Chapter V: Front Matter (5)

In this parish also at ――――, by lease, is the dwelling of John Robins, esq. some time Commissioner for the Peace and Taxes, that married ―――― Thomas, his father ―――― Lawry, his grandfather ――――, and giveth for his arms, of a supposed allusion to his name, Argent, a fess nebulé, between three Robin Red-breasts Proper; whereas, robin in Cornish is Robert in English, and roobron is red-breast.

In the Domesday Book are taxed also the vokelands of two other manors, which I take it are now dismembered and situate in this parish, viz. Treviles, or Trefilies, and Govile.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Veryan is in the hundred of Powder, and is bounded to the west by St. Just, [by Gerrans,] by Philleigh, by Ruan Lanyhorne, and by St. Cuby, [by Ruan Lanyhorne and the Fal,] to the east by St. Ewe and St. Michael Carhays, to the south by Gerrans and the sea [rather by the sea only, Gerrans being only west and south-west].

The name of this parish is a corruption, or rather abbreviation of St. Symphorian, of which name there are two; one, saith Mr. Willis (Not. Parl. vol. II. page 119), “born (as the Legenda Aurea tells us) in Augustinum, the head city of Burgundy, where he suffered martyrdom on the 22d of August, about the year 270.” The other [Mr. Willis’s own words are these, “though besides this person, I find mention made of another St. Simphorian, in Leland’s Collectanea, vol. I. a martyr, buried with St. Wolfran a Bishop at Grantham, to whose memory that church is dedicated. This St. Wulfran’s festival [was] celebrated the 15th of October.” (Note, that in many fines, records, &c. this parish is called Sancta Symphrogia, or Simphrosia, who was wife to Getulius, a rich citizen of Rome, and suffered martyrdom with him and seven of her sons at Rome, A. D. 136, under Adrian. See Le Seur, Hist. de l’Eglise et l’Empire, vol. I. page 516).

This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, £19; the patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Mr. Fincher; the sheaf in Mr. Richard Kempe of Tregony, by lease [from Mr. Weston, who had a lease transmitted, I believe, from his father, Bishop Weston]; who resigning in 1734, was succeeded by Mr. Question.

But the antient name of this parish was Elerky, and so it is still called in the King’s Book, as it is too in Taxatio Benefic. 20 Edw. I. “Ecclesia de Elerky 10 lib. vicar’ ejusdem, xl. solid.” from the great

MANOR OF ELERKY.

In Domesday Book it is called Elerchi, which signifies the swan’s house or swannery; for Elerk in Cornish is a swan, and there are the remains of a large pool under the house, which seems to have been designed to that end.

It is in the said book inserted among the manors given by William the Conqueror, to his half-brother Robert Earl of Morton and Cornwall.

Francis Tregian, esq. among the rest of his estates, forfeited his half of this manor.

WHITAKER.

The original name of this parish was the same with the name of the manor Elerchi, or Elerky; that the appellation of the manor in Domesday Book, this in the present time, and both derived from the manerial house. This house stood upon a rising ground, nearly opposite to the church, and on the west of it, which is now covered with several houses of a mean condition, and yet marked as something considerable to the eye, by a grove of tall trees upon it. The great house, which the ancestors of these trees shaded, has been long down, I suppose; and the mean houses on the ground have been constructed of the poorest remains of it. It was bounded on the south by the lane leading down to its own mills, still called Elerky Mills, and distinctively noted as higher and lower; and on the east and north by its lively brook, without a name, that divides the glebe from the manor, then environs the house, and finally runs to the two mills below. The manor is accordingly noticed so late as the 5th of Charles the First, to have two mills within it. These mills even now proclaim their original relation to each other, by the restrictions which the higher is under to the lower, in not being able to keep up the water from the other, beyond a certain space of time. And the house thus environed by the brook could not have been very small, as it was the mansion of a district, which in the 12th of Edward the First was reckoned at forty-two acres, when so many are valued in much less, and when so few are valued in more; but whence is the original name of this house derived? Mr. Tonkin derives it from Elerk (C.) a swan, and makes Elerky to signify the swannery, adding, that “there are the remains of a large pool under the house, which seems to have been designed to that end.” In all that part of antiquarian researches where the eye is to be assisted by the imagination, and the past to be collected from the broken appearances of the present; every active and lively mind is apt to cry out against the creative fancies of the antiquarian poet, and to exclaim in the language of Shakspeare,

――――As imagination bodies forth
The form of things unseen, the Poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.

But this spirit of exclamation should be checked. What depends in any degree upon imagination, may by minds without imagination be easily turned into ridicule. What is only to be inferred by slow and painful collation of circumstances, will be ridiculed at once by those who are too brisk to be slow, and too lively to take pains. And the very ingeniousness of antiquaries themselves, will at times be a snare to them also, by inducing them to cut short the labour of investigation, to ridicule the dull laboriousness of conjecturing industry, and to leap over the difficulty which it will not take the trouble to remove. On the whole, therefore, I think Mr. Tonkin’s etymology of Elerky to be the only one which is easy and natural, and his reference to “remains of a large pool under the house,” to be sufficiently grounded. There has evidently been something of the kind there. A little dam below would easily make one now. The remains were probably more in Mr. Tonkin’s time than they now are. And these corroborating, and corroborated by the positive import of Eala, (I.) Alarch (W.) and Elerk, Elerchy (C.) a swan, and the undoubted signification of the latter when thus combined Elerch Chy (C.) for a swan’s house, compel us to adopt the etymon.

