Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

The first on record is the family of Roberts, or Robartes, who are said to have began their career by retail trade in a house remaining at the commencement of this century, near the north-western extremity of what has been made the great street, by the improvement of taking down the middle row of houses, noticed by Mr. Whitaker, and completed by a new street leading from it southward towards Penryn and Falmouth.

It is possible that the very humble commencement of the Roberts’s fortunes may have been invented since their splendid elevation, to augment the wonder; but certain it is, that they resided for several generations in Truro, conducting extensive mercantile concerns, and accumulating capital, rather than obtaining it by any sudden effort; and employing their savings in the acquirement of land by great or small purchases, or more frequently, perhaps, through the medium of advancing money on mortgage, till they acquired the most scattered estate of any in the county. About the reign of James the First, this family rose into high consideration; they acquired an hereditary seat in Parliament, in a manner not very honourable at least to the Duke of Buckingham, and afterwards became decorated with the nominal office of Earl of Radnor: held the Lord Lieutenancy of Cornwall, with the Lord Wardenship of the Stannaries; and, lastly, the office of highest dignity in the gift of the Crown, the Vice-Royalty of Ireland.

The next considerable family emerging from Truro was the Vincents; in their case the practice of law was added to trade; they repeatedly represented Truro in Parliament, and were among the first people of the county. One of their seats was Tresimple in St. Clement’s, now the property of Mr. Vivian, of Penkalenick in the same parish; but the family of Vincent has disappeared, and their very memory is almost extinguished.

After the Vincents will come the Gregors, who have now been for a long period country gentlemen. The late Mr. Francis Gregor represented the county in three successive Parliaments, from 1790 to 1806, when he retired on account of ill health.

The next large fortune acquired at Truro was by Mr. Lemon. A short account of this very extraordinary person has been given under Germoe parish. His very splendid career, not merely of acquiring wealth, but of high reputation for himself and of benefit to his country, began in the neighbourhood of Penzance; and his removal to Truro is understood to have been occasioned by the discernment of Mr. Coster, a gentleman concerned in copper smelting works at Bristol, and a representative in Parliament for that city.

Mr. Coster greatly augmented his fortune by purchasing the copper ores of Cornwall, for some time without a competitor; and undertaking to work some of the Gwennap mines in depth for copper, which had previously been productive of tin, he selected Mr. Lemon for one of his partners, with unlimited confidence in managing the whole concern.

Mr. Lemon was succeeded by Mr. Daniell, who took the whole of his great mercantile concerns off the hands of Mr. Lemon’s executors in 1760, having acquired the command of capital by his marriage with Miss Elliot, niece of Mr. Allen, of Bath. The late Mr. John Vivian acquired also a large fortune residing in Truro; and of persons now living, several might be added to the list.

Mr. Richard Hussey has been noticed in the parish of Feock as an eminent lawyer, and likely to have attained some of the highest honours of the profession; he died unmarried in 1770. His father, who practised in Truro as an attorney, was the son of the Reverend John Hussey, vicar of Okehampton in Devonshire.

The late Mr. John Thomas may also be included among those who have acquired fortunes and displayed ability at Truro: after retiring early in life to Chiverton, a paternal property in Perran Zabuloe, where he built an excellent house, Mr. Thomas was placed in the honourable office of Vice-Warden, which he executed with great credit for more than thirty years.

Among persons distinguished for talents, one cannot omit Mr. Samuel Foote; he was born here about the year 1720, although the family seat was Lambessa, in the adjoining parish of St. Clement. His mother was the sister of Sir John Dinely Goodere and of Samuel Goodere, a Captain in the Navy, whose history almost equals in depth of misery the well-known tragedy of Penryn; and it is a curious circumstance that Mr. Foote’s first publication is a complete narrative of this most melancholy affair, in a pamphlet signed with his name, and addressed to Henry Combe, Esq. then Mayor of Bristol, in 1741. Mr. Foote’s life and adventures are before the public in various forms.

Recently two natives of Truro have distinguished themselves throughout Europe by a most important geographical discovery. The Mr. Landers, as is well known, descended a large river from the interior of Africa to the sea, at what is called the Bite of Benin, where the river loses itself by flowing in divided streams through a delta created by the deposit of alluvial debris, brought down from the highlands by the force of its own current.

A monument is now constructing on an elevated piece of ground at the southern extremity of the town, in memory of the brother, who has most unfortunately lost his life in a second expedition, intended for the establishment of a friendly and commercial intercourse with the inhabitants of countries thus brought within our reach.

An anecdote seems worth preserving relative to an invention, completely in anticipation of the use now made of steam for propelling vessels in all parts of the world. The mere idea of using this gigantic power instead of the human arm for moving boats and ships through the water, must have occurred to thousands; the mode of effecting the application is the real invention.

About sixty years ago Mr. Charles Warrick resided at Truro, a young man of some family and fortune, and bred to the law; a person of singular and eccentric habits, displaying much ability and genius in some cases, with an apparent want of both in others. Mr. Warrick partook of a taste very common in places situated on navigable rivers, for spending a large portion of his time on the water, or in making contrivances relative to navigation; and he constructed a boat with slender ribs, covered either with canvass or with paper soaked in substances that excluded water: on each side he appended a wheel connected together by an axis turned in the middle into the form of a staple, or what is called a double crank. In this boat he frequently paddled from Truro to Falmouth Harbour, moving the crank with his hands, and out-running all other boats; but no one thought of applying the construction to larger vessels, nor had he, in all probability, the slightest notion, that within half a century similar wheels and cranks, moved by steam-engines, would impel vessels of many hundred tons burden through the most tempestuous seas, and against winds and tides, over extensive oceans, with a safety and a precision almost equal to land conveyance.

