GULVAL.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north Ludgvan, south the Mount’s Bay, west Maddaran, east St. Hilary.
In the time of William the Conqueror’s survey of lands, anno Dom. 1087, this parish, I suppose, passed in tax under the jurisdiction of Ludgvan. In the Inquisition and Taxation of Benefices in Cornwall, by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia de Laneseley, in decanatu de Penwith, appropriata priori Sancti Germani, is valued lxvis. viiid. Vicar ibidem, xxs. At which time it seems it was but a Vicarage church; the garb impropriated, though since restored. Neither was the name of Gulval then mentioned. However, in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it is rated by the name of Gulval, also Laneseley, 6l. 11s. 0½d. The patronage was formerly in the Prior of St. German’s, now in the crown. The incumbent Penhellick; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, by the name of Gulval, 120l.
This manor of Laneseley, in this parish, was, in the time of Richard I. and King John, the lands of the family surnamed De Als, now Hals, so called from the barton and dismantled manor of Als, now Alse and Alesa, in Buryan, as tradition saith, or Beer Alseton, Alston, in Devon, in possession of Trevanion and others, whereof they were lords; and in particular William de Als, in the beginning of the reign of King Henry III. that married Mary, the daughter of Francis de Bray, was possessed thereof; father of Simon de Alls, who lived at Halsham, in Yorkshire (from him denominated), that married Jane, daughter of Thomas de Campo Arnulpho (now Champernown), Sheriff of York second, third, sixth, and seventh years of King Henry III. Anno Dom. 1222, as appears from the catalogue
of those Sheriffs, and the Hals’s allowed pedigree, 1483; from which also it is manifest, by an authentic deed or record therein, yet legible, that the said Simon for the health and salvation of his soul, his wife’s, his ancestors, and other relations, gave the said manor of Laneseley to the Prior of St. German’s, his canonical brothers, and their successors for ever, in these words.
In nomine Domini, &c. Ego Simon de Als, pro salute animæ meæ, et Janæ uxoris meæ, et parentum meorum, dono et concedo manerium de Laneseley, in comitatu Cornubiæ, Priori Sancti Germani, et fratribus canonicis, et successoribus eorum, cum dominicis redditibus, &c. et omnibus ibidem appendentibus, terra, sylva, pratos, et aquam, &c. ut habeant, teneant, et possideant in perpetuum, &c.; dat vicesimo sexto die Augusti, anno regni nostri Regis Henrici tertii post conquestum octavo. Hiis testibus, Thoma de Tracye, Henrico de la Pombre, Reginaldo de Valtorta, Roberto de Cheni, Radolpho de Esse. This grant, or donation, was in the year 1266. (See Lelant.)
By virtue whereof the Prior of St. German’s and his successors were possessed of this manor from that time till the 26th Henry VIII. 1536, when that Priory was dissolved, and the lands thereof vested in the crown. At which time King Henry VIII. gave the lands thereof to Champernown, Beaumont, Barry, and others; and to Beaumont’s and Barry’s share fell this manor of Laneseley; who parted with it either by purchase or in marriage with his daughter, to John Tripcony, about the year 1565; whose son, John Tripcony, having by riot and excess comparatively wasted his paternal estate, mortgaged this manor of Laneseley to Sir Nicholas Hals, of Fentongollan, knight, about the year 1620, who was lineally descended from Simon de Als, aforesaid, and died seised thereof about the year 1637. After his decease his unthrifty son and heir, John Hals, became possessed thereof, who assigned the mortgage thereof for 500l. to one Mr. Downes, A.D.
1655; and soon after, having spent his whole paternal estate elsewhere, went beyond the seas, and was never since heard of to this day; leaving issue, by Jane Arundel his wife, Major Thomas Hals, of Hals’s Savana, in Clarendon parish and province, in Jamaica, who had issue Thomas Hals, Esq. his son and heir.
After the departure of the said John Hals beyond the seas, the said Mr. Downes assigned over the mortgage of the premises to one Mr. Collwell, a scrivener of London; who dying soon after, his son, Thomas Collwell, became seised thereof; and after his death his widow, who by her last will and testament (as executrix of her said husband,) conveyed the said manor to Charles Bonython, Esq.—Spur, Longeville, and others, in trust, now in possession thereof, 1700; before which time, between the said Downes and Collwell, on pretence of the equity of redemption reserved in Downes, John Hals being beyond the seas, and that the mortgage money to Collwell was satisfied out of the profits of these lands; and a cross bill of Collwell’s against Downes, alleging the contrary, and to foreclose him; happened so many tedious and costly Chancery suits as comparatively undid them both. But, maugre all their endeavours, the old titles of Tripcony and Hals were foreclosed by a decree in Chancery, betwixt Downes and Collwell, in Hillary term 1689, yet extant and to be seen.
