LANREATH.
HALS.
The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.
TONKIN.
Lanreath is situate in the hundred of West, and hath to the west St. Veep, to the east Duloe, to the south Pelynt. This parish, in the taxation of Pope Nicholas, is called Lanraithow, by Mr. Carew Lanrethon, and the same in the King’s book.
Rhaith is in old British a law; Rhaithow the law; so that it signifieth the church of laws, or of the laws, according to this etymology, which I will not venture to say is a true one, but it is the best that I can give at present.
This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s book at 32l. The presentation in John Francis Buller, Esq. by purchase from the late Charles Grills, Esq. The incumbent, Mr. Richard Grills, only brother of the late patron.[10]
As I take Court to be the head place of this manor, from whence it is so called, to have been the chief seat of these Seriseauxes, I shall here insert what I find of them.
Richard de Seriseaux or Cereseaux, junior, was one of the men-at-arms who had 40l. in rent of lands 17th Edward II. (Carew, p. 139, Lord Dunstanville’s edition).
Richard de Cereseaux, I suppose father to the former, was one of those that had 20l. per annum of lands or rent, or more, 25 Edward I., and was summoned to attend the King, and to go into parts beyond sea.
Richard Sargeaux, son, I believe, of the former, was Sheriff of this county the 12th of Richard II. A.D. 1389. This I take to be the same person with that Richard de Seriseaux who sold his estate in the 3d. of Henry IV. He held lands also in Kelland and Kilkoid in the hundred of Trigg. Carew, p. 126.[11]
This Sir Richard Ceriseaux or Sergieaux, for he was knighted, had one only daughter and heiress, called Alice, who first was married to Sir Guy St. Alban, Knt. and secondly, to Richard de Vere, Earl of Oxford; and, thirdly, to Sir Nicholas Throwley, Knt. By the first she had issue; and the last Earl of Oxford of the Veres, Aubrey de Vere, who died in 1702, quartered her arms, Argent, a saltire Sable, between twelve cherries slipped Proper; from whence I guess that Sergiaux was only by way of abbreviation, their coat alluding to his name, cerise being in French a cherry. This Sir Richard Ceriseaux must have lived to a great age, since his great-grandson, Geffrey St. Aubin, Esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall but ten years after him, in 22d Richard II. A.D. 1399, or, I rather suppose, that this Sir Richard Ceriseaux may have left a son, who was the Sheriff, and that upon his death, without issue, Alice his sister became the heir.
THE EDITOR.
It appears from Mr. Lysons’s researches, that the manor of Lanreath, with the barton of Court, passed from the Serjeaux to Pashleys, Chudleys, and Chamonds, from which last they were carried by heiresses to Trevanion and Grylls.
William Grylls, of Tavistock, is said in a pedigree of that family to have married the widow of Knight, and to have settled at Court in Lanreath; perhaps this lady was the coheiress of Chamond.
Their son, Charles Grylls, bred to the higher department of the law, married Agnes, daughter of Charles Tubb, Esq. and by this marriage a very considerable property was acquired in the parish of St. Neot, where one of the painted windows, the sixth, had been given by the Tubbs; but where their descendant the Reverend Richard Gerveys Grylls has, with equal taste and munificence, raised the splendid decorations of this church to a degree of perfection exceeding that of their original state, although
they are some of the most curious and beautiful specimens of the arts and of the piety of former times, that have escaped the fury of passions excited by great changes in religion and in civil government. See Mr. Hedgeland’s coloured prints of the sixteen windows, with descriptions of each, and the life of St. Neot, from Capgrove, 1 vol. 4to.; printed for the Author, No. 6, Claremont-place, Brunswick-square, and sold by Nichols and Son, Parliament-street, London, price 2l. 2s.
The church, which is a fine one with a lofty tower, yet almost obscured by trees, has a monument recording the decease of Charles Grylls, Esq. on the 2d. of March 1612, and of Alice his wife on the 13th of June 1607.
Their son, John Grylls, took a part in the Civil War, as indeed every Cornish gentleman was obliged to do, on one side or the other; for in Cornwall, which might well have been conjectured likely to remain almost free from actual conflicts, two considerable armies were routed in pitched battles, and two still larger were forced to capitulate.
This gentleman was knighted by King Charles the First on the field of battle. He married Grace, daughter and coheiress of William Bear, Esq. A monument in Lanreath church testifies that he was buried there on the 30th day of September 1649.
Their eldest son, Charles, resided on his estate in this parish, and married a lady of the family of Mahon.
John, his son and heir, resided also at Court; he married Elizabeth, daughter and sole heiress of Richard Gerveys, Esq.
Charles, their eldest son, married Mary, daughter of Edmund Spoure, Esq. of Trebartha, but died without issue. This gentleman sold the manor of Lanreath, with the barton of Court and the advowson of the living appended, to Mr. Buller, of Morval. His brother, the Reverend Richard Grylls, held the living till his decease in 1735; and succeeded his elder brother as heir of the family property.
His son, Richard Grylls, settled at Helston, where he married Cordelia, daughter, and eventually heiress, of Thomas Glynn, Esq. descended from the Glynns, of Glynn.
Their son is the Reverend Richard Gerveys Grylls. It would be presumptuous in the Editor to attempt any particular praise of this gentleman, universally esteemed and respected.
The manor of Botelett is stated by Mr. Lysons to have belonged at an early period to the family of Botreaux, the last of whom, Lord Botreaux, died in the year 1462, leaving an only daughter, who married Robert Lord Hungerford.
It has in more recent times belonged to the families of Roberts and Treville. It became divided by coheiresses of the latter between Trelawny and Cross; and the latter half has passed to the family of Lethbridge in Somersetshire. The manor of Treyer is also stated by Mr. Lysons to have been the joint property of Rashleigh and Glynn; but in consequence of an exchange to be now Mr. Glynn’s solely; and that Trewen, a seat of the Dandys, and Trecan, a seat of the Lowers, are now farm-houses.
Lanreath measures 4358 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 3110 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 485 | 8 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 478 | in 1811, 548 | in 1821, 629 | in 1831, 651 |
giving an increase of 36 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. Stephen Puddicombe, presented by John Buller, Esq. in 1827.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish is entirely situated within the calcareous series; its rocks are similar to those of Boconnock and Duloe.
[10] Mr. Grills dying in 1735, has been succeeded by Mr. Heal Trelawney, on the presentation of Mr. Butler.
The parish is printed Laurayton in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica Papæ Nicholai; but the u and n may have been easily mistaken in the manuscript.
It is rated in the Taxation 6l. 6s. 8d. Decimæ 12s. 8d.
[11] Carew says, p. 125 of Lord Dunstanville’s edition, Richard de Seriseaux ten 3 parv. feod. de Mort. in Lanrethan, Kilgather, et Lansalwys. The Editor.