BOYTON.
HALS.
Boyton is situate in the hundred of Stratton, and hath upon the east the Tamer River, south Warrington, north Tamerton, west North Pedyrwyn, and as a mark of its antiquity and grandeur it was taxed in the Domesday Roll 1067 or 1087, by the present name. In the Inquisition of the Bishop of Lincoln and Winchester before-mentioned, Capella de Boyeton, in Decanatu de Stratone, was rated xxxs. but whether rectory or vicarage I am ignorant; the same not being mentioned either in Wolsey’s Inquisition or Valor Beneficiorum. The patronage in ——. The incumbent ——. This parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, £89. 14s.
Most probable it seems to me, that this place was denominated Boyton in memory of a colony of the Boii Gauls, that out of that country of Gaul first planted themselves here; who were a people on the further side of the Rhine, that with the Helvetians first invaded Gaul, as Cæsar informs us, and placed themselves amongst the Hedui, a people of Gallia Celtica, near the Loire River, and possessed a great part of Burgundy; Cæsar also makes Boia in Gaul the name of a town.
Bradridge in this parish, the broad ridge or farrow of land (Saxon), is the dwelling of John Hoblyn, Esq. barrister at law, son of Mr. Hoblyn, attorney at law, of Bodmin; which place came to this gentleman by marriage with the sole daughter and heir of William Symons, Gent. attorney at law, as it did to him by marriage with the daughter and heir of Heale.
The Heales’ arms are, Party per fess Argent and Sable, a pole counterchanged with three trefoils, one on each side the pole in chief, and the other thereon, in base counterchanged.
At Northcott, in this parish, temp. Queen Mary, lived Agnes Prest, but where born, or what her maiden name was, is to me unknown, whose merit challengeth to be recorded in this place, as being the only martyr that suffered death for the Protestant religion in the diocese of Exon during the said Queen’s reign. She is described by Holinshed, Howell, alias Hooker, and by Fuller from them, to be a contemptible woman in respect of her person, (as St. Paul was for a man,) little, and short of stature, and of a brownish complexion. She was indicted, as Mr. Vowell says, at Launceston, in this county, upon Monday the fourth week in Lent, the 2d and 3d of Philip and Mary, before the Grand Jury there assembled. The matter suggested in the Bill was: “For that she denied the Real Presence in the sacrament of the altar; and for saying the same was but a sign and figure of Christ’s body; and that no Christian doth eat the body of Christ carnally, but spiritually.” The evidence against her were her own husband and children; from whom she fled, for that they would compel her, by force, to be present at the celebration of mass. Notwithstanding, upon their testimonies the bill was found, and indorsed, “Billa vera.” Whereupon she came to her trial before William Starford, then Justice of Assize, (probably he that wrote the Pleas of the Crown,) where, upon a full hearing of the case, the Petty Jury also found her guilty, on the testimony aforesaid; after which she was presented to James Turbervill, Bishop of Exeter, for further examination on the premises, but she persisting in her former opinion, was by him condemned as a heretic.
After her condemnation, she refused to receive any money from well-disposed people, that formerly relieved her, saying, she was going to that City where money had no mastery. Soon after she was delivered over to the secular power to be burnt, to Robert Cary, of Cockington, Esq. then Sheriff of Devonshire, or to his Under Sheriff, who saw her executed at Southernhay, without the walls of Exon, in the 54th year of her age, and in
the month of November, 1558. This was the only person in whose persecution Bishop Turbervill did appear, in matters of religion, during the time he sat in that see, (consecrated Sept. 8, 1555, deprived in January 1560,) and, as Dr. Fuller saith, her death was procured more by the violence of Blackston, the Chancellor, than by any persecution of the Bishop.
And here it may not be impertinent to show, that our ancestors the Britons of Cornwall received and took the blessed Sacrament in the same sense as this martyr Agnes Prest did receive it; that is by faith only, contrary to the doctrine of Transubstantiation: as is evident from Mount Calvary, a manuscript in verse in the Cornish tongue, written about five hundred years since, a copy of which is now in my own custody, which containeth the history of the Incarnation and Passion of Christ, according to St. John’s Gospel; wherein, amongst others, verse the 79th containeth these words:[19]
Du benegas an bara, therag ay ys abestlye,
An gorfe ay ma, eshenna, ynmeth Chrest, sur rag rye why
Kemeras a berth, en bysma, dispersys henna nos avyth
Dybbery tho gans cregyans, thu da gober teck hag gevyth
Hay gwynsa wor an foys, ef a ranas in tretha
Yn meth Chrest, henna ys goyse ow, evough why pur Cherity.
Which sounds thus in English:
God blessed the bread in presence (or among) his Apostles (or Disciples);
The body of me in this, saith Christ, certainly given for you;
Taken secretly, and in this world despised, this night shall be.
Eat it with faith, thy good, fair reward, and remission.
And the wine on the wall he divided amongst them:
Says Christ, this is my blood; drink you in pure charity.