As illustrative of the changes in all respects, that have taken place in the last three-quarters of a century, the following curious relation, although trifling in itself, may be allowed to find a place.

A family about to embark at Falmouth, no longer ago than the year 1748 or 1749, hired a coach and horses in London to convey them there, a system of travelling practised on the continent up to the present time; the driver having delivered his charge, made known his desire for obtaining, what he perhaps denominated a back-freight, on easy terms, and a party of young men availed themselves of the opportunity, stipulating, however, that in the event of their reaching a town at any part of the day where cockfighting would take place in the evening, the coach should lie by to afford them an opportunity of being present at the diversion.

Truro has not been measured as a distinct parish, and is therefore included in Kenwyn.

Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 6958 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 1119 4 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 2358 | 2482 | 2712 | 2925.
giving an increase of 24 per cent. in 30 years.

It must be observed, that the amount of Real Property, the Poor Rate, and the Population, relate only to the ward rather than the parish of St. Mary, constituting Old Truro. In a note attached to the last Population Abstracts, it is said that the whole town is supposed to have contained 8,468 inhabitants in the year 1831.

The present Rector of Truro is the Rev. E. Dix, who was presented by the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in 1833. The net value of the living, as returned in 1831, was 135_l._

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The town of Truro stands on the same kind of argillaceous slate that prevails in the adjoining parishes of Kenwyn and St. Clement’s.

[6] Brady on Boroughs, p. 42.

[7] Brady, p. 43.

[8] Brady, p. 43, from Dugd. Bar fol. 610.

[9] Brady, ibid.

[10] Brady, p. 44.

[11] Brady, p. 44.

[12] Ibid.

ST. TUDY.

HALS.

St. Tudy, alias St. Tidy or Tudy, is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north Michaelstow, east Brewar, south St. Mabyn, west St. Kew. For those names, they are all synonymous, and signify St. Udye, or St. Udith, (or the Holy Udith,) referring to the name of St. Udith, the tutelar guardian and patroness of this church, and by the name of Mama Tedy or Tidy,[13] i. e. Mother Udith, it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, which plainly shows here was an endowed rectory church dedicated to her before that time. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de St. Tudy, in decanatu de Minor Trigshire, was valued 1294 for its revenues, c_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £31; the patronage in ――――; the incumbent Trelawny. This parish was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, by the name of St. Udy, £144.

The history of St. Udith is as followeth: she was the natural daughter of King Edgar, by the lady Wolfchild, who was afterwards made Lady Abbess or mother of the maids of the Nunnery of Wilton in Wiltshire, wherein she demeaned herself so well as to her conduct, piety, and purity, that, as Capgrave tells us, she obtained the reputation of a saint, though the author of Polychronicon, Liber 6, chapter 9, tells us, that Bishop Ethel wold sharply reproved her, for deviating from her rule, and being too curious in her attire; to whom she replied that God regarded the heart more than garments, and that sin might be covered as well with rags as robes; to which the Bishop answered, that, though our corrupt mortal bodies were covered with silk, silver, and gold, it could neither procure a minute’s life or health for us, nor hide our sins from God’s sight, but were rather an argument of our pride and vanity, than sincerity or humility.

After the brother of St. Udith, Edward the Martyr, was slain, St. Dunstan had a mind to make her Queen of England to defeat Etheldred the lawful heir, but her piety or policy would not permit her to accept the proffer: she died Anno Dom. 984, and was buried in the church of Denis of her own building at Wilton. She is commonly called Udith the younger, to distinguish her from St. Udith her aunt.

Hengar was formerly the seat of the Billings, alias Trelanders, whose daughter and heir was married to John Trelawny of Coldrinick, esq. by whom she had no issue; after his decease she was married to Dr. Lower, Physician in Ordinary to King Charles the Second, by whom he had three daughters, one married to Edward Morice of Werrington, esq. (by whom she had no issue); after his decease she was married to the honourable Major-General Charles Trelawny, governor of the Royal Citadel of Plymouth, now in possession of this place. Another daughter was married to Captain Mitchell; the third to ―――― Lower of St. Winnow.

Pen-vos, alias Pen-vose. It is now the dwelling of Humphrey Nicoll, esq. Commissioner for the Peace, that married ―――― Cudworth.

In this parish as I take it, or St. Kew, is still to be seen the ruins of a once famous and treble intrenchment of our ancestors the Britains, called Dameliock Castle, and taxed by the name of Dimelihoc, in the Domesday Book 1087, wherein Gothlois, (i. e. purple back or spear,) Earl of Cornwall immured or fortified himself against Uter Pendragon’s soldiers: in which place he was by them slain about the fifth century, as our annalists tell us (see Dundagell).

Damelyock, alias Daimelack, as a monosyllable in British, Scotch, and Irish, signifies the hazard, skirmish, or battle house or place. The lands about this fort and castle, since its first erection, have been enclosed and cultivated, so that now it is comparatively defaced, but not so much as to obscure this treble ditch, camp, or intrenchment, from the sight of spectators or observators, or to obliterate its ancient name aforesaid; but query, whether this Dameliock Castle be not in St. Kew and St. Teath?