This manor of Laneseley, for goodness of land, jurisdiction, court leet, fishing craft, and royalties over all that part of the sea of the Mount’s Bay, between Longbridge and Chiandower, near Penzance, may equal, if not surpass, any other manor in those parts of its value, which is now scarcely worth 300l. per annum, though in former ages it was of far larger extent; for in the survey of Cornish acres, tempore Edward II. (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 46, p. 131, of Lord Dunstanville’s edition), it was numbered in the Exchequer to contain twenty-eight acres, that is, about six thousand statute acres;[4] every ancient Cornish acre being
sixty statute acres of land; the contents of the whole now not exceeding a thousand statute acres, which lies in Gulval and Ludgvan.
In Fosses Moor, part of this manor of Lanesely, in this parish, is that well-known fountain called Gulval Well. To which place great numbers of people, time out of mind, have resorted for pleasure and profit of their health, as the credulous country people do in these days, not only to drink the waters thereof, but to inquire after the life or death of their absent friends; where, being arrived, they demanded the question at the well, whether such a person, by name, be living, in health, sick, or dead; if the party be living, and in health, the still quiet water of the well-pit, as soon as the question is demanded, will instantly bubble or boil up as a pot, clear christaline water; if sick, foul and puddle waters; if the party be dead, it will neither bubble, boil up, or alter its colour or still motion. However, I can speak nothing of the truth of those supernatural facts from my own sight or experience, but write from the mouths of those who told me they had seen and proved the veracity thereof. Finally, it is a strong and courageous fountain of water, kept neat and clean by an old woman of the vicinity, to accommodate strangers for her own advantage, by blazing the virtues and divine qualities of those waters.
TONKIN.
After copying from Hals, Mr. Tonkin adds of Lanistley manor:—It extendeth throughout the parish of Gulval from the Moreps to the Gundrons; that is to say, from above the sea to the Down Hills; it extendeth also through a part of the parish of Ludgvan.
At Kenneggy is the dwelling, by lease (the fee being in his elder brother, William Harris, of Hayne, Esq.), of Christopher Harris, Gentleman, an attorney-at-law, who married a daughter of John Foote, of Truro, Esq. His
elder brother, who married the daughter of John St. Aubyn, Esq. of Clowance, in the parish of Crowan, is now in possession of Hayne, near Lifton, in Devonshire, having succeeded to it on the decease of Sir Arthur Harris, jun. the last heir male of the elder branch. On removing to Hayne he leased Kenneggy to his younger brother aforesaid; who, by reason of the elder brother’s yet want of issue, is likely to become his heir. The arms of Harris are, Sable, within a bordure three crescents Argent.
Mr. Edward Llwyd, in his letter to me, would have this parish to take its name from the inscription on the stone in Maddern parish, “Riolabran: Cunoval: Fil:” and that Cunoval is turned by corruption into Guloval, for that he found many such instances in Wales.
I should be glad to agree with so great a critic, but since there is a saint, or bishop, whose name comes very near to this—St. Gunwall, whose memory the church celebrates on the 6th of June, I cannot forbear fancying, especially the humour of the country being considered, that he is the patron and the namer of this parish.
THE EDITOR.
There cannot be any reasonable doubt of St. Gunwall having bestowed his name on this parish, more especially when the prophetic well is taken into account, since saints scarcely ever failed of imparting some supernatural quality to their favourite streams.
St. Gunwall was, moreover, a Briton, and is stated to have been in Cornwall.
Saint Gudwall, or Gunwall, was born in Wales about the year 500. Being entirely devoted to God, he collected eighty-eight monks in a little island called Plecit, being no more than a rock surrounded by water. For some reason, however, he abandoned this establishment, and passed by sea into Cornwall; and from thence he went into Devonshire,
where he betook himself to the most holy, perfect, and useful state of a solitary anchorite; at length, however, again emerging, he sailed into Britany, and there succeeded St. Malo, as Bishop of that see, although he is said even then to have dwelt in a solitary cell, and to have died there at a very advanced age. His relics have been widely distributed, and various places in France have been called by his name.
Mr. Whitaker explains the ancient name of this parish, Lanisley, by Lan and Ishei, low, or lower, the low church, which appears to agree very well with the situation.
The great tithes certainly belonged to the Priory at St. German’s, for in the returns made to Henry VIII. of the property belonging to them, appears—
Gulval, decimæ Garbarum, £10. 6s. 8d.
These tithes, since the law-suits mentioned by Mr. Hals, have passed by purchase into the possession of the Beauchamps of Gwenap, and now belong to the two daughters and coheiresses of the late Mr. John Beauchamp.