Anno Dom. 1050, Berengarius, a deacon of Angiers in France, disproved and refuted the doctrine of Transubstantiation in a large manuscript, which he sent with letters to Lanfrank, then Abbat of Caen in Normandy, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury from 1070 to 1089, which letters and reasons, in the absence of Lanfrank, being opened by some of his clergy, the same were transmitted to Pope Leo IX. whereupon calling a council at Rome, and the letters and reasons of Berengarius being read, he was condemned for an heretic in 1051. In France also the same year, Pope Leo IX. assembled another council at Versailles against Berengarius, which likewise condemned him for a heretic. The like did Victor II. successor of Pope Leo IX. in 1055, in which council Berengarius answered personally for himself; That, as to the doctrine he taught concerning the Sacrament, he adhered to no particular opinion of his own, but to that which was the ancient and common doctrine of the universal Church.
After Pope Victor II. his successor Pope Nicholas II. assembled at Rome a council of a hundred and thirteen Bishops against Berengarius’ doctrine; who thereupon submitted the same to the Pope and his councils’ correction, who prescribed him a form of recantation. But afterwards he published a refutation of that recantation, and of the doctrines therein contained, anno 1059. Notwithstanding which, the fourth council of Lateran, under Pope Innocent III. in 1160, (Frederick II. being then Emperor), consisting of four hundred bishops and holy fathers, established the Roman doctrine of Transubstantiantion, which was afterwards further confirmed by another council at Lateran, in Rome, under Pope Innocent V. an. Dom. 1215.
TONKIN.
The etymology of this name, Boyeton, may be either from the Cornish word “byu,” which is pronounced like
“boy,” or from the French “bois,” a wood, which agrees extremely well with its situation in the midst of woods.
I take most if not all the parish to be a part of or holden from the manor of Boyton, which belonged to the Priory of Launceston, and was ultimately given, inter alia, by King Henry the Eighth, to the Duchy of Cornwall, in exchange for the honour of Wallingford.
THE EDITOR.
For a detailed account of Berengarius, see Le Grand Dictionaire Historique, par Moreri, under the word Berenger, who refers to a great variety of authorities.
The account given of Agnes Prest is curious, if she alone suffered in the whole diocese of Exeter during Queen Mary’s persecution. They still exhibit at Exeter the place of her martyrdom, and are persuaded that grass has refused to grow on the spot ever since.
The measurement of this parish is 3,710 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| The annual value of Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 1477 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 240 | 5 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 319 | in 1811, 402 | in 1821, 406 | in 1831, 452. |
Increase on an hundred in 30 years 41.7, or more than 41½ per cent.
Present Vicar, Rev. Edward Rudall, instituted 1826.
The hamlet of Northcot lies in Devonshire, and is therefore not included.
Dr. Boase observes, the dunstone of Devonshire, so ably described by the late Rev. J. E. Conybeare, in the 2d vol. of the Transactions of the Geological Society of London, p. 495, constitutes the rock of this parish. Its compact varieties are very quartzose, and form barren hills; but the schistose dunstone produces a good substratum, which near the Tamar affords productive arable and pasture land.
[19] The whole of Mount Calvary, with a translation by Mr. John Keigwin, made in the year 1682, has been printed by the Editor of this work from a manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The passage above cited occurs in the 44th and 45th stanzas. The general meaning appears to be the same, but the words are differently spelt and divided. The Editor has also printed “The Creation of the World, with Noah’s Flood,” a Play, or Mystery, in the Cornish language, and a Translation into English by the same Mr. John Keigwin; both from the office of Mr. Nichols, No. 25, Parliament-street, London, the printer of this work.
ST. BRADOCK.
HALS.
St. Bradock is situate in the Hundred of West, and has upon the south Boconock, the west St. Wennow, east St. Pynnock, north Cardinham, and by this name Bradock or Brodock it was taxed in the Domesday Roll. If its etymology is Saxon the name means broad oak.
In the Pope’s Inquisition into the value of benefices before mentioned, anno 1294, Capella de Bradock in decanatu de Westwells, appropriata domui de Lanceston, was valued at xiiis. ivd.; from whence it appears that this church was endowed by the college of St. Stephen, near Launceston. In Wolsey’s Inquisition and Valor Beneficiorum, at viiil. xiiis. ivd. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter; and this parish was rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax for one year in 1696 at 57l.
TONKIN.
This church is a vicarage; the patronage in Samuel Wetton, Esq.; the incumbent, Mr. James Pearce, who has also the sheaf.
The manor of Bradoke is one of the two hundred and eighty given by the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton.
THE EDITOR.
This living, which is stated in the Liber Valorum to be a rectory, was consolidated with Boconnoc in the year 1742, and the clergyman’s residence has recently been removed to Bradock. The united parishes are now in the presentation of Lord Grenville.
Bradock down was the scene of two important events in the civil war.
First, a victory obtained by the King’s forces early in 1623 under the command of Sir Bevill Granville, Sir Nicholas Glenning, Sir Ralph Hopton, Arundell, Trevanion, and other gentlemen of the county, over a much larger force commanded by Ruthven, Governor of Plymouth. The victory was so complete that Ruthven with difficulty reached Saltash, accompanied by a few only of his troops, from whence they were speedily driven across the Tamar; and this advantage mainly contributed to the more splendid victory at Stratton, obtained on the 16th of May of the same year; a victory which, rolling on its tide of success through Devonshire and Somersetshire, over Lansdowne and Bristol, might have swept the whole of England but for the recoil of its waves from the walls of Gloucester.
