MABE.
HALS.
Mabe, a vicarage, is situated in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north Stithians, and west Constantine; east, part of Gluvias and Bradock.
For the name, it is plain Cornish Mab or Mabe, being a son, and in this place either to be construed in reference to Milorus (son of Melianus, King or Duke of Cornwall), who lies buried in Milor church-yard, and who was lord of this place, or had some jurisdiction over it, as Milor church at this day hath in spirituals over Mabe, to which it is considered as annexed.
Or perhaps the name of this church, Mab or Mabe, refers to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whose honour it may have been erected by our ancestors as a pledge of their orthodox faith, in opposition to the Ebiorite and Arian heresies.
At the time of the Norman conquest the district was
taxed under the jurisdiction of Tremiloret, i. e. Milor’s Town. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the value of Cornish benefices, Ecclesia de Sancto Milore in decanatu de Kerryer cum Sacello (that is to say, with this church or chapel), was rated £6. 13s. 4d. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, Milor la Vabe, or Mabe, is valued £16. 15s. The patronage in the Bishop of Exon, the incumbent. Now Milor-la-Vabe is either Milor’s son’s place, or a corruption of Milor-ha-Vabe, i. e. Milor and mabe, or Milor and son; this parish was rated to the 4s. per pound land-tax 1694, £56. 17s.
In this place, at Tremough, is the dwelling of John Worth, Esq. sheriff of Cornwall 10th of Queen Ann, who married Trefusis, his father Penularick; originally descended from the Worths of Worth, in Devon or Somerset; who giveth for his arms, in a field Ermine, an imperial eagle with two necks Sable, armed Gules.
Tre-mayne in this parish, i. e. the town of stone, or the stone town, transnominated the gentle family of Peares or Perys, i. e. Pearce in English, to that of Tremayne, tempore Edward III. at which time Peres de Tremayne was lord and possessor thereof, who married Dame Opre, or Obre de Treskewis, and by her had issue John, that died without issue; 2ndly, Peros, that married Onera Trevartea, by whom he had issue Richard, who had issue Thomas, that married Isabella, daughter and heir of Trenchard of Collacomb in Devon, and removed thither, by whom he had issue Nicholas, Canon of St. Peter’s Church, Exeter; which Isabella, surviving her husband Tremayne, married Sir John Damerell, Knight, sheriff of Devon 1 Richard II. 1377, by whom she had no issue: nevertheless so prevailed with him, having no issue of his own, to settle divers land upon her issue by Tremayne, which was a great advancement of the estate of the Tremaynes. In 1392, Nicholas her son aforesaid married Jane, and had issue Thomas that married Carew, who had issue John, who by Joan Warr had issue John, who had issue Thomas,
who by Grenville had issue Roger, Edmund, and Degory; Degory had issue Arthur, that married Grenville, by whom he had issue Edmund and Richard, from which Richard the Tremaynes of St. Ewe are descended. This tenement of Tremayne is long since gone out of that name, and is now the land of persons to me unknown. Tremayne tenements are also in St. Martyn’s in Kerrier, also in St. Colomb Major, et al. Tremayne parish in the hundred of East.
The arms of Damorell were, Party per fess Gules and Azure, three crescents, 2 and 1, Argent.
TONKIN.
The name of this parish in the king’s book is La Vabe, that is, St. Vabe, or Mabe’s Place.
The chief estate in this parish, and which I shall therefore begin with, is the manor of Carnsew, alias, says Mr. Carew, Carndew, the black rock, or rather a heap of black rocks, this parish and estate abounding in great rocks of moorstone. This place gave name to a very eminent family, which removed afterwards to Bokelby in St. Kew. One of the Carnsews of Bokelby granted a lease of the barton of Carnsew, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to William Thomas, which William Thomas from thenceforth took the name of Carnsew; and I have in my possession a grant of arms from Sir Richard St. George, Clarenceux King-at-Arms, to Henry Carnsew, of Trewone, junior, dated the 2d of December 1633, recognising this assumption of a new name from his place of residence.
