MAWGAN in PYDER.
HALS.
St. Mawgan Rectory in Pider, hath upon the north the Irish Sea, east St. Evall, west Lower St. Coumb, south St. Columb Major and Colan.
In the Domesday Book, 20 William I. 1087, this district was taxed under the name of Lan-cherit; here was an endowed rectory, chapel or church before that time; and the same endowed by the Prior of the Priory of Plympton (founded by the West Saxon Kings). Afterwards, when this old church was re-edified and enlarged to the mode and bulk it now shows, it was then consecrated or dedicated to the honour of Almighty God, in the name of St. Mawgan aforesaid; and this is evidenced from the Inquisitions of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the value of Benefices, in decanatu de Pidre, Sancti Maugani £6. 13s. 4d., and the Prior of Plympton received £1. 6s. 8d. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, Mawgan Rectory, without the Saint, is rated £26. 13s. 4d. After the first Inquisition into the value of the revenues of this church, it follows in that book, Prior de Plymton percipit de Ecclesia Sancti Maugani 26s. 8d. per annum. The patronage, since the dissolution of that Priory, 26 Henry VIII. in Arundell of Lanherne; the incumbent Tregenna; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, £178. 9s.
From this church is denominated the manor and barton house of Lanherne, contiguous therewith; which of old was the lands of Symon Pincerna, id est Butler; so called for that, as tradition saith, he was butler of the cellar, or waited upon the cup, bottle, or glass of King Henry II. and is mentioned from the Records of the Exchequer, in Mr. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 45, to have held by the
tenure of knight service in Lanherne, one knight’s fee; which gentleman was also lord of the manor of St. James’s in Middlesex, at Westminster, who exchanged the same with King Henry II. or King Henry III. for the manor of Conerton, in the parish of Gwythian and hundred of Penwith in this county; which deeds of conveyance are yet to be seen at Lanherne.
The issue male of the Pincernas failing, the two daughters and heirs of his family were married, temp. Edward III. to Arundell, of Trembleth in St. Ervan, and Umphravill; hence it is we read in the Rolls of the Exchequer and Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 43, Johannes de Umfranvill tenet in decanatu de Pidre, ratione Aliciæ uxoris suæ, unam mag. feod. in Lanherne, 3d Henry IV.
After Arundell’s match with Pincerna’s heir, he removed to Lanherne, which hath ever since been the seat of that famous and flourishing family, who derive their name from John de Arundell, temp. Henry I.; since which time (for about twenty-three descents) they have married with the inheritrixes of Trembleth, Pincerna, Lamburne, Lescor, Lanbaddern, Tresithny, Carmenow, Grey, Denham, and several others; so that by reason of their wealth, or great estates, the country people heretofore entitled them by the name of the Great Arundells, (see Mr. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 144,) though there was a great diminution of their ancient estate at and after the time that John Arundell, temp. Queen Mary, married Anne, the daughter of Sir Henry Gernigan, Knight, Master of the Horse, or Captain of the Guards to that Queen. However, I take it his son or grandson, John Arundell, Esq. married the coheir of Chydiock, and thereby repaired part of that loss, and had by her issue John Arundell, Esq. afterwards knighted, who married Elizabeth Roper, daughter of the Lord Teynham, and by her had issue two sons that died without issue, and Elizabeth, married to Sir Richard Billinge, knight; —— married to Sir Robert Bedingfield,
knight; and —— that was entered into a monastery of Benedictine nuns in France, as I am informed.
Sir John Arundell, knight, (my very kind friend,) after his lady’s decease, took for his second wife —— daughter of John Arundell, of Trerice, esq. the relict of John Trevanion, of Caryhayes, esq. by whom he had no issue. Whereupon the said Sir John Arundell, having by fine, proclamation, and recovery, docked his estate tail to bar the remainder, settled the same upon his grandson, Richard Billinge, Esq. by his last will and testament; on condition that he and his posterity for ever should assume the surname of Arundell, in conjunction with that of Billinge, or separate, anno Dom. 1701.
The first gentleman of this family that appears on public record to have served the state or the country, was Sir John Arundell, knight, Sheriff of Cornwall, 6 Henry V. 1418, when Stephen Durneford was Sheriff of Devon. Renfry Arundell, esq. his son, was Sheriff of Cornwall 16 Henry VI. 1443, (when one Thomas Arundell was Sheriff of Devon,) Renfry Arundell, esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall 3 and 4 Edward IV. 1483.
John Arundell, son of the said Renfrye, had his first education in the college of Canons Augustine in St. Columb, partly founded and endowed by his ancestors; from whence he removed to Exeter College, in Oxford, where, after he had taken his degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts, he was ordained Priest, and presented by his father to the great rectory of St. Columb Major in Cornwall; and accordingly, had institution and induction thereto from the Bishop of Exeter; afterwards he was chosen Dean of Exeter, when Doctor Fox was Bishop thereof, 1490; where after he had sat for some time, upon the translation of William Smith, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, to Lincoln, (the successor of John Hals, who died 1492,) he had bestowed upon him by King Henry VII. that bishoprick, and was consecrated anno Dom. 1496;
afterwards, upon the death of Dr. Redman, Bishop of Exeter, 1504, he was translated to that diocese, and was installed Bishop thereof 1504; where, after he had well governed that diocese for about two years space, he died at London, 19 February 1506, and lies buried in St. Clement’s Church without Temple Bar.
From this family, by younger branches, were descended, temp. Richard III. the knightly family of the Arundells late of Tolvorne (from whence the writer of those lines by females is descended); as also the Arundells, late of Trevithick, in St. Columb Major, temp. Edward VI.; as also the Baron Arundells of Wardour in Wiltshire, temp. James I.; as also the Arundells of Gloucestershire, temp. Charles I.