The second event was on a more extensive scale.
Lord Essex having conducted a large army into Cornwall, was followed by the King in person, till they approached so near that the King had his head quarters at Boconnoc, and Lord Essex at Lanhidrock, when, after various skirmishes and proposals for negotiation on the part of the King, Lord Essex at last, on the 30th or 31st of August 1644, accompanied by Lord Robartes, and some other officers, abandoned his army, and reached Plymouth by sea; and on the same day Sir William Belfour, with Col. Nicholas Boscowen, Lieut.-Col. James Hals, of Merther, Henry Courtenay, of St. Bennet’s in Lanivet, Col. John Sentaubyn of Clawanar, his Lieut.-Col. Briddon, Col. Carter, and others of the horde of two thousand five hundred cavalry, forced their passage through the King’s army, over St. Winnow, Boconnoc, and Bradock Downs, to Saltash, and from thence to Plymouth. Their escape is said to have been mainly owing to the negligence of General Goring, whose ill conduct and exactions in Cornwall, have left his name as a term of severe reproach up to the present time.
After these discouraging events, Major-Gen. Skippon found himself in command of the infantry, for whom he obtained a favourable capitulation, the particulars of which may be seen in Lord Clarendon’s History, and they are given by Mr. Hals, from whose statement the above is chiefly abridged.
Mr. Hals adds a circumstance illustrative of the animosity excited by internal dissensions; and, as his feelings and opinions were all on the royal side, the narrative may be esteemed deserving of credit.
Notwithstanding the articles, the disarmed soldiers of the Parliament, as they marched by the King and his army on Boconnoc and Bradock Downs, and elsewhere, were barbarously slaughtered and shot upon by the King’s soldiers, so that many perished thereby, others were stripped comparatively naked, and robbed of their money, others had their horses taken from them; whereupon Major-General Skippon, with undaunted courage, rode up to the King’s troop, and told him personally of the injury and violence offered, and the slaughter of his men, contrary to the articles, which in such cases were kept inviolable by all nations of men; and therefore prayed the King to be just, and to prohibit those barbarities of his soldiers for the future, which the King forthwith commanded to be done. But his word and authority were little regarded while his army were in sight of the Parliamentary soldiers.
This total discomfiture of Lord Essex’s army left the King without an enemy in arms through the whole of Cornwall, and a letter is preserved in the hands of Lord Dunstanville from his ancestor Sir Francis Basset, respecting the last words addressed to him by the King: “Mr. Sheriff, I leave the county entirely at peace in your hands.”
Bradock contains 2935 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| The annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 1025 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 83 | 18 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 173 | in 1811, 188 | in 1821, 235 | in 1831, 301; |
being an increase of 74½ per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish may be geologically considered as a part of Boconnoc. The substratum is the same. The rocks and stones are rather more quartzose, accompanied by an increased appearance of shorl.
ST. BREOCK.
HALS.
St. Breock is situate in the hundred of Pyder, and hath upon the north St. Issy; east, Wadebridge on the Alan river; south, St. Wenn and Withiel; west, St. Columb Major.
The name is derived from St. Breock or Briock, the patron of this church, of one in the island of Guernsey, and perhaps of Breage near Helston.
This St. Breock was a native of Ireland, born at Cork about the fifth century. A man famous in his day, for the most strenuous support of the orthodox faith in opposition to Arianism, the heresy at that time distracting the Latin Church. He was bishop of a diocese in Armorica, now called Britany, where the place of his residence is at this day distinguished by his name.
This parish does not appear in the Bishop of Lincoln’s valuation; but in that of Wolsey it is rated at 41l. 10s. 6d.
In the Domesday survey this parish was rated under the district of Pelton or Penpow, now Powton.
This Powton was the voke lands of a manor given to the See of our Cornish Bishop; afterwards to the Bishop of Kirton, and then to Exeter; finally to the Priory of St. Petroc at Bodmin. After the dissolution of monasteries, this barton, together with the extensive manor to which it belonged, passed through a great variety of hands by sale, so that Mr. Hals says the manor had sixteen lords of different families in about sixty-two years; a mutability not to be instanced in any other lands in Cornwall, except Fentongellon in St. Michael Penkivell, which also contained a religious house, but in 26 Henry VIII. was converted to secular purposes.
This manor of Pelton has always possessed a court leet, where writs might be entertained without any limit of amount; but, the lord of the manor having suffered from various escapes of persons confined for debt, the prison, and with it the judicial functions of the court, have been discontinued. Sir William Morice, the secretary of state and friend of General Monk, acquired this manor by purchase. His second daughter, Barbara Morice, married Sir John Molesworth of Penconnow, and brought this property into that family, where it still remains.
Hurston in this parish, which I take to be from the Saxon, and to mean wood town, is still situated in a wood, and formerly belonged to the Cormynews of Fentongellon.
