Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

That your Petitioner’s late husband was likewise active in his
late Majesty’s service, being a Colonel in the Army, and suffered
very much for his loyalty in the late rebellious times, by whom
your Petitioner had issue William Noye, esq. his son and heir,
who is still living.

Now forasmuch as your Petitioner is advised that upon the death
of the said Edwyn Lord Sandys, it is in your Majesty’s power to
dispose of the said honor to which of the said sisters and
coheirs your Majesty pleases,

Your Petitioner therefore humbly prays, that your Majesty would
be graciously pleased to permit your Petitioner and her heirs to
enjoy the said honour and title.

And your Petitioner shall ever pray.

It is almost unnecessary for me to add that this Petition did not prove successful.

Towednack is now included with Lelant in the borough of St. Ive’s, sending one member to Parliament.

The great tithes belong to Mr. Praed of Trevethow, who, together with the heirs of the late Duke of Bolton, possess the remainder of the parish.

The parish feast is kept on the nearest Sunday to April 28.

This parish measures 2,569 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1483 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 153 8 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 465 | 532 | 582 | 736
giving an increase of 58 per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The extreme northern part of this parish is formed of a narrow slip which runs out considerably beyond the regular boundaries, and terminates on the sea shore; about half of the protuberance is composed of felspathic rocks, belonging to the porphyritic series, and all the rest of the parish is situated on granite.

[3] This is in Ludgvan.

[4] An Inquisitio post mortem.

[5] April the 6th, 1644.

TREMAINE, OR TREMEAN.

HALS.

Tremaine or Tremean is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north St. Mary Wike and Jacobstow, east North Pederwyn, south Tresmere, west Treneglos. As for those names, they are of one signification, viz. the town of stone, or stone town, a place, it seems, notable for those inanimate creatures. This church was endowed by the Abbat or Prior of St. Stephen’s by Launceston, to which abbey it was wholly impropriated; the patronage was in ――――: the incumbent ――――; the rectory in ――――; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year £42. 5_s._ 0_d._ I take it this church is now a chapel of ease to Egloskerry, altogether wholly impropriated as aforesaid.

TONKIN.

Tremaine or Tremean is in the hundred of East, and is bounded to the west by Warbstow and Treneglos, to the north and east by part of Devonshire, to the south by Tresmere.

The name in Cornish signifies a dwelling of stone, or the stony town. [Tre-maen, stone-house.]

It is a daughter church to Egloskerry. The great and small tithes are wholly impropriated; and only £5 per annum allowed to the service of the cure out of the sheaf, taxes included, which taxes ought to be paid by the impropriators of the said sheaf.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons says that the manor of Tremayne belonged to the family of Treise, whose heiress brought it to that of Morshead; it has passed by sale to Mr. John Jolliffe, the present proprietor; but the greater part of the parish is within the manor of Penhele in Egloskerry.

The church of Tremaine, now a daughter church to Egloskerry, was consecrated in 1481, by the name of the chapel of Winwolaus of Tremene, with a cemetery adjoining, since which time it has probably been esteemed a separate parish.

The benefice, as a daughter church to Egloskerry, is in the gift of the Crown. G. W. Owen, esq. is impropriator of the great tithes, which belonged formerly to the priory of Launceston.

Saint Winwaloe, whose festival is kept on the third of March, has been noticed in vol. ii. p. 127.

Tremaine measures 806 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 467 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 43 0 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 91 | 122 | 125 | 118
giving an increase of 28 per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are the same as those of Boyton and Otterham.

TRENEGLOS.

HALS.

Treneglos is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north Warstow, south and east Tresmere and St. Cleather, west Davidstow. For the name, it refers to the church, and signifies a stout, strong, robust or firm church. Under what name it was rated in the Domesday Book I know not. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester aforesaid, ecclesia de Treneglos was valued at £7. vicar’ ibidem 20_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was rated, together with Warstow, as to First Fruits, £9. 19_s._ 6_d._; the patronage in the Duke of Cornwall I take it; the incumbent Wood; the rectory in ――――; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, together with Warbstow, as I remember, £87. 16_s._ which church is consolidated into Treneglos, and goes in presentation with it.

TONKIN.

Treneglos is in the hundred of Lesnewith, hath to the west Davidstow, to the north Warbstow, to the east Tremaine, to the south St. Cleather.

The meaning of this name is no other than the church town, the common appellation which we give to all dwellings round or near the church.

In 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory here was valued (Tax. Ben.) at £7. being appropriated to the priory of Tywardreath, and the vicar at 20_s._

It is a vicarage not valued in the King’s Book; the patronage in the Crown; the incumbent Mr. Charles Porter.

THE EDITOR.

There cannot be a doubt as to Mr. Tonkin’s being the real etymology of this name.

Mr. Lysons says, the greater part of the manor of Downeckney, anciently Donnegny, which formerly belonged to the Dinhams and Cardinhams, by descent from Richard, Steward of the household to William the Conqueror at the time of the Domesday Survey, is now vested in fee in William Braddon, esq. of Treglith in this parish, who is lessee of the remainder; that remainder belonging in equal shares to the Trefusis family from the Rolles and Walpoles; and to the representatives of the Gilberts of Tacbear through Cotton and Amy. Mr. Braddon inherited this property from his father-in-law John Spettigue, esq. who had purchased it from the family of Symons, who resided at Treglith.