But this name has been entirely superseded in popular use by the name of the saint. So much was the spiritual patron of a church considered and talked of, that his name was used to the total neglect of the other. But who was the saint of this church? Symphorian, says Mr. Tonkin; and Mr. Tonkin is right. It seems odd indeed to suppose such a corruption of a name as this; Symphorian changed into Veryan. But we see in Leland, (Itin. ii, 112), that the parish of Trevenny at Tintagel in this county, “is of S. Symphorian, ther caullid Simiferian.” This is exactly in point. Symphorian was called in this parish, as well as in Trevenny, Simiforian or Simiferian, in order to accommodate it more to our liquified pronunciation. It would then be sure to be abridged soon, for the more rapid pronunciation of it, by leaving out the first half of the name, and taking only the last, just as Elizabeth is popularly abbreviated into Bet. The name would thus be Phorian, Ferian, Voryan, or Verian; as we have an estate in the parish before, denominated Tre-Veryan, and as the ordinary appellation of the parish is St. Veryan in a record above, and in common conversation Veryan. And the time of observing the parish feast coincides with all, and confirms it; Symphorian, of Autun in Burgundy, having suffered martyrdom the 22d of August; and the feast in honour of his martyrdom being observed accordingly. Eight years ago the feast was agreed, for the sake of the harvest, to be postponed one month; as, upon the same principle, the memory of the parishioners says, it had been previously postponed one fortnight. It is now kept on the first Sunday in October, was previously kept on the first in September, and originally on the third Sunday in August.

Nor can the name of St. Symphrogia, or Simprosia, which is said to occur as the title of the parish “in many fines, records, &c.” be any thing else than a corruption of St. Symphorian. And as a full evidence, I find the picture of St. Veryan and his wife were within memory to be seen in the eastern window of the church.

The square tower of Veryan church appears from its position on the side of the church, and at the south-western end of the chancel, to have been an addition to the church. After the lord had deserted Elerkey for Ruan, the lord’s chapel was lengthened out into a belfry, with a tower over it. The architecture of this tower seems to a passing eye different from that of the church itself. And within, I doubt not, evident traces will appear on examination, of the posteriority of the tower to the church.

THE EDITOR.

There is very little to add respecting Veryan. Mr. Lysons states that the manor of Elerkey, which gave its secular name to the parish, now lost in that of the patron saint, belonged with Ruan Lanihorne to the family of Archdeknes, from them it passed to the Lucys and Vaux, &c. and that it was finally purchased by the late Mr. Francis Gregor in 1790.

The Dean and Chapter of Exeter have the great tithes, and they are patrons of the vicarage; and, what is perhaps without example in reference to so fluctuating a body, three successive vicars have stood in near relationship to each other. The Reverend Mr. Mills was succeeded by his son-in-law the Rev. Jeremiah Trist, and Mr. Trist by his son, the Rev. S. P. J. Trist, who was instituted in 1829. The net income of the benefice in 1831 was £339.

In the charter of William Earl of Morton, founding his priory of Montacute, among the endowments is the following: “Et in Cornubia Ecclesiam de Lerky,” which cannot be any other than Veryan, by its original name.

* * * * *

The late Mr. Trist built a very excellent house on his own land adjoining to the glebe.

Veryan measures 4864 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 6625 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 1255 12 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 1007 | 1082 | 1421 | 1525
giving an increase of 51½ per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This extensive and interesting parish is entirely situated within the boundaries of the calcareous series. The prevailing rock is a blue argillaceous slate, the surface of which, when perfect, is either glossy and irridescent, or finely striated: it alternates with several kinds of massive or coarsely lamellar rocks, into which it gradually passes. These rocks present the following varieties: a fine grained rock abounding in scales of mica; a variety of greenstone or cornean quartz rocks; and dark-coloured limestone.

This suite of rocks offers many objects worthy of a minute inquiry, far beyond the limits of these short notices.

THE EDITOR.

A very excellent account is given of the Veryan limestone by S. J. Trist, esq. in the first volume of the Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall.

Mr. Trist says,

The limestone occurs on the coast at Pendower Beach, and may
thence be traced for a mile and a half inland.

It comes to the surface, in three different places, nearly
equidistant from each other, but at different elevations,
the most inland being probably a hundred and twenty, or
thirty feet above the level of the sea. In each instance it
creeps out at the brow of a hill, and no where appears in
the vale below, where it would seem originally to have
stretched across the valleys, but to have been subsequently
carried away, together with the accompanying matter, by
diluvian action.

In breadth it extends over a superficies of 350 yards, but
alternates with an argillaceous schist, the lime itself
never exceeding three feet in thickness, and that only in
the upper beds of the strata. The lime scarcely amounts
altogether to one eighth of the whole mass.

According to an analysis made by the Rev. William Gregor, a
good specimen of this stone consists of about nine parts in
ten of carbonate of lime.

Mr. Trist then gives a comparative statement of the results from calcining this limestone, and the well-known limestone of Plymouth, that 200 Winchester bushels of lime from the kiln, provincially called shells or foreright lime, are produced from 11 tons of the Veryan limestone, by the consumption of 46 Winchester bushels of culm, more universally known as Welsh stone coal; but that 14½ tons are required of the Plymouth limestone to give the same quantity of lime from the kiln, with the consumption of 56 bushels of culm, which would make the Plymouth limestone inferior to that of Veryan, in about 32 per cent. as to quality, and about 22 per cent. more in regard to fuel. As a cement, its quality is remarkably good. Small spherical masses of oxide of iron occur in great abundance; they are, in the opinion of Mr. Gregor, pyrites in a state of decomposition, the sulphur having escaped.