Tredinick gave name and origin to an ancient family of gentlemen. Christopher Tredinick was sheriff of Cornwall in 22 Henry VIII.; he gave for his arms, In a field Or, on a bend Sable three bucks’ heads caboshed Argent. His family and name are now, I take it, both extinct. In the time of Charles II. this property came by purchase to Lord Robartes.
[Mr. Hals adds a fanciful derivation of this name;
but since “doon” and “din” are well known to signify a place tenable either by nature or art, and “ick” is unquestionably water, Tre-din-ick will be either the fortified town, or the hill town, near a river.]
Trevorder, meaning the further town, or the one most distant; also Trevorder Bickin, the far-off beacon-town, belonged to the Carmynews of Fentongellon, having come to them by the heiress of Trenowith, as Trenowith had acquired it by the heiress of Tregago. It passed by sale from the Carmynews to Vyell, and has subsequently split between six coheiresses, who married Prideaux, Vyvyan, Dennis, Grensill, Rinden, and Smith.
TONKIN.
Mr. Tonkin has not any thing worth inserting that differs from Mr. Hals, except perhaps his etymology of the name Dunveth, a place belonging once to Tredinick, and situated near the churchyard, and therefore named the hill of graves; beth being a grave in Welch and Cornish, and the labials b and v perpetually changing into each other.
THE EDITOR.
This parish measures 6875 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 6910 | 0 | 0 |
| The Poor Rate in 1831 | 776 | 14 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 962 | in 1811, 998 | in 1821, 1225 | in 1831, 1450; |
being an increase of rather more than 50 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. W. Molesworth, presented in 1816 by Sir W. Molesworth, Bart.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
On the north and north-eastern parts of this parish, in the vicinity of the Camel, the land is fertile, resting on a rock which sometimes resembles a calcareous schist,
but more commonly that kind of clay-slate which abounds in the calcareous series. This slate at Penquean splits into very thin leaves, and is then quarried as a roofing slate, but is softer and has less lustre, and is not so durable as that raised at Delabole near Camelford. The south and south-western parts of the parish consist of barren downs; the rock forming the substratum is, however, very similar in appearance to what occurs in the other division; but it contains more silex and is less laminated, does not easily cleave, and is less susceptible of decomposition than the former, and therefore produces only a meagre, arenaceous soil.
ST. BREOCK IN KERRIER, or BREAGE.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred aforesaid, and hath upon the north, Crowan; west, Germow; east, Sithney; south, the British Channel. Of the name and titular guardian of this church I have spoken before. By the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, to the Pope’s annats, 1294, ecclesia Sancti Breuc in decanatu de Kerryer, was rated 16l. Vicar ejusdem 36s. It is now the mother church of Cury, Germow, and Gunwallo, and goes in presentation and consolidation with them, though at the time of the inquisition aforesaid they were taxed separate. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, they are valued together in first fruits 33l. The patronage in the crown, the incumbent Trewinard. This parish was rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax 1696, 230l. 4s. temp. William III. At the time of the Norman conquest, if this parish was not taxed under the jurisdiction of Lanmigall, i. e. Michael’s Temple or Church, (now St. Michael’s Mount,) the priors whereof, or the king or duke, endowed it, together with those other before named, it was rated under the
district of Treskeaw, that is to say the skeawe, or elder-tree town, a place, as I am informed, well known and still extant there.
In the pleas of the crown in the Exchequer, 12th Edward I., I found it thus written of Pengelly in this parish.
“Johannes de Treveally tenet in Pengelly, in comitatu Cornubiæ, dimidium acram terræ Cornubiensem, (above a hundred English,) per sergiantiam recipiendi unam capam de grisando ad Pontem de Penleton, cum Rex fuerit inveniendus versus Cornubiam; et intrando Domino de Cabilla, qui eam in adventu domini Regis ibidem deferre debet, et eam tradere eidem Johanni, qui quidem Johannes eandem capam ferre debet cum domino Rege pro totam in Cornubiam;” which Mr. Hals interprets, that the half acre Cornish is held by the duty of its owner receiving a great coat from some one in Devonshire at Penleton Bridge, and to carry it about for the King’s use, so long as he remains in Cornwall.
In this parish stands the barton and manor of Good-ol-gan, also God-al-gan, synonymous words, only varied by the dialect, meaning a place that was altogether a wood down, a name anciently given and taken from the natural circumstances thereof. Otherwise, if the name consist of English-Cornish, God-ol-gan signifies a place that was altogether God’s downs. As for the modern name Good-ol-phin, God-ol-fyn, it, in like manner as the former, admits of no other etymology or construction than that it was a place that was altogether a wood, fountain, well, or spring of water, or altogether God’s fountain or spring of water. But because the words god, gud, good, in Cornish, Belgic, and British, are always taken and adopted in the first sense, to signify only a wood, and the words Du, Due, and Dyu, are the proper appellations of God, and no other in Cornish, I cannot apprehend how that sacred name is concerned in the initial part of this word, Godolphin, which refers,
as I said before, to the circumstances of the place, viz. that no table, fountain, well, or spring of water here, that passeth beneath the house, through the gardens, and the woods and groves of timber that still surround the same.
