. e. old, ancient cove, creek, lake, or bosom of waters, lands probably under such circumstances. It is the dwelling of John Morth, esq. that married ―――― Buller of Morvall; his father William Morth was Sheriff of Cornwall 2 William III.

This family in genteel degree hath flourished in this place for many generations, though I am not informed as to the particulars.

In this parish at Trenake is the dwelling of Thomas Achym, gent. which family hath flourished in those parts for many generations in genteel degree, and give for their Arms, in a field Argent a maunch mantail Sable, within a bordure of the First charged with cinquefoiles of the Second. If the name of Achym be a monosyllable, it signifies in British a descendant, issue, offspring, or progeny.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Talland is in the hundred of West, and is bounded to the west by Launcells, to the north by Pelynt, to the east by Looe river, and to the south by the British Channel.

This is a vicarage, not valued in the King’s Book; but in anno 1291, 20 Edward I. it was valued, the rectory (Tax. Benef.) at £8, it having been appropriated to Launceston Priory; and the vicarage at 40_s._ The patronage is in Archdeacon Kendall, and the incumbent Mr. Doidge.

Mr. Thomas Kendall had a younger brother, Colonel James Kendall, who was Governor of Barbadoes in ――――, one of the lords of the Admiralty under Queen Anne, and a member of Parliament in several Parliaments: he died suddenly, unmarried, July the 10th, 1708, at his house in London, very rich, and left a natural son by Mrs. Colliton, who now goes by the name of Kendall.

Under Killygarth is Porth-Para, vulgo Polpera, id est, the sandy port. “A little to the eastwards,” saith Carew, (fol. 131 b.) “from Killygarth, the poor harbour and village of Polpera coucheth between two steep hills:” [from which circumstance, as I know of no word similar to para in the Cornish, and signifying sand in English, I might more aptly take the name to be (as Carew writes, and as usage sounds it) pol-pera, pol-poran, the close or strait pool. But the fact is, that the name is purely English, with a Cornish pronunciation. “By est, the haven of Fowey upon a iiii miles of,” says Leland, Itin. vii. 121), “ys a smawle creke cawled Paul _Pier_, and a symple and poore village upon the est side of the same, of fisharmen, and the bootes ther fishing by [be] saved by a _Peere_ or key. In the est side of this Paul Pirre,” &c. And since the cove is still written as Leland first writes it, “Paul Pier” (See Borlase’s map) so is it obviously allusive to the “Pier or Key,” which he mentions at it. W.] where plenty of fish is vented to the fish-drivers, whom we call “jowters” [men who jolt about with horses and panniers to sell fish]. And between this and the church is Porth Talland.

The manor by the name of Tallan, in the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. is valued in six. (Carew, fol. 49.) [Here let me just note what Mr. Tonkin has omitted, the etymology of the name of the parish, and of the manor. Written originally Tallan, and gaining only the final _T._ by vicious pronunciation, the manor and the parish derive their name apparently from the church; and this takes its appellation from its site, I apprehend, being seated upon the high bold shore of the channel, and so being called Tal-Lan, the high church or the church upon a high position; just as Tal-ar (C.) signifies a high land or headland, and as a high rock in St. Allen is called Tal-Carne. W.] Of the ancient lords of which manor I shall give a full account on the other side [see towards the end]; and only take notice here, that within it, and

Next is the church. Near this the family of Murth hath long dwelt. “In the same parish where Killingworth is seated,” saith Carew, (fol. 131), “Master Murth inheriteth a house and demaynes: hee maried Treffry: his father Tregose. One of their ancestors, within the memory of a next neighbour to the house called Prake (burdened with a hundred and ten yeeres of age), entertained a British [a Bréton] miller; as that people, for such idle occupations, prove more handie than our owne. But this fellow’s service befell commodious in the worst sense. For when, not long after his acceptance, warres grew between us and France, he stealeth over into his country, returneth privily backe againe with a French crew, surpriseth suddenly his master and his guests at a Christmas supper, carrieth them speedily unto Lantreghey,” [or the church town in Bretagne] “and forceth the gentleman to redeeme his inlargement with a sale of a great part of his revenues.”