The church of Treneglos was given by the above-named Richard, so early as the time of the Conqueror, to the priory of Tywardreth. The great tithes, with the exception of some endowed on the vicarage, belong to the Eliot family of St. German’s.

The vicarage is in the gift of the Crown.

Treneglos measures 2362 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1363 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 129 7 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 196 | 200 | 238 | 183

It is clear from the above figures, that there must have been some mistake, since such fluctuations never take place in parishes entirely agricultural.

The present Vicar of Treneglos, with Warbstow, is the Rev. J. H. Mason, presented in 1804 by the Prince of Wales.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish lies on rocks of the calcareous series, except that its southern extremity reaches the Downs, where the rocks become felspathic, as has been noticed under the heads of Laneast, Egloskerry, and St. Stephen’s.

TRESMERE.

HALS.

Tresmere, alias Tresmoore vicarage, is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Tremayne, east Egloskerry, south Lanest, west St. Cleather. Under what name or jurisdiction it was taxed in the Domesday Book I know not. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Capella de Tresmoore was valued xxvi_s._ viii_d._ which Church I apprehend was partly endowed by the Prior or Abbat of Tywardreth, and the other part by the Prior of St. Stephen’s, for in that Inquisition I read Prior Tywardrayth percepit de garba de Tresmoore 11_s._ afterwards wholly impropriated to the Prior of St. Stephen’s, who doubtless purchased in that title. The parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax for one year 1696, £42. 12_s._

TONKIN.

Tresmere, in the hundred of East, hath to the west Treneglos, to the north Tremaine, to the east part of Devonshire, to the south Egloskerry.

This signifies the same with Tre Mere, the great town or dwelling. [N. B. This name, and that of Tren-eglos, are very remarkable in thus containing a supplemental letter. W.]

This Church, by the name of Capella de Tresmore, an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. is valued (Tax. Ben.) at xxvi_s._ viii_d._ being then appropriated to the Priory at Tywardreath.

It is wholly impropriated, the great and small tithes belonging to Sir John Molesworth and Francis Manaton, Esq. who ought to pay out of it for serving the cure £6 per annum, lately detained by both, the Curate not being able or willing to recover it at law. The Prior of Tywardreth did receive out of the sheaf of Tresmore ij_s._

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons says, that this parish is an appendage to the manor of Werrington. This would indicate its being impropriated by the Abbey of Tavistock, as Werrington was the chief seat of the Lord Abbat; but Tresmere is not noticed in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of that Abbey; but in the Valor Ecelesiasticus of Launceston Priory there occurs this trifling entry:

£. _s._ _d._
Tresmare――Pensio 0 1 8

The tithes of this parish are completely in lay hands. When tithes were first bestowed on monasteries, the duties of the Church to which they appertained, were performed by members of the Convent, who occasionally travelled there, and succeeded each other; the “book-bosomed priests” of the Last Minstrel. In times more remote, secular clergy went on circuits from the Cathedral or seat of the Bishop and his priests; till the inconvenience of this itinerant system became strongly felt, and decrees were made in several General Councils of the Latin Church, enacting that each benefice should have a permanently resident priest, and that a competent provision should be made for his support. This was usually done by assigning to the deputy, the Vicarius or Vicar, all the tithes except those of corn, although others were occasionally retained; but in various instances, instead of tithes, an allowance was made in money, equivalent perhaps at the time, but long since reduced to nominal payments, by the gradual depreciation in the value of gold and silver from natural causes, and by the fraudulent reduction of the standards practised in various degrees by all governments, or lastly, by the non-convertible paper currencies.

The very great difference in the circumstances of those deputies, arising from the nature of their endowments rather than any legal distinction in the offices, has affixed to one the name of Vicar, and to the other that of Perpetual Curate.

It appeared from Mr. Tonkin’s narrative, that the stipend in this parish amounted to six pounds a year, and that it had been withholden by superior force; without doubt, the liberality of modern times has long since caused it to be restored and increased.

Mr. Lysons states, that the impropriation has passed through the families of Molesworth and Manaton, and that it is now vested in Edward Coade, Esq. and that this great piece of preferment is in the Crown.

Tresmere measures 982 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 588 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 50 12 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 129 | 154 | 173 | 171
giving an increase of 32½ per cent. in 30 years.
Perpetual Curate, the Rev. W. A. Morgan, presented by the Lord
Chancellor in 1821.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The geology of this parish is in every respect the same as that of Trenegloss.

TREVALGA.

HALS.

Trevalga Rectory is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north the Irish Sea and Ferabery, east Minster, south and west Dundagell and St. Teth.

In the Domesday Book 1087, it was taxed by the name of Trevaga or Trevalga. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Trevalga, in decanatu de Minor Trigshire, was rated xxxx_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition £7. 6_s._ 8_d._ which probably was a free Chapel, erected before the Norman Conquest; since it hath not then or now admitted of any alteration of its name, though I judge from that Inquisition, that it was after the Conquest partly endowed by the Canons of the Cathedral Church of Exeter; since therein I read, Canonicus Exon. percepit de Ecclesia Trevalga v_s._ The parish was rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £59. 4_s._ 8_d._

TONKIN.

Trevalga, in the hundred of Lesnewith, is bounded to the west by Tintagel, as it is to the north by the sea, to the east by Feraberry.

In an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. this Church is valued (Tax. Benef.) at xl_s._ and the Canons of Exeter did receive out of it v_s._

This Church is a Rectory, valued in the King’s Books £7. 6_s._; and the patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent ――――.

