DULO.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north, St. Keyn; west, Lanreth; east, Morvale; south, Plint. For the modern name of this district, it is taken from the church, and is compounded of Du-Lo, Du-Loe, or Loo, id est, God’s Lake or River of Water, either referring to the Loo River, on which it is situate.
In the Domesday Roll 20 William I. 1087, this parish was rated under the jurisdiction of Treworgye. At the time of the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, into the value of Cornish benefices, Ecclesia de Dulo in decanatu de West Wellshire, was taxed at viil. vis. viiid. Vicar ejusdem xxxs. In Wolsey’s Inquisition it was rated as a rectory 22l. The vicarage 8l. 0s. 11½d. the
patronage in Seyntaubyn and Arundell alternately. The incumbent Fincher (Smalle). The parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax 3 William III. 1696, 246l. 4s. The rectory of the vicarage is in possession of Knicker (Sandford).
One Forbes, or Forbhas, was presented rector of this parish in the latter end of Cromwell’s usurpation, and lived here on this fat benefice, without spending or lending any money, many years, always pretending want thereof; at length he died suddenly intestate, about the year 1681, having neither wife nor legitimate child, nor any relation of his in blood in this kingdom; upon news of whose death Mr. Arundell, his patron, opened his trunks, and found about three thousand pounds in gold and silver, and carried it thence to his own house. The fame and envy of which fact flew suddenly abroad, so that Mr. Buller, of Morval, had notice thereof, who claimed a part or share in this treasure, upon pretence of a nuncupative will, wherein Forbes some days before his death had made him his executor, and the same was concerted into writing, whereupon he demanded the 3,000l. of Mr. Arundell. But he refusing to deliver the same, Mr. Buller filed a bill in Chancery against him the said Mr. Arundell, praying relief in the premises, and that the said money might be brought or deposited in the said court, which at length was accordingly done; where, after long discussing this matter between the lawyers and clerks in that court, in fine, as I was informed, the court, the plaintiff, and the defendant shared the money amongst them, without the least thanks to, or remembrance of the deceased wretch Forbes for the same; abundantly verifying that saying in the Sacred Writings, “man layeth up riches, but knows not who shall gather them.”
Since the writing of the above, the incumbent, Mr. Fincher, has built a pretty fine house on the glebe lands of this vicarage, equal if not superior to any other of that sort in Cornwall of its bigness, except Altar-nun, as designing to buy the patronage thereof, being a sinecure,
which I interpret too often to be, without care, thought, regard, or guardianship, over souls, where the rector presents to the vicarage. But maugre all designs and endeavours of Mr. Fincher to purchase the patronage of this church, Sir John Seynt-aubyn and Mr. Arundell, the patrons thereof, sold the same to Balliol College in Oxford 1701. At the consideration of which fact, as common fame saith, Mr. Fincher was so dismayed, that forthwith he grew melancholy, and the grief thereof so depressed his spirits, that he broke his heart, and departed this life 26th November 1703, at night; and so went to Heaven in that great tempest and hurricane that then happened, with many others. The vicar has now all the tithes, paying 40l. yearly to the master or one of the fellows of Balliol College, by act of parliament. Properly he is the rector of a church, that hath a parsonage where a vicarage is endowed, to which he presents, as in this parish; and yet it is supposed, in some places, that person is the patron, or he in whom the right of patronage is; for before the second Council of Lateran, A.D. 1131, he had right to the tithes, in regard of his having endowed the church which he had founded. But the Council of Lateran aforesaid, under Pope Innocent II. consisting of two thousand bishops, made it sacrilege and damnation for laymen to take tithes.
Tre-wer-gy, id est, the village or farm-town, the same, I suppose, in Domesday Roll, taxed by the name of Treworgan, being still the voke lands of an ancient barton and manor, which claims the royalty or liberty of fishing over the river and haven of Loo, by virtue of the grant thereof from the ancient Earls and Dukes of Cornwall in right of their honour, manor, borough, and castle of Liskeard, situate upon the same river, which place was the mansion of the ancient, worshipful, and gentle family of the Kendalls for many ages; and in particular here lived Richard de Kendall, Sheriff of Cornwall 8 Richard II. 1385, as his posterity continued to do till John Kendall, Esq. having no issue temp. William III. and his estate being incumbered
with debt, sold this barton and manor to William Williams, of Boderick, merchant, now in possession thereof. The arms of Kendall are, Argent, a chevron between three dolphins Sable. Ken-dall signifies to see or behold the dale or valley; otherwise Kendall or Cendall is fine linen; and Cen-dale may be a corruption of Pendall, id est, the head of the valley.
Tremada in this parish signifies the extasy or transport town, alias Tremodart, that is, the dart or javelin affliction (as Cornish-English for hobel is a dart). This barton and manor, as I am informed, was the dwelling of the Col-shills, id est, neck-shields; so called from their wearing, in time of battle, their shield or coat armour with a ribbon about their neck, originally denominated from Colshill parish, in Arden hundred, in Warwickshire. And in particular here lived John Collshill, sheriff of Cornwall 16 Rich. II. 1393; John Collshill was sheriff of Cornwall 21 Richard II.; John Colshill was sheriff of Cornwall 17 Henry VI.; John Collshill, Knt. was sheriff of Cornwall 7 Edward IV., whose issue male dying, his inheritance fell amongst his two daughters, married to Seyntaubyn and Arundell (a younger branch of the Arundells of Trerice), now in possession thereof, that married Kelland: his father Drew; and giveth the same arms as the Arundells of Trerice. The lords of this manor and barton of Tremadah, I suppose, founded and endowed the vicarage and rectory church of Dulo. Perhaps the Collshills, since their posterity aforesaid, have long been patrons thereof. Their manor of Manley Collshill is in St. Veepe. This gentleman is dead, and the family extinct.
West-north, or rather north-west, is the voke-lands of a dismembered manor, formerly belonging to the Kendalls of Treworgye, and was by one of them, temp. Edward IV. given with his daughter in marriage with Kellyow; whose only daughter and heir was married to —— Bastard, a barrister-at-law, temp. Hen. VIII. which brought this then undivided manor into that family, who seated themselves therein for several generations, till Sir William Bastard, Knt. sold it to John Antis, Gent. Register of the Archdeaconry
of Cornwall, now in possession thereof. Bastard’s arms are painted in several glass windows of this house, together with divers matches or quarterings; whose arms are, Or, a chevron Azure. The arms of Kellyow are, Or, a chevron between two cinquefoils and a mullet Sable.
Trenant in this parish, id est, the valley-town, is the seat of —— Medhop, Gent. whose father married Porter. His grandfather, rector of St. Martin’s by Looe; his great grandfather, rector of the same parish; which gentlemen, as I am informed, are lineally descended from the Mydhops of Essex, some of whose ancestors gave lands in frank-almoine to the Abbey of Furneaux there, 1290, viz. Roger de Mydhop, son and heir of Henry de Mydhop, who gave for his arms, Ermine, a lion rampant Azure, crowned Or. See Gwillim, p. 195.
Tre-wenn, in this parish, id est, the white town, or town-white, is the dwelling of William Dandy, Gent. attorney-at-law, that got a considerable estate in that profession. Since the writing of the above this estate is much impaired, and gone out of the direct to the collateral heir, of the name of Dandy; which name signifies in Cornish, deadly, cruel, mortal, fatal.
TONKIN.
This parish is a rectory. The vicarage is valued in the King’s Book at 8l. 0s. 11d. The rectory is a sinecure, and the rector presents to the vicarage.
Trenant was sold by Mr. Medhope in the 1st year of Queen Anne to Edward Dennis, of Liskeard, attorney-at-law, who had before a mortgage on it, and it is now the seat of his son, George Dennis, Esq. sheriff of Cornwall in the 1st year of George II. In respect to the name of this parish, I cannot agree with Mr. Hals in supposing it God’s Lake. I rather interpret it the Black Lake, alluding to the river Looe, which runs through it, and I guess takes that name from its forming a deep lake or pool between the two towns and it when the tide is in.
THE EDITOR.
The etymology of Dulo given by Mr. Tonkin appears to be very probable; but another is quoted by Mr. Bond, in his excellent work, entitled, “Topographical and Historical Sketches of the Boroughs of East and West Looe, in Cornwall,” printed by Nichols in 1828, p. 48:
“In Archbishop Usher’s work, Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates et Primordia, it appears that the church of St. Theliaus, in Wales, is called, Lhan Deilo Vaur, the Church of Great Theliaus; and the change of Deilo to Dulo is so easy, says a recent writer, that St. Theliaus seems to have the best title to this parish, as patron and owner of it. In confirmation of this conjecture, says the same writer, we find in the barton of Treridern in St. Burian a chapel dedicated to St. Dillo, who is indisputably the Theliaus.”
St. Theliau, or Theliauses, was born at Ecclesis Gwenwau, near Monmouth. He is said to have made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem about the year 500, with St. David and St. Paternus. On his return he became Bishop of Landaff, and he has ever since been considered as the patron of that diocese.
Trewargy, properly Tre-war-gie, the house or town on a stream, is now the property of Mr. Eliot, a gentleman resident in London.
Trenant has frequently changed its proprietors since the time of Mr. Hals. It passed from Mr. Dennis to his sister’s son, Sir Christopher Treise, who was Sheriff of Cornwall at the accession of King George the Third, and knighted on the occasion of presenting an address. The property thus devolved on his nephew Sir John Morshead, of Cartuther, who acquired a large fortune by his marriage, succeeded to an ample patrimony, dissipated the whole, and left the prefix of three letters as an inheritance to his son. It was then purchased by Admiral Sir Edward Buller, and again disposed of after his decease to Mr. Hope, who at this instant, 1833, offers it for sale. Some at least of these
changes have been ascribed to combinations and arrangements which were materially varied in the last year.
This parish contains 5,051 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 5094 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 901 | 5 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 704 | in 1811, 821 | in 1821, 779 | in 1831, 928 |
giving an increase of about 31 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The structure of this parish is not well explored; where-ever the rocks make their appearance, they are found to belong to the calcareous series.