Those Billings, alias Trelawders, mentioned on the other side, were gentlemen of blood and arms of three or four descents, and at Hengar, alias Hanger or St. Mabyn, married with the daughters of Blewet of Colon (who gave for their arms, Gules, a chevron between three eagles displayed Vert), Babb of Tingraze in Devon, Hockyn of Helland, and Helston in Cornwall, and gave for their own arms, in a field Or, on a bend Sable three stag’s or buck’s heads couped at the neck Or, attired and armed of the Field. The which Billing, heir of St. Mabin, was married to Hamley of Treblethick 1630.

Note further, that Tredinick of St. Breock gave the same arms as Billing or Trelawder of Hengar, only differenced with the colour of the stag’s or buck’s heads, viz. in a field Or, on a bend Sable, three buck’s heads attired or armed Argent.

TONKIN.

St Tudy, in the hundred of Trigg, hath to the northwest St. Kew, to the north that and St. Teath, to the east Michaelstow and Brewer, to the south St. Mabin.

In anno 1291, 20 Edward I. this church by the name of St Tudy, was valued (Tax. Ben.) at c_s._ having never been appropriated.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book very high, £31; the patronage in Christ Church College, Oxford; the present incumbent Mr. George Allanson (vicar likewise of Budock and Gluvias) who succeeded ―――― Collier.

The manor of Tinten, id est [as the name appears below to be Tynton, Din Don, Tin Ton, the hill house. W.]

In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. (Carew, fol. 47 b.) this is valued in twelve.

This was anciently the seat of the family of the same name. Johannes de Tynten is named among the knights of the county of Cornwall, 17 Edward II. when John de Treiagu was Sheriff (Ibid. fol. 51). Johannes de Tynton (probably his father, for this was no knight) was one of those that had £20 per annum of land or rent or more, in the county of Cornwall, 25 Edward I. John de Tinten held one fee Mort. [of the honour of Morton] in Tynten, and in Trewinneck, 3 Henry IV. (ibid fol. 42 b.)

THE EDITOR.

The church of this parish is adorned with several splendid monuments, one to Mr. Anthony Nicoll, who distinguished himself in the Civil War, and another representing a mother and three daughters kneeling, with various arms emblazoned over them, Reskymer, Courtenay, Mohun, Trelawny, &c.

St. Editha, the patroness of this church, as Mr. Hals conjectures on the assumed authority of Domesday Book, must have acquired a high degree of sanctity at a very early period of life, having died in her twenty-fourth year, after passing her time from childhood in the convent at Wilton, of which her mother was abbess; and, therefore, as it is observed in the Roman Martyrology, “She may be said rather not to have known the world than to have left it;” but she fasted, wore hair-cloth next her skin, and chose to perform every office that was most disgusting or loathsome. In recompense, her beatitude was attested, according to William of Malmesbury, in a most decisive manner; who says, that while Canute celebrated the festival of Whitsuntide at Wilton, he spoke with ridicule of St. Editha, adding, that he never could believe the daughter of King Edgar could be a saint, who had always addicted himself to acts of tyranny, and to the indulgence of bad passions. Ethelnodus, the archbishop, then present, contradicted the king, and proceeded to open the tomb of the virgin saint; when, raising herself up so as to sit, she seemed to attack the contumaceous king; and he, terrified, fell prostrate on the ground, apparently without life; but recovering, he expressed great joy, that by a renovation of his existence he found himself in a situation to be penitent for his fault.

The presentation to this rectory is in the Dean and Canons of Christ Church. The Rev. Charles Hodgson, late student, presented in 1817, is the present incumbent.

The whole parish appears to be well cultivated, notwithstanding that it adjoins the granite district of St. Breward or Simonward, and it is agreeably diversified by hill and dale.

It appears from Mr. Lysons that the manor of St. Tudy belonged to the family of Nicoll, but that it was sold together with Penrose, the family seat, to Mr. Trehawke of Leskeard, by whom they have been devised to Samuel Kekewich, esq.

The manor of Tinten, like so many others, either gave its name to the ancient proprietors, or received it from them. An heiress took it to the Carminows of Boconnoc. The Carminow property passed to the Courtenays, and fell to the Crown on the attainder of the Marquis of Exeter. This manor was included by King Henry the Eighth in the exchange given for the honour of Wallingford.

The manor of Kellygreen belongs to Walter Raleigh Gilbert, esq.

Tremeer was a seat of the Lowers, the birth-place of Sir William Lower, the author of various works.

The Phœnix in her flames, a Tragedy.
Polyenetes, or the Martyr, a Tragedy.
Horatius, a Roman Tragedy.
The Enchanted Lovers, a Pastoral.
The Amorous Fantasme, Tragi-Comedy.
Noble Ingratitude.
Journal of the Travels of King Charles the Second in Holland; and
others.

He died in 1662.

Here also was born Richard Lower, M.D. brother of the former, who lived to the year 1690. This gentleman published various medical works, and some papers in the Philosophical Transactions. One of his works, “Tractatus de Corde, item Motu et Calore Sanguinis et Chyli in eorum transitu,” reached a third edition in England, and was reprinted abroad.

Hengar is a handsome seat, very pleasantly situated on a rising ground, and at a small distance from the house a prospect is obtained of great extent and beauty, in consequence of an admixture of all the varieties of scenery which distinguish Cornwall――granite mountains, undulating hills of the slate formation, deep valleys with streams of water, and trees, and finally the sea. This place was the occasional residence of Matthew Michell, esq. acquired under the will of Samuel Michell, a Colonel in the Guards, who died there in 1786, after attaining his eighty-fifth year. Mr. Matthew Michell has left this place with all his property to his widow, who is again married to a gentleman of the name of Searle.

