MERTHYR.

HALS.

Merthyr, Murder, vicarage, is situated in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north and east Probus and Tresilian river, south Lamoran and St. Michael Penkivell, west an arm of Falmouth Harbour, towards Clemens. As for the name, it refers to the tutelar patron and guardian saint of the church, who it seems was murdered and slain for the Christian religion, as a martyr; viz. one St. Cohan, a Briton of this parish, whose little well, and consecrated chapel annexed thereto, was lately extant, upon the lands of Egles Merthyr barton, (that is to say upon the lands of the Martyr’s Church,) though now in a manner demolished by greedy searchers for money.

This church goes in presentation and consolidation as a daughter to St. Probus, which vicar is to present the curate, vicar, or chaplain of Merthyr to the Bishop for licence and confirmation; though the eight men of the said parish are by ancient custom to choose and name him, in

consideration whereof the vicar of Probus is to receive annually from them, on the high altar, three shillings and four pence.

However, great controversies have happened in the Bishop’s Consistory between the vicar of Probus and the inhabitants of this parish, before and since Henry the Eighth’s days, upon the death, removal, or translations of the vicar of Probus, concerning the right of the jurisdiction, presentation, or patronage of this church; whether in the vicar of Probus, or the eight men of the said parish, the vicar presenting one clerk or curate to be confirmed by the Bishop, and the eight men another; but generally it hath passed as a rule in the Ecclesiastical Court, where this matter, by learned counsel or proctors, hath been debated, that the right of patronage and presentation of this church lay in the eight men of the parish, and not in the vicar of Probus, though the same hath been often controverted.

There is a Latin deed which I have seen yet extant, between Bar. Combe, vicar-general to Dr. Peter Courtenay, Lord Bishop of Exeter, 1480, under seal of the diocese, and John Fullford, perpetual vicar of Probus of the one part, and Thomas Tresithney, John Hallvose, Thomas Webber, and others of the eight men of the parish of Merthyr on the other part, wherein those premises are concerted or regulated; and moreover, therein a confirmation, covenant, or agreement, made and established between them, according to ancient custom; that in case the said eight men and their successors should annually pay to the vicar or curate of the said parish of St. Cohan Martyr, of Merthyr, for ever annually the full and just sum of twenty marks lawful moneys of England, that then the lands of the said parish, and every part and parcel thereof should be exempt and free from the payment of small tithes in kind, oblations, or obventions to the vicar thereof for ever. Which privilege hath ever since been kept and enjoyed by the inhabitants of the said parish accordingly; to the great loss of the vicar, and greater gain of the inhabitants.

Now, though when this compact was made and confirmed, the vicar had much the better bargain, not one vicarage church in Cornwall being of that value in the King’s or Pope’s Books towards Annats in the first inquisition, 1294, nor many in Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1520; yet now the inhabitants have great profit thereby, since the plenty or commonness of money lessens the intrinsic value thereof, whereby much number of money will buy but little lands, goods, or chattels, whereas in those days a little quantity of money would purchase much of those things. (Witness Baker, and other our chronologers, temp. Henry VII. soon after the compact aforesaid was made, wherein we may read that a bushel of wheat, Winchester measure, was sold for 6d., a bushel of salt for 3½d., a ton of Gascoign wines 40s., and all other things sold after a proportionable price.)

In the Domesday Book, 1087, this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Penkivell. Afterwards, upon the setting up the vicarage of Probus, it was concerted into that parish about the beginning of King Henry the Third’s days; for in the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, its superior or mother church was rated for it, as also the five chaplains for their salaries, that officiated in Probus, Cornelly, and Merthyr. It was endowed by the treasurer of the cathedral church of Exeter, which must be after that dignitary was first set up there, by William Brewar, Bishop thereof 1224. The patronage as aforesaid; the incumbent, Monsieur Baudree, a French Protestant; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. £83.