THE MANOR OF TREVALGA.

In Domesday Book this is mentioned as one of those given by William the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall. In the extent of Cornish acres 12 Edw. I. it is valued in eighteen.

[This manor, which has given name to the parish, has drawn its own from Trev Alga, the noble house; Alga (I.) signifying noble, as in Inis Alga, an old name for Ireland; and this affords one instance more of the necessity of recurring to the kindred dialects of the British in explaining Cornish names. W.]

THE EDITOR.

This parish is situated in the most wild and apparently most desolate part of Cornwall, although the soil is not unproductive. The Church stands near to the cliff of this iron-bound coast.

Mr. Lysons states, that the manor giving name to this parish, belonged in the reign of King James the First to James Welsh, Esq. from it has descended through the family of Bolitho to that of Stephens, and that it now belongs to Mr. Richard Stephens, of Culverhouse, near Exeter.

The Dean and Chapter of Exeter are patrons of the Rectory. The present Rector is the Rev. J. T. Symons, instituted 1831.

Trevalga measures 1094 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1,024 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 89 5 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 100 | 112 | 133 | 192
giving an increase of 92 per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are similar to those of the adjacent parishes of Minster and Ferabury.

TREWEN.

HALS.

Trewen or Trewenn vicarage is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north and east Egloskerry and South Pederwin, south Lawanack, west Altarnun. As for the modern names, it signifies a white town or dwelling. The same, I suppose, in the Domesday Book 1087, taxed by the name of Trewin, i. e. the beloved town. The value of this Church’s revenues is not mentioned in any Inquisition, the same being wholly impropriated by the Abbat or Prior of St. Stephen’s, who endowed it, and was Patron thereof till the dissolution of the Abbey of St. Stephen’s aforesaid, 26 Henry VIII. when it fell to the Crown; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £46. 8_s._ 8_d._

In this parish, September 29th, is held yearly a public fair or mart for goods and cattle.

In this parish is Polyfunt or Polyvant, synonymous words, i. e. the top spring or fountain of water, so called from some spring of water that rises in some high lands of that tenement, in which place the Prior of Minster in Kerryer, by the tenure of knight service, held one little knight’s fee of lands of Morton, 3 Henry IV. Survey of Cornwall, p. 41. It is now, as I am informed, the lands of ―――― Hicks, Gent.

TONKIN.

Trewen, in the hundred of East, hath to the west Altarnun, to the north Laneast, to the east Egloskerry, to the south Pederwin; as for the name, the plain meaning of it is, the White Town, but from whence so denominated I must plead ignorance.

[Tre Wen (C.) is the white or fair house, the manor house of the district, so called from its elegance, and then lending its name to the district and parish. W.]

THE EDITOR.

This parish is supposed to have belonged to the Priory of St. German’s as an appendix to South Petherwin, to which it is now united.

Trewen is not noticed by name in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of the 26th Henry VIII.; but South Petherwin, probably with the daughter parish included, is there stated to have paid to St. German’s annually,

£. _s._ _d._
Decim. Garb 15 13 4
―――― Feni 0 13 4

The great tithes belong to the University of Oxford, as does the presentation to the vicarage through the Mother Church.

This parish measures 868 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 796 0 0
Poor Rates in 1831 134 11 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 193 | 190 | 206 | 213
giving an increase of 10 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish is situated on rocks of the calcareous series, which are for the most part like those of Laneast; but where Trewen joins Alternun, bounded only by the small river Inney, some strata occur which deserve more particular notice. It has already been stated, that on the opposite side of this stream, a potstone or ollareous serpentine occurs; on the Trewen side a talcose schist first appears, which is followed by a calcareous schist, with its surface talcose and glossy, resembling the slate at Cotele on the Tamar. This slate gradually passes into a compact limestone, which is light-coloured and talcose, especially in such parts as come in contact with masses of hornstone diffused through the mass. This limestone is quarried and burnt on the spot, but after the selection of such portions as abound with calcareous spar.

TRURO.

HALS.

Truro is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Kenwen, east Clement’s, south an arm of Falmouth Harbour, where twice a day, upon spring tides, the sea makes its navigable flux and reflux to the walls, keys, and streets thereof.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this place was taxed under the appellations of Trewret and Treured, which shews that it then consisted of two privileged manors or jurisdictions, viz. the borough of Trewret and the manor of Treured, now known, and still distinguished, by the names of the borough and manor of Truro, under the like circumstances.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Trewroe, in decanatu de Powdre, was rated liii_s._ iv_d._

By the Charter of its incorporation from King John, the town was incorporated by the name of Burgus de Trewrow.

In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, this church’s revenues were valued at £16. The patronage formerly in Bodrigan or Trenowith, now Edgecumb. The incumbent Pagett; and the borough of Truro was rated to four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £186. 7_s._ That here was a Christian free chapel before the Norman Conquest I doubt not, implied in the word Trewrow, now a Rectory Church; in the glass windows of which, the north side thereof, is yet extant the arms of John Earl of Cornwall, who succeeded to the Crown of England 1199, and was made Earl of Cornwall by his father King Henry II. at nine years old (though he had not the possession thereof till the time of Richard I. 1190, which was but a hundred and twenty-four years after the Norman Conquest, and but one hundred and three years after the Conqueror’s death); which arms were: in a field Ruby, three leopards in pale passant gardant Tophaz, over all a bend Sapphire, which leopards are now called, and metamorphosed in the blazon of the Kings of England’s arms to lions, as it is testified by Nicholas Upton, who wrote his Book of Heraldry 1440, whose words be these: “Monsieur Johanes Roy d’Angleter, port de Gowles, ove trois lyopers d’Or.”