The colour of the rock is blue, and it is frequently traversed by veins of calcareous spar.

In the schist which immediately reposes on the limestone, mica appears in considerable abundance, and the whole is strongly impregnated with lime. It is of a soft crumbling nature, decomposing on exposure to the atmosphere, and in that state it is much esteemed as a manure.

The floor on which the lime rests (probably the whole alternating formation) is an argillaceous schist, with veins of manganese, which have been partially wrought.

* * * * *

Mr. Greenough has laid down on his map a broad line extending about E. N. E. from Gerrans and Veryan, crossing St. Blasey Bay and ending near Looe, with the inscription, “calcareous matter along this line”.

WARBSTOW.

HALS.

Warbstow vicarage is in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north Jacobstow, east Tremayne, south Trenegles, west Davidstow.

In the Domesday Book this district was taxed under the name and jurisdiction of Treveliad, now Trevelian.

This church was not endowed at the time of the first inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, and therefore not named therein. It now goes in consolidation and presentation with Trenegles, and is also taxed together with it. The patronage in the Duke of Cornwall; the incumbent Wood; the rectory in possession of ――――.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Warbstow, in the hundred of Lesnewith, hath to the west Otterham, to the north Jacobstow, to the east part of Devonshire and Tremain, to the south Davidstow and Trenegles.

The true name of this parish is St. Warbury-stow, St. Warbury’s Place, from St. Warbury alias Warburg. She was the daughter of Wolpher King of Mercia, son to the famous Penda. The church celebrates her memory the 21st of June, a holy virgin, to whom Leofrick dedicated a church in Chester, which Hugh Lupus, the first earl of Chester of the Norman blood, repaired and granted to the monks, and it is now the cathedral there. [N. B. a Saxon Saint in Cornwall, introduced by the Saxons on their early settlement on this eastern and detached part of Cornwall.] This [church] is now attached to Treneglos, and passes in the same presentation; the present incumbent being Mr. Charles Porter.

In this parish is a noble fortification, which perhaps might give occasion of dedicating it to such a Saint as carried it with it such a warlike sound [or, as the fact assuredly is, the fortification was called Warborough, and the parish from it, Warborough-stow or Warbstow. W.] I measured, and took a more particular view of it than I had formerly done, this present year 1731.

THE EDITOR.

This part of Cornwall abounds in military antiquities, but it has been far less carefully examined than other districts of the county; judging from the present aspect of the country, one is induced to wonder that camps or fortresses should ever have been established there, or that stationary armies could by possibility have received support.

The Editor recollects having seen the entrenchment many years ago; that it struck him as much resembling the Roman works in Dorsetshire; and as being of dimensions far more extensive than those of the usual earthworks in Cornwall.

St. Walburge, the patroness of this parish, was the daughter of St. Richard, a King of the West Saxons, who is said to have died at Lucca in the year 722, on his way as a pilgrim to Rome.

His daughter having become a nun in the monastery at Wimbourn Minster, was permitted by the Abbess Testa to depart with several other females who had taken the vows, for the purpose of assisting her relation St. Boniface in his conversion of the Germans, and in establishing the angelic life among the women of this country.

Crediton in Devonshire had the honor of St. Boniface’s birth about the year 680, and Exeter has to boast of his education under the pious Abbat Wolphard. At about twenty-six years of age he undertook the conversion of Germany, but was driven back by the war of Charles Martel. He was, soon after his return, elected Abbat of Nutcell, a place subsequently destroyed by the Danes, and never restored; he left this high situation, however, and, fortified by the Pope’s blessing and encouragement, he went a second time into Germany, where he succeeded to so great a degree as to found the Archbishopric of Mentz; to receive a plenitude of power with the gift of a pall from Rome, so as to establish Bishoprics at his discretion; and with an alteration of his name, which from an unfortunate association in the English language, seems to us very contrary to what was intended. The original name of the primate, the apostle of Germany, was Winfrid, but that sounding neither sufficiently soft nor harmonious in Teutonic ears, Boniface was substituted in its place.

The saint is distinguished by an invention perfectly singular within the period of authentic history; he enriched the alphabet with an additional letter, the (w) double u.

Having ascended to the pinnacle of terrestrial glory, he at last obtained the crown of martyrdom through the medium of an ignorant mob excited by the priests, whose craft he had destroyed.

Little is recorded of St. Walburga except the general piety of her life and the miracles performed by various minute subdivisions of her relics, which sufficiently attested her beatitude. There is a church dedicated to St. Walburga at Bristol.

The great tithes of this parish are in the Eliot family. The vicarage is in the gift of the Crown, being annexed to Treneglos.

Mr. Lysons says, that the chief manor in this parish, called Fentrigan or Ventrigan, belonged to the Priory of Tywardreth, and that it was one of those given to the Duchy of Cornwall in exchange for the honour of Wallingford. Another manor called Donneny or Downniney belonged to Oto Colyn, who died possessed of it in 1466, and has since passed through the families of Champernownes and Arscotts to that of Molesworth.

Warbstow measures 3557 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1727 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 241 16 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 330 | 323 | 439 | 481
giving an increase of 45½ per cent in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are similar to those of the adjacent parishes of Otterham and Tremaine.

WARLEGGON.

HALS.