Contrary to this etymology, Mr. Carew, in his “Survey of Cornwall,” page 153, says that godolphin signifies a white eagle, than which nothing can be more untrue; for, in all those compound words, there is not one particle or syllable relating thereto, or any other than the British language whatsoever: for wen erew, wen eryr, wen eriew, and by contraction wen-er, is a white eagle in the Welch, Little-Britannic, and Cornish tongues. [See Dr. Davis’s British Lexicon, and Floyd upon Aquila.] In like manner Verstegan tells us, that, in the Saxon tongue, blond erna is a white eagle; as also in the German and Dutch tongues; and the French dictionaries inform us that blanch ægle, or aegle, is a white eagle; ἀετος [aetos] in Greek; aquila, in Latin; nesher in the Hebrew; from whence our British erew, erier, eryr, eriew, is derived.
In opposition to all those etymologies of the word godolphin, Mr. Sammes in his Britannia, and the author of the additions to Camden’s Britannia, tells us that godolac in the Phenician tongue signifies a land of tin, from whence they apprehend the name of godolphin is derived, especially because tin is found in the precincts thereof, but surely not comparable in quantity to what is made in forty other places in Cornwall, that yet come not under that denomination of godolphin, as being tin land.
From the name I proceed to the matter or thing itself, viz. the manor and barton of Godolphin; which lands, in the time of Edward III., were the lands of Sir John Lamburne, Knight, of Lamburne in Peransand, whose daughter and heir was afterwards married to Sir Renphry, or John Arundell, of Lanherne, Knight, one
of whose posterity, viz. Edmond Arundell, Knight, tempore Henry VI. sold the same to one Stephens, upon condition of a kind of domineering, lording, or insulting tenure, and reservation of rent to his manor of Lamburne in Peransand, viz. “that once a year for ever the Reeve of the said Manor should come to Godolphin, and there boldly enter the hall, jump upon the table, or table-board, and there stamp or bounce with his feet or club, to alarm and give notice to the people of his approach, and then and there make proclamation aloud three times, ‘Oyes! oyes! oyes! I am the Reeve of the Manor of Lamburne in Peransand, come here to demand the old rent, duties, and customs, due to the lords of the said Manor from the lands of Godolphin.’ Upon which notice there is forthwith to be brought him 2s. 8d. rent, a large quart of strong beer, a loaf of wheaten bread worth sixpence, and a cheese of the like value; which the Reeve having received, he shall drink of the beer, taste the bread and cheese in the place, and then depart, carrying with him the said rent and remainder of those viands, to the lords of the Manor aforesaid, to whom they are still duly paid, which at present are Sir John Seyntaubyn, Bart. and others, who claim it in right of the two daughters and heirs of the said Edmund Arundell, which were married to Danvers and Whitington, as Whitington’s heirs were married to St. Aubyn and others.
After Stephens purchased those lands of Godolphin from Arundell, and came possessed thereof, his only daughter and heir was married to Ralph Knava, or Nava, of ——; which name or word is of quite another signification in the British tongue than what it signifies in the English; for knava, nava, nawe, naue, signifies the same as servus, servulus, famulus, minister, administer, ministrator, in Latin; hence it is that in Trevisa’s and Tyndale’s translation of the Bible into English, the word is used in this sense by them; Titus
i, v. 1, “Paul a knava of Jesus Christ;” and the like, 2nd Timothy, chap. i. v. 1, “Paul a nava of Jesus Christ;” which words, in the translation of the Bible in James I.’s time, the translators have rightly rendered into new English, by the names of “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ;” and “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ;” that is, a messenger, an ambassador, or servant, sent, as apostolus; in the original Greek δουλος (doulos), servus και et αποστολος (apostolus); and in all other places in the Old and New Testament, where they met with the Greek words doulos and apostolus, they are by them so rendered.
From the British names nave, nava, nawe, knawe, the old name or distinction of this tribe or family may be plainly inferred, for that the first ancestor or progenitor thereof was of a mere British extraction; a servant, steward, ambassador, minister, or messenger of God, Christ, his king, prince, or other master, (for those words are all synonymous, only by the dialect varied with the transposing of a vowel,) and is a name of office of one that is a substitute or vicegerent, and acts under another.
But more certain I am that John Knava, of Godolphin, Esq. was struck Sheriff of Cornwall by King Henry VII., 1504, who declared his great liking of that gentleman in all circumstances for the said office, but discovered as much dislike of his name after the English, not understanding the import thereof in Cornish, and so further said, that, as he was pater patriæ, he would transnominate him to Godolphin, whereof he was lord; and accordingly caused or ordered that in his letters patent under the broad seal of England, for being Sheriff of Cornwall, he should be styled or named John Godolphin, of Godolphin, Esq. and by that name he accounted at the year’s end with that king for his office in the Exchequer, and had his acquittance from thence, as appears from the record in the Pipe Office there.