There is likewise extant in the same windows, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall’s badge, in a field ―――― three ostrich feathers with this motto or inscription, Ich Dien, or Ich Thyen, Saxon, I serve, which coronet was won by Edward the Black Prince, the first Duke of Cornwall, from John of Luxemberge, King of Bohemia, at the battle of Cressy, 1346, and ever since worn by him and his successors, Dukes of Cornwall and Princes of Wales; which arms we may conclude was erected in this glass window soon after that victory, he being High Lord of this borough, which is held of his contiguous Duchy Manor of Moris, together with the Coinage Hall, which King John built and gave it; as also the royalty over the whole Harbour of Falmouth as far as Carike Road and the Black Rock Island (see Falmouth) in consideration of twelve pence rent and suits to that Manor Court, which privileges and royalty this town enjoyed till the time of King James II. and executed their water processes all over the said harbour for debt and damage; but then, upon the petition of Sir Peter Killigrew, Bart. it was given by him as an augmentation of profit to Mr. Quaram, Rector of Falmouth, and his successors for ever, but under what rent I know not.

The church was built at the proper cost and charge of the inhabitants, and other pious benefactors, with free-stone, in that costly and curious manner as it now stands, in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. as appears from an inscription in the glass windows thereof, under the name and arms of Margaret Tregian, one of those benefactors 1514; wherein also are yet extant the arms of the Arundells, Bevills, Trenowths, Carmenows, Edgecombs, and other benefactors; however, this church hath no tower or steple of bells as other churches.

And moreover, as when it was a free chapel, the minister subsisted on the oblations and obventions of the altar, so now, comparatively, upon the piety and charity of his hearers by voluntary subscriptions; from whence it may be presumed the rector must demean himself well, and labour hard in his vocation, to get a competent maintenance, at least he must walk with such upright and wary conduct as he that went barefoot upon the edge of a sharp knife and did not hurt his feet; since he must converse with, and have to do with, men of divers principles and opinions in religion in this place, viz. Anabaptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers, as of old his predecessors had with monks, Dominican and Franciscan friars, who were sharers or peelers of his profits by their predicaments. I shall not enter into the controversy whether the Gospel were better preached before churches were endowed with revenues, or since, the one being a motive to pride, sloth, and laziness; as the other is an inducement to humility, temperance, and virtue.

In this church stands a curious monument erected to the memory of John Robartes, esq. that married Gaurigan (ancestor of the Right Honourable Charles Bodville, Earl of Radnor) though much defaced in the interregnum of Cromwell; whose ancestor John Robarts, Mayor of Truro, that lies entombed thereby, mightily enriched himself in this town by trade and manufactures.

There is also near the same another funeral monument, erected to the memory of three brothers of the Mitchells, tempore James I. viz. Thomas, John, and James, as I remember, who, as the inscription saith, had all one God, one womb, and one tomb.

On the west side of this town was of old a Dominican Chapel and Friary; part of their house and consecrated well yet standing; their revenues dispersed into several hands since the dissolution of their house 26 Henry VIII. and now in possession of ――――.

In the centre of this town was a nunnery of Clares closed up, who had considerable revenues, now in possession of Sir John Seyntaubyn and others; their consecrated walled well at Edles in Kenwen, and their house called Anhell, i. e. the hall or tabernacle, was fairly built of free-stone, though lately pulled down, and converted to shops and dwelling houses.

The town of Truro was made a coinage town by King John as aforesaid, and had all its privileges confirmed by a charter from Queen Elizabeth, by the name of the Mayor and Capital Burgesses; and consists of a Mayor, Recorder, and twenty-four Capital Burgesses. The members of Parliament are elected by the majority of inhabitants of the said Corporation; the arms of which are, a ship man-of-war in full course, with sails spread, on the seas, wherein are fishes swimming.

The precept on the Parliament writ from the Sheriff, and a writ for removing an action at law depending in this court leet, must be thus directed:

“Majori et Burgensibus Burgi sui de Trewrow in comitatu Cornubiæ,
salutem.” als. “Manerium de Trewrow, viz. Senescallo et Ballivor.
Manerij sui de Trewrow in Comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem.”

This place is more notable as being the birthplace and honorary title of John Lord Robarts, Baron Robarts of Truro (see Lanhydeiock). It is also privileged with fairs annually, on the 19th of November, the 8th of December, Wednesday after Midlent Sunday, and on Whitsun Monday or Tuesday, and markets weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays; wherein all commodities necessary for the life of man are vended in great plenty at a moderate rate, viz. fresh fish, oysters, lobsters, and crabs of all sorts, corn, fruits.

The salary of the collector of the Custom House here is yearly £40, two tidemen and a waiter £80 per annum.

The chief inhabitants of this town are John Manly, esq. barrister-at-law; Mr. Gregor, Dr. Maye, Dr. Cloake, Graduates in Physic; Mr. Hawes, Mr. Hickman, Mr. Granvill Hals, Mr. Hickes, Mr. Herle, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Mayow, Mr. Williams, Mr. Foxworthy, Mr. Grebhle, Mr. Pawley, Mr. Michell, and others.

Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall 1602, tells us this town of Truro, for wealth and riches, exceeded any other town in Cornwall, and for buildings all other except Lanceston; I think it still under the same circumstances.

In this town at some time lived Captain William Upcott that married ―――― Bruce of Scotland, daughter of Edward Bruce, esq. of Edinburgh; after her death, Anne, daughter of Adam Bennet, of this town, gent. son of John Bennet, of Penton in Devon, gent. a man of approved valour and conduct in the war, who in all the unhappy Civil Wars between King Charles I. and his Parliament, was bred up in the school of Mars from his youth, first an Ensign, then a Lieutenant, lastly made a Commander of a foot company under the Earl of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax’s armies for the Parliament; afterwards he was made Coronet of General Monk’s Horse Troop or Brigade, who specially favoured him, and in that capacity accompanied him throughout all the fatigues of the English, Scots, and Irish wars, managed by him and Cromwell against Kings Charles I. and II.; and when Monk came out of Scotland and returned into England with his army, and restored King Charles II. to his throne.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Truro is situate in the hundred of Powder, and is surrounded to the south, west, and north, by Kenwin, and to the east by St. Clement’s, being washed on each side by two rivulets (of which that which comes from St. Allen is the principal), and which joining together at the bottom of the town, fall into an arm of Falmouth Harbour, and form a beautiful basin and key there. This takes its name from the town, as that does from the three principal streets of which it consists, Tri, three, and Ru, a street, turned to Truro, euphoniæ gratiâ. [See below concerning this Etymon, which is adopted from Camden, and is obviously absurd, as the town must have had a name long before it forked out into three streets; and indeed from the first moments of its existence as a town, as a parish, or as a manor. W.]

This church, which is dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book £16; the patronage in the Honourable Richard Edgcombe, esq.; the incumbent Mr. Joseph Jane, who in 17―― succeeded Mr. Simon Paget, as this last did Mr. Samuel Thomas.

In an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at liij_s._ iiij_d._ having never been appropriated.

Leland (Itin. vol. III. fol. 11) speaketh thus of this town: “This Creke of Truru afore the very toun is divided into two partes, and eche of them hath a brook cumming down, and a bridge, and the toun of Truru bytwixt them booth. The White Freres house was on the west arme yn Kenwyn Streate.

“Kenwen Streate is severed from Truru with this arme, and Clementes Streat by est is separate on the est from Truru with the same arme.

“One paroche chirch in Truru; Kenwen, and Clementes Streates have several chirchis, and bere the name of the Sainctes of the paroche chirchis.

“Coynage of tinne at Midsomer and Michaelmas at Truru.

“Truru is a borow toun, and priviledged. There is a Castelle, a quarter of a mile by west out of Truru, longing to the Erle of Cornwale, now clene doun. The site therof is now used for a shoting and playing place. Out of the body of Truru creake, on the est side, breketh a crek estwarde a mile from Truru, and goith up a mile ――――, perhaps to Kigan, and thens to Tresilian Bridge.”

Nothing can be better described than the situation of this town is here by Leland; only as to the castle, it is so far from being a quarter of mile out of the town that it is in it at the head of St. Pancras-street, to the left hand of the way as you go to Kenwyn church, which by the bye is no Saint as Leland has here made it, or ever called St. Kenwyn. [The difference between Mr. Tonkin and his author concerning the castle, is no difference at all. Mr. Tonkin forgets the interval of time between Leland’s writing and his own. At that time the castle was assuredly out of the town; St. Pancras-street then going up but a little way from the open area by the church-yard, and the castle being now “at the head” of this street.] It lies very pleasantly, and from it you have a view of the whole town, the country around it, and the river, or rather arm of the sea, which, when the tide is in, looks like a fine canal of two miles in length, [and in coming up the canal by boat, the town with its new spire below, and the church of Kenwin with its new vicarage-house above, form a most pleasing view]; but the castle itself is more like an old Danish camp or round, than a place that had been once inhabited, there not being the least sign left of any wall, &c.

At the last visitation of this county (Heralds’ Office) it is said that “the town and borough of Truro was incorporated by the name of mayor and burgesses by Reignald Earl of Cornwall, natural son to Henry I. which as appeareth by record, was done by Richard Lucy alias Lacam, testibus Rogero de Valitort, Roberto de Edune Anvilla, Ricardo de Raddona, Aldredo de S^{to}. Martino, sealed with an ancient seal with a man on horseback.

“And at the time of this present visitation, the 9th of October 1620, was Gregory Frignis Major, Thomas Burgess, Richard Daniell, James Lawarren, William Catcher, aldermen, Everard Edmonds, Henry Williams, Edward Kestell, William Avery, Walter Penarth, Germaine Grees, Francis Noseworthy, Francis Gregor, Cuthbert Sidenham, Humphrie Sidenham, Gawen Carverth, Thomas Burgess, jun., Richard Hill, John Adlington, Nicholas Paule, Edward Grosse, Robert Kemp, Nicholas Stephens, John Pernall, and William Cosens, burgesses, Hugh Boscawen, esq. recorder, and John Michell, town-clerk of the said borough and corporation.

“We find also that the Mayor of Truro hath always been, and still is, Major of Falmouth, as by an ancient grant now in the custody of the said Mayor and Burgesses doth appear.”

WHITAKER.

Here I shall add some remarks that will illustrate the origin of this town more than Mr. Tonkin has done.