Warleggan or Warleggon rectory is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north Temple, east St. Neot, south St. Pineck, west Cardinham.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this place was distinguished and taxed by the name of Cabell-an, id est, the chapel, (ab-Capella-an, Cornish Latin) or Neot’s-ton, and at-Cabillian, now Cabilla, i. e. the chapel in this parish tempore Henry III. and Edward I. Petrus filius Ogeri tenet quadraginta acras terræ per serjantiam in Cabillian, in com. Cornub. per unam capam de gresenge, in adventum dicti Regis in Cornubiam, i. e. a grey cape coat with a cape or capouch.

At the time of the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices 1294, Ecclesia de Warliggan was rated xx_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, Warliggan was valued 5_l._ 17_s._ 6_d._ The patronage is in Gregor, in right of his manor of Warliggon; the incumbent Trigg; and the parish is rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax of one year, by the name of War-liggan, 55_l._ 4_s._

Tren-Gove, alias Tren-Goffe, in this parish, synonymous words signifying a stout, strong, robust, or courageous smith, so called for that some such mechanic person heretofore lived in this place, or was lord thereof, gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, from thence surnamed de Trengoffe, according to Verstegan’s rhyme, by me set down under Angove in Illogan parish:

“From whence came Smith, let him be Lord or ’Squire,
But from the smith that forgeth in the fire?”

One of whose posterity sold those lands to Tubb, in whose issue it remained for several descents; till by them sold to Parker, whose son or grandson sold the same to John Trengoff, alias Nance, Esq. now in possession thereof, some time Commissioner for the Peace and Taxes; a younger branch of those Trengoves or Trengoffs that sold this barton to Tubb aforesaid, and were so transnominated from living at Nance in Illogan, whereof they had a lease. This gentleman married Chester, his father Heale; and giveth for his arms, Argent, a cross hammed (i. e. couped) Sable.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Worleggon, in the hundred of West, hath to the west Cardenham, to the north Temple, to the east St. Neot’s, to the south Bradock.

As for the name, I take it to be an abbreviation of Warth-la-gan, the higher place on the downs, or the higher downy place, which will agree very well with the situation of this church and parish, which lies high, and mostly coarse ground, though some of it be now much improved. [War Le Gan, upon the down, forms a nearer etymon. W.]

This is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book £5. 18_s._ 6_d._ the patronage in Francis Gregor, Esq.; the incumbent Mr. Daniel Bandry; [who was succeeded by Mr. Samuel Gurney, of Tregoney. W.]

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

THE MANOR OF WARLEGGON,

[Which gave name to the parish, and took it from its own house, being built upon a down. W.]

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons states, that the manor of Warleggon, carrying with it the advowson of the rectory, has been long in the Gregor family. Another manor of the same name, belonging to the Corytons, was purchased by John Trengove, otherwise ―――― Nance, Esq. in the year 1680, from whom it has descended to James Wyard Gooch, Esq. of Orford in Suffolk.

The manor of Carborro or Carburrow has been for a considerable time in the family of Arscott Bickford, Esq. of Deansland in Devonshire.

The church and tower of this parish suffered most severely from lightning so recently as in the year 1818, when on Saturday the 14th of March, according to the accounts then published, the tower was almost shivered to pieces, and a part falling on the church, nearly destroyed the whole interior, as well as the roof.

The improvidence and carelessness of mankind, in respect to contingent dangers, more especially when they are unconnected with individual interest, is not in any instance more manifestly displayed than in what regards precautions against the tremendous effects of lightning. Tower after tower has been struck in the county of Cornwall, and scarcely one is provided with a simple metallic rod, which would obviate all danger; and, more astonishingly still, vessels of war, with hundreds of persons on board, and merchant vessels, laden with the richest cargoes, are allowed to proceed on voyages, exposed to the danger of utter destruction from this cause, on account of a reluctance to incur an expense almost imperceptible in the general outfit, if no value were placed on human life. On this subject the reader may be desired to consult the writings of William Snow Harris, Esq. F.R.S. of Plymouth, one among the distinguished natural philosophers of modern times.

Warleggon measures 1807 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1,127 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 175 16 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 166 | 228 | 296 | 274
giving an increase of 60 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. D. Clements, instituted 1833; the net
income of the living in 1831 was £125.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish, like the adjoining and parallel parish of Cardinham, commences in the northern part on granite, and in proceeding southward gradually passes from rocks of the porphyritic series into those of the calcareous series.

WEEK ST. MARY.

HALS.

Week St. Mary is situate in the hundred of Stratton, and hath upon the north Marhamchurch, west Jacobstowe, south North Pendyrwyn, east Tamerton.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1292, Ecclesia de Wi-Wyke, in decanatu de Trigmajorshire, was valued cvi_s._ viii_d._

In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, by the name of Wike St. Mary, £17. The patronage was formerly in ―――― that endowed it, now alternately in Rashleigh and ――――; the incumbent ――――; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, for one year, by the name of Wike St. Mary, £170. 11_s._ 6_d._ It is called Wike St. Mary (to distinguish it from St. Mary Magdalen’s church at Lanceston), this being dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as its tutelar guardian.