This family has since removed to a better settlement at Trewoon in Budock.
Carverth, which signifies the green town, is also within and held from this manor. This place gave name to, and was the seat of an ancient race of gentlemen, from whom it passed to the Penalunas, till, in the reign of King Charles the First, it was sold to Thomas Melhuish of Penryn, merchant,
descended from the Melhuishes of Northan in Devonshire.
Tremogh, that is, the dwelling or town of hogs, is also held from this manor, and was likewise formerly the seat of a family of the same name, from whom it came to the family of Blois of Penryn, in which name it continued till the year 1703, when Roger and John Blois, two brothers, sold this barton, which is of considerable value, to John Worth, Esq. of Penryn, who had for some time before a considerable mortgage on it.
Mr. Worth hath built on Tremogh a very large house of moorstone (granite), and hath inclosed a small park for deer. He hath been a justice of the peace during all the reign of Queen Anne, King George the First, and King George the Second; and was sheriff of the county in the tenth year of Queen Anne. His father, Mr. William Worth, of Penryn, merchant, married Jane, one of the daughters and coheiresses of Pennalerick, by whom he had, among others, a second son, William Worth, D.D. now Archdeacon of Worcester.
Mr. John Worth hath been some time a widower by the death of his wife Bridget, daughter of Francis Trefusis, of Trefusis, Esq. who has left him only one son, of the same name.
Hantertavas is likewise held of this manor, which signifieth the half tongue, but why I know not.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Hals has been singularly unfortunate in his etymology of Tremogh, which has therefore been omitted. Without all doubt, it means, as Mr. Tonkin has interpreted, the hog or pig’s town; and the street leading to Tremogh from Penryn is now called Pig’s Street. The heiress of the Worth family married an adventurer of the name of Hamilton, who ruined all his affairs by contested elections and extravagances. Tremogh was sold about the year 1775; and
having passed into the hands of persons of a nearly similar description, the house remained shut up till the wood decayed, and the place was disfigured by the sale and removal of all the trees. The property has, however, at last been secured by a respectable gentleman, who resides on the spot, has renovated the house, and commenced planting and other decorations.
The most discriminating feature of this parish and of the immediate neighbourhood, is the great abundance of granite, not merely in large blocks, the proper moorstone, but in regular and extensive quarries; and so great has been the exportation of this most valuable material, that almost the whole of Waterloo Bridge, and much of the interior of London Bridge, are constructed of stone carried to the Thames from Falmouth harbour.
Districts abounding in crystalline rocks are usually uneven, and in this parish the main road, leading from Helston and all the west to Penryn and Falmouth, had to descend Mabe-hill; but in this year (1835) the line has been turned from the south of Tremogh to a vale on the northern side, which reduces the upper level, and converts a precipitous descent into one sufficiently sloped for carriages of every description. The old road has, however, still an attraction for botanists, as the antirrhinum monspessulanum, a plant very rarely found in other situations, grows there abundantly on the banks and hedges.
Mr. Tonkin is mistaken in tracing the family of Tremayne, long settled at Heligan, in St. Ewe, from the barton in this parish. That family is unquestionably derived from Tremayne in St. Martin’s, on the Helford river.
Mabe measures 2029 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 2383 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 317 | 8 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 387 | in 1811, 396 | in 1821, 457 | in 1831, 512 |
giving an increase of 32 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
One corner of this parish, immediately north of Penryn, extends on the slate in the form of a very narrow and short stripe; but all the remainder rests entirely on granite, which is for the most part coarse-grained and crystalline, abounding in porphyritic crystals and felspar. It, however, also contains numerous beds of a finer quality, which being well adapted for building is extensively quarried.