St. Tudy measures 2881 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4286 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 398 8 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 502 | 512 | 605 | 658
giving an increase of 31 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish no where reaches so far as the granite hills. Its eastern part is composed of rocks which pass into the porphyritic series of St. Breward; the western part rests on the same kind of rocks as those of the adjoining parish of St. Teath.

[13] No such name appears in the index to Domesday Book; nor should we expect it. On the contrary, this place is probably the Tewardevi of the Domesday survey. _Edit._

TYWARDRETH.

HALS.

Tywardreth is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Lanlivery and Luxillian, south the British Channel, east Giant and Fowey Town, west St. Blazey. The name signifieth the house upon the sand; and by the same name of Tywardrai, it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices 1294, Ecclesia de Tywardreth, in decanatu de Powdre, was valued at cvi_s._ viii_d._; in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £9. 6_s._ 8_d._; the patronage formerly in the abbat of Tywardreth, now Rashleigh; the incumbent ―――― Woolridge; the rectory in Rashleigh; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year £205. This church is wholly appropriated or impropriated to the prior or abbat of Tywardreth, before the statute of Richard II.; and the vicar was paid only with £11 modus or stipend per annum, out of the Duchy Exchequer of Lestwithiel. It was the chief alien priory in those parts, which name of alien priors or abbats arose soon after the Norman Conquest, when certain Englishmen, Normans, and French, gave lands in England to Monasteries beyond the seas; upon which the monks built convenient houses for increasing the number of those under their own rule, and to inspect their revenues and tithes, in which houses they planted a suitable number of monks, under a superior or steward. This priory or abbey was therefore accordingly made subject to the Abbey of St. Sergius and Bacchus of Angiers in France, soon after the Norman Conquest (to whom also is dedicated their church of Luxillian).

The history of whom is as followeth: These saints were Christians and Noblemen of the City of Constantinople; the one Primicerius, and the other Secondicerius; that is to say, Sergius the First, and Bacchus the Second, Secretaries of State to the Emperor Maximian; who for that they would not join with him in sacrificing to the Roman gods or idols, were cruelly tormented by the common hangman, and lastly had their heads chopped off, 7th October 310. There is pious mention of those saints in the Second Nicene Council, Martyrologers, and otherwise; and many churches are dedicated to them in Constantinople, and other parts of Christendom; and the place in Asia where St. Sergius suffered, is called Sergiopolis to this day.

This abbey was first founded by William Earl of Morton and Cornwall, according to the rule of Augustine and Benedict. It was afterwards re-edified and greatly augmented in its revenues by Robert de Cardinham, tempore Richard I. 1190, (see the Monasticon Anglicanum of Dugdale); for which reason he is by some persons taken to be the founder thereof.

This Robert de Cardinham I take to be the same person mentioned by the name of Robert de Cardinam, (Survey Cornwall, page 44), who held by the tenure of knight service seventy-one knight’s fees of Morton in Cornwall, tempore Richard I.

This abbey or priory house and church of Tywardreth, was dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle and Martyr of Christ, whose history followeth. He was born at Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, elder brother of St. Peter, and disciple of St. John Baptist, and was present when he pointed at Jesus, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world;” whereupon he left St. John Baptist and followed Christ. Who, for that, after our Saviour’s Crucifixion, he would not sacrifice to the Roman Gods or Idols, at the command of Egeus Proconsul of Rome, sent governor into the province of Achaia, was crucified as his Lord and Master was, 30 November, Anno Dom. 60, in the reign of the Emperor Nero.

His body was afterwards translated to Constantinople, from thence to Italy, and lastly to Amalphy in Naples, where it still remains.

* * * * *

Now, by reason these alien priories transmitted to their superiors beyond the seas the news and state of affairs in this land, whereby the designs and undertakings of our princes were divulged to their enemies in their French wars; therefore all those sort of religious houses of this kind were suppressed by Act of Parliament, tempore Edward III. Richard II. Henry V. and Henry VI.; and amongst them in Cornwall, Minster, alias Tolcarne, in Trigmajor, and Minster in Kerryer; St. Neot and St. Bennett’s in Lanyvet in Pider were put down, and their lands confiscated to the Crown; but this priory of Tywardreth, for its loyalty or integrity, or for some other reason of security, stood firm till the general dissolution of all those religious houses, 26 Henry VIII. when the revenues of this abbey, according to Dugdale, was £123. 9_s._ 3_d._ Speed £151. 6_s._ 8_d._ as is set down in their Monasticon Anglicanum.

Mena-belly, alias Mena-billy, in this parish, is the dwelling of Jonathan Rashleigh, esq. Commissioner for the Peace and Taxes, and some time Member of Parliament for Fowey, that married Carew of Anthony, his father Sawle, his grandfather Bonython, his great-grandfather Lanyon. Originally descended and denominated from the local place of Rashleigh house, in or about Raneleigh parish in Chulmleigh Hundred in Devon.

In this parish, towards the sea coast, is that famous camp or treble intrenchment, called Castle Dore, consisting of a threefold trench cast up of earth, in which heretofore our ancestors the Britons fortified themselves against their enemies; out of which, as common report saith, tempore Charles II. some dreamers of money hid in this camp or place, upon search made, accordingly found such treasure as they much enriched themselves thereby.

TONKIN.

Trewardreth is in the hundred of Powder; for the name, it signifies the village or the house upon the sand. It is a vicarage, not valued in the King’s Book, as having been but lately endowed; the late incumbent was Mr. May, likewise Rector of St. Mewan, who died this year (1732).