The present owner is Jeffry Murth, esq. who is a Justice of the Peace, and a very honest good-natured gentleman: he is married to the daughter of John Oxenham, of Oxenham in Devon, esq. His father, John Murth, esq. married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Buller, of Morval, esq. Arms of Murth, Sable, a chevron between three falcon’s legs erased, with bells, Or.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Bond has given so good and ample an account of this parish in his Topographical and Historical Sketches of East and West Looe, 1 vol. 8vo. printed by Nichols, 25, Parliament Street, Westminster, 1823, that the whole which is addative to Hals and Tonkin, is here inserted.

West Looe is situated in the parish of Talland, within which parish is a hamlet called Lemain, and part of West Looe lies in this hamlet. On the barton of Portlooe in the parish of Talland, just opposite Looe Island, was a cell of Benedictine Monks, called Lammana, subject to the Abbey of Glastonbury, to which the site appears to have been given by the ancestors of Hastulus de Solenny; there are some remains of the chapel still in existence.

I measured this chapel on the 13th of April 1815, and found it, within the walls, about forty-seven feet long by twenty-four wide. About three or four hundred yards to the eastward of the chapel are the remains of some antient building, perhaps that in which the monks dwelt. The remains of the eastern end wall thereof, at present eight or ten feet high, have two very narrow windows or openings, still in being. The situation of this chapel and house is very pleasant; they lie in a sort of natural amphitheatre, sheltered from the north winds by high land.

In Hearne’s Appendix to Adam de Domerham, is a grant of Hastulus de Solenny, confirming the Island of St. Michael de Lammana (most probably that of St. George opposite Looe) to the Monks of Glastonbury; a grant of Roger Fitzwilliam quitting claim to the lands of Lammana, which he held for life under the Church of Glastonbury (reserving the house which Mabil his sister occupied), and one of Richard Earl of Cornwall, granting the Monks a licence to farm out the church, and the Island of Lammana. It appears that Abbat Michael, about the middle of the thirteenth century, leased it to the Sacristary of the Convent. The Free Chapel of La Mayne in Cornwall, was granted to Edward Bostock, 5th Jac.――_Lysons’s Mag. Brit._

* * * * *

Two of the grants noticed by Mr. Lysons, are printed in the New Edition of Dugdale’s Monasticon.

Carta Hastuli filii Johannis de Soleneio.

Universis Christi fidelibus, ad quos præsens scriptum pervenerit,
Hastulus filius Johannis de Solenneio, salutem in Domino.
Universitati vestræ notificetur, quod Ego Hastulus filius
Johannis de Solenneio concessi, et præsenti carta confirmavi, Deo
et ecclesiæ beatæ Virginis Mariæ Glaston. et ejusdem loci
conventui, totam Insulam Sancti Michaelis de Lammana, cum omnibus
pertinentiis suis, et terris, et decimis, quam ab antiquo, dono
prædecessorum meorum, tenent; ut in omnibus, tam libere, et
quiete, et honorifice, ab omni servitio sæculari et exactione
servili, ipsam possideant, integre, plenarie, et pacifice, in
planis et pascuis, et in omnibus consuetudinibus liberis, sicut
Ego melius et liberius terram meam in dominiis meis possideo, et
ut omnia pecora sua cum meis ubique pascantur. Concedo etiam eis
plenarie decimas dominii mei omnes de Portlo, et ut jura,
libertates et consuetudines, sicut ego in mea curia, ita ipsi in
sua curia habeant. Prohibeo siquidem, ne aliquis ex ballivis vel
servientibus meis, illis quacumque occasione aliquam molestiam
inferant; vel sæculare servitium ab eisdem exigere præsumant,
unde fratres mei, Monachi Glastonienses, in prefato loco Lammana
Deo servientes, ab eisdem famulatu, ullatenus præpediantur. Si
quis autem huic concessioni meæ fidem et effectum adhibuerit, a
pio Judice mercedem condignam inveniat. Qui vero eam in irritum
ducere præsumpsit, deleat eum Deus de libro vitæ, et cum Juda
proditore sine fine pœnas exolvat. Ne igitur facti mei tenor
vacillet in dubio, præsentis scripti paginam sigilli mei
appositione roboravi. His testibus,