DUNDAGELL, alias DYNDAGELL, alias BOSITHNEY.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north, the Irish sea; east, Trevalga; south, Lantegles; west, St. Teth. For the etymology of the first compound word, it signifies the safe, secure, or impregnable fort or fortress; for the second, safe, secure, impregnable, or invincible man; or a man so fortified, magnified, or fenced, by art or nature, that he was not liable to hurt or danger, referring perhaps to the King or Earl of Cornwall, whose fort or castle it was; as also the manor of Dundagell, contiguous therewith, privileged with the jurisdiction of a court leet, and other marks of grandeur over the adjacent country, still pertaining to the Duke of Cornwall.
In the Domesday Roll, 20 William I. (1087), this place was taxed under the name of Dune-cheine. In the Inquisition
of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia Dundagell, alias Bosithney, was valued viiil. the vicar iiiil. vis. viiid. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was valued 8l. 11s. 2½d. the patronage in the Duke of Cornwall. The incumbent —— Chilcott. The rectory in possession of ——. The parish of Dundagell rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, which comprehends the boroughs of Trebennen and Bosithney, 200l. 4s., which from thence appears to be only adjectives, and fallen upon the parish, as several other boroughs in Cornwall are. Those boroughs have a weekly market, and a fair on October 8 yearly.
Trebennen, in the Exchequer, signifies the woman’s town, alias Trevenna, the spring, marsh, or well of water town.
The arms of these united towns are, King Arthur’s Castle of Dundagell, port open, on the top three turrets or watch towers. They are privileged with a court leet, and a mayor chosen annually by a jury out of the sworn free members, as also with sending two members to sit in the Commons House of Parliament, elected by the freemen of the borough that have lands of inheritance there. And the parliament precept from the sheriff, as also the writ to remove an action from this court to a superior, must be thus directed:—“Majori et Burgensibus nostris de Trebennen, alias Bosinny,” otherwise “Majori et Burgensibus Burgi nostri de Trevenna, alias Bosythny, in comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem.”
Dundagell gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, surnamed De Dundagell, now extinct, of which family was Robert de Dundagell, who, temp. Richard I., held in this county, by the tenure of knight service, five knights’ fees. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 44.
But that which made this place most famous was the castle and palace of Dundagell, wherein in all probability, the Kings, Dukes, or Earls of Cornwall, at some time had their residence, for pleasure and safety, before Cæsar came into this land; and for that it was the birthplace of Arthur
King of Britain, of whom more under. The castle itself stood on the sea cliff, and a high promontory of land or island, shooting into the North Sea or St. George’s Channel, fastened to the main land or insular continent of Britain, by an iron chain and drawbridge, which Mr. Carew saith was extant about 100 years before he wrote his Survey of Cornwall 1602. Hence it was that in the Domesday Tax, 20 William I. 1087, it is called Dunecheine, as aforesaid, viz. the fort, fortress, or castle chain or chained. Under which drawbridge the sea formerly did daily make its flux and reflux, through the rocky passage beneath. But now this passage is barred up by the falling down of the contiguous cliffs, and want of repair; nevertheless, thereby at low water is offered to the foot traveller an indifferent way of access to the castle or island aforesaid. Which island is now by lease from the crown in possession of Mr. Travers, who sets it to rent for about 5l. per annum, where twice a year about thirty fat sheep are bred or fed, that thrive to admiration.
The back or outer part of this fort or island, contains about three acres of land, which affords good pasture for sheep, goats, and rabbits, whereon is a consecrated well, and chapel heretofore applied to the service of God, by the Prince Gothlouis, his domestic servants and soldiers, though now neglected and falling into continual decay. The most northerly and remote part of this island is called Pen-dew, or Pen-diu, that is to say black head, so named from the black cliffs and rocks thereof; a well known seamark, amongst mariners. The cliffs all round this island and decayed castle are from the sea inaccessible, excepting in one place on the east, where is an indifferent landing place for boats; but the same is artificially barred with a long lofty and strong wall of lime and stone, through which was a gate, called in British, Porth Horne, Anglice Iron Gate, leading to the hill. Under this island the sea runneth through a natural cave or arch of rocks, where boats may pass at full sea without danger, though scarcely without
horror and amazement of the passengers; which tremendous place gave occasion to a British bard to describe the same in verses, mentioned by Camden in his Britannia, viz.
Est locus Abrini sinuoso littore ponti,
Rupe situs media, refluus quem circuit æstus
Fulminat hic latè turrito vertice, castrum,
Nomine Tindagium veteres dixere Corini.
Thus Englished by Mr. Carew, p. 286, Lord Dunstanville’s edition:
There is a place within the winding shore of Severne sea,
On midst of rock, about whose foot the tides turnkeeping, play;
A towry topped castle here, which blazeth over all,
Which Corineus’ ancient brood Tindagell Castle call.
However, I think, the meaning of the author is rather thus in English prose: “There is a place in the intricate windings of the Severn sea, situate in the middle of a rock, which the waves or billows of the sea compass or flow about, a towering top of a castle, shining or blazing abroad far and near, which the old or ancient Cornish call Dundagell.”
Of this place Joseph of Exeter, a priest of that Cathedral, that went with King Richard I. into the Holy Land, and described the wars thereof, in his poem called Antiochesis, written at Antioch 500 years past; a person excellently skilled in the Greek and Latin tongues who after his return from the Holy Land, was made Archbishop of Bourdeaux (see Hooker and Isaac), hath these words (thus Englished) of Dundagell.
From this blest place immortal Arthur sprung,
Whose wondrous deeds shall be for ever sung,
Sweet music to the ear, sweet honey to the tongue.
Look back, turn o’er the great records of fame,
Proud Alexander boasts a mighty name,
The Roman annals Cæsar’s actions load,
And conquered monsters rais’d Alcides to a god.
But neither shrubs above tall pines appear,
Nor Phœbus ever fears a rival star;
So would our Arthur in contest o’ercome
The mightiest heroes bred in Greece and Rome.
The only prince that hears this just applause,
Greatest that e’er shall be, and best that ever was.
From which words it is evident Joseph had seen Merlin’s prophecy of King Arthur.
The History of King Arthur and his progenitors is this:
After the death of Ambrosius Aurelius, anno Dom. 497, succeeded to the dominion of Britain, some say his brother, others a Britain named Uter, alias Uter Pen-dragon; that is to say in British the terrible or dreadful head or chief dragon, so called, as our historians tells us, from a direful, bloody, or red dragon, pourtrayed in his banners of war with a golden head, as is to this day borne in our imperial standards of war, in memory doubtless of the red dragon mentioned in Merlin’s Prophecy, by which the British nation is figured. For his paternal coat armour, as Upton saith, was, in a field Vert, a plain cross Argent; in the dexter quarter the image of the blessed Virgin Mary, holding the image of her blessed Son in her right hand, Proper. He likewise gave for his cognizance of Britain, d’Or, deux dragons Verd, coronés de Goules, contrelés, or endorsed.
Which prince, about the fourth year of his reign, having had divers notable victories over his enemies the Saxons, killing Pascentrus, the son of Hengist, and Gwellimoore King of Ireland, taken Octa and another son of Hengist, and Cossa, his nephew, prisoners, and routed their forces; he resolved the Easter after to make a kind of triumphal feast and solemnity for the principal nobility, gentry, and soldiers, of his kingdom; and ordered likewise that their wives and daughters should also be invited to his court, to congratulate his victories against his Pagan enemies. Now this feast was to be kept at Caer-Segont, id est, the city or castle of conquest or victory, afterwards called, by the Saxons, Cell-Cester, id est, Great Castle, now Winn-Chester, as much as to say, the overcoming, conquering, or winning castle, as before; the very place where the Emperor
Constantine first put on the purple robes, in order to his dignity.
Amongst other princes and confederates that attended this solemnity, Goth-lois, or Goth-Louis, id est, purple back or spear, Prince, King, or Earl of Cornwall, with Igerna, his lady, graced the same with their presence. And it was observable that in this great assembly, the said lady, for beauty, port, and mein, exceeded all other women then present. With whose unparalleled demeanour and charms, King Uter was so much taken and delighted, or intoxicated rather, that for several days he omitted all other most necessary affairs of his kingdom, in order to enjoy her company. Yea, so violent was his affection, that he could not restain or curb his passion, but kissed and courted her openly, even in the sight of her lord and others. Whereupon Gothlouis was so possessed with jealousy that he took the first opportunity, without leave taken of the king or his nobility, together with his duchess and servants, and posted from Winchester, towards his own country of Devon and Cornwall. He had not been long gone, but the notice thereof was soon brought to the king, who took it in so ill a part, by reason of his inordinate affection to his lady, that forthwith he sent messengers after him, to let him know that he had further occasion to use his counsel about affairs of the nation.
But Gothlouis so highly prized his lady, who by this artifice he foresaw would be exposed to the king’s attempts, that he sent back positive answer that he would not come. At which return the king grew more enraged, and sent the Prince of Cornwall word, that if he persisted in his obstinacy, he would invade his country, and beat his towns and castles about his ears; but in vain were his menaces, for Gothlouis returned him word that he was, as his predecessors time out of mind had been, a free prince, and owed him neither homage nor allegiance. Nevertheless, as his countryman, he acknowledged himself his ally and confederate against all foreign opposers, and would keep his
articles of agreement; but if Uter were not contented with this answer, but would forcibly invade his country and property, he would endeavour to keep and preserve the same against him and his adherents. Whereupon King Uter denounced hostility against him, and sent him defiance as an enemy, and forthwith set all things in a posture of war against him. Neither was Gothlouis less solicitous to keep his country and duchess from Uter’s possession or indeed vile usurpation.
In brief, therefore, as aforesaid, King Uter having raised a great army of soldiers, under pretence of chastising the pride and contempt of Gothlouis, marched with them towards his territories, which extended as far as Axminster, where he no sooner arrived than he falls a plundering the country, and burning the houses of the inhabitants, with the terror whereof some fled away, and others submitted to his mercy. Gothlouis being then at his chief palace and castle of Caer-Iske, id est, the Fish Castle or City, situate upon the Fish River, now called Exe, as the City is Exeter, and hearing of this affrightment and revolt of the people on the east part of his dominions, and fearing the cowardice of his citizens of Caer-Iske, he quitted the same upon Uter’s approach with his army, and fled from thence with his lady, and posted themselves in this castle of Dundagell, where he left his duchess, himself retiring to Dameliock Castle, now in St. Veye or St. Vewe, where his army lay entrenched within a treble walled fortification of earth, still extant, and retaining its name, wherein he had laid up sufficient provision and ammunition for his camp and soldiers, &c. And there also he was promised to receive assistance of soldiers from one of the five Kings of Ireland, which were daily expected.