This Wike St. Mary was the birth-place of that famous minion of fortune and example of charitable benevolence Thomasine Bonaventure. Whether so called from her success in worldly affairs, or from her ancestors, is altogether unknown to me; most certain it is she was born of poor parents about the year 1450, tempore Henry VI. but not so poor but that her father had a small flock of sheep that depastured on the wastrell of Wike St. Mary downs or moor, whereof she was the shepherdess, (see Carew, p. 282, Lord Dunstanville’s edition,) who on a certain day in that place doing this office, it happened that there passed by a London mercer or draper that traded in this country, who was going to visit his customers in those parts, and gather up such monies as there were due from them to him for such wares as he sold. This gentleman, at first sight, observing the beauty of Thomasine, desired to talk with her, and, after some discourse, found her discreet answers suitable to the beauty of her face, much beyond her rank and degree. Then inquiring into her circumstances, as to her riches, and understanding that she was poor, and she likewise inquiring into his wealth, and where he lived, which was as aforesaid; whereupon he told her, if she would go to London and reside with him as a servant, he doubted not but it would be very conducive to her wealth and preferment.

Thomasine replied, that she was under the guardianship of her father and mother, and that she could not accept his proposal without their consent; but if they were made acquainted therewith, and approved thereof, and he appeared to them to be such a person as he pretended, she knew nothing to the contrary but that she might embrace his offer.

Whereupon this Londoner forthwith applied himself to her parents, and gave verbal assurances, that if they would permit their daughter Thomasine to go to London, and become a servant to him, she should not only have good wages and be well used, but in case he happened to die while she was with him, he would so effectually provide for her that she should not have occasion to try the friendship of any other person afterwards; and to strengthen those his proposals, he produced some of his acquaintance and debtors in those parts, who satisfied her parents as to his reputation and integrity for performance of what he promised.

Upon which report Thomasine’s parents consented to his request, so that soon after she was conveyed or carried up to London, and entered as a servant in this gentleman’s house, when she demeaned herself very well, to the good liking of himself and family; when it so happened that in a few years after, this tradesman’s wife sickened of a mortal distemper and died, and some time after Thomasine and her master were solemnly married together as husband and wife, who then, according to his promise, endowed her with a considerable jointure in case of her survivorship; and about two years after, having no issue, he died; and by his last will and testament further made her his sole executrix, leaving her a rich widow whom he took a poor servant.

This dower, together with her youth and beauty, procured her to the cognizance of divers well deserving men, who thereupon made addresses of marriage to her, but none of them obtained her affection but only Henry Gall, an eminent and wealthy Citizen of London, to whom, after he had made another augmentation of jointure in case of her survivorship, she was accordingly married, and lived in great amity and reputation with him as a wife for some years, till in fine this Mr. Gall sickened of a mortal distemper whereof he died, and left Thomasine a richer widow than he found her, aged about thirty years.

After which the fame, virtue, wealth, and beauty of the said Thomasine spread itself over the City of London, so that persons of the greatest magnitude for wealth and dignity there courted her; and amongst the rest it was the fortune of John Percivall, Esq. to prevail with her to become his wife; after which it happened that he was chosen Carver at the table of the feast of Sir John Collet, Knt. Lord Mayor of London, the 2d of Henry VII. anno Dom. 1487, at which time, according to the custom of that City, Sir John drank to him in a silver cup of wine, in order to make him Sheriff thereof for the year ensuing (in conjunction with Hugh Clopton, Esq.); whereupon he covered his head, and sat down at the table with the Lord Mayor of London, and was accordingly one of the Sheriffs thereof. Afterwards, in 14 Hen. VII. 1499, the said John Percivall, was elected Lord Mayor of London, and knighted by that King, at which time Thomas Bradberry and Stephen Jenings were Sheriffs thereof.

By this gentleman our Thomasine had a third augmentation of jointure and wealth, together with the title of Dame or Lady, which she lived many years to enjoy after the death of Sir John Percivall, Knight. After which, Dame Thomasine, having no child by either of her three husbands, spent the remainder of her days, till about the year 1530, when she died, in works of piety and charity; as repairing highways, building bridges, endowing or providing funds for poor maids, relieving prisoners, feeding and apparelling poor people, with her treasure and riches; and especially in this parish of Wike St. Mary, where she was born, she founded a chantry and free school to pray for her soul, the souls of her father and mother, her husbands and relatives. To this chantry and school she added a small library, with a fair house for lodgings for the schoolmaster, and chanters or singing men, and others, parts of which are yet extant; and endowed the same with £20 lands for ever. In which place, during the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII. many gentlemen’s sons, both in Cornwall and Devon, had their education in the liberal arts and sciences, under one Cholwell, a good linguist, as Mr. Carew saith.

But, alas! afterwards, in the Parliament of the fourth of November, first of King Edward VI. 1550, all colleges, free chapels, chantries, fraternities, and guilds, throughout this kingdom, being dissolved and given to that King, this chantry and free school underwent with others the common downfall, and its revenues vested in the Crown, from whence it passed to ――――, now in possession thereof.

There are two fairs kept yearly in this parish on the 8th of September and the 10th of December.

THE EDITOR.

The church is situated on an eminence, and is therefore conspicuous at a considerable distance in all directions; it is large, and built in the usual manner of western churches with three aisles of equal height; but the tower is so lofty as to exceed in height (according to report) any other in the county, even those at Probus and St. Mabyn.

The church town is large; and the inhabitants preserve a shadow of former traditionary importance by electing an annual mayor, who used at least to receive some voluntary obediences from his townspeople in the settling of small differences between them.

The etymology of the prefix Week seems to be less obscure than most other additions to proper names. Week is in Cornish literally, sweet, an epithet frequently applied to female Saints.

An alms, Sir Priset! the drooping pilgrim cries,
For sweet St. Mary and your Order’s sake.