ST. MABEN, or ST. MABIN.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north St. Kewe, east St. Udye, south Helland, west Egleshayle. For the modern name of this church, it signifies, in the holy or sacred son, or a church dedicated and consecrated in honour of God the Son, in opposition to Arianism, as aforesaid under Mabe. In the Domesday Book 1087, 20 Will. I. this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Treu-es-coit, i. e. the wood-town, or town of wood; still the voke lands of a manor, the lords whereof first endowed this church, whose names were ——, together with the Duke or Earl of Cornwall.
In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the value of Cornish benefices, Ecclesia de Maben in decanatu de Trig Minorshire, is rated at £8. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, it is rated at £36. The patronage formerly in the lords of the manor aforesaid, and the Duke of Cornwall, that endowed it; afterwards in the Duke and Louis alternately, the which Louis sold it to Boscawen, now in possession thereof; the incumbent
Hill; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound land-tax 1696, at £158. 19s. by the name of St. Mabyn or Mabin aforesaid.
Nevertheless the inhabitants of this parish, through ignorance of the Cornish tongue, as not understanding the etymology or import of this compound word Mab-in, have substituted St. Mabiana, as the tutelar guardian or patroness of this church, instead of Jesus Christ the Son of God, the true patron and defender thereof.
Coll-quite, Coll-coit, alias Killyquite, in this parish, tempore Edward III. was the lands of Sir Richard Sergeaulx, sheriff of Cornwall 12 Richard II. who held this place by tenure of knight’s service, two knight’s fees and a half, Morton (see Talland and Crowan); whose issue male failing, his three daughters and heirs were married to Beere, Marney of Essex, and Seyntaubyn of Clowans (whose widow Alice after his death was married to Richard de Vere, the eleventh Earl of Oxford).
From Segreaulx’s heirs this barton and manor by descent or purchase came to Henry Marney, sheriff of Essex, the 2d and 8th of king Henry VII. executor of the last will and testament of Margaret Plantagenet, alias Beaufort, daughter and heir of John Duke of Somerset (grandchild to John of Gaunt by his son John), widow of Edmund of Hadham, Earl of Britain and Richmond, father and mother of King Henry VII. who died 1509, and was by her executors honourably buried in the abbey of Westminster. The arms of Marney were Gules, a lion rampant guardant Argent.
Tre-blith-ike, alias Tre-bletike, in this parish, is now in part, or the whole, the possession of … Hamley, Gent. that married Dingle, and giveth for his arms, in a field Argent, three talbots passant Azure, taloned, clawed, and langued Gules, two in chief and one in base.
Haligan, alias Hel-ligon in this parish. The first name as a monosyllable, signifies, after the Belgick Cornish, the
holy or sacred; the second the legal nuncio or ambassador’s hall, perhaps the spiritual legate or ambassador, viz. the minister or priest of this parish. Otherwise, if Heligan be a Greek monosyllable, it signifies willows or osiers, ἑλικὴ, helike, salix.
This barton and manor is the dwelling of Joseph Silly, Esq. one of his Majesty’s Commissioners for the peace, that married Cloberry, his father Elford, originally descended from the Sillys of St. Wenn and Minver. In this place Robert de Haligan, 3 Henry IV. held, by the tenure of knight service, two knight’s fees. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 42.
Pen-wyne in this parish, that is, the head or chief wyne, was the dwelling of Porter, Gent, that married Spry; and giveth for his arms, in a field Sable, three bells Argent, and a canton Ermine. This place is now sold to Cole. Pen-wyn is the beloved head or promontory of land; but properly pen gwynsa is head or chief wine.
Baldwyn, alias Bawdwyn, of Colquite, gave for his arms Gules, within a plain bordure two bendlets Argent. Prout, id est, Proud, gave for his arms Sable, a stag rampant Argent, depressed with a fess indented in chief Or; the stag tripped and armed of the Same.
TONKIN.
Mr. Tonkin has not anything but what was abridged from Hals.
THE EDITOR.
Tredeathy, pleasantly situated in this parish, has been made a handsome gentleman’s seat by the present possessor, the Rev. Francis John Hext.