King Uter understanding of Gothlouis’ departure from Caer-Iske, soon marched after him with his army into Cornwall, and laid siege to the castle of Dameliock, that is to say, the house or place of skirmish, battle, or hazard of war, and no sooner approached the lines, but he sent an
herald or trumpet to Gothlouis, demanding the surrender of himself and castle on mercy. Gothlouis, rewarding the trumpet, returned answer, “that he gave King Uter no just cause of war, or for breaking the league or invading his country, and wasting the same in such barbarous manner. But especially, he being a free prince, neither could nor would betray his trust, or give up his dominions and subjects to an unjust invader.” At which answer King Uter was so enraged, that he gave order for a straight siege of the castle, and forthwith made many violent assaults by storm in several places thereof; but he was as stoutly repulsed and driven back by the besieged. In this manner, with various success, for many days the siege and war continued, which occasioned the many camps, fortifications, and intrenchments in those parts, called Castle Kitty, Biny, Castle Kynven, &c.
Whereupon King Uter being more desirous to obtain the Lady Igerna, than to shed blood, or take the fort of Dameliock, thought of nothing more than how to get possession of her. In order to which, he was so vain as to inquire whether the said lady was within the said castle, and whether she was in so good state of health as when he saw her at Caersegant. To which questions answer was made, that fame reported nothing to the contrary as to her health, but for her person, that was not in Dameliock Castle, but kept in a much more secure place, within the impregnable fort of Dundagell. Then, inquiring further of a deserter what manner of place that was, he was told it was a castle munified by art and nature, and of so narrow entrance over the sea and rocks by a drawbridge, that three armed men at once would keep out his whole army, maugre all their skill and strength. At the relation of which circumstances, King Uter seemed mightily dismayed, so that his countenance changed through anguish and perplexity of mind, which put him into such great anxiety as was Ahab for want of Naboth’s vineyard, David for Bathsheba, and Nero for Sabina Popeia, other men’s wives.
King Uter Pendragon, in this extremity, as not being able to reduce Dameliock Castle by storm, nor, if he could, would that redress his grief, by procuring the sight of Igerna, resolves upon this expedient, to dislodge part of his soldiers and troops from Dameliock, and march with them to Dundagell, in order to try the fortune of war in both places. But as soon as he came in sight thereof, the same appeared more formidable, tremendous, and invincible, than what report or fame had spoken of it. For in those days the wit and force of man, could not oblige that castle to a surrender, unless through bribery or treachery of its defendants, for that the same could neither be scaled, battered, or starved.
The consideration of which put Pendragon into greater sadness and perplexity of mind, through the charge and fatigues of war, the stain of his honour in these unsuccessful attempts, but chiefly for that he could not obtain the fair Igerna; whereupon he grew sickly and took his bed, his physicians despairing of his life. When it happened, as historians tell us, that one Ursan, of Richardock, a place near Dameliock or Dundagall, one of King Uter’s cabinet council, advised him to send into Wales, for the old British prophet Merlin, and try whether he could do that by his magic art which neither the art or courage of men of war could effect; whereupon Pendragon sent for the prophet, who when arrived to his camp was made acquainted with the premises, and immediately bid the king to be of good comfort, for that he doubted not but in short time he would introduce him to the company of Igerna, without further bloodshed or hostility.
The king gladly heard this discourse, and promised to follow any expedient he should prescribe, in order to obtain the lady; and further assured him of a great reward, in case his project succeeded. Whereupon Merlin ordered the king, together with Ursan, of Richardock, to attend him one night in the twilight, with whom in secret manner he went towards the drawbridge gate of Dundagell Castle,
where, making a noise, the sentinel or porter demanded in the dark who they were? Merlin being transformed into the shape of Bricot, a servant that waited on Gothlouis, and lay in his chamber, made answer that his master, Duke Gothlouis, escaped from the siege of Dameliock, was at the gate for entrance. The porter apprehending he heard the very voice of Bricot, and seeing at some distance two persons talking together, the one King Uter metamorphosed into the shape of Duke Gothlouis, and another, viz. Ursan, of Richardock, transformed into the shape of Jordan, of Dundagell, he let down the drawbridge, and so gave them opportunity to enter into the insular castle aforesaid, where he had further confirmation of the identity or reality of their persons, by their speech and apparel, as far as the night would permit him.
Whereupon he forthwith joyfully conducted King Uter to Igerna’s chamber, who, not discovering the fraud, gladly received him as her lord; when that very night was begotten that valiant, noble, and religious Prince Arthur, who for his brave, facinourous, and heroic achievements, made his name glorious in his days, as it is still the paragon of ours.
Now on that same night his soldiers were so careful and valiant in the siege of Dameliock Castle, that they stormed it with their scaling ladders, but were as stoutly driven back by the besieged; whereupon, Duke Gothlouis resolved no longer to be thus cooped up, or confined in walls or trenches, but either to conquer or die, and the next morning sallied forth with a party of soldiers, and assaulted his enemies in their quarters by surprize: but alas! the success was not answerable to his courage and resolution, for King Uter’s men were all in readiness to receive his charge and onset, so that in the brunt of the first encounter Gothlouis was killed on the spot, his party slain or routed, and all that were taken in arms put to the sword. The castle of Dameliock yielded on condition of life, though some say otherwise, the plunder to the king’s soldiers.
Early on the same morning, before King Uter and the duchess were out of their chamber, or had on their wearing apparel, to the great astonishment of the porter, centinel, and the garrison, a messenger arrived at Dundagell Castle, giving a full account of the tragical fact. But when he was admitted to the Duchess’s bedchamber, and saw, as he verily believed, Duke Gothlouis in her company, he could hardly credit his own report; especially the Duchess Igerna being of the same opinion. But then, alas! so unavoidable a thing is fortune or fate, the prophet Merlin began to uncharm and dissolve his former spells and incantations, so that King Uter appeared no longer as Gothlouis Duke of Cornwall, but sole monarch of Britain; his companion, not Jordan of Dundagell, but Ursan of Richardock; and the third, not Bricot, but Merlin the prophet, to the great admiration of all spectators.
Whereupon the king took leave of the Duchess, and posted to his army, then in possession of Dameliock Castle, and ordered search to be made for the dead body of the duke; where at length it was found in common soldier’s apparel, extreme bloody, mangled, and cut. Whereupon he called an embalmer, who forthwith embalmed the body with salt and aromatic spices, to prevent putrefaction till a military interment could be prepared for him, which a month after was splendidly provided, the King and Duchess being chief mourners; when, a few days after, King Uter publicly married Igerna the duchess, by whom as aforesaid he had a son named Arthur and a daughter named Amye.
Lastly, it is observed by our annalists upon the foregoing history, that after this bloody war, and unjust fact of King Uter’s, he never had any tolerable success against his Saxon enemies; but in many battles was worsted by them, and finally, some of them understanding of a good spring or well of water, whereof he usually drank, they secretly envenomed the same, so that afterwards the king, drinking his customary draught thereof, soon after, with intolerable pains, died in the fifteenth year of his reign, and the flower of his
age, anno Dom. 515, fulfilling that saying in the Sacred Writings, “The same measure that ye mete shall be measured to you again, brimfull and running over.” So that I shall conclude this history in the words of St. Paul, “O the height of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!”
After the death of King Uter Pendragon, his son and heir Arthur, begotten as aforesaid, succeeded to his dominion of Britain, anno Dom. 515, but as others say 518. He is therefore rightly named by some authors, Arthur Mab Uter Pendragon, viz. Arthur, the son of Uter Pendragon. Which name Arthur is probably derived from the British Arthou, a good or sharp pointed weapon. Of this King Arthur, long before his birth, had Merlin prophecied to King Vortigern:
“Aper etenim Cornubiæ succursum præstabit [si non potius erit] et colla eorum sub pedibus suis conculcabit, insulæ oceani potestati ipsius subdentur; et Galicanos saltus possidebit; tremebit Romulea Domus sevitiam ipsius; et exitus ejus dubius erit; in ore populorum cœlebrabitur, et actus ejus cibus erit narrantibus. Sex posteri ejus tenebunt sceptrum,” &c.
Which in English amounts to this:
“That the boar of Cornwall shall bring aid and assistance, and shall tread the necks of our enemies under his feet, the islands of the ocean shall be subject to his power, and the Gaulish forests he shall possess, the house of Romulus shall tremble at his wrath. As for his death or end, it shall be doubtful or uncertain. His name shall be celebrated by the people, and his famous acts shall be food to those that do relate them. Six of his lineage shall sway the sceptre,” &c.
King Arthur no sooner succeeded to his father’s dominions but he applied himself with great piety and religion to administer law and justice to his people, the best expedients to establish a tottering sceptre. In the next place
he took care to fortify and strengthen himself with soldiers and arms against his Saxon enemies, a mighty and warlike people, then possessed of the greatest part of this kingdom by the late misfortunes of his father and other princes, in battle with them, so that only Wiltshire, Devon, Dorset, Cornwall, and Wales, made up his dominion. Against these King Arthur drew into the field a mighty army of soldiers, and after eleven pitched battles against them, overthrew their whole armies, and obtained the total dominion of this kingdom, and confined the Saxons, on condition of tribute and submission, only to the kingdom of Kent. And recorded it is by annalists, that in one of those battles which King Arthur had with them, he girded himself with an approved sword, called Callib-burne, with which in one day he slew with his own hands 800 Saxons. It seems, this weapon was like Goliah’s sword wrapped in the ephod, there was no sword like it. And thus, according to Merlin’s prophecy, did the boar of Cornwall bring help and assistance, and tread Britain’s enemies under his feet.
But no sooner was this land settled in peace at home, but plots and designs from abroad were laid to disturb the tranquillity thereof. For at that time the Romans, having made a peace with their enemies the Vandals, sent messengers to King Arthur, demanding 3,000l. per annum tribute, a prodigious sum in those days, many years in arrear, according to the agreement Julius Cæsar made with King Cassibellan, and was still due to the senate. At which demand King Arthur was so distasted, that he sent away the messengers in scorn, and prohibited any Romans ever after to come into this land upon that account. Especially for that the Romans for many years had voluntarily quitted or forsaken the government thereof, so that the Britains had neither their protection nor aid against their Saxon or other enemies. When these messengers returned to Rome, this contempt of King Arthur was resented by the Senate, who thereupon unanimously voted a war against him. And accordingly a great army was raised in order to conquer
and reduce this land, which arrived here under conduct of Lucius, their prince or emperor, as historians tell us, together with ten kings, his confederates and auxiliaries. Against these king Arthur advanced with a mighty host, and gave them battle, where, after a sharp and bloody conflict, the Roman Emperor Lucius was slain, his body afterwards sent to Rome, the whole Roman army routed, and the greatest part of them put to the sword, and those whose lives he spared he made his feodors and vassals.
