HILL, NORTH.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Lewanack, east Lezant, south and west Linkynhorne. Under what district this parish was taxed in Domesday Roll I know not; however, in the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, “Ecclesia de Northill in decanatu de Estwellshire” was taxed £6; in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, £36. 6s. 8d. The patronage is in Darley; the incumbent Darley. The parish is rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, £211. 12s.

Trebatha, in this parish, which after the English-Cornish may be interpreted a town of baths, or washing fountains,

otherwise the town of clubs or bats, is the dwelling of an old family of gentlemen surnamed Spour. The present possessor Henry Spour, Gent. that married Rhodes, and giveth for his arms, Gules, on a chevron Or, a rose of the first between two mullets or spur rowells Sable pierced. Now Charles Grylls, Esq. married the daughter and heir of Spour, relict of Bellot, of Bochin. She surviving her husband, without issue, as I am informed, is married to her cousin Rodd, and to him and his heirs hath conveyed all her lands.

Batt-in, Batt-en, in this parish, from which place was denominated an old family of gentlemen surnamed Battin, whose only daughter and heir, in the latter end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, was married to one Mr. Vincent, a barrister-at-law, that came down the Western Circuit with the judges, and so together with herself brought this barton into his family.

The late possessor, John Vincent, Gent. sometime Fellow of All Souls College in Oxford, originally descended, as I am informed, from the Vincents of Stoke Dabernon in Surrey, and giveth the same arms, viz. Azure, three quatrefoils Argent. His younger brother, Mr. Matthias Vincent, was bound or bred an apprentice with a merchant at London, and having but a small fortune to begin trade with, yet for his care and industry was so taken notice of in London that he was sent by the East India Company as one of their factors to Surat in the Mogul’s country, where by his skill in factorage and merchandize, but chiefly by marriage with a Portugal merchant’s daughter and heir, he obtained a great quantity of riches, goods, and chattels; whereupon he left his servile trade of a factor to others, and returned with his family and riches safely into England, temp. James II. by whom he was knighted, and in one of his Parliaments was chosen a burgess for the town of Lestwithell, and served in that capacity for some time, till an unlucky accident happened between him and his wife, or lady, who upon some real or feigned grounds grew jealous

of his familiarity with another, privately eloped from him, carrying with her great quantities of his gold and jewels. He left issue by her two sons, lately living, though, as I am told, this estate for the most part is spent or consumed.

TONKIN.

Mr. Tonkin has not made any addition to the history of this parish.

THE EDITOR.

By far the principal place in this parish is Trebartha, now for three descents the residence of the very respectable family of Rodd.

Mrs. Grylls bequeathed her property to Mr. Francis Rodd, of Herefordshire, a Captain in the Guards, not as her relation but as her intended third husband. This gentleman was succeeded by his son Francis Rodd, for many years Colonel of the Cornwall Militia. He married one of the three coheiresses of Heale and Paynten, and left three sons, Francis Heale Rodd, Esq. the present possessor of Trebartha; the Rev. Edward Rodd, D.D. and Rector of St. Just in Roseland, heretofore Fellow of Exeter College, and Proctor of the University of Oxford in the year 1802; and Sir John Tremayne Rodd, an Admiral. Also two daughters, Jane and Harriet, the latter married to Mr. Fursdon, of Devonshire.

Trebartha is in many respects worthy of being reckoned among the first places in Cornwall. The scenery, grand in other respects, is rendered still more so by the addition of a mountain torrent; and the house has been greatly improved by the late proprietor and the present, who has chiefly resided there, highly respected as a magistrate, as a gentleman, and as the benefactor of his neighbourhood. Mr. Rodd was a Fellow of All Souls, and during the war he served, as his father had done before him, in the defence of his country.

Mr. Lysons says that the Lord of the Manor of Treveniel, which was passed from the Carews to the Spours, and from them to Rodd, claims by immemorial custom of the Mayor of Launceston the service of holding his stirrup whenever he shall mount his horse in that town in presence of the Duke of Cornwall; a claim, however, difficult to prove by any exercise of it, even within legal memory, and now rendered obsolete by disusage if that effect is ever produced.

The presentation to the living is in Mr. Rodd. The church is large, consisting of three entire ailes with a lofty tower, and placed on a commanding eminence. The interior is adorned with several splendid monuments of the present and former families resident at Trebartha.

The present rector is the Rev. E. Trelawny, instituted in 1828.

North-hill measures 6,815 statute acres.

£.s.d.
Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815510200
Poor Rate in 183153180
Population,—
in 1801,
782		in 1811,
803		in 1821,
1089		in 1831,
1155

giving an increase of nearly 14¾ per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The western half of this parish is situated on granite, and the eastern half on slate belonging to the porphyritic series. The rocks of both resemble those of the corresponding parts of Alternum.