The church has several monuments; one to the memory of Grace, the wife of Sir Richard Carnsew; and another to Mrs. Elizabeth Silly; and there remain some slight memorials
of a branch from the Godolphins, formerly seated here. It is large, and occupies a commanding situation, with a lofty tower, visible to a great extent in all directions. But nothing has in modern times so much distinguished this parish as the residence of its learned rector, the Rev. Charles Peters.
Mr. Peters’ reputation for a most profound acquaintance with oriental literature, is sufficiently established by a controversy with the mighty man of his time, Doctor William Warburton; but there is also a traditional history of his benevolence, of his piety, and of his genuine simplicity, so interesting that the Editor has most gladly availed himself of a communication from persons nearly connected with this great and good man, to insert it here.
“The Rev. Charles Peters, of St. Mabyn, was descended from a merchant of Antwerp, who fled to England from the persecution of the Protestants in Germany. His grandson was a Turkey merchant of Fowey in the time of Queen Elizabeth: this gentleman was father of the famous Hugh Peters, and his mother was a Treffry, of Place-house.
“The ancestor of Mr. Peters of St. Mabyn was a royalist. The Rev. Charles Peters was born on the 1st of December 1690. In Tregony, at the German school there, he was taught Latin and Greek, and the first rudiments of Hebrew. He was afterwards of Exeter College, Oxford. When first ordained he served the curacy of St. Justin Roseland; then was presented with the living of Boconnock. In 1723 the living of Bralton Clovelly was given to him, and three years afterwards St. Mabyn, where from that time he chiefly resided, but spent a part of each year at Bralton, keeping a curate at each. Every Sunday he entertained a great number of the poorest of his parishioners; and on Monday the remaining meat was distributed to them, with bread for each; and thus in succession he entertained all the poor of the parish; and there was scarcely any poor rate in St. Mabyn during his life.
“He spent a large portion of his income in relieving the
temporal wants of his fellow-creatures, and much of his time in their spiritual instruction. Besides morning and evening prayers, he read the Bible daily to his family, and also daily studied it himself in the original languages.
“When he published his Dissertation on the Book of Job, and drew on himself the insolence of Warburton, he bore it with the most perfect Christian charity.
“He had written a vindication of Homer in answer to Warburton. Before it was published Warburton had become a Bishop, when, fearing that the faults of the man might reflect on the sacred order, he abstained from publishing it, saying, ‘Thou shalt not speak evil of the rulers of thy people.’ Mr. Peters was of abstemious habits, regular both in his studies and his exercise, which the natural delicacy of his constitution required. He never married, but educated the two eldest sons of his elder brother, Dr. Joseph Peters, M.D. of Truro, and the Rev. Jonathan Peters, of St. Clement’s. The latter was bred to the church at his desire, and continued with him as his curate, till the living of St. Clement called the nephew to the cure of his own church.
“Mr. Peters lived to the age of eighty-four, retaining the full possession of his faculties to the last.”
Extracts from his Meditations in manuscript:—
When speaking of Warburton, he says,
“Let me then go on with this work which I have begun. Let me beg the assistance of God, that I may do it in a proper manner, so as not to return evil for evil, or railing for railing, but to preserve my temper, and to consider what the Dean has said, in a cool dispassionate way if possible; or at least to check my pen so as to say nothing that may misbecome me either as a Christian or a clergyman.
“As to what relates to Dean Warburton, he has freed me, I think, from all manner of obligation to say anything in complaisance; for this, considering the usage he has given me, would look like stooping to him, and distrusting the cause I have to plead for. I must keep up my spirits
then, but beware of transgressing the rules of charity, of prudence, or of good manners.
“If it be necessary that I should publish the remainder of the Reply to the author of the Divine Legation, grant, oh Lord! that I may conduct it with all that decency and prudence, that strict regard to charity as well as truth, which may become a Christian and a minister of Christ; that I may have a constant check upon myself with regard to every thing that may be either light and ludicrous, or bitter and sarcastic: if my antagonist has given but too much into this way of writing, the greater shame to him; and the greater shame to me if I should not endeavour to avoid so palpable a fault.”