Since which time his posterity have (ever since) made Godolphin the hereditary name of their family. His son, William Godolphin, Esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall 21 Henry VIII.; William Godolphin, Knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall 29 Henry VIII.; William Godolphin, Knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall, 3 Edward VI.; William Godolphin, Knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall 12 Elizabeth; Francis Godolphin, Esq. afterwards Sir Francis, was Sheriff of Cornwall 21 Elizabeth; Francis Godolphin, Knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall 2nd James I.; Francis Godolphin, Esq. afterwards Knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall 13 Charles I., whose son, Sir William Godolphin, was by Charles II. created the five hundred and fifty-second Baronet of England 29th April 1661. His younger brother, Sidney Godolphin, Esq. Member of Parliament for Helston, one of the Commissioners of the Treasury, who had been sent several embassies to foreign princes, was by King Charles II. by letters patent bearing date 8th Sept. 1684, created Lord Godolphin and Baron of Rialton.
Certes, from the time that this family was seised of Godolphin, such a race of famous, flourishing, learned, valiant, prudent men have served their prince and country in the several capacities of members of Parliament, justices of the peace, deputy lieutenants, sheriffs, colonels, captains, majors, and other officers, both military and civil, as scarce any other family this country hath afforded, which I do not mention (for that my great-grandmother on the one side, the wife of Sir John Arundell, of Tolverne, Knight, was daughter of the aforesaid Sir Francis Godolphin, Knight, Sheriff of Cornwall 21 Elizabeth,) but as their just character and merit; and I challenge the envious justly to detract from the same.
This Right Honourable Sidney Lord Godolphin aforesaid, was a commissioner for the Treasury about twenty years, which trust and office he discharged with
unquestionable justice, fame, and reputation, during the reigns of King Charles the Second, King James the Second, and till the latter end of the reign of King William the Third, when he voluntarily resigned his office. After that King’s death he was by Queen Anne made sole Lord High Treasurer of England, 1701, in which station he continued with unblamable conduct till the year 1710, the time of his death, (having been before, by that Queen, created Earl Godolphin,) a place of such import, trust, grandeur, and honour, as no Cornishman before him ever arrived to, except the Lord Benham, (or rather their name of old Cardinham,) temp. Henry VII. Two such persons perhaps for their skill in accounts, rents, revenues of the crown, and other matters pertaining to the exchequer, equal to, if not superior to, any Lord Treasurer of England before them.
The paternal coat-armour of this noble family are, Gules, an imperial eagle with two necks between three fleurs-de-lis argent.
Pen-gar-wick in this parish, also Pen-gars-wick, id est, the head word, or command, fenced or fortified place; so called from the command or authority of the lord thereof heretofore in these parts, and the strength of the house and the tower thereof, otherwise Pen-gweras-ike, i. e. the creek, cove, or bosom of waters, head help, as situate upon the sea, or waters of the British Channel. This barton and manor, in the latter end of the reign of Henry VIII., was purchased by one Mr. Milliton, a gentleman of the county of —— where having wilfully or accidentally committed murder, or slain a man, in order to shun or avoid justice he privately made the purchase aforesaid in the name of his son, and so immured himself in a private chamber of the tower of Pengarwick, that he was not seen of any person but his trusty friends, so that he finished the natural course of his life without detection of his person, or punishment for the crime aforesaid; but, alas! notwithstanding his concealment,
and design of perpetuating his name and tribe in this place, his son Job Milliton, Esq. 1st Edward the Sixth, made Governor of St. Michael’s Mount, (in the room of Renphry Arundell, Esq. executed for rebellion,) who married Godolphin, and had issue William Milliton, Esq. sheriff of Cornwall 7th Elizabeth, 1565, that died without issue, and six daughters, that became his heirs, married 1. to Erisy, afterwards to Sir Nicholas Parker; 2. to Lanyon; 3. to Trefusis, and Tregothick; 4. to Trenwith, Arundell, and Herle; 5. to Bonython; 6. to Abbot, from some of which heiresses, Sir Nicholas Hals, Knight, at his first coming from Efford in Devon into Cornwall, purchased their parts of this lordship, with leases from the rest of the coparceners, and for some time made it and Trewinard the places of his dwelling till he removed to Fentongollen. This place afterwards, by his unthrifty son and heir, John Hals, had all its timber cut down that was growing upon it, and sold, which tradition saith was great store; the lands also were sold to Godolphin and some others.
The arms of Milliton were, out of a supposed allusion to their name, a chevron between three millet fishes hariant or erected; whereas Milli-ton is a mill town.
TONKIN.
There is not any thing in Mr. Tonkin of importance, differing from Mr. Hals.
He gives the Cornish distich, which has often been repeated,
Germow Mathern,
Breaga Lavethas.
“Germow was a king—Breaga a midwife;” which he explains in a spiritual sense.
In the church-yard of Germoe, is a small alcove called King Germoe’s Throne: it may perhaps have been a plain, simple shrine.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Sidney Godolphin must be considered as the most eminent statesman and politician of this county, not excepting Lord Chatham, if his birth at Boconnoc should be deemed sufficient to make him a Cornish man.
Advanced to the honour of Earl of Godolphin, decorated with the Garter, and placed in high office as Lord High Treasurer, he mainly conducted the great national affairs at home, while the Duke of Marlborough vindicated, by splendid victories in the field, the religious and civil liberties of the world.