In the year 1291, 20th Edward I. the rectory of this church was valued at £5. 6_s._ 8_d._ being appropriated to the priory here; and the vicarage at 13_s._ 4_d._

In 3 Henry IV. William de Campo Arnulphi [or Champernoun] held here one fee, from whom the prior held three acres and a half in the same. There are what are still called the priory lands. But to go further back, as Robert de Cardinam was the founder of this priory in the time of Richard the First, according to Bishop Tanner in his Notitia Monastica, this must be one of the seventy knight’s fees, which the said Robert held in this county, 6th Richard I. who by consequence must then have been lord of this manor. In Domesday Book it is, by the name of Tiwardrai, numbered among the manors which William the Conqueror gave to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall.

Leland says of this place, Tywardreth, “A praty town, but no market, lieth a quarter of a mile from the east side of the bay; there is a parish church, and there was a priory of black monks, a cell sometime to a house in Normandy. Some say Campernulphus was founder of this priory; some say that Cardinham was founder. Arundell of Lanherne was of late taken for the founder.

“I saw a tomb in the west part of the church of this priory, with this inscription:

Hæc est Tumba
Roberti filii Wilhelmi.

“This Robert Fitz William was a man of fair lands, tempore Edwardi
tertii Regis Angliæ.”

THE EDITOR.

The parish church and tower bear on the exterior an appearance of antiquity. Internally, much decoration was displayed, and especially by a rood-loft which has been recently taken down. These alterations of our ancient churches are justly lamented by all persons capable of admiring the beauty and imposing splendour of Gothic architecture, but they seem to have almost inevitably grown out of the change of purpose to which churches are applied. Originally, the chancel, protected by the rood loft and by a veiled entrance, was destined for the astounding miracle of repeatedly transforming bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ, while the outward or less sacred part of the edifice, was used for processions and scenic exhibitions; accompanied by dirges or by triumphant choruses, adapted either to the death or to the resurrection of our Saviour. In modern times, on the contrary, a room is required so constructed as to admit of whole congregations joining with an individual in prayers, or of listening to his instruction.

The monastery has so completely disappeared, that its precise locality was not remembered; but a gentleman of the neighbourhood having taken considerable pains to ascertain whatever could yet be discovered about it, made the following communication to the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1822.

“The ancient priory of Tywardreth has long been so entirely
levelled with the ground, that it is not very easy even to
ascertain its site. Some time ago the present vicar obtained
leave to dig the ground on its supposed site in search of stones
for erecting a vicarage house. The place where he made an
excavation for this purpose appears to have been the east end of
the priory chapel; and as some measurements were taken at the
time, and I have, with the permission of the landlord, opened the
ground in several places, partly with the hope of ascertaining
the form of the chapel, and partly of throwing some light on its
architecture, the following particulars may not be unacceptable.

“The chapel appears, so far as could be ascertained by
measurement, to have been eighty feet long, by fifty-seven wide,
with a semicircular end towards the east, strengthened by four
buttresses of wrought Pentewan stone, two feet wide, and
ornamented by four pilasters; within the shafts are a single
half-column, fourteen inches in diameter. At each angle was a
handsome piece of architecture, as it was described to me, of
which pilasters, resembling those already described, formed a
part, but with the base five inches wide, and the mouldings in
proportion.

“In the vicarage garden, adjoining the west end of the chapel, a
fragment of a stone arch was found, with a fleur-de-lis elegantly
carved in deep relief; the same devise appears on the church
stile, and in a coat of arms in one of the windows of the church,
and appears from Tanner to have been part of the arms of the
priory. The wall of the chapel is the south wall of the
churchyard.

“The chapel was paved with beach pebbles, and was built partly of
common clay slate raised on the spot; the wrought stones were of
compact hard porphyry, from Pentewan Quarry in the parish of St.
Austell, and hornblende from the cliff between Duporth and
Charlestown in the same parish. All the carved work is executed
with much skill and taste.”

Several charters granted to this monastery are preserved in Dugdale’s Monasticon. The earliest is in the 19th year of Henry the Third, A. D. 1234, as follows:

“Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, Dominus Hiberniæ Dux Normandiæ
et Aquitaniæ, et Comes Andegaviæ, omnibus Archiepiscopis, &c.
salutem. Inspeximus cartam Roberti de Cardinam, in hæc verba:――

“Robertus de Cardinam omnibus Sanctæ Matris Ecclesiæ filiis
salutem. Sciatis me, pro Dei amore et animæ meæ salute,
concessisse et præsenti carta mea confirmasse ecclesiæ sanctorum
martyrum, Sergii et Bachi Andegavi, et ecclesiæ Sancti Andreæ de
Tywordrait et Monachis ibidem Deo servientibus et servituris,
omnes donationes et concessiones quas antecessores mei, seu
quicunque fideles de feodo meo ipsis fecerint,” &c.

The seal of the convent is understood to have been a saltire, or St. Andrew’s cross Or, between four fleurs-de-lis, which accounts for the sculptures noticed above.

St. Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland, and popular throughout the whole island, after an Abbat, said to have borne the name of Regulus, had brought some of his relics to a place then called Abernethy, but where a Monastery, a University, and a city, have since arisen to commemorate the Apostle.

The priory of Tywardreth appears to have been suppressed with the other alien houses, but afterwards to have been re-established as an independent society, or made denizen according to the legal phrase, having at the time of the general dissolution the Priory of Minster attached to it as a cell, which had been originally dependent with itself on the Abbey of St. Sergius and St. Bacchus at Angiers, the former capital of Anjou, and now of the department of the Maine and Loire.