But, alas! notwithstanding King Arthur’s good fortune in this island against the Romans, he was not contented therewith, but he resolved to be further revenged upon them for his wrongs, bloodshed, and indignity, and for prevention of any such invasion for the future, to make a descent with his army upon the Roman territories in Gaul, especially for that from thence the Romans were assisted with great numbers of soldiers, under Lucius, to invade his kingdom of Britain. Whereupon King Arthur, with a considerable fleet of ships, and a great army of soldiers, landed in Normandy, then called Neustria, and summoned the people either to come and submit to his sceptre, or give him battle. But they, confiding in the strength of the Roman legions in that country, slighted his offer, and gave him battle, in which contest they were totally overthrown, routed, or slain. So that, soon after the province of Normandy submitted to his mercy, cast down armour, and payed tribute. Whereupon he gave to Gaius his taster, the earldom of Andegavia, now Angieurs; and to Bedeverus, his cupbearer, the dukedom of Normandy, for their good services. In memory of which donations, it grew to a custom amongst the kings of France, for many ages after, to make their tasters and cupbearers Earls of Andegavia and Normandy.
After this victory King Arthur dislodged his forces, and advanced further into the Roman Gaulish provinces, and subdued by conquest to his sceptre Flanders, Burgundy, Aquitain, and Andegavia, and as some tell us afterwards
Poland, and obliged those people to pay him an annual tribute according; as Merlin had predicted of him, that the Gaulish forests he should possess, and that the house of Romulus should tremble at his wrath. After those victories he returned safe into Britain, and then also by his fleet and army reduced to his dominion, Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Gothland, Norway, Dacia, and made them all tributary, which also was foretold by Merlin in those words, “the islands of the ocean shall be subject to his power.”
When, after he had established peace in all those lands, and returned into Britain, he instituted an honourable order of knighthood, called the Knights of the Round Table, the most antient order of knighthood in the world, chiefly to promote self-denial, and prevent differences amongst his nobility and gentry or soldiers, who had well deserved of him and his country, for their good services at home and abroad, that so no occasion of dispute might arise about precedence, in merit, antiquity, valour, wealth, honour, or nobility, amongst them, for that all the knights of this his order were alike equal in those respects in his esteem, and might sit down indifferently at the table, go in and out of the house or church, field, or market, before each other as they came without exception; being an allowed rule amongst them, that the highest seat at the court, senate, church, or table, did no more argue the worth, value, religion, valour, or prudent conduct of a man, than the precedence of a military officer did prove him more valiant than his soldiers. The place of meetings of those knights was at Winchester aforesaid, where they assembled yearly at Pentecost or Whitsuntide.
He gave the same religious Christian coat armour as was given by his father, which I have blazoned before; and in testimony of his thirteen victories over so many crowned heads, he bore also in a field Azure, thirteen imperial crowns Or, as Upton tells us.
Lastly, after this prince had thus vanquished his enemies abroad and at home, had restored the Christian Religion,
eclipsed by the Saxons, ordained this useful order of knighthood, and done all the good offices a just, pious, and religious king could do to his subjects, he was at last, as many others, ungratefully dealt with by his own people, who at the instigation of his discontented cousin Mordred on the Roman Pictish title, confederated with the Saxons as against a bastard, and rose a great army in Cornwall in opposition to his power; against whom King Arthur marched with his army, and gave them battle at a place near Camelford. Where, though he obtained the victory, and Mordred was slain, yet in that battle King Arthur received his mortal wounds, so that, soon after, in order to a cure, he retired to the vale of Avallan, id est, the apple valley, near Glastonbury, Somerset, where he lies buried.
King Arthur’s usual place of residence, where he kept his court (as Hennius the Briton tells us, who flourished anno Dom. 600), was at East or West Camellot, near Cadbury, in Wiltshire.
There was extant in the Welsh tongue in bard’s verses 1170, temp. Hen. II. a song which said that the body of King Arthur was buried at the Isle of Avallan, near Glastonbury, between two pyramids. Whereupon King Henry ordered search to be made after his corpse, as that most classical and authentic author Giraldus Cambrensis, who was an eye witness thereof saith, who relates, that after the pioneers had sunk about seven foot deep, they lighted upon a stone in form of a cross, to the back part thereof was fastened a rude leaden cross, something broad, with those letters inscribed: “Hic jacet sepultus inclitus Rex Arturius in Insula Avalonia.”
Two feet beneath this cross they then also found two coffins made of hollow oak, wherein were the bones and skeletons of King Arthur and of Genevour his wife, the hair of the said lady being then whole and of fresh colour, as Fabian saith, but as soon as touched it fell to powder. This history, for substance is gathered out of Galfridus and other chronologers, John Trevisa’s book of the Acts of
King Arthur, temp. Henry IV. John Lidgate, a monk of St. Edmondsbury, who wrote a tract of King Arthur’s Round Table, anno Dom. 1470, William Caxton, the author of that Chronicle called Fructus Temporum, who also wrote the history of King Arthur, 1484, Nicholas Upton, Canon of the Cathedral Church of Wells 1440, and others.
King Arthur’s three admirals at sea, as appears from the book of Thriades in British, were Gerint ab Erbyn, a nobleman of Cornwall, for then Cornwall and Devon were one county or province, slain at Lhongporth, now London, by the Saxons, anno Dom. 540; March ab Meircyon, and Gwenwynwyn ab Nau.
There is yet extant in the British tongue an elegy upon the death of this Gerint, which amongst others contains those words. Ray Rhytharmaur mab Erbin.
Yn Longborth yllas Gerint,
Gur deur o godir Dyfneint,
Wyntwys yn Lladhgyt as ledeint
Yn Llongborth llas y Arthur,
Guyr deur Kymmuvint o dur
Amheravdyr llywyadyr llauur.
In Longporth was slain Gerint,
A man beloved of Devon,
Overcome in fight or vanquished
In Longporth where he was slain for Arthur,
A man beloved, that commanded over the water,
Admiral or General of a fleet great.
King Arthur also, by reason of the great schism in the Church between the Arian and Catholic Clergy, instituted the order of Knights of the Holy Trinity, and built the Chapel of Trinity at Restormell.
Pierce Gaveston being made Earl of Cornwall by King Edward II. and afterwards banished for his wicked practices, and put to death by licence of that king, took out of the jewel house a table of gold, and tressells of the same, that once belonged to King Arthur, and delivered them to Amery of Friscoband, a merchant, to be carried into Gascoigne, where they were sold at a great price to his own private advantage, as our chronologers tell us.
But in memory of King Arthur, Roger Mortimer soon after, at such time as he and Queen Eleanor his concubine, wife of Edward the Second, governed this kingdom, in imitation of him, kept a round table, to which many noble knights belonged and frequented, to his infinite cost and expense, which by him were called the Knights of the Round Table. (Heywood’s Chronicles, p. 193.)
The Isle of Man being conquered by William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, temp. Edward III. he caused him to be styled King of Man, and gave him leave to institute at Windsor, in a chamber two hundred feet round, in imitation of King Arthur, a society of Knights of the Round Table. (Daniell’s Chronicle, p. 196.)
TONKIN.
I shall offer a conjecture touching the name of this place, which I will not say is right but only probable. Tin is the same as Din, Dinas; and Dixeth, deceit; so that Tindixeth turned for the easier pronunciation to Tintagel, Dindagel, or Daundagel, signifies the Castle of Deceit, which name might be aptly given to it from the famous deceit practised here by Uter Pendragon, by the help of Merlin’s enchantment.
The manor of Tintagel was very antiently demesne land of the crown, and famous for its castle, and Browne Willis says, the castle, manor, and borough of Tintagel, were settled by Edward the Third on his son Prince Edward, whom he created Duke of Cornwall, and continued it to his heirs, the succeeding Dukes of Cornwall, before which this king’s brother, John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, held it. This castle boasts much greater antiquity, and is said to have been the seat of the Dukes of Cornwall, and pretends to have been the birthplace of the famous King Arthur, which happened above five hundred years before the Norman Conquest, that prince having been born in the year 500, fifteen years after which he is said to have succeeded
his father in the kingdom, and to have lost his life in the thirty-sixth year of his reign in a place near Camelford. The borough of Bossiney, known in this county by the name of Tintagel, is a very small village, and contains scarcely twenty houses, and those not better than cottages. This place, with Trevenna, another little hamlet equally mean, lie in the parish of Tintagel, from which church they are at no great distance, and with it make up the one borough. It was privileged by Richard Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans, who granted “Quod Burgus noster de Tyntaivil sit liber Burgus.” It is governed by a mayor. The first return of Members to serve in Parliament is in the reign of Edward the Sixth.
In an indenture during the reign of Queen Mary it is styled Trevenna alias Bossiney, in others Trevenna simply, in others Bossiney alone.
The borough is held from the duchy at a fee-farm rent of 11l. 16s. 9½d.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Lysons says, “this castle, which is of great antiquity, is reported to have been the birthplace of King Arthur, with respect to whom it was the opinion of Lord Chancellor Bacon, ‘that there was truth enough in his story to make him famous, besides that which was fabulous.’ His history nevertheless has been so blended with the marvellous by the monkish historians, that some authors have been disposed to doubt of his existence; and the circumstances connected with his supposed birth at Tintagel, are clearly not among those parts of his story most entitled to credit. We find no mention of this castle in authentic history till the year 1245, when Richard Earl of Cornwall was accused of having offered an asylum at his castle of Tintagel, to his nephew David Prince of Wales, in rebellion against his uncle Henry the Third. Thomas de la Hyde was governor or constable of the castle in 1307, Thomas
le Arcedekne in 1313, and William de Botreaux in 1325. It appears by a survey taken about that time, that the castle was in a very ruinous state. The great hall was taken down by John of Eltham. John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, was made constable in 1388.” Mr. Carew states, p. 286 Lord Dunstanville’s Edition, “that being turned from a palace to a prison, this castle restrained one John Northampton’s liberty, who for abusing the same in his unruly mayoralty of London, was condemned hither as a perpetual penitentiary,” and Thomas Earl of Warwick was also a prisoner there in 1397.