—— Victorque volentes
Per populos dat jura; viamque affectat Olympo.
To Lord Godolphin we are also indebted for conducting to a successful conclusion a measure most beneficial to this whole island, the Union with Scotland; and the whole tenour of his administration procured for him, with the consent of all parties, the appellation of Wise.
In an ode inscribed to the Earl of Sunderland on his receiving the Garter, is this stanza:
In after times, as Courts refined,
Our patriots in the list were join’d,
Not only Warwick stain’d with blood,
Or Marlborough near the Danube’s flood,
Here in their crimson crosses glow’d;
But, on just law-givers bestow’d,
Those emblems Cecil did invest,
And gleam’d on Wise Godolphin’s breast.
Sidney Earl of Godolphin died in 1712, and was succeeded by his son Francis, then called Lord Rialton, who had married Henrietta Churchill, eldest daughter of the Duke of Marlborough.
This lady became Duchess of Marlborough on the decease of her father in 1722, under the provision of a special Act of Parliament, but dying in 1733 without issue, the Dukedom and property devolved on her nephew
Charles Spencer Earl of Sunderland, son of her sister Ann Churchill.
The Earldom of Godolphin expired also on the death of Francis Godolphin in 1766; but a Barony had been conferred on him, with remainder to the heirs of his uncle Henry Godolphin; this fell to his first cousin Francis Lord Godolphin. On his decease in 1785 the name and honour of Godolphin became extinct. But Mary, daughter and eventually sole heir of Francis the second and last Earl of Godolphin, had married Thomas Osborne, fourth Duke of Leeds, and his great-grandson Francis Godolphin D’Arcy Osborne, Duke of Leeds, inherits the property as heir-at-law.
The Godolphins appear never to have possessed an estate in land beyond the limits of what might fairly belong to a private gentleman; but the produce of tin has been very great from the period recorded by Mr. Carew, so that the name of the place may well be derived from that metal; subsequently, the produce of copper has exceeded that of the tin. The whole parish of Breage is covered by mines, and the largest and most productive, and most expensive tin mine ever known, is now producing a greater quantity of metal than was yielded in former times by the whole county. Whele Vor, now employing several steam-engines of the largest size to exhaust the water, and numerous others to draw up the ore, and afterwards to reduce it into the state of a fine powder, is said to have used, about a century ago, the first steam-engine ever seen in Cornwall.
Pengelly in this parish was the residence, for many generations, of the Spernons or Sparnons. The family became extinct on the death of a gentleman in the medical profession at Lostwithiel, and the property was sold about fifty years ago.
For an anecdote respecting newspapers and despatches, see the notice of Mr. Ralph Allan in St. Blazey.
This parish contains 6456 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 8673 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 1293 | 15 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 2534 | in 1811, 2888 | in 1821, 3668 | in 1831, 5149. |
103 per cent. or 3 per cent. above doubled in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. R. G. Grylls, presented by the King in 1809.
GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.
This extensive parish includes nearly the whole of that granitic patch known by the names of Tregonning and Godolphin Hills; and it also comprises the greater part of the country lying between those hills and those of the opposite range of granite in Wendron and Crowan, called the Forest. Its mines, quarries, and sea cliffs afford most interesting geological sections.
The granite of Godolphin Hill is of the common kind, containing in several places an intermixture of shorl, and it is traversed by numerous thick veins of quartz, which sometimes pass into compact shorl rock. The granite of Tregonning Hill is of two kinds; one fine-grained like free-stone, which is extensively quarried on the western side of the hill, and used for ornamental building, under the name of Breage stone; the other, abounding in talc, and in a state of considerable decomposition, affording, like the similar granites of St. Austell and St. Stephen’s, the china clay, which is here worked for economical purposes, but not to any great extent.
The western part of the celebrated mine Whele Vor is situated in Breage; and, as the workings approach the granite, they exhibit a highly interesting arrangement of rocks, the granite and slate alternating in the same manner as they have been observed to do at Delcoath in Cambourne. The composition of these rocks, and the nature of their connection, are very evidently seen
in the heaps of fragments piled round the shafts; but they are better and more clearly illustrated in the cliffs near Trewaras Head.
It would occupy two much space to enter into details on this important subject. It may, however, be noticed that both the granite and the slate gradually pass into each other; and that they appear to differ very little in their mineral composition. These facts seem to explain, in a satisfactory manner, the nature of granite veins. For, if both rocks have a similar composition, and have been produced at the same time, the form, position, contents, and other circumstances of these veins, are no longer perplexing.
ST. BREWARD.
HALS.