The vicarage, although it has risen into one of the most valuable to be found in that district, in consequence of modern improvements, and of its being situated near Penzance, is yet rated under twenty pounds a-year in the King’s Books, and therefore passes by the presentation of the Lord Chancellor. Two Mr. Pennerks, father and son, held this living in succession. It was then given, in 1789, to Mr. John Cole, afterwards Doctor in divinity and Rector of Exeter College, and his successor is the present Vicar, the Rev. Robert Dillon.
Kenegie passed from Mr. William Harris, of Hayne, accordingly as Mr. Tonkin had conjectured, to the family of his brother, Mr. Christopher Harris; and the family becoming extinct in the male line by the death of this gentleman’s grandson in 1775, by much the largest part of the estate went, under the provisions of a will, to Mr. William Arundell, then resident at Crane, in Camborne, who assumed the name of Harris; but his grandson
choosing to fix his permanent residence at a very handsome seat of his own creating near Lifton, parted with all his Cornish property; and Kenegie now belongs, in fee, to the farmer, who had occupied it at an annual rent. This place having formerly belonged to the family of —— Tripcony, who bore for their arms, Argent, three rabbits passant Sable, and kynin and kyninger being the Cornish names for a rabbit, I cannot but suspect that kynneggy, or kenegie, must have some relation to the name of Tripeney.
Trevailer is the place next of importance in this parish. It has been long the residence of a very respectable family, the Veales. They are said to have come from Gloucestershire, their ancestor having been the first Protestant Vicar of Gulval. The Reverend William Veale, the present possessor, has rebuilt the house; the second brother of his grandfather, Mr. George Veale, made a large fortune at Penzance, by the practice of the law and by success in mines, which became divided between three daughters who married Hichens, Baines, and Jenkins. Mr. William Veale has married the only daughter of the Rev. Richard Gerveys Grylls, of Helston.
But the most beautiful place in this parish, and one of the greatest ornaments to the whole neighbourhood, is Rosemorron, the Vale of Blackberries, formed by Mr. George John. This gentleman having married Jane, the eldest daughter of Mr. Arundall, who assumed the name of Harris on succeeding to the large fortune of that family, and having been for many years at the head of his profession in Penzance, has at length retired to this delightful spot in the summer months. Nor have his decorations of the country been confined to one situation; he has shewn, by extensive plantations at Try, that the most elevated and barren tracts, even on a granite soil, may be rendered useful and decorative by the growth of trees.
The lower part of the parish, adjoining to the sea, is fertile in the highest degree, from the village of Chiandower
(the house by the water), through Pendrea to the Church Town. And the vallies, abounding in trees, rival those of any country. Chiandower is also become a place worthy of the adjacent scenery, through the taste and the exertions of Messrs. Bolitho, who, in making ample fortunes, have benefited the country still more than themselves by promoting every species of productive industry. The parish feast does not certainly corroborate the supposition of the patron saint; it is held on the nearest Sunday to the 12th of November, the day of St. Martin, the first Pope of that name, a native of Todi, in Tuscany, and elected Pope in the year 649. He assembled in the same year the sixth council of Lateran, where the heresy of the Monothelites was condemned; but the schismatic Emperor, Constans, sent Olympius, his chamberlain, to Rome, to support the obnoxious sect, who arrived there while the council were deliberating; and failing in his attempts to divert them from supporting the orthodox faith, he suborned a person to murder the Pope, but in attempting to execute the atrocious deed the assassin was miraculously struck blind. Yet, nevertheless, Constans persevered in his speculative errors and in his wicked conduct, by causing St. Martin to be seized, and after suffering many casualties, to be banished to the Tauric Chersonesus, where he died in 655.
His relics were afterwards brought to Rome, and deposited in the church of St. Martin of Tours, on the 12th of November, which, from thenceforward, was observed as a festival to his honour.
The day of St. Martin of Tours, the popular patron of beggars, happens to be on the day before, and several parishes give their feasts on the nearest Sunday to November the 11th, but Gulval alone honours the Pope and Saint.
Gulval measures 3950 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 5170 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 406 | 8 | 0 |
giving an increase of nearly 36½ per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The northern part of this parish rests on granite, which is for the most part a coarse crystalline rock, containing very large porphyritic crystals of felspar. The granite is, however, in some places very fine-grained, and near its juncture with the slate abounds in shorl. The schistose rocks composing the southern part of the parish, have a basis of compact felspar, assuming various appearances according as it is more or less siliceous; those rocks are often beautifully marked with crystalline patches and veins of actynolite, as may be seen in the rocks on the sea shore, and they are traversed here and there by beds of felspar porphyry, into which they gradually pass.
[4] Surely sixteen or seventeen hundred. Ed.