Though this family by the name of Arundell is set forth in Battle Abbey corrupted roll, to have come out of France with the Conqueror, I take it to be denominated from Arundell town and castle in Sussex, (for as Sir John Arundell, the last possessor of Lanherne, told me he could never understand there was any such local place in France as Arundell, though he lived long in that country and made strict inquiry after it,) for Ederick the Saxon was Earl of Arundell town and castle aforesaid, before William the Conqueror landed here, who after the death of King Harold was displaced and disinherited by the Conqueror, and Roger de Montgomery made Earl thereof in his place, to whom his estate was given. However, notwithstanding that this family, out of a supposed allusion to their name, give for their arms, in a field Sable six swallows, in pile three, two, and one, Argent or proper, for that Arond in Gaulish French is a swallow; now corrupted after the Latin to hirundelle; guenol, Tisbicock, guenvoll, British: as (χελιδων hirundo in Greek) in Armoric guinib is a swallow. Arond in French, Ar-ran-dell, British, is the lake of water division valley.
One Bishop of this parish, in his youth, was, after his school education at Retallock, in St. Columb Major, in the Latin and Greek tongues, under Mr. John Coode, that famous schoolmaster, taken by the cost and care of Sir John Arundell, of Lanherne, from thence, and placed by him in Douay College in Flanders, where he took orders as a Catholic Roman Priest, and afterwards returned into England, and became house chaplain to the said Sir John Arundell, knight; and from thence visited and confirmed the Roman Catholics in those parts for many years, by the pretended surname of Mr. Gifford; he died at Hammersmith, near London, 20 March 1733, aged 99 years, and ordered his body to be opened and his heart to be taken out, and sent to Douay aforesaid, and kept in spirits, and his body to be buried in Pancras church, in London. (London Gazette, 23 March 1733.) He was made Doctor of Divinity by his College aforesaid, and consecrated Bishop of ——[5] in the Banqueting House at Whitehall, in the last year of King James II.
Car-nan-ton in this parish, id est, the Rock Valley Town, was the voke lands of a considerable manor, taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. As it was then so it is now, a franchise royal, pertaining in chief to the Crown, invested with the jurisdiction of a Court Leet within its precincts, and had lately its steward and bailiff, to attend the public services in trials at law between party and party, on pleas of debt and damage; and here Robert Thomye held the fourth part of a knight’s fee of land, temp. Henry IV. as Mr. Carew informs us.
It was lately the dwelling of William Noye, of Pendrea in Buryan, Esq. farmer thereof; who was first bred a student at law in Lincoln’s Inn; afterwards, having taken his degrees therein, he was chosen Member of Parliament for the town of St. Ives in Cornwall, in which capacity he
stood for some Parliaments in the beginning of the reign of King Charles I. and was specially famous for being one of the boldest and stoutest champions of the subject’s liberty in Parliament that the Western parts of England afforded; which being observed by the Court party, King Charles was advised by his Cabinet Council that it would be a prudent course to divert the force and power of Noye’s skill, logic, and rhetoric another way, by giving him some Court preferment; whereupon King Charles made him his Attorney-general, 1631; by which expedient he was soon metamorphosed from the assertor of the subjects’ liberty and property to a most zealous and violent promoter, beyond the laws, of the despotic and arbitrary prerogative or monarchy of his Prince; so that, like the image of Janus at Rome, he looked forward and backward, and by means thereof greatly enriched himself.
Amongst other things he is reflected upon by our chronologers for being the principal contriver of the Ship-money tax, laid by King Charles upon his subjects, for setting forth a navy or fleet of ships at sea, without the consent of Lords or Commons in Parliament; which moneys were raised by writ to the Sheriffs of all counties, and Commissioners for a long time brought into the Exchequer twenty thousand pounds per mensem, to the great distaste of the Parliament, the Laity, and Clergy, who declared against it as an unlawful tax. Nevertheless all the twelve judges after Noye’s death, except Hutton and Crook, gave their opinions and hands to the contrary, in Hampden’s case; viz. Branston, Finch, Davenport, Denham, Jones, Trevor, Vernon, Berkeley, Crawley, and Weston. (See Baker’s Chronicle, printed 1656.) However, out of kindness to the clergy, the King wrote to all the Sheriffs of England, requiring that the clergy, possessed of parsonages or rectories, should not be assessed above a tenth part of the land rate of their several parishes, and that regard should be had to vicars accordingly; by which rule the quanto or sum of this Ship-money Tax by the month may
be calculated. But I shall conclude this paragraph of Noye in the words of Hammon Le Strange, Esq. in the Life of King Charles I. viz. “Noye became so servilely addicted to the King’s prerogative, by ferreting up old penal statutes, and devising new exactions, for the small time he enjoyed his power, that he was the most pestilent vexation to the subject that this latter age afforded,” &c. He died on Saturday, August the 9th 1634, and was buried in the church of New Brentford, Middlesex, with an inscription on a stone to this purpose: “Here lyes the body of William Noye, Esq. som tyme Atturney Generall to Kinge Charles I.” This gentleman writ that excellent book of the law called Noye’s Reports; he married —— and had issue: Edward Noye, his eldest son, killed in a duel soon after his father’s death; and Humphrey Noye, his second son. He married Hester, daughter of the Lord Sands of Hampshire, and by her had issue two sons, William Noye and Humphrey Noye, that died without issue, and Katherine, married to William Davies, gentleman, of St. Earth; and Bridgman, to John Williams of Rosworthy, Esq. sometime Commissioner for the Peace, temp. Queen Anne, in whose right he is now in possession of this barton of Carnanton, but by her he had no issue; after her decease he married Dorothy, daughter of Peter Day, gentleman, and by her hath issue, and giveth for his arms, in a field Argent a fess checky Gules and Vert, between three griffin’s heads erased Vert, each gorged with a ducal crown Or; the paternal coat armour of the Williams’s, of Dorset or Wiltshire; his grandfather coming from thence a steward to the Arundells of Lanherne.
The arms of Noye are: Argent, three bendlets and a canton Sable, on the canton a cross of the Field; and another, Azure, three crosses botony in bend Argent.