At Tre-saws-an, alias Tre-saus-an, id est, the Saxon town, or dwelling, a place heretofore pertaining to some Saxon, is the possession by lease of James Hals, Gent., granted him by his mother in the time of her widowhood, as parcel of the manor of Fentongollan, whereon she had power of leasing during her widowhood. He was a younger

son of Sir Nicholas Hals, of Fentongollan, Knight, by Grace his wife, daughter of Sir John Arundell, of Talverne, Knight; and was first bred a soldier in Pendenis Castle, whereof his father was Governor, under King James I. and Charles I. Afterwards he was made lieutenant of his brother Captain William Hals, in the expedition of the Duke of Buckingham in the French war, at the Isle of Rhé and Rochelle. And after that war was over was sent with his said brother by King Charles I. with a foot company of soldiers to supply or reinforce the garrisons of the Barbadoes, St. Christopher’s, and Mountserat Islands in America, where he remained about seven years; and after his brother’s death, who died returning into England, Captain Ayleworth was displaced, and the said James Hals made Governor of Mountserat Island, by King Charles I.

After which, the wars breaking out in England, between that King and his Parliament, he and divers other officers were commanded to return back into England for the King’s service; where soon after his arrival at Plymouth, that stood for the Parliament, then besieged by the King’s army, he was cajoled out of his allegiance to King Charles I. by his country gentlemen then in that place in garrison, and engaged against that King, to become Lieutenant-Colonel to Colonel Nicholas Boscawen’s troop of horse, then posted there. From whence he was commanded, with several other troops of horse, to go outside the lines, under conduct of the Earl of Stamford, then Governor of Plymouth for the Parliament, and to fight the King’s army that besieged it under conduct of Sir Ralph Hopton, Knight, and Sir Richard Grenvill, Knight and Baronet, the King’s Generals in the West; where, after a sharp engagement and loss of many men between both parties, the victory fell to the King’s army; and then and there the said James Hals, and many other gentlemen were taken prisoners of war, and forthwith sent prisoners to Lidford

Castle in Devon, under custody of Marshall Ellery, of St. Colomb Major.

Where soon after several of his companions, or fellow officers and soldiers, viz. Mr. Leach, Mr. Morris, Mr. Brabyn, and others, were executed without trial or judgment, as guilty of high treason. But the said James Hals had his life spared or given him by the General Sir Richard Grenville, Knight, upon account of consanguinity, but not without many frowns and angry threats; (a sure token of his clemency, as his smiles and embraces were of death and destruction, suitable to those of King Richard III. and King James I. and Caius Caligula, Emperor of Rome,) to dissuade him from the Parliament service to that of the King’s, with promise of greater preferment in his army; all which proving ineffectual, he was sentenced a straight or close prisoner to that tremendous castle, in daily expectation of death; where he remained immured up for about twenty months space, in great want, durance, and misery, till General Essex came into those parts with the Parliament army, and set at liberty him and other Lidford prisoners, by Captain Braydon raised the siege of Plymouth, and sore distressed Hopton and Grenville in Cornwall.

During the time of this James Hals’ imprisonment in Lidford Castle, amongst others there came to visit him one Mr. Doctor William Brown, of Tavistock, who gave him a copy of rambling verses and observations he had made upon the borough and castle of Lidford, for his diversion; which verses, for want of the original, I find false and imperfectly set forth and printed in Mr. Prince’s Worthies of Devon, therefore I have hereunder set it down verbatim from the Doctor’s own copy, given Mr. Hals, viz.:

I oft have heard of Lidford Lawe,

How in the morn they hang and draw,

And sit in judgment after;

At first I wondered at it much,

But since I find the matter such,

As it deserves noe laughter.

They have a castle on a hill;

I took it for some old windmill,

The vanes blown off by weather;

To lie therein, one night ’tis gast,

’Twere better to be stoned or pressed,

Or hanged when you come thither.

Ten men less room within this cave

Than five mice in a lanthorn have;

The Keepers they are sly ones;

If any could devise by art

To get it up into a cart,

’Twere fit to carry lions.

When I beheld it! Lord thought I,

What justice, truth, or equity,

Hath Lidford Castle hall;

Where every one that there doth stay,

Must first be hanged out of the way,

’Fore he can have his trial.

Prince Charles a hundred pounds hath sent,

To mend the leads and planchins wrent,

Within this living tomb,

Some forty-five pounds more had paid

The debts of all that shall be laid

There till the day of doom.

One lies there for a seam of malt,

Another for two pecks of salt,

Two sureties for a noble;

If this be true or else false news,

You may go ask of Master Crew’s,

John Vaughan, or John Doble.

