MICHAELSTOW.
HALS.
St. Michaelstow rectory is situate in the hundred of Lesnewith, and hath upon the north Lantegles by Camelford, south Brewer, west St. Udye, east Advent. For the name of this parish, it is taken from the church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel.
At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was rated under the jurisdiction either of Lantegles or St. Vaye. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, 1294, it was rated by the name of Ecclesia de Sancto Michaelstow, 40s. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, £10. 13s. 8d.; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. £72.
In this parish formerly lived the genteel family of Michaelstow, that married one of the heirs of Gifford, of Fewborough in Devon, and had issue by her a daughter named Mary, married to Wollacomb, of Devon, temp. Henry VI. (Prince’s Worthies of Devon, in Wollacomb).
TONKIN.
This parish, named Michaelstow, which signifies Michael’s Place, is a rectory. The patronage in the Crown: the incumbent Cloak.
THE EDITOR.
There is little deserving of remark in this parish, except some doubtful remains of military antiquities. Mr. Lysons says, that the great duchy manor of Helston in Trig, extends over the greater part of this parish, and that what was formerly called Helsbury Park, is possessed by the Duke of Bedford, under a lease; and that just without the former boundary of the park are extensive earthworks, which Mr. Lysons conjectures to be the spot described as a castle by William of Worcester, and probably of great antiquity. The church has a few monuments to the Lowers and others. The only village in this parish, in addition to the church town, is called Treveighan.
Trevenin was a seat of some branch of the Lower family, now all extinct; and Tregone, heretofore belonging to the Mayows, is now the property of Mr. Hockin.
The advowson is in the Duke of Cornwall. Mr. Tonkin says in the Crown; but much confusion seems to have existed in former times between the claims of these two corporations sole, and if such a subject were worthy of investigation, it is probable that many inaccuracies might still be discovered.
The present Rector is the Rev. Edward Spettigue, presented in 1818 by the King as Prince of Wales.
Michaelstow measures 1,338 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 1564 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 141 | 11 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 158 | in 1811, 181 | in 1821, 216 | in 1831, 215 |
giving an increase of 36 per cent. in 30 years.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish skirts the northern boundary of the granite of St. Breward, reposing on rocks belonging to the porphyritic
series, the most interesting of which is a kind of micaceous schist, that occurs near the granite, and may be traced through the parishes of St. Breward and Blisland, and Cardenham.