The Attorney-general on a day, having King Charles I. and the principal officers and nobility of his Court, at a dinner at his house in London, at which time the Arch Poet Ben Jonson, and others, being at an inn on the
other side the street, and wanting both meat and money for their subsistence, at that exigent resolved to try an expedient to get his dinner from the Attorney-general’s table; in order to which, by his landlord at the inn aforesaid, he sent a white timber plate or trencher to him, when the King was sat down to table, whereon was inscribed these words:
When the world was drowned
No deer was found,
Because there was noe Park;
And here I sitt
Without ere a bitt,
Cause Noyah hath all in his Arke.
Which plate being presented by the Attorney-general to the King, produced this effect, that Jonson had a good dish of venison sent him back by the bearer, to his great content and satisfaction; on which aforesaid plate, by the King’s direction, Jonson’s rhymes were thus inverted or contradicted:
When the world was drowned
There deer was found,
Although there was noe park;
I send thee a bitt
To quicken thy witt,
Which comes from Noya’s Arke.
William Noye, anagram, I moyle in Law. He was the blow-coal, incendiary, or stirrer up of the Civil Wars between King Charles and his Parliament, by asserting and setting up the King’s prerogative to the highest pitch, as King James I. had done before, beyond the laws of the land as aforesaid; and as Counsell for the King he prosecuted for King Charles I. the imprisoned Members of the House of Commons, 1628: viz. Sir John Elyot, Mr. Coryton, and others; whom after much cost and trouble he got to be fined two thousand pounds each, the others five hundred pounds, and further to be sentenced, notwithstanding they paid those fines, not to be delivered from prison without submission and acknowledgment of their offences,
and security to be put in for their good behaviour for the future.
Den-sill, alias Dyn-sill, in this parish, synonymous words, signifying man-chapel or church, or a man of the church or chapel; otherwise Den-sell is either man-great or great-man; and upon the confines of those lands, on the high and lofty downs, is situate Densill Barrow, that is to say Densill grave or burying place; a notable tumulus, wherein some person of this little barton, after the ancient British manner, was, before or soon after Christianity prevailed, here interred. The rubbish and down-fallen walls of a free chapel, heretofore on this place, prove the truth of this etymology, known now by the name of Chapel Garder; garda, gerder, is a churchyard or field.
From this place was denominated an ancient family of gentlemen, surnamed de Densill, or Densell; and the first of those gentlemen that have come to my knowledge was Thomas Densill, that married Skewish, temp. Henry VI. who had issue by her John, that married the daughter and heir of Trenowith, of St. Colomb Major, temp. Edward IV.; on whose right he annexed the lands of Trenowith to his manor of Densell, as it remains to this day; (those Trenowiths lye interred in the north side of St. Colomb Church, now pertaining to Mr. Vivian;) by Trenowth’s heir the said John had issue, John Densill, esq. barrister at law, who had his education at Lincoln’s Inn, afterwards was made Serjeant at law, 1531, married Mary, daughter of Sir —— Lucas, of Warwickshire, by whom he had issue two daughters, that became his heirs; Anne, married to William Hollis, of Houghton, in Nottinghamshire, knight, ancestor of the Earls of Clare, and now Duke of Newcastle; Alice to Mr. Reskymer, father of Sir John Reskymer, of Reskymer, knight, Sheriff of Cornwall 27 Henry VIII. This John Densill, Serjeant at law, died 3 January 1535, and was buried in the church of St. Giles in the Fields.
The name, estate, and blood of those Densills, being thus terminated in Hollis and Reskymer, the Hollis’s have
long time made it a font name in their family, to preserve the memory thereof; in particular, there was lately extant Densill Hollis, created Baron Hollis, of Ifield, 2 April 1661, Privy Councillor to King Charles II. Lord High Steward of the honours, manors, and revenues to his Queen Catharine; Extraordinary Ambassador in France 1663, 1664, 1665, 1666; afterwards Ambassador and Plenipotentiary at Breda, 1667; uncle unto John and Gilbert late Earls of Clare.
This little barton and manor of Densill was by the Earl of Clare sold to Buller, temp. Charles II.; from Buller to Vivian, of Truan; and by Vivian to Pendarves, temp. William III. 1700; and from Pendarves to Upton, now in possession thereof, as I am informed.
From the family of Densill, by a younger branch, was descended the Densills of Philley, in Devon; in particular Richard Densill, younger brother to the Serjeant’s father, whose only daughter and heir was married to Martin Fortescue, Esq. who first brought Buckland Filleigh to that family, as I am informed; after his decease she was married to Sir Richard Pomeroye, of Bury Pomeroye, in Devon, Knight of the Bath at the creation of Henry Prince of Wales, afterwards Henry VIII.
Quere whether John de Mawgan Sheriff of Cornwall 12 and 19th of Richard II. were not of this parish or St. Mawgan in Kerryer; as also the Mawgans of Essex, who gave for their arms, Argent, two bars, in chief three mullets Sable.
TONKIN.
The patron of this parish is St. Mawgan, one of the missionaries from Ireland.
It is a rectory, in the patronage of Sir John Arundell, of the Lanhearne, which was the ancient name of the parish; which, says the author of the English Etymological
Dictionary, is not unlikely from Lan, a church, and Herwa, to fly, meaning a place of refuge.
I shall begin with the most important place,
THE MANOR OF LANHEARNE.
This place had formerly possessors of the same name, but how long they lived in it is uncertain; for I can meet with but one and the last of them; John de Lanhearne, who by Margaret, the daughter and heir of Richard Fitz John, had only one daughter and heir, Alice, married the 15th Henry III. (A. D. 1231) to Sir R. Arundell, of Trembleth, Knight, ever since which time Lanhearne hath been the principal seat of this illustrious family. I shall not here enter into a detail of the many great men it hath produced, referring myself to their well known pedigrees; and shall only take notice here that the Lord Arundell of Wardour, Arundell of Tolvorne, Trevethick, &c. were descended from younger branches thereof; and insert what Mr. Camden and Mr. Carew say of them. The first hath these words:
“Near which place (St. Colomb), at a little distance from the sea, stands Lanhearon, the seat of the family of the Arundells, knights, who upon account of their vast riches, were not long since called ‘The Great Arundells.’ They are sometimes called in Latin De Hirundine; and appositely enough in my mind, for a swallow in French is Hirondelle, and their arms are, in a field Sable, six swallows Argent. ’Tis certainly an ancient and noble family, as also very numerous: to the arms whereof Brito, a poet, alludes, where he describes a warlike man of this family attacking a Frenchman, about the year 1170.