Under the influence of an opinion, or rather of a prejudice similar to those of plenary inspiration, and an immaculate preservation of the text, and unmindful that the Gospels themselves convey a large portion of their instruction under the form of allegory or parable, Mr. Peters maintained the historical authenticity of the book of Job against Dr. Warburton, who argued in favour of the opposite and manifestly the correct hypothesis. Yet so accurate and so extensive were the Hebrew learning and the general erudition of this profound scholar, that he completely worsted the most celebrated critic of his age, and drove him from a sober investigation of facts, of ancient opinions, or of the peculiar form and nature of moral instruction used by eastern nations at various and remote periods, into virulent and personal abuse.
It is curious to observe that the Book of Job has not the most remote allusion to anything connected with the Jews, neither to their laws or their ritual, nor to their patriarchs, or to their leader and legislator.
And it is more curious that in all the writings transmitted to our time by this extraordinary people, from the Book of Genesis to the last prophecy antecedent to its Babylonish captivity, not the slightest reference is made to a state of future existence; unless the strange narrative
respecting the Witch of Endor should be deemed an exception, suspected as it is of interpolation; and at all events utterly unfitted for announcing, and that too incidentally, the most important of revealed truths. Previously, moreover, to the captivity, no personification is ever mentioned of the Principle of Evil.—“Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made; and he said unto the woman,” &c. No allusion is here made to any supernatural being; nor did the serpent lose the disgraceful credit till three thousand five hundred years after the fact, of having by his own unassisted subtilty, malevolence, and craft, led our first parents into the fatal snare predestined to work the utter and eternal destruction of countless millions of the human race, but for the stupendous mystery of their subsequent redemption.
In the Book of Job reference is made to a future life; and the Principle of Evil not only appears as a distinct personage, but is placed in collision and in debate with the Principle of all Good, driving the Divinity itself to the clumsy expedient, suited only to the imperfections of a finite intellect, of ascertaining by an actual experiment, whether a man were capable of sustaining certain degrees of bodily pain and of mental affliction, without murmuring against his Creator, the Lord and Giver of life, in whom we live, and move, and have our being.
It seems plain, therefore, from the doctrine of a future state first noticed in this work, from the first introduction of a being hostile to the happiness of all others and delighting in their misery, and from the absence of any allusion to a single fact connected with the Mosaic dispensation, or to the history embodied in the Sacred Records; and, lastly, from the dramatic form of the whole; that the Book of Job must be a parable, a moral tale, a poem wholly unconnected with the Jewish faith. It seems not to be improbable that such a composition, teaching the important duties of resignation and submission to the Divine will,
Αγου δε με, Ω Ζευ, και συ γ’ ἡ Πεπρωμενη,
Οποι ποθ’ ὑμιν ειμι διατεταγμενος,
Ως εψομαι γ’ αοκνος· ην δε μη θελω,
Κακος γενομενος ουδεν ηττον εψομαι,
may have been translated from the Chaldean into the Hebrew language during the Captivity, retaining the Chaldean character, for no copy is said to exist in the ancient or Samaritan alphabet. And a work so excellent, so abounding in the most sublime and elevated flights of eastern poetry, soaring towards such topics as even that poetry is unable fully to reach, may well have been added by Ezra to the Book of the Law which he brought before the congregation, and read before them in the street, when they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
The Editor has also been desirous of obtaining information respecting another member of this family, whom, at the distance of almost two centuries from those times of violence and of civil commotion in which he lived, we may now consider as one persecuted in his death and in his fame, far beyond the degree which any demerit on his part, either as a fanatic in religion or as a partizan in politics, could have justly merited.
He was probably selected as a victim by his opponents to gratify the base passions of an ignorant multitude, now anxious to destroy those whom they had previously adored; and ridicule was cast on his memory by the triumphant party, as an expedient for beating down religious opinions hostile to the system of ecclesiastical government then reestablished: perhaps also, the possession of Lambeth Palace, like that of the house adjoining the capitol by Manlius, may have excited similar feelings; and possibly he was considered in some degree as an equivalent for Laud.