Lord Treasurer Burleigh abolished the office of constable or governor of this castle.
Norden has a print, accompanied by a description of the castle, as it remained in his time, about 1584, when considerable portions of the fortress appear to have remained both on the island and on the main land.
The living belonged to the Great Benedictine Monastery at Fontevrault in Anjou, distinguished by the peculiarity of being presided over by an abbess, although the establishment consisted of monks as well as nuns. Having been seized into the king’s hands with other benefices belonging to alien houses, this parish was given by Edward the Fourth to the collegiate church of Windsor, where the great tithes and the patronage of the living still remain.
It is stated by Doctor Borlase, that besides the chapel within the fortress, dedicated to St. Ulette or Uliane, two others existed in the parish, one dedicated to St. Tiron and the other to St. Dennis.
I have retained the fabulous history of the Great Arthur, with feelings similar to those which induced the Greeks to dwell on the twelve labours of their Hercules, or the Scandinavians to recount the exploits of Odin. In a manner similar to what took place with respect to them, there exist reasons for conjecturing, at least that a mythological personage of remote antiquity became blended with a
British warrior who opposed the Saxons, and that the constellation Arcturus is in this way connected with the Cornish chief.
The tales translated from the Celtic by Jeffery of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph in 1152, are followed by the author from whom Mr. Hals collected his materials; they are also copied into the romance of Prince Arthur, where in Caxton’s edition is a print of the king sitting in the middle of his round table, with the knights companions surrounding its circle. And this print has evidently given origin to the lines of our most facetious poet, proving from the round table that knight errants were accustomed to eat like other persons. See part I. canto 1, line 387.
Mr. Hals says this is the place called Donecheniv in Domesday Survey. Dunechine, would mean the fortress or a chasm, corresponding precisely with the situation.
Joseph of Exeter, from whom Mr. Hals has translated some lines on this place, is mentioned with great commendation in Warton’s History of English Poetry: “But a miracle of this age in classical composition was Joseph of Exeter, commonly called Josephus Iscanus. He wrote two epic poems in Latin heroic verse. The first is on the Trojan War; it is in six books, and dedicated to Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury. The second is entitled Antiocheis, The War of Antioch, or the Crusade. The former is preserved; but a fragment only remains of the latter, found in the library of Abingdon Abbey.”
In the retreat of Gothlouis before Uter Pendragon, Mr. Hals mentions Exeter under the name of Caer Iske, but without much commendation of the martial spirit possessed by its inhabitants. If either Iske is the proper name of this river, or the general term for a river has been changed into Ex, the Celtic name will exactly accord with the present Ex-cester, as the word is still pronounced in Devonshire, the camp or fortress on the Ex.
Tintagel parish contains 4001 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 3674 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 499 | 10 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 649 | in 1811, 730 | in 1821, 877 | in 1831, 1006 |
giving an increase of 55 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. Charles Dayman, presented by the Dean and Canons of Windsor in 1810.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish offers many objects of considerable interest to the geologist. It is entirely situated on rocks belonging to the calcareous series. In the southern part, its rocks consist of clay slates possessing various degrees of fissibility, from the most perfect roofing-slate of Delabole, to a slate that can only be separated into thick flags. Amongst these strata occurs an interesting rock, which appears to be composed of hornblende and compact felspar, and in some parts of hornblende and calcareous spar only. The latter variety is well known in the neighbourhood under the name of green freestone, and may be seen in the walls of the oldest churches. It is in situ in a croft near the pretty little waterfall of Nathan’s or Kneighton’s Kieve.
In the northern part of the parish, near King Arthur’s Castle, and in Bossiney Cove, the slate is very talcose, and is occasionally coated at its joints with calcareous spar. At the former place also occurs a large mass of compact felspar, but which is so much decomposed that its precise nature has not been ascertained. In the sea-cliffs are several slate-quarries, the quality of which, however, is inferior to the Delabole, and is known in the market by the name of cliff slate. In this slate are impressions apparently derived from shells, which have been referred to the genus producta. This is the only instance of a fossiliferous slate hitherto detected in Cornwall, though it is probable that others may exist, particularly between St. German’s and the Rame Head.
ST. EARTH.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north, Philack; east, Gwyniar; west, Breage, Geenlow, and St. Hillary. For the modern name, it signifies holy or consecrated ground or earth, referring to the church and cemetery thereof. In Domesday Roll this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Trewinard, of which more under. At the time of the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the value of Cornish Benefices, this church was neither extant or endowed, since it is not named in that inquisition, in Decanatus de Penwid. But in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it is called San Etghi, or Yrghe; id est, the holy charge, cure, or command, viz. of souls, and was then valued 14l. 1s. The patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Ralph. The rectory in Painter, by lease under the Dean and Chapter; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 125l. 19s. 2d.
Trewinard, taxed in Domesday Roll, by the name of Trewinerder, id est, the high, haughty, beloved town, alias Trewinar, id est, the town of the beloved lake or river of water, on which those lands are situate, viz. the Hayle River, gave name and origin to an old family of gentlemen surnamed De Trewinard, who flourished here for many generations in genteel degree down to the latter end of the reign of King Henry VIII. at which time John Trewinard, Esq. was Member of Parliament for the borough of St. Ives, and so became privileged against his creditors, being a man much encumbered with debts, who during the intervals of parliament kept house here and stood upon his guard, at which time one of his creditors obtained judgment and outlawry against him, after three terms in the county court, broke his
house, took his person, and carried him prisoner to the sheriff’s ward, where he remained till the next session of parliament, against which time he brought his writ of habeas corpus, and was brought up to Westminster in expectation of great damages against his creditor that put him in durance. Upon this restraint of Mr. Trewinard’s person, the house resolved not to sit, looking upon it as a breach of privilege, but entered before their rising into a grand committee for hearing this case pro and con, betwixt Trewinard and his creditor, when it appeared as aforesaid Trewinard was outlawed and so out of the king’s protection, and till that outlawry was reversed he could not lawfully sit as a member; by which expedient Trewinard was forced to compound with his creditor and sue forth the king’s pardon, and then appeared in parliament in statu quo prius. This John Trewinard had, as I take it, issue Martin Trewinard, steward of the stannaries, who had issue Deiphobus Trewinard, that in his rage or anger killed an innocent man and buried him secretly in Trewinard Chapel, of public use before the Church of St. Earth was erected; however, this fact was not so covertly carried, but the coroners of the shire had notice of it, who accordingly came to this place, opened the grave, took forth the body, and impannelled a jury thereon, who upon oath gave their verdict, that this party’s death happened by a wilful murder of Trewinard’s, whereupon he was carried before a justice of the peace, and upon further examination of this matter, had his mittimus made, and was accordingly sent to Launceston gaol, where he remained till the next assizes.
In the mean time, foreseeing that this barbarous fact would tend both to the destruction of his life and estate, he applied to Sir Reginald Mohun, Knight, a favourite of the Queen Elizabeth’s, and proposed to him, that he would make over and convey to him, his heirs, and assigns for ever, all his lands and tenements whatsoever, under this proviso or condition, that in case he were condemned for the murder aforesaid, that he should or would procure the Queen’s
pardon or reprieve for his life; which proposal being accepted by Sir Reginald Mohun, lease and release of his lands were made and executed for a valuable consideration accordingly to him, bearing date the day before this tragical fact was committed, whereupon Sir Reginald Mohun forthwith became seised of this barton and manor of Trewinard, and at the next assizes held for this county, Mr. Trewinard being indicted for this murder, was found guilty by the grand and petty juries, and accordingly condemned to be hanged to death, at which instant Sir Reginald Mohun having gotten the Queen’s reprieve or pardon for Mr. Trewinard, put it into the sheriff’s hands, whereby his execution was stopped, and himself afterwards, on sureties for his good behaviour, was set at liberty from the gaol, and subsisted upon some small stipend allowed him by Sir Reginald out of his lands during life.
The arms of Trewinard are yet extant in the glass windows of this house, viz. in a field Argent, a fess Azure, between three Cornish daws Proper. Sir Reginald Mohun took such pleasure in this place, that at some times he lived on it in the middle of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, and finally settled it upon his three daughters, one of whom was married to Sir Thomas Arundell, of Talvorne, Knight.
Sir Thomas Arundell’s part of the premises was purchased by Sir Nicholas Hals, of Fentongallan, Knight, who having leases of the other two parts, some time also for pleasure resided on this barton, whose son and heir John Hals sold the same.
The present possessor of one third part in fee, and two third parts in lease of this barton and manor, from Praed and Penrose, as I take it, is Thomas Hawkins, Gent. who giveth for his arms the same bearing as Mr. Hawkins, of Creed.
Such another tragical story of murder is to be seen under Falmouth district, as also in Prince’s Worthies of Devon, how that Sir John Prideaux, of Orchardton, killed in a duel Sir William Bigberry, of Bigberry, Knight, whose ancestors
from the Norman Conquest had lived there, in worshipful degree, for nine descents, to the year 1360, when the two daughters and heirs of this murdered gentleman were married to Champernowne, of Beer Ferries, and Durneford, of Stonehouse. By this misfortune Prideaux being condemned to be hanged, gave most of his estate to obtain his pardon from Edward the Third.
In like manner he tells us that Sir Alexander Cruwys, Knt. temp. Henry VI. slew one Mr. Carew, and for that fact was condemned to be hanged, but in order to procure his reprieve or pardon, he sold twenty-two manors of land. Also that John Copleston, of Copleston, in Devon, Esq. commonly called the Great Copleston, in the middle of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, in a rage slew his natural son and godson, for which fact he was condemned to the gallows, but in order to procure a reprieve or pardon, he was forced to sell thirteen manors of land in Cornwall. His son left only two daughters that became his heirs, married to —— Copleston and —— Elford.
Lastly, he further tells us that Sir John Fitz, of Fitzford, Knight, slew in a rage one Mr. Slannen, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, after which fact, posting away to London, with his servant, in order to get his pardon, and at every stage shutting his chamber door, for fear of being taken where he lodged, it happened in the night that his servant knocking violently at his chamber door with some intelligence, and he not well awaked out of his sleep, or not well understanding his servant’s voice in the dark, he rushed to the door, shot off a pistol, and slew his own servant, which as soon as he understood, he took another pistol and shot himself dead also.