Swift as the swallows whence his arms device
And his own name are took, enraged he flies
Through gazing troops, the wonder of the field,
And sticks his lance in William’s glittering shield.”
Mr. Carew says of this family:
“Their name is derived from Hirundelle, in French a
swallow, and out of France at the Conquest they came, and six swallows they give in arms. The country people entitle them ‘The Great Arundells,’ and greatest for love, living, and respect, in the country heretofore they were.” (See Carew, p. 343, Lord De Dunstanville’s edition.)
THE EDITOR.
The name of Arundell has not, in all probability, any thing to do with swallows. It is on the contrary derived from their Castle in the Arun Dale, Sussex, which like all other British or Saxon names having the slightest resemblance in sound to a French word, has been referred to a Norman origin.
Mr. Lysons says that Sir John Arundell, the last of the Lanhearne branch, or parent stock, who died in 1701, settled his estates on his grandson, Richard Billinge, Esq. with the condition of his taking the name of Arundell. This gentleman had an only daughter and heiress, who carried the property by her marriage to the Lords Arundell of Wardour.
It does not appear that any of the Wardour Arundells have ever resided at Lanhearne; with a sectarian attachment to the ancient faith, they kept up a Catholic establishment at this place, and retained great numbers of the parishioners in communion with the See of Rome, by making it a passport to lucrative employment and to good cheer; but the house having been appropriated to the reception of Nuns from Antwerp, of the order of Carmelites, as reformed by St. Tereza, and the secular establishment broken up, the system of private interpretation has entirely superseded the authority of Popes and Councils, so that not a Catholic can now be found without the walls. The Nuns were received here on their flying from the French Invasion to their native country, for all were English, and their numbers are still maintained by fresh recruits.
Henry Arundell, the 8th Baron Arundell, of Wardour,
having built a magnificent house adjacent to the old castle, and feeling little interest about the property in Cornwall, although it is said to have regularly descended through the Dinhams, from a period anterior to the Norman Conquest, sold the whole in parcels, with the exception of Lanhearne, and has thereby several the very ancient connexion of his family with this county.
The church stands near the river, and adjacent to the house of Lanhearne. It is decorated on the inside with a rood loft, very few of which have been suffered to remain, and by monuments to the Arundells, with inscriptions, most of which may be found in Mr. C. S. Gilbert’s History of Cornwall.
There is also another to Humphrey Noye, which, as his descendant and heir, the Editor hopes he may be excused for transcribing:
Here lyeth the Body of
Collonell Humphry Noye,
Son and Heir of William
Noye, of Carnanton, Esqe,
Attorney Generall to Charles
The First, of Blessed Memory,
King of Great Britaine, France,
And Ireland. Who was intered
the 12th of December,
Annoqe Dom: 1679.
On the stone are the arms:
Arg. three bends and a canton Sab. on the canton an English cross of the Field.
The crest of Noye is a dove bearing an olive branch, and the motto: Teg yw Hedwch, Lovely in Peace. Evidently an allusion to the names Noye and Noah.
The above words were on a slate stone laid flat on the pavement, so that the letters were beginning to disappear; but Mr. Humphry Willyams, his successor in Carnarton, although not his descendant, has recently preserved
the stone and the inscription, by placing this memorial perpendicularly against one of the walls.
The manor of Carnarton belonged to the father, if not to the grandfather, of the Attorney-general. He was born however at Pendrea, in St. Burian, where the family had been settled time out of mind, but understood to be of Norman extraction.
Little is known of Mr. Noye’s early life, till he became a member of Exeter College, in the year 1593. He removed from thence to Lincoln’s Inn, and was chosen Member for Helston to the Parliament which met in January 1620. He afterwards represented St. Ives, and certainly took an active, zealous, and able part in fostering the nascent liberties of his country; but having formed a connexion with Mr. Wentworth, he became a partizan in what was afterwards named the Stafford Faction, was made Attorney-general in 1631, devised the exaction of Ship Money, and conducted himself in a manner very different from the promise of his former days; fortunately for himself, Mr. Noye died in 1634, before the more violent agitations commenced, which terminated in the Civil War. He left three children, Edward his eldest son and heir, Humphrey, and Catharine.
Edward lost his life not long after the Attorney-general’s decease, in a duel with a Captain Byron. Humphrey then inherited the property.
Catharine married John Cartwright, esq. of Aynhoe, in Northamptonshire, whose descendant in the fifth degree, William Ralph Cartwright, is now of that place (1835), and Member for the county.
Mr. Noye’s will is so curious as to be worthy of insertion:
Incerta mortis hora, hodie ventura, suspecta esse debeat Christiano: sensi me gravatum: mens tamen, Deo annuente, sanitate viget (quam nollem in extremis de mundariis cogitare) hinc est quod—
Ego Will’mus Noye die mensis Junii tertio, anno Domini millesimo sexcentesimo trigesimo quarto, rerum mearum
dispositionem, per præsens testamentum meum (Dei nomine primitus invocato) ut inferius scriptum est ordinare statui.
Lego animam meam Deo omnipotenti, ejusdem et universi Conditori. In illum credo qui dixit, Ego sum resurrectio et vita; et quia credidi in illum vivam etiam si mortuus fuerim. Corpus meum terræ, unde confectum est, diem novissimum expectaturum, lego. Novi quod Redemptor meus vivit, et in die illa de terra resurrecturus in carne mea videbo salutare illum, quem oculi mei conspecturi sunt. Reposita est hæc spes in sinu meo. Funeralia celebrari nolo.