Near to those men that lie in lurch,

There’s a direful bridge and little church,

Seven ashes and one oak;

Two houses standing and ten down,

They say the Rector hath a gown,

But I saw ne’er a cloak.

Whereby you may consider well,

What plain simplicity doth dwell

At Lidford without bravery;

Since in that town both young and grave

Do love the naked truth to have,

No cloak to hide their knavery.

This town’s inclosed with desert moors,

Where tiger, wolf, and lion roars,

And nought can live but hogs;

All overturn’d with Noah’s flood;

Of fourscore miles scarce one foot good;

Where hills are wholly bogs.

And near unto the Gubbins Cave,

A people that no knowledge have

Of laws of God or men,

Where Cæsar never yet subdued,

Have lawless lived, of manners rude,

All naked in their den.

By whom, if any pass that way,

He dares not any time to stay,

For presently the howl,

Upon which signal they do muster

Their naked forces in a cluster,

Led forth by Roger Rowle.

The people all within this clime,

Are frozen in the Winter time,

Deprest with cold and pain;

But when the Summer is begun,

They lie like silkworms in the sun,

And gather strength again.

’Twas told me, in King Cæsar’s time

The town was built with stone and lime,

But sure the walls are clay,

For they are all fallen for ought I see:

And since the houses are got free

The town is run away.

O Cæsar, if thou there didst reign,

Whilst one house stands come there again;

(Come quickly whilst there is one)

For if thou stay, but little fit,

But five years more, they will commit

The whole town to a prison.

To see it thus much grieved was I,

The proverb saith ’sorrows be dry,’

So was I at this matter;

When by good luck, I know not how,

There thither came a straying cow,

And we had milk and water.

To nine good stomachs, with a wig,

At last we got a tithen pig;

This diet was our bounds;

And this was, just as if ’twere known,

A pound of butter had been thrown

Among a pack of hounds.

One glass of drink I got by chance,

’Twas Claret when it was in France,

But then from it much wider;

I think a man might make as good

With green crabs boiled in Brazil wood,

And half a pint of cider.

I kissed the Mayor’s hand of the town,

Who though he wears no scarlet gown,

Honours the Rose and Thistle;

A piece of coral to the mace,

Which there I saw to serve in place,

Would make a good child’s whistle.

At six o’clock I came away,

And prayed for those that were to stay

Within that place so arrant;

For my part I’ll come there no more,

Unless it be on better score,

Or forced by Tin Warrant.

This custom of executing malefactors before trial on common fame, was also an old law amongst the Germans and Swiss Cantons; and if upon trial, after execution done on the criminal, he or she appeared to be innocent, a priest was appointed to pray for his soul. (See Glover’s Somerset, and Duverdier’s History of the Swiss Cantons.)

The same law was in force amongst the people of Carinthia, a country adjoining to the Alps and Italy on the south, and Styria on the north; moreover, if upon the trial three days after the offender’s execution, he appeared to be guilty, his body should be left so long to hang upon the gibbet, till his members rotted piecemeal from his body. But if innocent they took it thence and gave it venerable obsequies, with prayers, oblations, and alms deed for the salvation of his soul.

This James Hals married Anne, one of the coheirs of John Martin, of Hurston, Gent. attorney-at-law, (lineally descended from the Martins of Pittle Town, in Dorset,) by Anne his wife, daughter of John Mundy, of Rialton, Esq. by Jane his wife, daughter of Walter Kendall, of Pellyn, Esq.; by whom he had issue James Hals, his eldest son and heir, that married Martha, daughter and heir of Thomas Penrose, of Lefeock, Gent. commander of the Bristol, Maidstone, and Monck frigates, during the several Dutch wars of Oliver Cromwell and King Charles II. with the States of Holland; by whom he hath issue James Hals, his eldest son, of Hungerford Park in Berkshire, and Thomas Hals, bred a gentleman volunteer, upon King William the Third’s ship the Sunderland, Captain Tudor

Trevor, Commander; but being from thence transferred to the Kingfisher, Captain Tallat, Commander, in order to go to St. Helena, with other men of war, to convoy home the East India fleet, the air on the south part of Africa, near the Cape of Good Hope, not agreeing with his constitution of body, he sickened there of a consumption and died 1702.

James Hals aforesaid, father of those young men, proved a man of ill conduct, and wasted all his lands and leases, of a very considerable value.