Trenhayle, in this parish, that is to say, the stout, strong, or rapid river, gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, from thence denominated Trenhayle, whose sole inheritrix, temp. Edward III. was married to Tencreek, as Tencreek’s daughter and heir, by her was married to Thomas Budeoxhed, of Budeoxhed, in Devon, by
whom he had Thomas Budeoxhed, Sheriff of Devon, 26 Henry VI. whose son married Pomeray, his grandson Trevilload, his great-grandson Halwell, and his posterity successively Stroote, Trowse, and Champernowne, which last gentleman, Philip Budeoxhed, having no issue male or female, temp. Elizabeth, his sisters became his heirs, and were married, Winifred to Sir William Gorges, Elizabeth to John Amadis, of Plymouth, Agnes to Oliver Hill, of Shilston. Gorges sold Budeoxhed, temp. Charles I. to Mr. Trevill, a merchant of Plymouth, now in possession thereof. The arms of Budeoxhed are, Sable, three fusils in fess between three bucks’ heads caboshed Argent.
Mr. Budeoxhed, aforesaid, Sheriff of Devon 26 Henry VI. at his own proper cost and charge, pulled down the old church of Budeoxhed, and built the new church of Budeox, as it now stands, wherein himself lies interred, some time after his eldest daughter died, who was the first person that was buried therein after the same was built and consecrated. Prince’s Worthies of Devon, p. 71.
Trelizike, in this parish, the town or lands situate upon the gulph, cove, creek, or bosom of waters (see Landowenach Lizard), temp. Edward IV. as appeared from a deed that I have seen, was the lands of Otho de Trefusis, ancestor of the Oates of Peransabulo, from whose heirs it came to the Smiths and others. In particular, Sir James Smith, of Exeter, was seised thereof, temp. Charles II. who sold the reversionary fee thereof to Arthur Paynter, Gent. attorney at law, his father having a chattel estate therein before that purchase. The ancient name of those Paynters, as Mr. Arthur Paynter informed me, was De Camburne, from which name they were transnominated, upon this occasion; John, the son of John De Camburne, being bound an apprentice temp. Queen Mary to a painter in London, and happening, in some contest, to kill or murder a man there, he forthwith made his escape thence, and fled into Ireland, where he remained undiscovered for several years, at length returned into his native country, and fixed in St. Earth church
town, where he set up a painter’s shop, and surnamed himself Paynter, from whom those gentlemen so called are lineally descended. The present possessor Francis Paynter, gentleman, that married Sutherland, and Paynter, his father Praed, his grandfather ——, and giveth for his arms, in a field Sable, three slabs of tin Proper.
Gurlyn, id est, the husband’s lake, or riveret of water, otherwise Gorlyn, is the fat or fertile lake of water in this parish, formerly held of the Crown by the tenure of knight’s service, was, temp. Edward III. the lands of Dinham, from whose heirs it came to Nansperian, and by Nansperian’s daughter and heir, to Matthew Prideaux, and by Prideaux’ two daughters and heirs, in marriage to Gregor and Bickford, now in possession thereof. The arms of Nansperian were, Argent, three lozenges Sable. Nansperian signifies the valley of thorns.
TONKIN.
In the Taxation of 1291, the 20th Edward I. this parish is called, Ecclesia de Lanhudnow, the rectory being valued at xxvis. viiid. and was appropriated to the Church of Exeter, to which it still belongs. As for the present name, St. Earth, I take it to be a contraction of Sancta Hierytha, of whom Camden, in Devon, speaks thus: “Chettlehampton, a little village where Hierytha, calendered among the female saints, was buried.”
Trewinard, in this parish, was of old the seat of a well regarded family of gentlemen, from thence denominated De Trewinard. It is now in the possession of Thomas Hawkins, Gent. attorney at law, that married, first, the daughter of James Praed, Esq.; and secondly, Anne, the daughter of Christopher Bellot, of Bochim, Esq. By the first he has only one daughter, but by the second a numerous issue. He giveth for his arms, in a field Argent, a saltire Sable, charged with five fleurs-de-lis Or.
Mr. Hawkins owns but a third part of the mansion and
barton of Trewinard, of which Sir John St. Aubin, and Mr. James Praed, are joint lords with him. Mr. Thomas Hawkins is since dead; and this is now the seat of his son Christopher Hawkins, Esq. and Clerk of the Assizes. He hath married Mary, one of the daughters of Philip Hawkins, of Pennance, Esq.
I take the etymology of this name, Trewinard, to be a town or dwelling on a marsh.
The Trewinards lived here probably before the Norman Conquest, and were once possessed of an estate worth at the least three thousand pounds per annum, as I have been informed by one of their descendants, the late Rev. Mr. James Trewinard, Rector of St. Mawgor in Meneage.
James De Trewinard was one of the Knights of the Shire for Cornwall 20 Edward III. William De Trewinard was so likewise in the 28th year of this reign.
Martin De Trewinard, Esq. (whom Mr. Carew calls a merry Cornish gentleman, and tells a comical story of) I believe was the last of them that possessed this estate, for Norden, who wrote his description of Cornwall towards the latter end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, saith, that Trewinard was the seat of Mannering.
Trelisick, compounded of Tre-lis-ick, a dwelling on the broad creek, suitable to its situation on that part of the river Hayle, where it openeth itself into a lake, is the seat of the ancient family of Painter. The present owner of which is Francis Painter, Esq. formerly one of the Clerks of the Admiralty, and now General Receiver of the Prize Money which shall become due to captors. He married a daughter of —— Sutherland, Esq. late one of the Clerks of the Admiralty, by whom he has only one surviving son Mr. James Painter. His arms are, Azure, three slabs of tin Argent, each charged with an annulet Sable.
Mr. Francis Painter is since dead, leaving two daughters by his second wife, a daughter of his uncle Mr. Francis Painter, of Boskina in Burian. William Painter, D.D. Rector of Exeter College in Oxford, was also a brother of his father Arthur Painter.
—— Painter, of Antron, was, I am informed, a younger branch of this family, and arrived at considerable eminence, but, like many branches, it has withered, while the parent stock remains fair and flourishing. But the family of Trelisick is now extinct in the male line, by the death of Mr. Francis Painter, jun.
THE EDITOR.
St. Earth, now invariably written without the a, is supposed to derive its name from St. Ergan, one of the female missionaries from Ireland.
The church stands at the side of what must have been an estuary in former times, pretty much like Egleshayle, near Wadebridge. The church is neat and plain, with three ailes of equal height, the roof has wooden ribs with bosses, and the whole was plastered about the year 1747. The tower is not inferior to most others, and the south porch is remarkable for its beauty. The whole eastern extremity of the south aile is said to have belonged exclusively to Trewinnard, but for want of asserting it, the right has been lost.
The walls of the church were covered with sentences, and the windows were ornamented by stained glass, but in the great repair bestowed on the church in 1747, all these were removed, as it is said, by the zeal of Mr. Collins, at that time Vicar, against all vestiges of the religion professed by our forefathers. A few small panes of glass only remain, and the cross engrailed Sable, on a field Or (the arms of Mahon), can alone be distinguished. The south wall of the church is supported by a continued buttress, added about the year 1760.
On a slab stone, just before the communion table, is the following inscription:
Here lyeth the body of the below named
John Ralph,
who ended this life the 10th of Feb. anno Domni 1729,
in the 85th year of his age.
The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
Here lyeth the body of Loveday, the wife of
John Ralph, Vicar of this parish,
by whom he had three children,
Mary, John, and Loveday;
the last died in her infancy.
The other two were alive at their
mother’s death.
She was a virtuous and prudent wife,
a loving and indulgent mother,
a friendly and prudent neighbour,
and very charitable to the poor.
She exchanged this life for a better
the last day of November, in the year
of our Lord 1715, and in the 82d year
of her age.
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, yea, saith the spirit, that they rest from their labour.” Rev. xiv. 13.
John Ralph, son of the above, obtained the living of Ingatestone, in Essex, and died there in 1755.
Adjoining to this stone is another, with an interesting inscription:
Underneath is deposited,
in hopes of a joyful resurrection,
the body of Elizabeth, wife of Edward Collins,
Vicar of this parish, whose filial piety and obedience,
conjugal love and fidelity, maternal care and affection,
unfeigned charity and benevolence, uniform and constant
perseverance in all the duties of Christianity,
have been equalled by few, excelled by none.
She was the daughter
of Nicholas Kendall, of Pelyn, Clerk,
Canon Residentiary of St. Peter’s, Exeter,
and Archdeacon of Totness,
by Jane, daughter of Thomas Carew, of Harrabear, Esq.
son of Sir Alexander Carew, of East Anthony, Bart.
She was born Aug. 19, 1701; married July 22, 1731;
died Nov. 30, 1749.
M.
Conjugis opt. dilectissimæ
H. M. L. M. P. C.
Maritus amantissimus
juxta cum Deo visum deponendus.
The six letters stand for, Hoc Marmor Loco Monumenti Poni Curavit.
Mr. Collins died in October 1755, and was buried under the same stone, but without any additional inscription. Mr. Edward Collins was the eldest son of John Collins, Esq. of Treworgan, in St. Erme, and brother of Mr. John Collins, Rector of Redruth. He studied for some years at the Temple, with the view of being called to the bar, and it is said that he became a clergyman from principles of conscience.
Mr. Collins retained uniformly through life the respect of all around him; he appears to have been a man of learning and of taste, but of austere manners. I have heard from one who was present, that Mr. and Mrs. Collins meeting accidentally, at a neighbouring gentleman’s, a lady who was not of the Established Church, they refused to hold any conversation with her.
Their only son, Mr. John Collins, Vicar of Ledbury in Herefordshire, supported the reputation derived from his father. He distinguished himself as a man of letters on various occasions; one of the editors of Shakspeare left his library to Mr. Collins, in gratitude for assistance afforded him, and there may be found a very curious note at the conclusion of Troilus and Cressida, in the edition by Johnson and Steevens, with Mr. Collins’s name subscribed.