Helya, tunc ejusdem Priore, et ejus socio Monacho
Johanne――Henrico filio Milonis――Willelmo
Milite――Grimbaldo――Roberto Clerico――Jordano Decano――Angero de
Surtecote――Jocelino Milite fratre ejus――Gervasio Capelleno de
Sancto――Marco――Rogero Ruffo――Rogero Cileintenat――Willelmo filio
Roberti――et multis aliis.

Carta Ricardi Comitis Cornubiæ.

Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos præsens scriptum pervenerit,
nobilis vir Ricardus Comes Cornubiæ salutem in Domino. Noveritis
nos, pro salute nostra, et hæredum et successorum nostrorum,
remisisse et quieta clamasse in perpetuum pro nobis, heredibus et
successoribus nostris, viris religiosis, Abbati et conventui
Glaston. ac Ecclesiæ ejusdem loci, Hospitia cum arreragiis,
sectas comitatum, schire hundredorum, et curias de factum, et
omnes alias sectas et consuetudines quæ ad nos et hæredes et
successores nostros alicujus jure pertinebant seu pertinere
poterant, de terris et possessionibus suis de Lammena, cum
pertinentiis, videlicet――pro x solidis sterlingorum annuatim
solvendis senescallo nostro vel ballivo Cornubiæ apud castrum de
Lanstavetone ad festum sancti Michaelis. Concessimus etiam, in
puram et perpetuam elemosinam, dictis Abbati et conventui
ecclesiæ Glaston, pro nobis et hæredibus et successoribus nostris
imperpetuum, plenam licentiam et liberam potestatem ponendi
Ecclesiam et insulam de Lammana, præfatas ecclesias, terras et
possessiones ejusdem loci cum pertinentiis, ad firmam alienandi.
Insuper eas, si voluerint, vel aliter de eisdem, pro ipsorum bene
placitodis ponendi, sine aliqua contradictione, exactione vel
impedimento nostri vel hæredum aut successorum nostrorum.

Et ut hæc nostra remissio, quieta clamantia, et concessio rata
sit et in posterum perseveret, huic scripto sigillum apposuimus.
His testibus, Dominis Ricardo de Latur, Willelmo Talebot, Petro
Gandi, Olivero de Aspervile, Petro de la Mare, militibus, Johanne
de Latur, Ricardo Basset, et aliis.

MIDMAIN ROCK.――PORTNADLER BAY.

Between the main land and Looe Island stands a rock, higher than the surrounding ones, which is called Midmain or Magmain. Small vessels frequently pass between the island and the main land, when the tide is in. An imaginary line drawn from Looe Island westward, to a high rock called horestone or orestone, about a mile distant, would form the outer boundary of a piece of water called Portnadler Bay; from whence the name is derived I know not.

CORPORATION.

Queen Elizabeth incorporated West Looe 14th February 1574, in the sixteenth year of her reign, by the name of Mayor and Burgesses of the Borough of Portbyhan, otherwise West Looe, in the county of Cornwall. Twelve chief burgesses were appointed by this charter. The mayor is elected from the Chief Burgesses, by their votes and the votes of the Free Burgesses, on Michaelmas-day annually, between nine and twelve of the clock in the forenoon, and then sworn into office. The mayor is also a Justice of the Peace, as is likewise the steward. The mayor has no power to appoint a deputy. The steward, however, has such an authority; but his deputy is not a Justice of the Peace.

WEST LOOE DOWN.――GIANT’S HEDGE OR MOUND.