A very curious correspondence between Thomas Cromwell, Vicar-General and Vicegerent of the King’s Supremacy on the one part, and Thomas Collyns the last Prior on the other, is said to exist among the papers and documents preserved by the Arundells of Lanhearn, and of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire.[14]

In one of the letters Cromwell is understood to have complimented the Prior on the possession of every active virtue, especially as displayed in the good government of his convent; he assures him that the King is fully sensible of his merits; and in consideration of his great age and faithful services, the King out of special grace and favour would allow him not only to resign the painful office of governing such a society, but would admit of his recommending a successor.

Collyns’s answer is full of thanks to the Lord Vicegerent, and of gratitude to the King, whose approbation he esteemed above all worldly matters, and next to the conscious satisfaction of having discharged faithfully his duties towards the Almighty in the station to which it pleased God that, without any merits of his own, he should be advanced. He offered his most humble and grateful thanks to the King for the great favours profferred to him; but that, feeling his health and strength sufficient for enabling him to continue the discharge of duties which the King had approved, he owed it to his conscience not to withdraw from them.

This brought a letter from Cromwell, declaring that the horrible savour of his sins, his crimes, and his iniquities had ascended before the Lord; and that, unless he immediately relinquished an office which he had most grossly abused, an ecclesiastical commission would proceed to inquire into his misdeeds, and to punish him accordingly. This latter is understood to have produced either an immediate surrender of the priory, or Collyns’s resignation preparatory to it. He was elected in 1506, and died in 1539, as appears from his tombstone in the chancel.

The site of this priory was granted in 1542 to Edward Seymour, then Earl of Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, and Protector. It subsequently became the joint property of the St. Aubyns and the Pendarveses of Roscrow. The late Lord Dunstanville inherited the latter portion, and acquired the former by purchase.

It seems that a manor of Tywardreth, which in early times must have been paramount over the others, passed from Ricardus Dapifer to the Cardinhams. Mr. Lysons says it was sold towards the latter part of the 13th century, by Isolda de Cardinham to the Champernownes, for a hundred pounds. From this family it passed to the Herles and Bonvilles, and fell to the Crown on the attainder of the Duke of Suffolk in 1554. It belonged to the family of Rashleigh, in the early part of the subsequent century; with whom it still remains, including the entire impropriation of the great and small tithes.

Menabilly has been the seat of that distinguished family for a period of at least two hundred years. At the last visitation of the Heralds in 1620, Jonathan Rashleigh of Fowey, who married Alice, daughter of ―――― Bonithan of Kertleowe, is said to be alive, having two sons. The eldest John Rashleigh, aged 34, and Jonathan Rashleigh the second. John Rashleigh, ancestor of these two brothers, in the fifth degree, is stated to have been of Barnstaple.

Individuals of this family have represented Fowey during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Charles the First, Charles the Second, and King William; and since the accession of King George the Second, up to very recent times, scarcely a Parliament has been assembled that could not count a Rashleigh among its members.

Mr. Jonathan Rashleigh was elected Member for Fowey in 1728, and continued to represent that town in eight successive Parliaments, and in the last with his eldest son.

This gentleman married Mary, daughter of Sir William Clayton of Surrey, and died in 1764, leaving a very numerous family, all of whom have been distinguished as persons of ability, of integrity, and of honour, followers of the best advice said ever to have been given by a parent.

Αιεν αριστευειν, και ὑπειροχον εμμεναι αλλων,
Μηδε γενος πατερων αισχυνεμεν.

Mr. Philip Rashleigh, the eldest brother, represented Fowey during a length of time almost equal to that of his father. He greatly improved the family seat, but especially distinguished Menabilly by placing there the most extensive and magnificent collection of Cornish minerals, enriched by others from every part of the known world, that could any where be seen. And Mr. Rashleigh has given to the public, in two thin quarto volumes, fifty-three coloured plates, with descriptions of the most choice or rare specimens. The work is entitled, “Specimens of British Minerals, selected from the Cabinet of Philip Rashleigh, with general descriptions of each article,” printed by Bulmer and Co. the first volume in 1797, and the second in 1802. At the end of the second volume is added a Geological Plate, being a section of the stream work at Porth in the parish of St. Blazey, about a quarter of a mile from high water-mark, containing the position and measurement of ten distinctly marked deposits, with subdivisions, accompanied by descriptions of each; the whole extending to a depth of 44 feet: and what adds to the value of this section, the stream work was destroyed by a very high tide about the period when the volume was published.

In addition to this scientific collection, Mr. Rashleigh constructed a grotto at some distance from the house, encrusted on the inside by some common but splendid minerals, exhibiting also the position of lodes, their heaves, their slides, &c. and this was liberally thrown open to all persons applying for admission.

Mr. Rashleigh married very late in life, and dying without children, left his ample estate to William, the eldest son of his next brother, the Reverend Jonathan Rashleigh, Rector of Silverton in Devonshire.

Mr. William Rashleigh succeeded his uncle in the representation of Fowey, but voluntarily retired from public life to enjoy domestic happiness, with the esteem and regard of every one who has good fortune to be numbered among his acquaintances.

Polkerris, a small harbour near Menabilly, as indeed is indicated by the first syllable of the name, has been improved, perhaps as a matter of fancy, by the Rashleigh family. Mr. Jonathan Rashleigh built a pier capable of giving shelter to coasting vessels and boats; and his son the late Mr. Philip Rashleigh continued a sean fishery for the benefit of the neighbourhood.