St. Breward is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north Advent, south Blisland, east Altar Nun, west St. Tudy. There was not such parish or church extant in Cornwall at the time of the Norman Conquest as Brewer; probably it was taxed under Tudy. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, in order to the Pope’s annats, 1294, Ecclesia de Bruerd, in Decanatu de Trig-minor-shire, was valued at 7l. vicar ejusdem 20s. In Wolsey’s inquisition, 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, 8l.; the patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Downes, the rectory or sheaf, in ——, and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound land-tax, 1696, by the name of Brewer, 111l. 12s. The present name of this church is celebrated in memory of its founder, William Brewer, (son of William Lord Brewer, Baron of Odcombe in Somerset,) who was consecrated Bishop of Exeter, 1224, and was afterwards, by King Henry III., sent on divers
embassies to foreign princes, and to conduct Isabel, sister of the said King Henry, to be married to Frederick the Emperor, whom he and Peter de Rupibus, Knight, afterwards accompanied into Palestine, and were made generals of 40,000 men against the Turks. And after all those fatigues, as Bishop Godwin saith, he returned home safely to his see of Exeter, and spent the remainder of his days in building and endowing churches, adorning and enriching his own cathedral church, and instituting within the same a dean and twenty-four prebendaries, allowing the latter a stipend of 4l. per annum, since augmented to 20l. (which is no more than 4l. in those days was worth). He also set up a chantor, chancellor, and treasurer within the same. To the chantor and subdean thereof he appropriated the rectory of Rainton and Chudleigh in Devon, and the rectory then, now a vicarage, of Egloshayle, in Cornwall. To the chancellor he appropriated (or impropriated) the vicarage of Newlan in Cornwall, and Stoke Gabriel in Devon, on condition that he should preach a sermon once a week. To the canons a lecture in Divinity, or on the Decretals, within the cathedral of Exeter, and in case the chancellor should fail in this particular, it should be lawful for the bishop thereof for the time being to resume the said churches so appropriated, into his own hand, and bestow them at his pleasure; as appears from a deed between the said bishop, dean, and chapter, 12th May, 1662, as Hooker saith. But this covenant is exactly kept ever since by the chancellor or his clerk, who once a week, at six o’clock morning prayers, preach a sermon to the canons.
This Bishop Brewer appropriated this church bearing his name to the dean and chapter of this cathedral, which he had as aforesaid erected. He lies buried in the middle of the choir thereof, with an inscription still legible, which, amongst others, containeth these words: Hic jacet Willielmus Brewer, quondam hujus Ecclesiæ
Cathedralis Episcopus; fundator etiam quatuor principalium ejusdem Ecclesiæ Dignitatum. By the four principal dignities or dignitaries of the church, I suppose, is meant the dean, chantor, chancellor, and treasurer thereof.
The deanery of Exon was founded by William Briwere, Bishop of Exon 1225.[20]
TONKIN.
This parish of St. Breward is also called Simon Ward; and the popular legend has changed a pious and venerable bishop into one Simon Ward, a domestic brewer to King Arthur. I rather conjecture that on the division of parishes it was called Brewer from “bruiers,” which in the French tongue is “heath.”
THE EDITOR.
The principal villages in this parish are Lank Major, Lank Minor, without doubt Lank Vrauz, and Lank Vean; perhaps lank may be lan, varying with local pronunciation in the absence of all orthography, when the names will signify the great and small inclosure; also Swallock. Mr. Lysons states that the ancient manor of Hamethy, or Hametethy, is situated in this parish, five-sixths belonging to Mr. Mitchell of Hengar, in the adjacent parish of St. Tudy, and the other sixth to Mr. Kekewich.
But this parish is distinguished from all others in Cornwall by the locality of Roughtor and Brown Willy; these hills, pre-eminent from their elevation, and from the granite crags studded over the whole expanse of their surfaces, may be seen from an elevation crossed by the road near Ilfracombe in the north of Devon, and
from the high land in Zennor, about ten miles from the Land’s End.
This parish contains 8552 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 2561 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rates in 1831 | 289 | 2 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 513 | in 1811, 506 | in 1821, 554 | in 1831, 627; |
increase on a hundred in 30 years of 222⁄10 per cent.
Present Vicar, the Rev. T. J. Landon, presented in 1815 by the Dean and Chapter of Exeter.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The greater part of this parish is situated on granite, including within its boundaries Roughtor and Brown Willy, the highest hills in Cornwall, the latter being 1368 feet above the level of the sea. The composition of this granite has been already noticed under the head of Advent: it affords few varieties, which may be owing to its offering few opportunities for examination.
The circumstance most attractive of attention is the great sterility of this extensive district; some few contracted spots are indeed brought into cultivation; some parts afford summer pasturage for cattle, and others turf for fuel; but by far the greater portion of the whole lies entirely unproductive. And this character belongs to the whole insulated patch of granite more than ten miles in diameter; and the church of St. Breward is the only one to be found on this extensive surface of perhaps from forty to fifty thousand acres; while nine churches are to be found on the granite district of the Land’s End, where this substratum, departing from its usual qualities, gives fertility to the soil.
The western extremity of this parish is fertile, resting on a peculiar kind of slate, which possesses geological interest. It may be seen at Combe, at Penrose, and at other places near the river Camel, and appears to be a
variety of mica slate, being composed of granular felspar, interlaminated with mica. It contains beds of dark purple felspar rock, very similar to that which abounds in the mining district in the western part of the county. This micaceous slate gradually passes into a thick lamellar rock, which extensively disintegrates and becomes argillaceous, exactly resembling the stone quarried for building at Bodmin.
[20] This is written in a different hand.