Truro takes its name from its castle. This, in Leland’s time, belonged to the Prince of Wales as Earl of Cornwall, and was therefore one of the castellated palaces of the Cornish Earls; it was only a small one, however. This the ground of it shows when the walls are gone. Even in Leland’s time, it was “clene doun;” and the area was used as a place of exercise for shooting with bows and arrows, and for other diversions. It “is now,” says Mr. Tonkin, “more like an old Danish camp or round than a place that had been once inhabited.” What ideas Mr. Tonkin had of an “old Danish camp,” I cannot say; but the castle carries no appearance of a camp at all, either Danish, Saxon, or Roman. Nor is it more like a round, if by “a round” Mr. Tonkin means a Cornish one, like the amphitheatrical “round” of Piran. The only remains of the castle, indeed, are the name, a waste area, and the old mount or keep, the earth of which is nearly gone, and is daily vanishing by application of it to other purposes. This artificial mount marks the centre of the castle, had the main tower upon it, and constituted the principal part of the whole; and a small ward must have gone round it, standing on the natural ground, and forming the offices to this petty palace.

This was plainly the origin of the town:――where an ancient Earl’s house was, however small in its extent, and however occasional in its use, it naturally drew the traders of the country to it. The wants of such a Lord’s household, and the accompanying treasury of a kingdom in a county, created such a call for wares, and produced such a currency of wealth, as made it for its season the little centre of trade to the adjoining country; and a town grew up in time, the weakly child of its castle at first, but able to subsist without the castle at last. Such, undoubtedly, was the origin of Truro. This lay upon the more westerly of the two currents; the westerly side of the town, therefore, would be the primitive and original part of it; accordingly, we see the White Friars’ house constructed with it. From this current it extended, as it enlarged, to the easterly one. The erection of a church on that side, when a district was taken out of Kenwin parish, and the peninsulated ground between the currents was formed into a parish of itself, drew it easterly with great power. The town consisted at first, probably, of the street running from the foot of the hill on a part of which the castle stood, and extending backwards with its yards and gardens to the western current; and this part of course adopted the previous appellation of the castle, and was called with it Tre-vereu, Tre-ureu, or Truru, Treuro, or Truro, the house or castle upon the Uro or Uru, the same denomination of a river with that of the Vere in Hertfordshire, the Vera-lamium of the Itineraries, the Uro-lanium of Ptolemy, and with that of the Eure in Yorkshire, the Uluracum, and the Is-urium of the geography and itineraries.

So originating from the castle, in that primary part of the whole, the western side of the town, and in that most primary point of all, the line of houses above, the town would naturally shoot out next in the line of houses opposite to this on each side of the opening towards the church, and beside the church on each side, drawn on by the strong attraction of the church itself. The roads into the town from east and west would then allure it down to their respective passes over the current; the road from the west then coming down, as it still does, at the bottom of the first line of houses; and that from the east coming within these thirty years by the narrow street near the church, at the corner of which is the rectory-house. The town would then extend from the western access into it, in a street of houses running at right angles with the original street of the whole, and pushing directly in a line from the access. These must have been the three streets from which Camden supposed the name to have been derived: “Truro, Cornwallice Treuru, a tribus plateis dictum,” (page 138); but this last street was afterwards split by the corporation into two, by the erection of a town-hall above and a market-house below, along the middle of it. In this state stood the town probably for some time, with the continuance of this middle row of buildings, with the erection of a coinage-hall for tin a little beyond the termination of it, and with the extension of the two original sides of this third street up to it. It then stretched up the hill towards the castle, ranged over the confining currents on the east and west, into the parishes of St. Clement’s and Kenwin, and expatiated down to the quay and beside it. It ranged over the western current, now probably covered with a bridge, before it pushed up the hill towards the castle, as that line of houses is called Kenwin-street, even by Leland, and this is denominated St. Pancras-street by Mr. Tonkin; that was then the way, the circuitous way to Kenwin Church, when this is the direct way, and the present; and the principal alteration which has happened to Truro since, has resulted from the erection of a new bridge over the eastern current, longer and grander than the other, a few yards lower in the channel than it, lining with the eastern road, and leading directly to the Town-hall and market-house. This naturally produced a Bridge-street, leading up at one end of the Coinage-hall, so falling into what was then the principal stem of the town, and thus communicating with all the branches; and all will be consummated in a few years by executing an Act of Parliament which has already passed, in taking down that middle row of buildings which is formed by the town-hall and its accompaniments, restoring this street to its original width, and multiplying houses for the dislodged inhabiters in the extreme parts of the town.

When the church was originally built I know not, but it was then dedicated to St. Pancras, I apprehend, though it is now to St. Mary, as the street leading down to one corner of the large area at it, which is popularly denominated Pider-street at present, is still denominated St. Pancras-street by Mr. Tonkin; but the present church of St. Mary is of that light and elegant sort of Gothic architecture which took place among us in the reign of Henry VII. and which perhaps might be wished to have still continued among us, as being a happy union of the solemn solidity of the Gothic and of the luminous lightness of the Roman. At this period the church must have been built, the architecture of London by degrees reaching out its influence into Cornwall; and accordingly in the southern window, which is the third from the east, is a date of 1518.