Kilmarth, which formerly belonged to a family called Baker, is also the property of Mr. Rashleigh; the house is placed on a very elevated piece of ground near the road leading from St. Austell to Fowey.

Treveryan once belonged to a branch of the Courtenays: it passed by a purchase to John Thomas, esq. by whom the house was built. Mr. Thomas devised it to the Reverend John Thomas Thomson, who died at Penzance in 1811; and the estate now belongs to his son Henry Thomson, esq. resident at Lostwithiel, a magistrate, and late a captain in the Cornwall militia.

Tywardreth measures 2967 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1813 4539 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 735 15 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 727 | 741 | 1238 | 2288
giving an increase of nearly 215 per cent. in 30 years.

This great increase in the number of inhabitants is occasioned by that parish and the neighbourhood becoming a mining district.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Thomas Pearce, presented by W. Rashleigh, esq. in 1820. The net value of the living, as returned in 1831, was 135_l._

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The extreme northern part of this parish, in an angular form, extends upon the granite, surrounded on all sides by the granite of Lanlivery. The remaining parts of the parish are composed of schistose rocks, which next the granite are of the porphyritic series, but become of a doubtful nature in the southern extremity; these latter belong perhaps to the calcareous series, as do also some of the rocks in the adjoining parish of Fowey. The felspathic rocks next the granite, like those of St. Austell, are metalliferous, as is proved by the important mines of Lanescot and Fowey Consols.

[14] A list of the Priors of Tywardreth, and extracts from a
Calendar of the Priory, now in the possession of Lord
Arundell, have been recently published in vol. III. of
“Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica,” 1835.

ST. VEEP.

HALS.

St. Veep is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north St. Wenow, east Lanreth, south Lanteglos, west Fowey river or haven. It was the church of the Abbat or Prior of St. Carock’s monastery in this parish, for whom William Earl of Morton built and first endowed it.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Lanreth. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Wepe or Weep, in decanatu de West, was rated c_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £5. 0_s._ 6_d._ by the name of St. Wepe. The patronage formerly in the prior of St. Carock, now in Wrey; the incumbent ―――― Tyncomb; the rectory in possession of ―――― Wrey; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year, £229.

In this parish is the priory called Carock St. Pill, in which place William Earl of Morton and Cornwall founded and endowed an house of Cluniac monks, and dedicated the same to St. Sergius.

In this cell of St. Syriac lived that celebrated author Walter de Exeter, a Benedictine Monk 1292, as Isaack in his Memorials of Exeter calls him, with greater probability than that he was a Dominican friar, as Bale saith, or a Franciscan friar as Mr. Carew tells us (Survey of Cornwall, page 59); who, at the request of Baldwin of Exeter, writ the life of Guy Earl of Warwick, who was the son of Syward Baron of Wallingford, and married Felicia, daughter and heir of Rohand Earl of Warwick; which Guy, at the request of King Athelstan, fought a combat with Colbrand the Danish giant, and slew him, since which time his valour and conduct hath been very famous.

And Walter of Exeter for this book, and his skill in other histories, hath by Bale given him this character:――“In historiarum cognitione non fuit ultimus,” that he was none of the meanest historians of his time; though Mr. Carew saith he only deformed the history of Guy of Warwick.

The house and chapel aforesaid, except the windows, is now quite dilapidated, the burying place made a garden, and a new dwelling house erected near it with the stones thereof on its barton lands, now pertaining to the heirs of Carter and Sillye. The fee-farm rent of £5 per annum is paid to the king or prince, and is exempted from payment of tithes.

In this parish at Botowne, i. e. cow town, is the dwelling of ―――― Hawke, gentleman.

TONKIN.

St. Veep, in the hundred of West, is bounded to the west by the river Fowey, to the north by St. Winnow, to the east by Lanreath, to the south by Lanteglos.

This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, £5; the patronage in Sir Bourchier Wrey, Bart.

In anno 1201, 20 Edw. I. the rectory of this church was valued (Tax. Ben.) at c_s._ being appropriated to the Priory of Montacute in Somerset; but “vicar ejusdem taxatur nihil propter paupertatem.”

The chief, or at least one of the most noted estates in this parish, is

THE MANOR OF MANELY OR MENELY.

This, in the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edw. I. is valued in twelve. (Carew, fol. 49.) In 3 Henry IV. Matilda de Hewish held half of a small fee of Mort. [Morton honour] in Manely. (Ibid. fol. 42.)

THE EDITOR.

The church of this parish is situated on an elevated ridge of land, and is therefore conspicuous to a considerable distance. It contains several monuments, and in the churchyard is a memorial of Nicholas Courtenay, one of the family to whom lands in this parish, parcel of Montacute priory, were granted by King Henry the Eighth.

There are two places in St. Veep especially deserving of attention. One the site of an ancient monastery constituted on the smallest scale.

Tanner has given a list of the various names by which this little priory appears to have been called in early times. St. Syriac, St. Ciriac, St. Carricius, St. Kerrocus, St. Cyret, and St. Julette. It was a small cell of two monks only, dependent on Montacute; and being mentioned by Gervase of Canterbury, it is known to have existed at the least so early as the time of King Richard the First.

The church of St. Currie, or Karentocus, was given to the monks of Montacute by their founder.

This cell occurs but once in Pope Nicholas’s Taxation.

Prior de Sancto Karabo (or by a various reading S^{to}. Karoko) habet de redditu in decanatu de Westweleschire, et Major Tregeschire, £2.