_To St. Agnes._

Then cast, sweet Saint! a circle round,
And bless from fools this holy ground.

These lines are from modern compositions, but made in imitation of others much older.

St. Mary Week is, therefore, sweet or beloved St. Mary; indeed Treweek is known to mean sweet, beloved town or village. The Saxon wick is never, I believe, lengthened into week.

Mr. Lysons says,

The church town is in all ancient records called the borough of Week St. Mary, and the occupiers of certain fields are still called burgageholders.

The ancient manor of Week St. Mary appears to have been merged in that of Swannacot, which belonged to the late Lord Dunstanville by inheritance from his great grandmother, heiress of the Heles.

The manor of East Orchard Mauvais was purchased from Mr. Dennis Rolle by the late Sir John Call.

There is a place near the church town called Castle Hill, believed to be the site of an ancient fortress.

The advowson of the rectory belongs to Sidney-Sussex College in Cambridge, having been given to that Society in exchange for another immediately connected with his residence by Lord Carteret, who inherited the disposal of this preferment from the family of Grenville.

Week St. Mary measures 5,167 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 3,012 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 367 11 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 566 | 612 | 782 | 769
giving an increase of 36 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. Walter Gee, presented by Sidney-Sussex
college in 1821; net value of the living in 1831, £388.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are of the same nature as those of Poundstock and Jacobstow.

WENDRON.

This parish has been already described under the name of Gwendron, in the second volume.

ST. WENN.

HALS.

St. Wenn is situate in the hundred of Pider, and hath upon the north St. Breock, east Withiell, south Roach, west St. Colomb Major; but whether named from its tutelar guardian and patron, Sanctus Wina, or Wena, the Bishop of Winchester, anno Dom. 660, translated to London anno Dom. 666, who died 670; or from Anwena or Unwena, Bishop of Dorchester, anno Dom. 786, I know not.

This place is that San Vene, or Wena, taxed in the Domesday Book, and the only church or district in all that book in Cornwall to which was added the pronoun Saint, of which I have spoken elsewhere. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Sanct. Wenne in decanatu de Pidre 1294, was rated at vi_l._ xiii_s._ iiii_d._ Vicar’ ejusdem xiii_s._ iiii_d._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, £16. 6_s._ 8_d._ The patronage was formerly in the Prior of Bodman, who endowed it; afterwards, when that Priory was dissolved, in the Crown; from whence it passed to Prideaux of Netherton, by him sold to Rashleigh, now in possession thereof. The incumbent Bedford; the rectory in Rashleigh; and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, for one year, £126. 4_s._

About the year 1663, the tower and bells of this parish church were struck down with thunder and lightning, and broken to pieces in a stormy night, and a great part of the roof of the church broken in.

(Here is another deficiency in the manuscript.)

And in particular those lands to the Lord Botreaux, by whose heir it passed in marriage to Hungerford, from Hungerford to Hastings, from Hastings to Edgecomb, from Edgcomb to Parkinge, from Parkinge to Vivian of Truan, from Vivian to Hals (the writer hereof), now in possession thereof.

Of this family was Michael de Tregury, a man of great learning, made first governor or professor of the University founded at Caen in Normandy by King Henry V. He was afterwards by him made Archbishop of Dublin, where, after twenty-two years’ residence, he died, 1471, and lies buried in St. Patrick’s Church there, with this bold epitaph:

Præsul Metropolis Michael hic Dublinensis
Marmore tumbatus, pro me Christum flagitetis.

i. e. Michael, the Metropolitan Bishop of Dublin, lyes under this marble tomb, for whome Christ shall earnestly intreate or desire.[15]

* * * * *

Lan-cor-la, in this parish, was formerly parcel of the manor of Ryalton, the Prior of Bodman’s lands, who endowed this church upon part of the said manor’s lands, with a considerable glebe, at least eighty statute acres of ground.

This little barton of Lancorla was anciently the voke lands of a considerable manor, now all dismembered, held, by the Records of the Exchequer and Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 46, by the tenure of knight’s service.

It is now by lease in the possession and dwelling of the writer hereof, from Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bart. Sir John Seyntaubyn, Bart. and Sir George Cary, of Clovelly, knight, as heirs to Jenkin of Trekeninge, to whom it came by purchase from Botreauxes and Parkinge’s heirs and assigns.

This manor of old contained fifteen Cornish acres of land, before dismembered tempore Edward I. that is to say, 638 statute acres, and was privileged with the jurisdiction of a Court Baron or Leet, and had a steward or bailiff pertaining thereto as dependant on Ryalton aforesaid.

Checkenock, now Killignock (S. T.) in this parish, was another district taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, from whence was denominated an old family of gentlemen surnamed de Killignock, where they flourished in good fame for many generations, till the time of Henry VIII. when the only daughter and heir of Thomas Killignock was married to Richard Nanskevall, alias Typpet, of St. Colomb, which marriage brought these lands into his possession, where for three or four descents his posterity flourished in genteel degree, till the latter end of the reign of King Charles II. when Matthew Typpet, Gent. that married Ringwood, of Braddock, having encumbered his estate with much debts, sold this place and the manor of Borlace Varth to Mr. Joseph Hawkey, his attorney-at-law, to pay costs in defence of actions brought against him by his creditors; and his other lands to Bligh, Vivian, and Hals, the writer of these lines, and left his son and heir a beggar. The arms of Typpet, ―――― three tippets, as I remember.

