POUGHILL.

HALS.

The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.

TONKIN.

Poughill is in the hundred of Stratton, and is washed to the west by the sea and Bude Bay, to the north joins Kilkhampton, to the east and south Stratton.

This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, at £6. 12s. 6d.; the patronage in the Crown, or in the Duke of Cornwall; the incumbent Mr. Charles Orchard.

In the year 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory of this church, by the name of Ecclesia de Pegwille, is valued at liijs. ivd. it being then appropriated to the Abbey of Cleve in Somersetshire; and the vicarage, “Nihil propter paupertatem.”

In Domesday Book, amongst the manors given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother, Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall, is Pochehelle, which probably gave name to this parish, turned euphoniæ gratiâ to Poughill.

THE EDITOR.

This parish, although it is small and situated in a remote part of the county, possesses several ancient family seats, and a well-built church, with various monuments, placed in a valley full of trees, and opening immediately to the sea.

The manor, including the whole parish, originally without doubt in possession of the lands, although it is now become, like innumerable other manors, a mere royalty, was given by Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, to the Abbey

of Clyve in Somersetshire. It is an instance, however, of the small reliance that can be placed on the orthography of ancient names, since the charter of Hubert de Burgo is in these words:

“Sciant præsentes et futuri, quod ego Hubertus de Burgo Domini Regis Camerarius, dedi, concessi, et hac præsenti cartâ mea confirmavi, Deo et Beatæ Mariæ et monachis de Cliva, ibidem Deo servientibus et servituris, pro salute animæ meæ, et patris et matris meæ, et omnium antecessorum et parentum et herædum meorum, in perpetuam elemosinam, totum dominicum quod habui in Rugeham,” which must be Poughill.

And in a charter of confirmation by Richard Earl of Cornwall it is thus mentioned:

“Richardus comes Pictaviæ et Cornubiæ, &c. &c. noverit universitas vestra me concessisse, et hac præsenti cartâ meâ confirmasse, &c. totas terras quas habuerunt in Cornubiâ, videlicet Pochewille,” et Treglastan, cum pertinendis, quas prius habuerunt ex dono domini Huberti de Burgo comitis Kanc. &c.

Mr. Lysons, who, from his situation in the Tower, possessed the most ample means of ascertaining all transactions with the Crown, states that King James the First sold this manor to two gentlemen, Mr. George Salter and Mr. John Williams; in more recent times it belonged to the family of Stanbury, and is now the property of Thomas Troad, esq.

Mr. Lysons relates, on the authority of William of Worcester, that Nicholas Radford, counsel for Lord Bonville, against Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon, was slain in his own house in the year 1437, by Thomas Courtenay, eldest son, and afterwards successor to his father. There is, however, an anachronism as to William Bonville, who was first summoned to Parliament twelve years afterwards, as Baron Bonville, and died in 1480, leaving the barony in fee to his great-granddaughter, married to Thomas Grey, Marquis of Dorset.

The Reverend Charles Dayman, lately deceased, resided, as his family had done for several generations, at Flexbury in this parish; and Mr. John Bryant is said to have succeeded a long line of ancestors at Bushill, a seat decorated by several remains of the magnificent house at Stowe.

The great tithes belong to George Boughton Kingdon, esq.; but the distinguishing honor of this parish is Stamford Hill, so called from the position taken there by Lord Stamford, commanding the parliamentary army in 1643; and where Sir Beville Granville, commanding the Cornish army, obtained one of the most splendid victories achieved during the whole course of the civil war. It is unnecessary to repeat the details of this battle, which are given by Hyde and by most of our general historians. Its effects nearly decided the struggle in favour of the party supporting the system of hereditary power in a single hand.

This parish measures 1,759 statute acres.

£.s.d.
Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815197900
Poor Rate in 1831176150
Population,—
in 1801,
297		in 1811,
355		in 1821,
378		in 1831,
300

giving an increase of 21 per cent. in 30 years, with a decrease, however, of 78 persons in the last 10 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. John Davis, presented in 1810 by Lord Chancellor Eldon.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The small parish of Poughill is composed of compact and schistose dunstone, similar to the adjacent parish of Kilkhampton.