Extract from a History written in 1781:—
“William, Thomas, and Hugh Peters were brothers, and born at Fowey in Cornwall. Their father was a merchant of large property, and their mother was Elizabeth
Treffry, daughter of John Treffry, Esq. of a very ancient and opulent family in that town.
“William received his education at Leyden, Thomas at Oxford, and Hugh at Cambridge. Between the years 1610 and 1620 Thomas and Hugh became clergymen in London. William continued a private gentleman. About the year 1628 Thomas and Hugh having rendered themselves obnoxious by their popularity and puritanic preaching, were silenced by the Bishop. They then went to Holland and remained till 1633, when they returned to London. The three brothers then sold their landed property, and in the following year embarked for America. Hugh settled at Salem, and soon became so popular as to excite the jealousy of those who had previously swayed the fanatical opinions of that place. Mr. Hugh Peters was in a short time appointed a trustee of the college at New Cambridge. He built a grand house, and purchased a large tract of land. The yard before his house he paved with flint-stones from England; and having dug a well he paved that also with flint-stones, for the accommodation of every inhabitant in want of water. It bears the name of Peter’s Spring up to the present time.
“He here married a second time, and had one daughter named Elizabeth. His renown as a zealot increasing, he received an invitation to remove from Salem to Boston, with which he complied, and there laid the foundation-stone of the great meeting-house, of which the Reverend Doctor Samuel Cooper, one of the most learned literati in America, is the pastor. Those whose envy he had excited at Salem, ill brooked being thus outrivalled by Mr. Peters. Yet finding him an orthodox fanatic, and more powerful than themselves, they seemingly bowed to his superiority, at the same time that they were contriving a plan which ended in his destruction.
“In 1641 they conspired with the civil authorities of Boston to convert their leading priest into a politician, by appointing him agent to Great Britain. The plot succeeded,
and Mr. Hugh Peters assumed his agency under colour of petitioning for some abatement of customs and excise; but his real commission was to foment the civil discontents, wars, and jars then prevailing between the King and the Parliament. He did not see into the motives of these people; and he felt a strong inclination to chastise the Court and the Bishop of London, who had turned him out of the church for his fanatical conduct.
“On Mr. Peters’s arrival in London, the Parliament took him into their service. The Earls of Warwick and of Essex were also his patrons. In 1644 the Parliament gave him Archbishop Laud’s library, and soon afterwards made him head of the Archbishop’s court, and gave him the estate and palace at Lambeth; all which he kept till the Restoration.
“The people of Boston conducted themselves with ingratitude and neglect towards Mr. Peters; they never paid him any part of the stipend attached to his office, although he discharged the duties of it during twenty years, and obtained from the Protector a charter for the Society for propagating the Gospel in New England, which, by contributions raised in Great Britain, has supported all the missionaries among the Indians to the present time.
“An occurrence at the melancholy close of Mr. Peters’s life evinces his firmness of mind and self-possession.
“The sentences of our law, now barbarous in words alone, were in those days executed with horrors so savage, as to forbid description. The scenes of cruelty were repeated one after the other; and in his own case Mr. Peters, either from design or accident, remained to witness on others the inflictions which awaited himself. At that moment an officer whose heart must have been more obdurate than the hardest flint, or than Marperian rock, inquired of him how he liked the proceeding, and received for answer, ‘Friend, thou doest ill to distress a dying man!’”
St. Mabyn measures 3,846 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 6051 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 383 | 1 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 475 | in 1811, 560 | in 1821, 715 | in 1831, 793 |
giving an increase of 67 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. Granville Leveson Gower, presented by the Earl of Falmouth, in 1818.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish is entirely situated within the calcareous series. Its rocks are similar to those of the adjoining parishes of Egleshayle, Helland, and St. Kew.