Pauperibus de Isleworth 100s.; de St. Burian cum capellis 100s.; de St. Mawgan in Pyder 150s.; Willo Browne 200s. et tantum uxori suæ; Roberto Wescombe 100 marcas; Egidio Chubb 300s.; Will’mo Richards 200s. Humfredo filio meo mille marcas do, lego. Et eidem Humfredo lego annualem centum marcarum exeuntem de omnibus tenementis meis in hundredo de Pyder in comitatu Cornubiæ, habendum eidem Humfredo et hæredibus suis, durante vita Johannis fratris mei, et uxoris suæ et superviventis eorum, ad festa Omnium Sanctorum et Philippi et Jacobi, per æquales portiones annuatim solvendum; liceatque eis in omnibus præmissis distringere quoties prædictus redditus fuerit insolutus. Et eidem Humfredo et hæredibus suis do et lego omnia tenementa mea in Warpstowe in comitatu Cornubiæ prædicto.
Reliqua meorum Edwardo filio meo, quem executorem testamenti mei constitui, dissipanda (nec melius speravi) reliqui. In cujus rei testimonium istud testamentum meum manu mea propria scripsi, ac illud sigilli mei appositione, et nominis subscriptione confirmavi.
Wm. Noye. (l. s.)
Probatum fuit testament. suprascriptum apud London. coram judice 5o Septembris 1634.
Several of Mr. Noye’s works have been printed, and others remain in manuscript.
Noye’s Grounds and Maxims of the English Law, various editions; the last, with additions by Charles Barton, Esq. in 1800.
Noye’s Reports, printed in 1656, 2d edition in fol. 1669.
Noye’s Perfect Conveyancer, London 1655.
Noye’s Complete Lawyer, London 1661, and a second edition in 8vo, 1674.
Noye’s Treatise of the Rights of the Crown, declaring how the King of England may support and increase his Annual Revenues, in 12mo, 1715, but written in the 10th year of Charles the First. The Editor has two MSS. of this work.
The following MSS. are preserved in the British Museum.
Some Notes from Mr. Attorney-general Noye’s Reading in Lincoln’s Inn, Aug. 1632, where he showed that Law Readings are of great antiquity.—Harl. MSS. No. 980, art. 164.
From the same Readings. That every Inn of Court is an University, extolling the Ancient Lawyers for not assuming Lofty Titles, &c.—Ibid. art. 165.
From the same, relative to Officers in the Forest.—Ibid. art. 166.
His Opinion that Espousals in Facie Ecclesiæ are but pro honestate publicanda.—Ibid. art. 174.
Ex Ultima Voluntate sive Testamento Willelmi Noye, Attornati Generalis.—Harl. MSS. 980, art. 226.
Mr. Noye’s Argument on the Earl of Suffolk’s case, 16th April 1628—Harl. MSS. 2305, art. 51.
The Will of Mr. Wm. Noye, (Lat.) June 3d, 1634.—Cotton MSS. Titus B. VIII. 344.
Memoirs of William Noye.—Sir Hans Sloane’s MSS. see Ayscough’s Catalogue, vol. II. p. 736.
Mr. Noye also left in manuscript several collections from the Records in the Tower, especially two large volumes:—
One respecting the King’s prerogative for maintaining the Naval Power according to the practice of his Ancestors.
The other relating to the Privileges and Jurisdiction of Ecclesiastical Courts, to which Doctor Thomas James, the learned Compiler of the Bodleian Catalogue, acknowledges his obligation in a work, entitled “A Manuduction or Introduction into Divinity,” Oxford, 1625, 4to.
Mr. Noye had the honour of receiving the public thanks of his College, under the following circumstances: Sir William Petre, son of John Petre, of Torbryan in Devonshire, well known as Secretary of State in the time of King Henry the Eighth, and successively in the reigns of his three successors, had been a Commoner of Exeter College, and from thence elected a Fellow of All Souls. He afterwards became Principal of Peckwater Hall, one of the Visitors of Religious Houses, and finally Secretary of State. Sir John Petre, by participating in the good fortune of all those who were favourites at Court in this eventful period of our history, appropriated to himself a share of the Confiscated Church Lands, most profusely distributed; and by so doing became the founder of a family still existing, with an hereditary seat in Parliament, and professing the Catholic religion. Wishing perhaps to make some restitution, Sir John Petre founded eight Fellowships at Exeter College, in the Protestant University of Oxford, to all of which, called Petrean Fellowships, he continued to nominate during his life, according to an ancient custom in similar cases; but when his successors attempted to exercise the same right or privilege, they were resisted by the College, and the cause came to be tried in the Court of Common Pleas, under the form of a replevin; they were successfully and gratuitously supported by Mr. Noye, as will appear from the passage in the College Register.
A. D. 1614. Circa idem tempus reclivimus vaccas Edmundi Lord per replevin de Walton Court, ubi hæsit paulisper negotium donec Baro Petreius illud transferri curavit ad Communia Placita, ut ibidem decernatur.
Petimus autem nos per Dominum Chamberlyne, servientem ad Legem, ut, bonâ cum judicum veniâ, in Comitiis
Oxoniensibus coram Justitiario Regis hoc transigeretur, sed obnixe obstitit Baro Petreius. Sic convenerunt Rector et Magister Chambers, ex Collegii consensu, ad causam promovendam in Communibus Placitis. Qui adeuntes Dominum Gulielmum Noye, olim hujus Collegii Baccellarium, virum in jure municipali (si quis alius per totam Angliam) perspicacissimum et profundissimum, ab eo semper acceperunt quod esset faciendum.
Perlegit ille, et diligentissime perpendit omnes evidentias nostras et statuta, expendit rationes utriusque partis, conteruit solide compendia sive brevia quibus servientes (nam tales solum audiuntur in Communibus Placitis) informabantur. Ipse (sc. Dominus Gulielmus Noye) eos, relictis propriis negotiis, una cum nobis edit et instauravit; quæ omnia sponte fecit et alacriter, sine omni expectatione præmii, quæ ideo in fastos referenda duximus, ut agnosceret talis viri in Collegium pietatem grata posteritas.