Tre-with-an, in this parish, i. e. the Tree Town, or Town of Trees, tempore Henry IV. was the land of Stephen de Trewithan, who held in this place and elsewhere, by the tenure of knight service, 25 Edward III. £20 per annum in lands of Barkley’s manor of Tremore (Survey of Cornwall, p. 52), from whose posterity, tempore Queen Mary, it passed by sale to Renphry, whose son sold it, tempore James I. to Parkings, whose great-grandson Francis Parkings is now in possession thereof. The arms of Parkings are, in a field ―――― three pigeons ――――.

In this parish stands Damelsa Castle, a treble entrenchment of earth on a high mounted bank or hill, on the south side of, and contiguous with, Damelsa House and lands. Probably it was erected before the Norman Conquest, to resist the incursions of the Danes, since those three rampiers consist of rude stones and earth after the British manner, as a hedge, not a wall. (See Castle an Dinas, in St. Colomb). For after the Conquest aforesaid, castles in England were generally built of lime and stones after the manner of the French. Probably it was demolished tempore King Stephen or King Henry II. when, many hundreds of those castles by their decree were pulled down in this island, as our chronologers all tell us.

In this parish, at Treganatha, i. e. the Spinster’s Town or dwelling, is held annually a fair or mart on St. Mark’s day, April 25, and another on August 1.

TONKIN.

St. Wenn is in the hundred of Pider, and hath to the west St. Colomb Major and St. Ennodor, to the north St. Breock, to the east Withiell, to the south St. Roche. This parish takes its name from St. Wenna, its female patroness.

This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book £16. 6_s._ 8_d._ The patronage in Philip Rashleigh, Esq. the incumbent Mr. John Bedford.

In an. 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory here was valued (Tax. Ben.) at vi_l._ xiii_s._ iiij_d._ being appropriated to the Abbey of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire; and the vicarage at xiii_s._ iiij_d._

The manor of Borlase, id est, the green summit or rising [as Bar Glas or Las (C.)] This lordship was given by King William II. surnamed Rufus, to ―――― Lord of the Castle of Palfer in Normandy, ever since which his posterity have flourished here and at Treluddero, &c. in great esteem, by the name of Borlace (V. Upton de re militari). [N. B. This is a singular, perhaps a single, instance of a Norman or Saxon family assuming a Cornish name. Indeed I suspect it not to be true; and what is more certain, that species of apples which in Cornwall we call a Borlase, and more commonly a Treluddera, pippin, appears plainly to have taken its name from this family and that place, and serves as a good opening for explaining all those other names of apples which are merely Cornish in themselves like this. WHITAKER.]

THE EDITOR.

It seems that Great Skewish, in this parish, belonged to a family of that name, one of whom was an author at a period so early as the reign of Henry the Sixth, when he compiled an abridgment of the Chronicles and the Wars of Troy; but in all probability the work has never been printed, since it is not noticed by Warton; nor is the author’s name to be found in the catalogues of our public libraries.

But the glory of this parish is Michael Tregury, Archbishop of Dublin.

Six or seven years ago, my attention having been drawn to this individual, who may justly be considered an honour to Cornwall, I applied to the Very Reverend J. R. Dawson, Dean of St. Patrick’s, through his brother the Right Honourable George Robert Dawson, when the Dean most kindly and liberally supplied me with a drawing of Archbishop Tregury’s tomb, as it is restored by the celebrated Doctor Swift, and furnished me with all the particulars known of my distinguished countryman.

I procured a wood engraving to be made of the drawing, and sent it, with whatever I could collect of Tregury, to the Gentleman’s Magazine, a reprint of which will here be inserted:

Mr. URBAN, _Tredrea, Cornwall, March 2, 1831._

You will much gratify me, and, I may venture to add, many other
correspondents, by inserting in your most excellent repository,
which has now survived one century with a spirit and vigour that
give promise for its continuing through another, some particulars
of an individual sprung from this county, who must have been a
man of talent and of learning sufficient for adding lustre to any
origin; but who is now almost entirely forgotten, his family
having long since become extinct, and the records of the
University, of the Church, of the Diocese, and of the Province
over which he presided, having in great measure perished in the
devastations of the civil war, and especially of those aggravated
by religious dissensions.

Mr. Lysons, in his History of Cornwall, states, that in the
parish of St. Wenn is situated Tregury, Tregurra, or Tregurtha,
the seat of a family so called, of whom was Michael de Tregury,
Archbishop of Dublin, who died in 1471. The last heir male of the
elder branch of this family died in the reign of Henry the Fifth,
leaving three daughters coheirs, who sold this barton to the
family of Botreaux, from whom it passed successively, by
inheritance or sale, through the families of Hungerford,
Hastings, Edgcumbe, Parkins, and Vivian, to Mr. William Hals, who
wrote the Parochial History of Cornwall, and resided here in the
latter part of his life. The estate, now called Tregotha, is the
property of Thomas Rawlings, Esq.

This brief notice of the Archbishop scarcely made any impression
on my mind beyond a mere recollection of the circumstance, when a
Cornish gentleman informed me that he had observed a monument to
this Prelate in the Cathedral at Dublin. I then took the liberty
of applying, through Mr. Dawson, Member for the County of
Londonderry, to his brother the Dean of St. Patrick’s, who not
only gave me every information and reference that is known to
exist, but also a drawing of the monument, of which I have sent a
wood engraving.――Since this was engraved, I have seen a tracing
tracing from an old drawing in the possession of Sir William
Betham, Ulster King at Arms, which shows that the sides of the
original altar-tomb were adorned with trefoil-headed arches
rising from short pillars.