The next Vicar of St. Earth was Mr. Symonds, who acquired the living through a curious combination of circumstances. Mr. John Stephens, the principal merchant at St. Ives, and agent for the Earl of Buckinghamshire in the management
of the borough, was a zealous Presbyterian. The living of St. Ives with Lelant, had been designed for some young man of the town, who indiscreetly, and probably in joke, declared that when he succeeded to the church he would preach furiously against Presbyterians, and teach that Hell itself was strewed over with their bones. This was said in a garden, in defiance of the Cornish proverb, Nynges gun heb lagas, na kei heb scover. “There is no downs without eyes, nor hedge or wall without ears.” And Mr. Stephens walking in a garden adjoining overheard this declaration, and in consequence exerted his influence with the patron to obtain the living from the Bishop of Exeter for one who might prove less unfavourably disposed towards his sect, the only one at that time considered as formidably hostile to the Established Church; and to ensure this object Mr. Symonds was selected, because his father, who exercised the trade of a barber at Cambridge, discharged also the office of clerk to a Presbyterian meeting-house.
Mr. Symonds was received as a friend at St. Ives, and elected into the Corporation. But in the course of a few years a violent struggle arose respecting the election of a Recorder, when Mr. Symonds most prudently considering that nothing further was likely to be obtained from those who had already given him a living, sold himself to the opposite party, carried the election for them by his casting vote, and received the living of St. Earth. See various Essays in the London Magazine, with the signature Y. Z. for 1767, pp. 225, 456, 464, 628; for 1768, pp. 25, 199, 575; for 1769, pp. 18, 235, 578.
Mr. Symonds died in 1775, and was succeeded by Mr. George Rhodes, of Devonshire, some time a Fellow of Exeter College. This gentleman having obtained preferment near his immediate connections, resigned the living in 1781, and was succeeded by Mr. Mayow, of Bray near Looe, who never resided, and died in the year 1800, when the benefice was given to Mr. Samuel Gurney, recently deceased (1833) and to whose memory a marble slab has been
immediately placed over the chancel door by his mother, in her ninety-fourth year.
The glebe land is more extensive and of greater value than in most other parishes, and the vicarage house is one of the best in Cornwall, a new front having been added by Mr. Collins, and some improvements made by Mr. Rhodes. There is also a rectorial glebe; and a large house near the eastern end of the bridge, stands on the spot where formerly was a barn for receiving the tithe corn.
There is a third slab stone in memory of Mr. Richard Shuckburgh, brother to the well-known mathematician and astronomer of Shuckborough, in Warwickshire. Mr. Humphrey Williams, then the resident curate, had married Miss Sarah Bate, his half-sister, who is also buried in St. Earth’s church.
The church-yard is still too small for the parish, notwithstanding its being enlarged in the year 1817, chiefly at the expense of the Editor, and by virtue of a general Act of parliament which he brought into the House of Commons for that express purpose, 56 Geo. III. c. 141.
The bridge is said by Leland to have been constructed two hundred years before his time, or about five hundred years ago. The causeway is very long, but there were originally only three small arches. A fourth, somewhat larger, has been added at the eastern end. The roadway was so narrow that a single carriage had, at one part, great difficulty to pass, and the whole created a large expense to the county, occasioned by accidents to the walls, and by wheels always running in the same track. In the year 1816, the Editor procured a grant of fifty pounds, and, expending somewhat more than an equal sum himself, he got the road widened sufficiently for all useful purposes, more especially as in the year 1825 a causeway was made across the river, about a mile further down. St. Earth adjoins to no less than seven parishes: Lelant, Ludgvan, St. Hilary, Breage, Crowan, Gwinear, and Phillaek.
Trewinnard has been, without all comparison, the principal place in this parish.
I have not any means of affirming or of contradicting the relation of Mr. Hals, as to the tragical event imputed to the last Trewinnard: some indistinct tradition of a murder was handed down to within my remembrance. The transactions of this gentleman’s grandfather with the House of Commons are given by Mr. Hatsell, as derived from authentic sources, in his Parliamentary Precedents, vol. i. p. 59, of the edition of 1796, and p. 60 in the last edition. I apprehend that he was then Member for Helston. One of the family resided till very lately in the Strand, London; for, struck by the name “Trewinnard,” the Editor was induced to call at the house. Mr. Trewinnard said that his family came, as he had heard, from a town so called in Cornwall, and that he had some old deeds in his possession. These were exhibited, and proved to be leases of various farms in St. Earth parish. The Mohuns appear to have made this place a principal ressdence, for the cross engrailed exhibits itself not only on fragments of painted glass preserved in the church, but also on the seat or pew, quartered or impaled with various arms, and in one instance with the fleur-de-lis and the lions, of England and France.
Mr. Hals states that the estate was divided between the three daughters of Sir Reginald Mohun; that one of these daughters married Sir Thomas Arundel, of Talvorne, and that his part was purchased by Sir Nicholas Hals, of Fentongallon, who had the other two-thirds on leases for lives; but that John Hals sold the whole. It is probable that the purchaser must have been Mr. Bellot, of Bochym, whose daughter brought the one-third freehold, and the two-thirds lease for lives, to Mr. Thomas Hawkins; yet Reginald Mohun is said by Mr. Lysons, under Cury, to have given one of his daughters, with Bochym, to Francis Bellot; through whom Mr. Hawkins, the present possessor, connects himself with the ancient and baronial family of Mohun.
However Mr. Thomas Hawkins acquired Trewinnard, the property has now been possessed by his family above a century and a half.
The first of his ancestors who settled in Cornwall was Mr. John Hawkins, who is said to have come from Kent in the year 1554. He married a daughter of the officiating Minister of Blisland.
Second, John Hawkins, their son, designated merchant, married Jane Rother or Williams, of Grampound.
Third, John Hawkins, gent. married Paschas, daughter of Joseph Cooke, of Mevagissey.
Fourth, Thomas Hawkins, who died in the lifetime of his father, married Adry, daughter of —— Crudge.
Fifth, John Hawkins, gent. married Loveday, daughter of George Trenhayle.
Sixth, Thomas Hawkins, their son, married, first, Florence, daughter of James Praed, esq. of Trevethow, by whom he had one daughter, married to John Williams, of Helston, merchant. He married, secondly, Ann, daughter and coheir of Christopher Bellott, of Bochym, and died in 1716, leaving one son and one daughter.
Seventh, Christopher Hawkins, esq. barrister-at-law, married Mary, daughter and coheir of Philip Hawkins, of Pennance, esq. and practically his sole heiress, as well as of her brother Philip Hawkins, D.D. sometime Master of Pembroke college, Cambridge.
They resided during several years in London, where Mr. Hawkins practised as a lawyer; but, having lost several children, they determined on removing into the country, and finally settled at Trewinnard about the year 1750. They had one daughter, Jane, married to Sir Richard Vyvyan, of Trelowarren. And
Eighth, Thomas Hawkins, esq. who married Anne, daughter of James Heywood, esq. a merchant of London. He represented Grampound in Parliament, and died in 1766, leaving four sons and one daughter.
Philip died at Eton.
Sir Christopher, Member for Michell, Grampound, Penryn, and St. Ives, in different Parliaments, and created a Baronet July 28, 1791. He was a Fellow of the Royal, Antiquarian, and Horticultural Societies, and published in 1811 “Observations on the Tin Trade of the Ancients in Cornwall, and on the Ictis of Diodorus Siculus.” He died unmarried in 1829.
Thomas died a young man.
John Hawkins, the present representative of the family, celebrated throughout Europe for his general knowledge on all subjects, his science, literature, and travels, especially through Greece, the most interesting portion of the ancient world, married the only daughter of Mr. Sibthorpe, Member for Lincoln, and has two sons and four daughters; the eldest, Mr. John Heywood Hawkins, is a distinguished Member of the present Parliament. His sister is the widow of Mr. Trelawney Brereton.
The house at Trewinnard has been so much altered and improved since Mr. Christopher Hawkins came to reside there, about eighty years ago, as scarcely to leave a trace of what it had been in former times; but the garden remains, a pleasing specimen of cut yew, trim box, and thorn hedges. There was also a building, detached from the house, supposed to have been the ancient chapel, although, I think, inaccurately, as it stood north and south. One of the upstairs rooms has tapestry representing the victory of Constantine, with his celebrated vision of the Cross. But, above all, here are preserved the remains of an old coach, suspended on long leathers without springs, and in general form corresponding with the coach exhibited by the Lord Mayor of London. I believe, however, that it is much less ancient than has generally been supposed, and it has been in actual use within seventy years.
Trewinnard has the advantage of a stream of water, brought with great art over very uneven ground from a distance of two or three miles, conducted into almost every field, and supplying the house.
The place of next importance in this parish is Trelisick. Perhaps the etymology of this word may be tre-lès-ick, the town on the inclosed water, les, or lis, being an inclosed place; and the river Hayle here expands itself into the appearance of a lake; and the same circumstance applies to Trelesick as the head of Falmouth harbour.
The tale related by Mr. Hals respecting the change of name from De Camborne to Paynter, does not seem very probable. I remember, however, a man of that family who was a house-painter, and who would be driven into most violent fits of passion when boys hallooed after him, “Painter by name and painter by nature.”
Mr. Francis Paynter is said to have married, first, a daughter of —— Sutherland, Esq. one of the Clerks of the Admiralty, and to have had by her one son, who died in his father’s lifetime. I apprehend that this son, James, too warmly espousing the politics then most popular in Cornwall, took an active part in proclaiming King James on the death of Queen Anne; that he was indicted by the victorious party, acquitted at Launceston, and welcomed by bonfire and by ball from thence to the Land’s End.
Of the two daughters by his second marriage, with his cousin of Boskenna, one made a most imprudent match with a foreigner, and settled in France, leaving many descendants.
The other daughter, Mary, born in 1709, married a very respectable gentleman, Mr. Hearle, of Penryn. They acquired the other sister’s share of the property by purchase, and the whole is now equally divided between the families of her three daughters. One married the Rev. Henry Hawkins Tremayne, of Heligon; another Francis Rodd, Esq. of Trebather; and the third Capt. Wallis, of the Royal Navy, well known for his discovery of Otaheite, in a voyage round the world.
The house at Trelisick has been greatly reduced in size; but the whole place continues to bear the appearance of a gentleman’s seat, and the property is much improved by the rapid advance of trade and of establishments at Hayle.
This portion of the Hearle and Paynter estate has been assigned to Mr. Francis Hearle Rodd.