The Editor possesses a picture of Mr. Noye painted on oak, by Cornelius Jansen; and at the desire of Exeter College, he has recently presented to them a copy, which is placed in the Hall.
Mr. Noye was succeeded by his eldest son Edward; but the melancholy forebodings expressed in his will: “I have left all the remainder of my property to my son Edward (whom I have constituted executor of this my will) to be squandered, nor have I ever hoped any better,” were rendered vain by the death of this young man, soon after that of his father, in a duel with a Captain Byron.
Humphrey then succeeded as eldest son, and in the year 1637 allied himself by marriage with the very distinguished family of Sandys, of The Vine, near Basingstoke, in Hampshire.
The Editor has their marriage contract, which may be esteemed a curiosity, as compared with the more lengthened writings of recent times.
“Articles of agreement, indented, had, made, and agreed upon the three and twentieth day of May, in the thirteenth
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles, by the grace of God, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Between Henry Sandys, of the Vine, in the county of Southampton, Esq. and Hester Sandys, one of the daughters of the said Henry Sandys, of the one part, and Humphrey Noye, of Carnanton, in the county of Cornwall, Esq. of the other part, as followeth, viz.:
“Whereas a marriage is intended to be had and solemnized between the said Humphrey Noye, of the one part, and the said Hester Sandys, of the other part, if the laws of God and the Holy Church shall permit the same,
“In consideration of which marriage it is covenanted and agreed, by and between the said parties, as followeth:
“Imprimis, the said Henry Sandys, for himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, and for every and either of them, doth contract, promise, and grant, to the said Humphrey Noye, his executors, administrators, and assigns, and to and with every and either of them, by these presents, that in consideration of the said marriage, he the said Henry Sandys do and shall give and pay unto the said Humphrey Noye, his executors, administrators, or assigns, the full sum of two thousand pounds current money of England, as a marriage portion for and with the said Hester Sandys his daughter, to be paid unto the said Humphrey Noye, his executors, administrators, and assigns, in manner and form following, viz.: the sum of one thousand pounds current money, parcel of the said two thousand pounds portion, to be paid in hand at the very day of the marriage aforesaid, and the sum of one thousand pounds residue, parcel of the said two thousand pounds portion, to be paid in manner and form following, that is to say, five hundred pounds in and upon the first day of November next ensuing the date hereof, and the other five hundred pounds residue thereof, in and upon the feast day of the Ascension of our Blessed Lord and Saviour, then also next ensuing.
“Item. The said Humphrey Noye, for himself, his heirs, executors, and administrators, and for every and either of them, doth covenant, promise, and grant, to and with the said Henry Sandys, his executors, administrators, and assigns, and to and with every and either of them, by these presents, that he the said Humphrey Noye, in consideration of the said marriage, at or before the feast of All Saints next ensuing, shall and will in due form of law convey, settle, and assure, to and for the use of the said Hester, his intended wife, so much of his lands and tenements as shall be of the clear yearly value of three hundred pounds, by the year, for and during the term of the natural life of her, the said Hester, for and in lieu of her jointure, freed and discharged of and from all and all manner of incumbrances whatsoever, the security thereof to be made in such manner and form as by Counsel learned in the law, of the said Henry Sandys and Humphrey Noye, shall be reasonably devised, advised, or required.
“In witness whereof the parties abovesaid, to these present indentures, interchangeably have set their hands and seals the day and year first above written.”
The seals appended under the signatures Henry Sandys and Hester Sandys, bear the impressions: Argent, a cross raguly Sable; arms of their maternal ancestors, Sandys, of The Vine.
This lady’s grandfather, Sir Edwin Sandys, nephew of Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York, whose family originated from St. Bees, in Cumberland, bearing for their arms, Or, a fess dancette between three crosses crosslet fitchy Gules; married Elizabeth, daughter and sole heiress of William Baron Sandys, of The Vine, by tenure in fee, under a writ of summons issued by King Henry VIII. on the 3d of November 1529, in the 21st year of his reign. Their son Henry Sandys, party to the above marriage settlement, married his first cousin Margaret, daughter of Sir William Sandys, of Hedbury, in the County of Worcester, and lost his life in one of the battles of the Civil
War, in 1644. They had several children, of whom William, Henry, and Edwin, were in succession summoned to Parliament on the right deduced from their grandmother, and with the last of these the barony fell again into abeyance. Hester, their eldest sister, married Colonel Humphrey Noye, and their daughter, Catharine, on the 21st of July 1679, married William Davies, of St. Erth. John Davies, their son and ultimate heir, married Elizabeth Phillips, of Tredrea; and their daughter and heiress married the Rev. Edward Giddy, whose only son is the Editor of this work.
Another daughter of Colonel Humphrey Noye and Hester Sandys, christened Bridgman, in remembrance of Sir Orlando Bridgman, an early friend and patron of the Attorney-general, married Mr. John Willyams of Roseworthy, in Gwiniar, and, dying without issue, left him Carnanton, which had fallen to her share. Mr. Willyams married secondly Dorothy, daughter of Mr. John Day, by whom he had two sons.
John, the elder, married the daughter and heiress of Mr. Oliver, a gentleman of Falmouth. They had a son, Mr. John Oliver Willyams, for many years Colonel of the Cornwall Militia; and a daughter Ann, married to Mr. William Lemon, jun. only son of the great Mr. Lemon. The younger son was James; whose son James Willyams succeeded to Carnanton, under the will of his first cousin John Oliver Willyams, in the year 1809; and his son, Humphrey Willyams, Esq. now resides there, having so much altered and improved the house and gardens, as to place Carnanton among the gentlemen’s residences of the first class in Cornwall.