It appears that few records are extant of the Prelates and
Dignitaries of Dublin prior to the Reformation, in places where
they might most reasonably have been expected to be found; and
the monument itself would have perished but for the care and
attention of the celebrated Doctor Jonathan Swift, who, with the
Chapter, exactly a hundred years ago, rescued it from a
dilapidated chapel, and carried the monument to its present
situation in the Cathedral.

Michael Tregury attained his reputation for learning at the
University of Oxford. He was Junior Proctor in the year 1434,
under which Anthony Wood gives the following notice of him in his
“Fasti.” He “was now Fellow of Exeter College, and about these
times Principal of several Halls successively that stood near to
the said College. But the King, having a special respect for him
(being now accounted the utmost ornament of the University), made
him Prefect or Governor of [the College at] Caen in Normandy,
lately erected by King Henry the Fifth of England; which office
he performing with singular applause, became at length, through
divers preferments (of which the Deanery of St. Michael of
Pencryche[16] was one) Archbishop of Dublin in Ireland.”

The foundation of the College or University of Caen, is again
mentioned by Wood in his Annals, under 1417. In consequence, he
says, of discontents regarding preferment and tithes, “the
corruptness of provisions, and especially the wars between
England and France, many dispersed themselves to other places.
And because Normandy, Angiers, Poyctou, Aquitaine, Bretagne,
Gascoigne, and other places that were subject to the Crown of
England, could not for that reason exercise their Scholastical
Arts at Paris publicly and without murmurings, they receded to
Caen in Normandy,[17] and studied there, which place Henry the
Fifth, of England, made an University, causing one Michael
Tregorie, an Oxford Doctor, sometime Fellow of Exeter College, to
be governor and reader there, to the end that the doctrine of the
University of Oxford might dilate itself and take root in those
parts.”

The following memoir is extracted from Ware’s History of Ireland,
vol. I. p. 359:

“Before the close of the same year (1449), Michael Tregury, a
native of Cornwall, and Doctor of Divinity of the University of
Oxford, was consecrated Archbishop of this See. He was a man of
such great eminence for learning and wisdom, that in the year
1418, King Henry the Fifth invited him over to Caen in Normandy,
to take upon him the government of a College, which that Monarch
had then founded in the said city; to whom he joined, out of the
Mendicant Friars, learned professors in all sciences.[18] There
he is said to have discharged the trust committed to him with
great applause, both by his public prelections and writings. A
catalogue of his works may be seen in Bale and Pits. At last,
upon the death of Talbot in 1449, he was promoted to this See by
a papal provision, and was the same year, on the 10th of February
(English style), restored to the temporalities by King Henry the
Sixth, whose Chaplain he was: [But was obliged to submit himself
to the King’s favour, and renounce every clause in his Bull
prejudicial to the Crown.[19]] He was called into the Privy
Council immediately, and had twenty pounds per annum[20] granted
him by the King, _pro sano consilio_, for giving good counsel, as
his predecessors, Archbishops of Dublin, who were of the Council,
had; and in 1453 King Henry the Sixth, for securing an arrear of
two years and a half, and the growing salary, granted him a
custodium on the manor of Tassagard, and the town of Ballachise,
parcel thereof, to continue during the time he should be
Archbishop of Dublin.[21]

“In certain Annals ascribed to Dudley Firbisse, there is a
mention made under the year 1453, that an Archbishop of Dublin
was taken prisoner at sea. I must leave the passage to the credit
of the Annalist, not having met any hint of it elsewhere. There
is extant in the Black Book of the Archbishop of Dublin (p. 82),
a copy of a Bull of Pope Pius the Second, dated the 23d of
November 1462, and directed to the Bishop and Archdeaconry of
Ossory, commanding them to pronounce excommunicated, Geofrey
Harold, Thomas and Edmund his sons, Patrick Birne, Thady Sheriff,
Thomas Becagh, Robert Burnell, and other laymen of the city and
diocese of Dublin, for laying violent hands on this Prelate, and
committing him to prison; and that they should keep them under
excommunication until they went to Rome for absolution, with the
testimonials of the Bishop and Archdeacon. The reason of this
insult is no where mentioned, that I can find. He repaired the
manor house of Tawlaght, and died there in a very advanced age,
on the 21st of December 1471; having governed this See about
twenty-two years. His remains were conveyed to Dublin, attended
by the clergy and citizens, and buried in St. Patrick’s Church,
near St. Stephen’s altar [as he had directed by his will], where
heretofore might have been seen a specious monument, adorned with
his statue, of elegant workmanship, on which are inscribed the
following verses, penned without the aid of the Muses:

‘Præsul Metropolis Michael hic Dubliniensis
Marmore tumbatus, pro me Christum flagitetis.’

And at the head of the statue,

‘Jesus est Salvator meus.’

“This monument was found under the rubbish in St Stephen’s
Chapel; the cover of it was preserved by the care of the Rev. Dr.
Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick’s, and the Chapter, who in
the year 1730 fixed it up in the wall, on the left hand, as you
enter the west gate, between the said gate and the place where
heretofore the Consistory Court was held; and they have placed
this inscription over it: ‘Vetus hoc Monumentum, è ruderibus
Capellæ Divi Stephani nuper instauratæ erutum, Decanus et
Capitulum hùc transferri curaverunt, A.D. 1730.’