James Hals first above-mentioned had also issue William Hals, the author of these lines, who married three wives, Evans of Landrini family in Wales, Carveth of Peransand, and Courtney of Tremeer, but had issue by none of them.

He had also issue Thomas Hals, of the City of London, first bred a merchant, who married Jane, daughter of Captain Richard Bourchier, of that city, and hath been a merchant, factor, and traveller in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Venice, Greece, Smyrna, Egypt, Constantinople, and Alexandria, in which last places he was a factor for several years; afterwards as merchant he went in an East India ship into Africa, Persia, Arabia, India, and China, where he died about the year 1710, without issue.

As also Nicholas Hals, bred a scholar, who died at Leskeard, and lies buried in the minister’s chancel of that church, 1682.

As also Grenvill Hals, that married Martha, daughter of Reginald Hawkey, Gent. attorney-at-law, of Trevego, but died also without issue, 1718, and lies buried in Fentongollan Isle, in St. Michael Penkivell church, near his father and mother’s graves.

As also Henry Hals, bred a merchant, who for several years was a factor at Constantinople and Alexandria. But coming back into England to marry the only daughter and heir of one Doctor Cooke, at London, to whom long before

he had been contracted, he sickened of the small-pox, died there, and lies buried at Stepney or Whitechapel, 1689.

Anne, married first to William Roscorla, of Roscorla in St. Austell; and after his death to Thomas Penrose, of Nance, in St. Martin’s in Kerryer, but hath issue by neither. She died in the year ——, and lies buried in the north isle or chapel of St. Wenn church, in Cornwall.

At Trewortha Vean, in this parish, that is the little higher town, by lease, is the dwelling of Joseph Halsey, clerk, Master of Arts, and some time Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, and rector of St. Michael Penkivell church, in this county; lineally descended from the Halseys of Huntingdonshire, whose arms are Argent, a pile between three griffons’ heads erased Sable, out of a supposed allusion to their name, derived from Alce and Sey. He married Mary, daughter of Henry Vincent, of Tresimple, Gent. attorney-at-law, by whom he had issue Joseph Halsey, practitioner in physic, who took the degree of Doctor beyond the seas, at Leyden in Holland I take it. He now resideth at London, where he married ——, and hath got himself considerable wealth and reputation in his profession. He had also issue Nathaniel Halsey, bred a merchant, and is now a factor for the East India Company, at Bombay or Bengal in India; also Edward Halsey, of the same occupation, now a factor for the said Company at Surat, or some other part of India; also a daughter, married to Bromley, of Lefeock, a Presbyterian priest.

This Mr. Joseph Halsey being ordained priest, was made rector of the parish aforesaid, in the interregnum of Oliver and Richard Cromwell, after the discipline of Calvin, or Geneva.

TONKIN.

This is a daughter church to St. Probus, with which and Cornelly it is valued in the King’s Book.

The vicar of Probus names the curate, but cannot remove him afterwards. The present curate, who holds both this and Cornelly, is Mr. Jonathan Daddoe.

The manor of Fentongollan comprehends a great part of this parish, but the mansion house is in St. Michael Penkivell.

THE EDITOR.

Trevilian bridge is the most remarkable spot in this parish. It is situated in a beautiful valley, with a fine stream navigable for barges from Falmouth, which conveys large quantities of limestone from Plymouth, and of coast sand dredged in Falmouth harbour.

In consequence also of the new line of road, completed about four years ago from Bodmin, and therefore from London to Truro, through Ladock valley, the Earl of Falmouth has made a private road to his own house, from the eastern end of this bridge, equal perhaps in beauty to any drive of an equal extent in the whole county. Some fairs are annually holden at this place, and it is recorded in history as the place where the treaty was agreed on for the surrender of the army of about five thousand men, commanded by Lord Hopton, then lying in Truro, to the troops of General Fairfax, on the 14th of March 1646.

The church is very small, and, what is quite unusual in Cornwall, has a wooden edifice, it cannot be called a tower, to contain its single bell.

Merthyr measures 1,492 statute acres.

£.s.d.
Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815210300
Poor Rate in 183123080
Population,—
in 1801,
305		in 1811,
350		in 1821,
370		in 1831,
411

giving an increase of 35 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish is composed of the same rocks as St. Clement’s, from which it is divided by one of the streams communicating with Falmouth harbour.