Thomas Willyams, a Captain in the Navy (brother of Mr. John Willyams, who married Miss Bridgman Noye,) married —— Fox, of Deal; they left a son John Willyams, also a Captain in the Navy, who married Anne Goodyere, and their son, the Reverend Cooper Willyams,
Rector of Kingston, near Canterbury, is known to the world by various publications:
A History of Sudeley Castle.
A Campaign in the West Indies, with the reduction of the Island of Martinique, &c.
A Voyage up the Mediterranean, with description of the Battle of the Nile; and some others.
He married Elizabeth Snell, of Whitby.
Mr. Cooper Willyams died July the 17th, 1816, leaving two sons and two daughters.
The late Mr. John Oliver Willyams related to me an anecdote, illustrative of the contingencies which are incident to human life, and of the concatenation between public and private events.
His grandfather, Mr. John Willyams, had undertaken a journey to Oxford in the year 1685, but was stopped at Exeter by the Duke of Monmouth’s invasion; he returned in company with a gentleman of St. Columb, and remained there a few days, where at some public exhibition he met with Miss Bridgman Noye, who soon afterwards became his wife.
Mr. Hals devotes some pages to the virulent abuse of Colonel Humphrey Noye, against whom it is obvious that he must have entertained a personal animosity; but the Editor, having omitted various similar effusions, hopes that he shall not be accused of any partial favour towards his own ancestors, by omitting this also, which does not carry with it the semblance of truth.
Mawgan in Pider measures 6078 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 4016 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 360 | 6 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 543 | in 1811, 622 | in 1821, 580[6] | in 1831, 745 |
giving an increase of 37 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. Philip Carlyon, instituted on his own presentation in 1806. Net income in 1831, 585l.
GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.
This parish is situated entirely within the calcareous series, and its rocks are the same as those of the adjoining parishes, St. Colomb Major and St. Evall.
The parish feast is celebrated on the nearest Sunday to St. James’s Day, July the 25th.
[5] Probably a Bishop in Partibus Infidelium.
[6] Perhaps 680.
ST. MELLION, or ST. MELLYN.
HALS.
St. Mellyn Rectory is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Kellaton, east St. Dominick, south Pillaton, west Quethiock.
In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the value of Cornish benefices, Ecclesia Sanctæ Meliani in decanatu de East £4. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, £11. 12s. 6d. The patronage in Coryton; the incumbent ——; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, for one year, £96. 13s.
Niew-tone, now Newton, synonymous words, signifying after the English Saxon a new town, was another district or voke lands of a manor taxed in the Domesday Book, 1087; which lordship for many ages hath been the seat of that ancient British family surnamed de Coryton.
William Coryton, Esq. Member of Parliament for Killaton, was one of those imprisoned Members of Parliament, temp. Charles I. 1628, who asserted the prerogative of Parliament, the liberty and property of the subject, against the despotic and arbitrary power of the Monarch, set up by Noye, his Attorney-general; for which he was fined five hundred pounds, and could not be delivered from
prison till he had paid that sum, but forced to make a submission and acknowledgment of his offence, and put in security for his good behaviour.
He was the father of Sir John Coryton, of this place, who, the 27th February 13 Charles II. 1661, was by his letters patent of that date, created the 605th Baronet of England. He married Mills of Exeter, and had issue by her Sir John Coryton, Bart. his eldest son; who married one of the heirs of Mr. Richard Chiverton, Knight, bred a Skinner in London, and was Lord Mayor of that city 9 Charles II. 1657, by whom he had issue two daughters. He was Sheriff of Cornwall, 1682.
After his decease his younger brother, William Coryton, Esq. Barrister-at-law, succeeded to his honour and estate; who married the daughter of Sir Theophilus Biddulph, of Westcomb, in Kent, the 744th Baronet of England, by letters patent, bearing date 2 November 16 Charles II.; by whom he had issue Sir John Coryton, Bart. now extant.
After Sir William’s first wife’s death, he married the widow and relict of Thomas Williams, Gent. a goldsmith or banker of Lombard Street, in London; by whom, though a very aged woman, to recompence that defect he had much riches or wealth. After his death she married Sir Nicholas Trevanion, of St. Germans, who followed in marriage the Delphic Oracle’s direction, and Dion’s,
Refuse noe woman nere soe old,
Whose marriage bringeth store of gold.
His sisters, Anne was married to John Peter, of Porthcuthan, Esq. and Catherine to Clarke and Dobbins, and —— to Goodall, of Fowey, Esq.
The arms of Coryton are Argent, a cross saltier Sable.
Croca-don, or Croucadon, Cruco-don, words of one signification, signifying bank, hillock or tumulus, hill or town; a place notable for barrows, wherein human creatures were heretofore interred, before and after the Roman Invasion. (See Tacitus in the life of Agricola.) This place was the
dwelling of Charles Trevisa, Gent. that married with Fortescue; who giveth for his arms, Gules, a garb Or. Denominated, I suppose from Trevisa, or Tre-wisa, in St. Enedor, and originally descended from John Trevisa, born in Gloucestershire (as Baker saith), who being for some time bred in Oxford, afterwards took orders, and became a secular priest, that might marry; and then became domestic chaplain to Thomas Lord Berkeley, by whom he was afterwards made Vicar of Berkeley in Gloucestershire; where, at that Lord’s request, he translated the Sacred Bible into the English tongue, though the same was done by John Wickliff fifty years before, but not with that perfection of language that Trevisa did it; although Trevisa’s translation is altogether as far short of Tyndall’s in Henry the Eighth’s days, by reason the English tongue was still improving to a higher perfection; and yet Tyndall’s translation was far inferior to that of King James I. notwithstanding they all agree in the original substance, sense, and meaning of words in those translations; wherein Wickliff, Trevisa, and Tyndall, made use of infinite Cornish-British words to express the same. Neither is the last translation of King James I. altogether void of them.
Mr. Trevisa also translated Bartholomew de Proprietatibus Rerum; the Poly-chronicon of Ralph Higden; a treatise of all the Acts of King Arthur; and divers other things. Lastly, this learned and painful priest died about the year 1470, aged about eighty-six years.