But let me be more particular concerning the antiquity of Truro. The castle is not mentioned in Domesday Book;[6] it was therefore later than the Conquest. It was built by some of the Norman Earls of Cornwall, and was one of the rural palaces, as it were, which they had in the county subordinate to their grand capitals at Launceston, Tremarton, and Restormel. The town must be still later than the castle; yet it is noticed within a century after the Conquest, so nearly coeval was it with its cause, the castle. It is noticed above to have been in the possession of Richard de Lucy. It was incorporated, says the Visitation above, “as appeareth by record, by Richard Lucy, alias Lacam.” “Truro, Truru, or Trevereu,” adds that best investigator of our constitutional antiquities, because the most grounded on the evidence of records, Dr. Brady, “was some time in the possession of Richard de Lucy, a person of great note in the reigns of King Stephen and Henry II. in the eighth of whose [Henry’s] reign,” or, an. Dom. 1162, “he was made Justice of England.”[7] This Richard had got possession of this part of the old estates of the earldom, either by one of those half-alienations, which were only sub-infeodations in reality, or (as we shall soon see) by being Earl of Cornwall himself. He actually resided in the castle, as he is styled in an instrument of Henry the Second’s, “Ricardi de Lucy de Trivereu;” and he encouraged the little town of the Earls, by incorporating it, and so giving it a legal dignity in granting it an internal jurisdiction. He even proceeded to allow it that last and highest privilege of a borough, a freedom of exemption from toll; nor was this confined to the borough itself; it extended beyond it; it extended into all the country round; it was commensurate with the whole county; and Richard must, therefore, have acted with a power, not merely of the lord of the borough, but of the earl of the county, as no one less than an earl could have given such an ample sweep of exemption. The proof of all this lies in the original charter of the town, not now in existence, but referred to in a succeeding charter, and particularised so as to be equal to the very charter itself. The town thus began about the year 1100, was incorporated about 1130 perhaps, and was made a free borough (as we shall instantly see) before 1140.

In the reign of King Stephen, who came to the throne in 1135, and in the fifth year of it, or 1140, Lucy resigned up the possessions of the earldom; as then, “Reginald Fitzroy, who was one of the illegitimate sons of King Henry the First, was created Earl of Cornwall.”[8] Reginald was, therefore, invested with all that Lucy had possessed. This he retained till his death, which happened in the 21st of Henry II.[9] or the year 1175. We accordingly find him extending his more than half-royal graces to his borough of Truro, by granting it a charter confirmatory of the privileges which Lucy had conceded to it before. “The town and borough of Truro,” says the Visitation, “was incorporated by the name of the Mayor and Burgesses, by Reignald Earl of Cornwall, natural son to Henry the First (which, as appeareth by record, was done by Richard Lucy, alias Lacam), testibus Rogero de Valitort, Roberto de Edune Anvilla, Ricardo de Radiona, Aldredo de St. Martino, sealed with an ancient seal, with a man on horseback.” This description shows the charter to have been actually inspected by the visitors; yet Dr. Brady knows it only from the recital of a subsequent charter.[10] The original is lost in the Tower, I suppose, while its counterpart is preserved at Truro; and it runs thus in the Inspeximus, 13 Edw. I. No. 61. “Reginaldus Regis Filius,” not as in descriptive terms the son of the King, but merely as a personal and family appellative, Fitzroy, “Comes Cornubiæ; omnibus Baronibus Cornubiæ, et omnibus militibus, et omnibus libere tenentibus, et omnibus tam Anglicis quam Cornubiensibus, salutem. Sciatis, quod concessi,”――a word that shows even confirmatory charters to do, what our legal antiquaries are naturally unaware that they do, to use the language of granting just as if they were original charters, and so leave us to decide from other circumstances, which are original and which confirmatory――“Liberis Burgensibus meis de Trivereu,” where the note of previous freedom in the Burgesses proves them to have been already freed from toll, “habere omnes liberas consuetudines et urbanas,” the same exemption from toll that all cities (which were in the King’s demesne) had, “et easdem in omnibus quas habuerunt in tempore Ricardi de Lucy,” a plain evidence that they had “free customs,” and that they themselves, therefore, were “free Burgesses” in the time of Richard de Lucy, “scilicet Sacham et Socham, et Tholl et Them, et Hinfangenethuf [Infangthief],” that is, all those rights of judicature over themselves, and over others who came among them, that then belonged to all the manorial courts, and that were necessarily given to the Burgesses of Truro when they were incorporated, and by incorporation were enabled to exercise a jurisdiction independent of the common officers of justice: “et concessi eis, quod non placitent in Hundredis, nec Comitatibus, nec pro aliquâ summonitione eant ad placitandum alicubi extra villam Trivereu,” a privilege consequent upon the grant of an internal jurisdiction, and necessary to its completion: “et quod quieti sint de Tholneo dando per totam Cornubiam, in feriis et in foris, et ubicunque emerint et vendiderint,” a privilege which must have been a very valuable one to a society of traders, and the more valuable from its long reach over all the fairs and markets of the county: “et quod, de pecuniâ eorum accreditâ et non redditâ, namium capiant in villâ suâ de debitoribus suis,” by distraining the cattle, and arresting the persons of their debtors, that came into the town, though they did not belong to it.[11] This charter is without a date; with so many and such witnesses no date being necessary; and as it must have been prior to the Earl’s death, it was before the year 1175.