In the valuation returned to King Henry the Eighth, and preserved in the Augmentation Office, this small establishment is said to possess a revenue of £11. 1_s._

It appears to have been valued as a separate house from the parent establishment, although the return states, Cella Sancti Kaboci in comitatu prædicto, dicto Prioratui de Monte Acuto appertinens, unde Laurencius Castelton est Prior, est dative et removabile dicti Prioris de Monte Acuto.

The site was granted in the 37th of Henry VIII. as parcel of the possessions of Montacute, to Laurence Courtenay.

St. Cyric’s Creek, by which this house stood, is said to have derived its name from a saint so called, who was buried there, perhaps in the very place where the small monastery stood. The place has long since acquired the appellation of St. Cadix; it belongs to the coheiresses of the family of Wymond.

It is certainly a curious circumstance, that a work which engaged the attention and even the admiration of England for a long period of years, should have emanated in any way from a remote cell, consisting of two monks. Mr. Carew assigns 1292 for the date of this work; but Mr. Warton says, in his History of English Poetry, that a life of Guy Earl of Warwick was written by Giraldus Cambrensis, who died about the year 1220; but the history of our renowned champion has been composed in Norman French, and in old English, both in prose and in verse; moreover, the first part of the romance describing the adventures of a _preux chevalier_ combating _à la outrance_ to recommend himself to the favour of his lady love, is clearly by a different hand, and even of another age from the second part, which represents him deserting the idol of his affection; journeying to Palastine; and on his arrival back to England, instead of repairing to Warwick Castle, the abode and rich inheritance of his wife the Lady Felicia, retiring to a cell, and taking alms at the castle gate, on the supposition that a powerful and malignant demon, the creation of perverted imagination in those times of ignorance, and blasphemously named after the Divinity, might be propitiated by such disgusting observances, and by human misery. The monk of St. Cyric may therefore have blended, enlarged, abridged, versified, or rendered into prose the achievements of Sir Guy, and his performance may have been peculiarly suited to the taste of his age.

The second place to be noticed is Trevelyan, the original seat of the very ancient and respected family that has resided for the last three hundred years at Nettlecombe in Somersetshire, which they acquired by a marriage with the heiress of Whalesborowe. The names of Whalesborough and of Trevelyan occur among the Sheriffs of Cornwall in the time of the Plantagenets, and also together as representatives of the county; and the name of Trevelyan may be found in the same lists for the county of Somerset. It is extraordinary that of this ancient seat one half only belongs to the family. It would almost suggest the suspicion of the other part being lost from want of attention, when the intercourse between distant places was interrupted by difficulties unknown to modern travellers. Few traces remain of the ancient mansion.

Mr. Lysons notices several manors in this parish, with their descents or sales, but without any thing that can make them interesting, except perhaps the notice that a manor called Manely Coleshill formed a part of the ample estate possessed by Lord Chief Justice Trevilyan.

Mr. Howell and Mr. Rashleigh are proprietors. The advowson of the vicarage is divided, and in private patronage.

The Rev. Nicholas Every the present incumbent.

It is said that the cavalry commanded by King Charles the First was stationed at St. Veep when the infantry of the opposite army capitulated at Fowey. This station was probably selected for the purpose of preventing a retreat to Plymouth; which however the cavalry effected by passing the river some miles higher up, but not without much blame attaching to many officers on the royalist side, and especially to General Goring.

St. Veep measures 2394 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 4087 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 477 17 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 506 | 511 | 585 | 697
giving an increase of 38 per cent. in 30 years.

Net Value of the benefice in 1831, £215.

Since the above was written, Mr. Every, Vicar of this parish, and a magistrate in the prime of life, is no more.――1836.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish belong to the calcareous series, and are similar to those of Lanreath and Lanteglos.

VERYAN.

HALS.

Veryan is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Tregony and Ruan Lanyhorne, east Caryhayes, west Philley, south the British Channel.

Sure I am that in the Domesday Book 1087, this church or district was taxed under the name and jurisdiction of Elerchy, situate upon the lands of the Bishop of Bodman, now the Bishop of Exeter’s manor of Elerchy; and by the same name it was taxed in the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, where we read Ecclesia de Elerky in decanatu de Powdre £10. vicar’ ejusdem 40_s._; and in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, alias St. Verian as aforesaid, £19; the patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent ――――; the rectory in possession of ――――; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year, £216. 9_s._ by the name of Verian.

Note further, that Cæsar in his Commentaries mentions several places in Gallia, called Elerci and Aulerci, from whence this word came into Britain. Those were of four sorts, viz. Aulerci Eburorices, now Eureæ in Normandy, Aulerci Diablentres, Aulerci Cenomanni, now Mans, and Elerci Branovices.

In this parish is the dwelling by lease of Richard Trevanion, gent. captain of a foot company in the militia, that married ―――― Maunder, his father ――――, his grandfather Arundell, originally descended from the Trevanions of Tregarthin and Caryhayes, and giveth the same arms with them. His son Richard, that married ―――― Verman, was bred up in the school of Mars, under King William III. in his wars, wherein he accompanied him as captain of a foot company in all his Irish and Flanders war; and lastly, was posted to the command of Pendenis Castle in Cornwall, where he died. His son Nicholas was also bred up in the marine regiments of King William III. and afterwards had the command of the ――――, a third-rate man-of-war, and demeaned himself so well therein, in point of valour and conduct, that after King William’s death, he was knighted by Queen Anne, and is now one of the commissioners at the dock of Plymouth for the Admiralty.