Westcot, in this parish, was another district taxed in the Domesday Book, 1087; it is now the dwelling, as I take it, of Mr. William Brendon, Gent.
In this parish is Pentyley, or Pillaton, a house and church built and so named by Mr. James Tillie, afterwards knighted, and married the widow of Sir John Coryton.
Since the writing of the above premises, about the year 1712, Sir James Tillie died, and as I am informed, by his last will and testament, obliged his adopted heir, one Woolley his sister’s son, not only to assume his name,
(having no legitimate issue) but that he should not inter his body after death in the earth, but fasten it in the chair where he died with iron, his hat, wig, rings, gloves, and best apparel on, shoes and stockings, and surround the same with an oak chest, box, or coffin, in which his books and papers should be laid, with pen and ink also; and build for reception thereof, in a certain field of his lands, a walled vault or grot, to be arched with moorstone; in which repository it should be laid without Christian burial; for that as he said but an hour before he died, in two years space he would be at Pentillie again; over this vault his heir likewise was obliged to build a fine chamber, and set up therein the picture of him, his lady, and adopted heir for ever; and at the end of this vault and chamber to erect a spire or lofty monument of stone, from thence for spectators to overlook the contiguous country, Plymouth Sound and Harbour; all which as I am told is accordingly performed by his heir, whose successors are obliged to repair the same for ever out of his lands and rents, under penalty of losing both.
However I hear lately, notwithstanding this his promise of returning in two years space to Pentiley, that Sir James’s body is eaten out with worms, and his bones or skeleton fallen down to the ground from the chair wherein it was seated, about four years after it was set up; his wig, books, wearing apparel, also rotten in the box or chair where it was first laid.
TONKIN.
I take this parish, as well as Mullion in Kerrier, to take its name from its tutelar saint, Melania. The church is a rectory; the patronage in Sir John Coryton.
The principal manor and seat in this parish is West Newton Ferrers, so called from its relative situation to another Newton, and from its ancient lords the Ferrers. As for the name Newton, it signifies no other than the plain meaning of the word, a new town or house. In the valuation
made by Edward the First this manor is called Newton, without any addition, as is the case at present in common speech.
William de Ferrers was Knight of this shire with Thomas Sereod, Knight, 8 Edward II.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Hals has given a long history of St. Melania, the supposed patron of this church, containing, however, little more than the usual details of effects produced by the ascetic fanaticism popular in those days. Personal sufferings and privations were then endured, under a persuasion that bodily pain, mental stupidity, and a course of life utterly useless to the human race, could alone ensure the divine favour, in opposition to the sentiments,
Hic manus ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi;
Quique sacerdotes casti, dum vita manebat;
Quique pii vates et Phœbo digna locuti;
Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes;
Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo.
Newton came into the family of Coryton, by a marriage with the heiress of Ferrers, and continued till that family became extinct in the male line, on the decease of Sir John Coryton in 1739, who gave the property to his widow Rachael, a daughter of Weston Helyar, Esq. of East Coker in Somersetshire; and it has continued with her relations nearly to the present time, under an entail, which carried Newton from Mr. Weston Helyar, probably a great-grandson of the gentleman above mentioned, to several other younger brothers; till the failure of heirs male in all these brought it back to the son or grandson of the elder brother, who, wishing to concentrate his property in Somersetshire, has parted with the whole Cornish estate to Edward Collins, Esq. of Truthan.
Although Sir John Coryton alienated his principal seat
and manor by this bequest to his widow, he devised a large share of the family property to the descendants of his eldest sister Elizabeth, who married William Goodall, of Fowey; and their grandson, on succeeding to the estate, assumed the name of Coryton. The present representative of this ancient family, John Tillie Coryton, Esq. has built a magnificent house or castle at Pentilly in a most beautiful situation, on the Tamar river, so that he need not regret the loss of Newton.
Sir John Coryton had two other sisters, one of whom, Johanna, married John Peter, of Harlyn, Esq. The third sister married a gentleman of the name of Vaughan.
In addition to the tales relative to Sir James Tillie’s funeral direction, Mr. Hals has added several others, all to this gentleman’s disadvantage, but not in any way illustrative of the times in which he lived, or of the general manners prevalent in the country: they are therefore omitted, with the exception of one respecting armorial bearings.
It is certain that Mr. Tillie was one of those persons, most justly esteemed, who advance themselves in the world without being beholden in any considerable degree to their ancestors. Mr. Tillie was knighted by King James II. and then not finding himself provided with a coat of arms, he assumed, as Mr. Hals states, the blazon of Count Tillie, a German Prince, which coming to the knowledge of King James, an inquisition was ordered, the fact was established, and a fine imposed on the knight, in addition to the demolition of the assumed arms, with some acts of indignity.
It is moreover proper to add, that although Sir James Tillie did without all question express some absurd fancies in respect to his mortal remains, which were in part executed, yet they are far from bearing the colour of impiety cast on them by Mr. Hals, and still less are they chargeable with the blasphemies imputed to them by Mr. Gilpin.
The church and tower are plain on the outside, but within are several handsome monuments to the Corytons.
It seems much more probable that this church is dedicated
to Mellitus, the first Bishop of London, and third Archbishop of Canterbury, than to an obscure African lady.
Bede has given various particulars of this eminent person, and his life may be found in Capgrave’s Aurea Legenda. He led a second body of missionaries in aid of the great St. Austin, and the conversion of a Pagan temple into a Christian church, since expanded into St. Paul’s Cathedral, and also the foundation of Westminster Abbey, are imputed to him. He departed this life on the 24th of April, in the year 624.
St. Mellion measures 2410 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 1928 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 163 | 8 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 284 | in 1811, 326 | in 1821, 321 | in 1831, 330 |
giving an increase of 16 per cent. in 30 years.
The Rev. George Fortescue died Rector of St. Mellion in 1835.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The Geology of this parish is precisely the same as that of St. Dominick.