Henry the Second confirmed Reginald’s charter, as Reginald confirmed Lucy’s; and all were re-confirmed by Edward the First in 1284.[12] But in all these charters, we have no intimation of that grand privilege which we are sure Truro to have possessed, and which is alluded to in the Visitation above. “We find also,” says the Visitation, “that the Mayor of Truro hath always been, and still is, Mayor of Falmouth, as by an ancient grant, now in custody of the said Mayor and Burgesses, doth appear.” The superiority of Truro over all the harbour of Falmouth we see is here attested by a record of 1622; and “an ancient grant, now in the custody of the Mayor and Burgesses,” is appealed to by the record. This distinguishing privilege had been ceded to Truro by a grant of a particular nature; but from the manner in which the Visitation refers to it, the grant must have been so early as to be without a date, and so be like Reginald’s and Lucy’s charters before; and it was probably, therefore, about the same age with them. [WHITAKER.]

THE EDITOR.

Truro has long claimed to be the first town in Cornwall; and the station has generally been allowed, although several others exceed it in beauty of situation. Penzance in that respect, as well as in foreign trade and the magnitude of its internal commerce; and Falmouth in the number of inhabitants.

Truro, situated adjacent to the largest mining district, at the head of a navigable river, and nearly in the centre of population, has acquired the lead in all county concerns, and has the good fortune to possess many large handsome houses, and breadth of streets unknown in the other towns. Here, too, for a long series of years, was situated the chief place of education for the heirs of Cornish families, at a time when the state of communication between places two or three hundred miles apart, rendered it a matter of serious importance to think of sending a lad to either of the public schools. Two very eminent masters of the school at Truro are still remembered, Mr. Conor, a layman, from the north of England, or Scotland, by the tradition of our fathers; and the Rev. Dr. Cardew, by some among the best classical scholars in both Universities. There is a monument to Dr. Cardew in St. Erme Church. It is also understood, that their predecessor, Mr. Jane, either established or maintained the reputation of this school. Mr. Jane is understood to have been a native of Leskeard, and a nephew of Doctor William Jane, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and Dean of Gloucester, who drew up the strong Declaration adopted by the University in favour of the principles which would have retained King James on the throne of England, and when the Revolution was effected, supported the opposite side, which gave occasion to the following epigrams:

Decretum figis solenne, Decanus ut esses;
Ut fieres Præsul, Jane! refigis idem.

Decretum statuit spe――spe meliore revellit;
Quàm rectâ Janus pingitur arte bifrons!

The Rev. J. Jane, son of the gentleman who kept the school at Truro, became a student and tutor at Christ Church, from whenee he retired to the college living of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire.

Truro has produced its fair proportion of men distinguished by their proficiencies in literature, arts, sciences, and arms. Of persons living, I would select the Rev. Richard Polwhele, as an eminent historian, poet, and divine; and the Right Honourable General Sir Hussey Vivian, companion in arms of the Duke of Wellington, an active partaker in the glories of Waterloo, since commander-in-chief of Ireland, and now (1836) occupying, perhaps, the highest office of the government not included in the cabinet.

An individual, little if at all remembered, emanated from Truro in the sixteenth century, if he was not born there. Wood says, in the Athenæ Oxonienses:

“Thomas Farnabie, the most noted schoolmaster of his time, son of Thomas Farnabie, of London, carpenter, son of ―――― Farnabie, sometime Mayor of Truro in Cornwall, was born in London about 1575, and became a Student of Merton College in 1590; but being wild he made no long stay there, but left the college very abruptly, and went into Spain, and was for some time educated in a college belonging to the Jesuits. He left them, however, and being minded to take a ramble, went with Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkyns in their last voyage; afterwards, it is said, he was a soldier in the Low Countries. Having suffered great distress after his return, he at last succeeded in establishing a school in Goldsmiths’ Rents, near Red Cross Street in London, where at one time he made up a number exceeding three hundred generous youths. At length, upon occasion of some sickness, he removed about 1636 to Sevenoaks in Kent, in the neighbourhood of which place (at Oxford) he had purchased an estate, and taught there the sons of several neighbouring gentlemen, by which he acquired considerable wealth, and purchased another estate near Horsham in Sussex. He suffered some loss and imprisonment in the Civil War on account of his taking the Royalty side, and died at Sevenoaks, where he is buried, in the chancel of the church, with the following inscription:

“P. M. Viri ornatissimi Thomæ Farnabii Armigeri, causæ olim Regiæ,
reique publicæ, sed literariæ vindicis acerrimi, obiit 12 Junii 1647.

“Vatibus hic sacris qui lux Farnabius olim,
Vate carens saxo nunc sine luce jacet.”

His principal works are,
Notes on the Satyrs of Juvenal and Persius.
Notes on the Tragedies of Seneca.
Notes on Martial’s Epigrams.
Notes on Lucan’s Pharsalia.
Notes on Virgil.
Notes on Terence.
Notes on Ovid.
A System of Grammar.
Index Rhetoricus and Oratorius.
Phrasiologia, Latin and English.
Anthology of Greek Epigrams, with a Latin Translation.
Tables of the Greek Language.
Various Letters to Learned Persons.

Boyle says of him in his Dictionary, that Farnaby was a learned classic, and that his notes on the greater part of the ancient Latin Poets have been of much use to young persons; that he dedicated his Horace to Prince Henry, the eldest son of King James the First, and that he was most favourably received by the Prince when he presented his work; and that he received an order, or a request, to make similar commentaries on all the Latin Poets, in anticipation, in some degree, of the great work afterwards executed for the King’s son in France.

* * * * *

But the most remarkable and striking feature in the history of Truro consists of the great wealth acquired there by various families in succession during a long series of years.