The place next of importance in this parish was probably Tredrea. The name, perhaps, imports the thoroughfare town, as it lies on the way from Trewinnard to the church.
There was here a large house inhabited by a family of the same name, who appear in the parish register two centuries ago as Esquires, a distinction then sparingly applied. The property is said to have passed, by a mortgage unredeemed, to the St. Aubyns of Crowan, who granted it on a lease for lives, in the year 1685, to Mr. Matthew Phillips. One of his daughters married Mr. John Davies, younger brother of Henry Davies, Esq. of Bosence. Mr. John Davies had a daughter, Catherine Davies, eventually heiresss of her brother Henry Davies, and through him of her father and uncle. Her son is the Editor of this work.
The old house at Tredrea having fallen into a state of decay, Mr. Henry Davies took it down about the year 1750, and built small a neat house on the same spot, where the Editor still occasionally resides.
Bosence, in St. Earth, has belonged time out of mind, (certainly from before the reign of Henry the Seventh,) to the family of Davies. On it there is a very perfect Roman entrenchment; and various articles of Roman workmanship, found on removing the earth, are described and figured by Dr. W. Borlase, in his Antiquities of Cornwall, p. 316, edit. 1759; and also in a Paper communicated to the Royal Society in 1759, vol. xi. p. 322, of the Abridgment; and the Articles themselves having been presented by Mr. Henry Davies to Dr. Borlase, were by him deposited in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, where they are now preserved. Another Roman intrenchment, but much less perfect, is situated on the summit of the hill on the south side of the road leading eastward, at about half a mile distant from St. Earth bridge: this is mentioned by Leland. The Editor availed himself
of an opportunity for purchasing it about ten years ago, to prevent its further destruction.
In the church-yard are several monuments to the Davieses, particularly one to Mr. William Davies, the Editor’s great-grandfather.
A flat stone, lying on a raised grave, having the arms of Davies, a chevron between three mullets pierced, impaled with the ancient arms of Noye, Azure, three crosses botony in a bend Argent. The more recent arms are, Argent, three bendlets and a canton Sable, on the canton a cross of the Field. There is this inscription round the edge.
Here lieth the body of William Davies, of Bosworgy, in this parish, Gent. who was buried the 28th day of February, in the 54th year of his age, anno 1690.
On the middle of the stone:
Virtus post funera vivit.
Must death divide us now, and close thine eyes?
How shall I live, when thou art gone, to hear
Our children’s cries?
Look on, but spare your tears, forbear to weep:
My death’s no death—in Christ a blessed sleep.
O blessed Sleep to me! that art both free
From sting of Death, and from Grave’s victory!
O, Death, where’s now thy sting, or, Grave, thy power?
My soul triumphs in Christ, my Saviour;
Cease, then, your tears for me, who am in bliss—
Tho’ here intomb’d, my soul in Heaven is.
Be sure always t’ observe old David’s song,
And never trust that man that did me wrong.
Survivors will be apt to act their part,
And seek all means they can to break thy heart;
But trust in God, and he will thee defend
From all thine enemies: and love thy friend.
Farewell, dear wife and children! Friends, adieu!
Observe those friends whose promises prove true.
I cannot account for this extraordinary epitaph.
Near this tomb stands a handsome marble sarcophagus, erected over a stoned vault, with the following inscriptions:
On the south side:
In memory
of Henry Davies, of Tredrea, Esq.
a Lieutenant in the Cornwall Militia.
He was a dutiful son, an affectionate brother,
an obliging relation, a sincere friend,
and in all repects a worthy gentleman.
He died of the smallpox at London,
December 10, 1760, aged 36,
justly lamented by all his friends and acquaintance.
On the north side:
Here lyeth interred the remains
of John Davies, Gent.
who departed this life May the 29th, 1737,
in the 51st year of his age.
And of Mary and Philippa, his daughters.
Mary Davies died Jan. 2d, 1740, aged 8.
Philippa Davies died at Bristol Wells,
August the 18th, 1755, in the 25th year of her age.
On the northern end:
Elizabeth Davies,
widow of Mr. John Davies,
and daughter of Matthew Phillipps,
of Tredrea,
died April the 21st, 1775,
aged 80.
On the west end:
In memory of the Rev. Edward Giddy, M.A.
during 43 years an active and most useful Magistrate,
who departed this life March the 6th, 1814,
in his 80th year.
Also of
Catherine, his wife,
sister and heir of Henry Davies, Esq.
who died February the 3d, 1803, aged 75,
leaving one son and one daughter:
Davies Giddy,
and
Mary Philippa Davies Guillemard.
The Editor is desirous of preserving a short memorial to a relation, whose kindnesses to him were unceasing from infancy to the fifty-fifth year of his age; and to a servant whom he has ever regarded with gratitude as the one whose precepts and instructions he imbibed with the utmost pleasure and delight, and whose tales of the times of old remain deeply impressed upon his mind.
To the memory of
Mrs. Grace Jenkins,
born at Treloweth, 1734,
died April 7th, 1823,
having passed the greater part of her life
in this parish, universally
esteemed and respected.
This memorial,
in gratitude for her long and faithful service,
is inscribed to the memory of
Jochebed Hoskin,
who died March the 23d, 1814, aged 86,
by Davies Gilbert.
She came to live with Mrs. Elizabeth Davies,
at Tredrea, in 1750,
and continued in the family ever afterwards.
Time rolls his ceaseless course! the race of yore,
That danced our infancy upon their knee,
And told our wondering childhood legends store
Of strange adventures happ’d by land or sea,
How are they blotted from the things that be!
There is a vault belonging to the family of Hawkins; and Mr. Christopher Hawkins, in 1767, and his widow, Mrs. Mary Hawkins, in 1780, are laid in it, I believe with some of their children; but there is not any inscription.
Perthcolumb presents some appearance of antiquity. There is a tradition of its once having given a sheriff to the county. The place now belongs to Mr. Andrew Hoskin, descended from a very ancient family in the adjoining parish of Lelant.
Gear has a good house, once the seat of another branch of the Davieses, but bought by the Editor’s father.
Tregethes belonged for several descents to the Penroses. It is now the property of Mr. Ellis, who resides in it.
About the year 1782, a mill was constructed on a part of Trewinnard, for rolling copper and iron, by a company established at Hayle thirty years before, on the supposed patriotic principle of smelting our own copper ore; but, after many years of competition against the smelting-works in Wales, it was discovered that one shipload of copper ore required three shiploads of coal, and that by importing coal from Swansea to work the steam-engine, and by exporting the ores to be smelted there, vessels were enabled to obtain cargoes in both directions; and, in consequence, the works at Trewinnard and at Hayle are no longer employed for their original purposes.
The rage for importing coals to reduce our own ores at home, which was epidemic about the middle of the last century, seems to have originated from a confusion of ideas in the application of analogies, the most abundant source of error. It would be absurd to send our food across the seas to be roasted or boiled; therefore the same principle was extended to copper ore.
These establishments were, however, maintained for some considerable time by the genius and the abilities of one man. Mr. John Edwards had been taken as a clerk for general business by Mr. Hawkins, just at the time when he
and other Cornish gentlemen set on the copper-works. Mr. Edwards soon forced himself into the chief management, became a partner, and continued the works during the whole of his life; not being distinguished merely as a merchant or manufacturer, but as a scholar and a gentleman.
Gurlyn is said by Mr. Lysons to have been the residence of various considerable families. It has, for perhaps a century, been the joint property of Messrs. Gregor and Harris. About the year 1760, Mr. John Millett, possessing a lease of this place for lives, built an entirely new house there; but the lease has been bought in by the gentleman seised of the freehold, and the house taken down.
Treloweth is a manor heretofore the property of the Tredreas. On a part of this manor stands a tin-smelting house. Tin, by the laws of the Stannaries, must be reduced to the metallic state in Cornwall; and much less quantities of coal are required than in the case of copper. Till about the commencement of the last century, all the tin ores of Cornwall were smelted in small blast furnaces, by means of charcoal or of peat. At that period some Germans introduced the reverberatory furnace, and with it the use of coal. Several smelting-houses were immediately constructed by the gentlemen of the county, and although not among the first, that at Treloweth. I have ascertained the exact period of its building, from this circumstance, that the workmen were interrupted by the total eclipse of the sun, which happened about 15 minutes before nine on the 22d of April, 1715, O. S.
Mr. Henry Davies, the Editor’s great-uncle, was among those who contributed to the building, and the crest of his arms, a lamb carrying a flag, was adopted as a mark to distinguish the slabs of this house; all the different smelting and blowing houses having always used specific marks. The crest, had, I presume, been originally taken in allusion to the Welch and Cornish sound, at least of his name; davas being Cornish for a sheep, or perhaps a shepherd. This mark, however, conveyed to the minds of persons in
Catholic countries some idea of consecration, and procured a preference for the Lamb Tin, although it never claimed to have the slightest superiority; and finally, all the other houses have taken the same, or similar marks.
Among the Germans who introduced the reverberatory furnace, was the celebrated Becker. His son became a bricklayer, and his grandson’s widow died about twenty-five years ago in the poorhouse at St. Earth.
The Rev. John Ralph, Vicar of Ingatestone, son of the Vicar of St. Earth, gave in 1754 a hundred pounds towards founding a school at St. Earth, to be applied as Mr. Collins, the then Vicar, and Mr. Hawking, of Trewinnard, should direct. Some portion of the 100l. was expended in repairing a small house in the church-yard. The remainder, together with another hundred pounds, given by Mr. Hawkins, remain in aid of the schoolmaster.
This parish measures 3,791 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 4,708 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 558 | 2 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 1122 | in 1811, 1317 | in 1821, 1604 | in 1831, 1922 |
giving an increase in 30 years of 71 per cent.
The feast is the nearest Sunday to all Souls, Nov. 2.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Punnett, collated in 1835 by the Right Rev. Henry Phillpotts, present Bishop of Exeter, on a lapse from the Dean and Chapter. Mr. Punnett has wonderfully improved the house and the vicarage generally, which had previously been considered one of the best in Cornwall.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
St. Earth is situated on felspar and hornblende rocks belonging to the porphyritic series. In many parts these rocks are so silicious as to give rise to very unproductive soils; but in other places, where the felspar predominates, the land is very fertile. These rocks are traversed by metalliferous veins, which are richer in copper than in tin ores.