REDRUTH.
HALS.
The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.
TONKIN.
Redruth is situated in the hundred of Penwith, and is bounded to the east and north by Illogan, to the east by St. Agnes, to the south by Gwenap and Stithians. This town and parish takes its name from ryd, a ford, and ruth, red, the red ford, from its being a ford over a river so coloured by the tin works round it. [Ryd (C.) is a ford, as ryd-helik is the Willow-ford; and rydh, rud (C.) is red, as pedn-rydh is red-headed. W.]
It is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book at £19. 11s. but by the Bishop’s Book, £20. The patronage in John Pendarves Basset, esq. in right of his manor of Tehidy, which extendeth itself all over this parish; the incumbent Mr. Hugh Ley. (dead in 1734, now Mr. John Collins.) All the lands in this parish are within the royalty, and held from the manor of Tehidy. I shall begin with
THE MANOR OF REDRUTH,
properly so called, which comprehends the town of the same name, and part of the parish, but not entire, and intermixed with several other gentlemen’s lands.
This manor is now divided between three lords, the Right Hon. Henry Earl of Radnor, John Hawkins, D. D. (by purchase lately from Francis Scobell, esq. as heir of Tredenham), and Reginald Haweis of Kelliow, esq.
THE TOWN OF REDRUTH.
This was formerly so inconsiderable as to be wholly past in Mr. Carew’s Survey; who indeed is so much in haste in the whole hundred of Penwith, that he seems to be like a weary traveller, glad to come to his journey’s end. But this town is of late years grown very considerable, and its market the greatest in the West, especially for corn. It owes its rise to the great confluence of people drawn together by the mines of tin and copper, with which it is surrounded; yet it must have been in former days of some note, since in the reign of Edward the Third, William Basset of Tyhiddy, got a patent from that king, to keep “duo mercata” weekly, “et duas ferias annuatim” here. But whether it did not turn to account, or however it was, the market was neglected, and only the two fairs kept, which still continue in that family.
John Buller, of Morval, esq. being trustee for Francis Basset, esq. and finding such an old patent lying neglected among Mr. Basset’s papers, (as I have heard the late Mr. Basset often say,) took out a new patent from Oliver Cromwell (which he got afterwards confirmed by King Charles the Second), for one market weekly on Friday, and another additional fair on ——. And the better to colour the matter, [he] took it in the name of his nephew Francis Buller of Shillingham, esq. grandson to the above-mentioned John Buller, in whom the whole estate is centred.
The town of Redruth consists chiefly of one large street,
near half a mile in length, and in it are several fair buildings, the principal inhabitants being Mr. John Cock, Mr. Anthony Cock, Mr. Paul Michell, Mr. Richard Banbury, &c. many of which live upon their own land. At the bottom of the great street, near the river, was the chapel, where service was performed twice a week within the memory of some living; but now it is unroofed, and the bell carried to Trefusis, it lying in Mr. Trefusis’s land.
The family of Trengove, alias Nance, have several houses and lands in and about this town, which being annexed to their manor of Penwinnick and Melgisy, are now enjoyed by Chester Nance, esq.; as had likewise the family of Pendarves, which were sold by Sir William Pendarves, not long before his death, to Samuel Harris, gent. of the family of Park in St. Clement’s, whose son —— Harris now enjoys them. So had too the family of Haweis, who are very antient in the parish; and I have been told that Mr. Haweis of Kelliow is descended from a younger son of this family, but the eldest by a second marriage, to whom came a third of the manor, and several good estates adjacent. Their dwelling-house here, now turned to several tenements, was sold about thirty years since to Mr. Richard Remfry, by David Haweis, gent. father to the present; and his grandson, Mr. John Hussey, now enjoys it. John Collins of Treworgan, esq. hath likewise an estate here, and was born in this town. The estate came by his mother.
Adjoining to the south of the town is
THE MANOR OF TRERUFF.
Abundance of good tin and copper hath been lately dug out of this manor, chiefly out of a mine called Pedenandre; the present lord of which is Robert Trefusis, esq.
Next is the Manor of Tollgus, which I take to signify the hole in the wood, though there [be] but little [of wood] there at present. [Toll-gus, like Tol-verne and Bar-gus before, is Tol (C.) and Kuz (C.), the high wood. W.]
The first place of note in it, is Treworthey, i. e. a house on an hedge, suitable to its situation. This has been long in lease, the seat of the Haweises, and is now so of David Haweis, gent. whom I could only wish male issue to, which might inherit his many good qualities.
Next is Tollgus [itself], which gives name to the manor, and was lately the seat of Richard Remfry, gent. an eminent attorney; who having buried his two sons (the eldest of which, Henry Remfry, esq. was a barrister at law), left this to his grandson, by his eldest daughter, John Hussey, gent. who now enjoys it. This manor was anciently Tregian’s, and came as you may see in Golden to Grosse, and is now vested in John Francis Buller, esq.
THE MANOR OF TRELEIGH.
Id est, the dwelling place, lies adjoining to Tollgus, the river only parting them. The barton hereof hath been for three generations the seat of that most ancient family of Pollard, being the chief stock from whence all the others of that name were descended, which is now extinct by the death of the late John Pollard, esq. who died at his lodgings in London, Oct. 25, 1731, leaving only one daughter Margaret, yet unmarried, having buried a few years before two very hopeful sons, Hugh and John, both grown to men.
Yet I cannot leave this place without paying a due respect to the memory of my deceased friend, and saying that for quick natural parts, integrity, and true endeavours to serve to the utmost of his power those whom he pretended friendship to, he hath but few surviving equals. Some time before his death he purchased the manor (which is but a small thing) from Richard Erisey, esq. whose family had been [latterly the lords] of it, and their memory is still preserved in a tenement in it called Park Erisey.
This barton hath produced of late years vast quantities of tin and copper, though but little to the advantage of its owner, who had the misfortune to have his good nature too much abused by a parcel of villains he intrusted to his ruin.
To the south of Treleigh, are a long row of houses belonging to the barton, on a level piece of ground called Plain an Guary The church lieth near a quarter of a mile out of the town, at the very western extremity of the parish, with a profitable glebe round it. In anno 1291, 20 Edw. I. (Tax. Ben.) it was valued at 50s. having never been appropriated. THE EDITOR. The church of this parish stands about half a mile south-west from the town, and is wholly modern; having been constructed on the exact situation of the former, so as to adopt its handsome and well-proportioned tower. The new church was built about the middle of the last century, when attention to propriety in adapting architectural designs to their respective uses, civil or religious, seems to have been at its lowest state of depression. This and the church at Helston, constructed nearly about the same time, present in the interior one large room, much more resembling a gymnasium for training cavalry, than a place for religious worship. This parish, with Crowan and Lelant, are dedicated to St. Uny, or St. Unine, of whom nothing is known, and therefore conjecture represents this saint as one of the missionaries from Ireland. The advowson of the rectory is appurtenant to the honor and manor of Tehidy, which has been in the Basset family since early times of the Plantagenets. In the town a chapel has very recently been built, probably near to the spot where the one formerly stood, that was dedicated to St. Rumon, of whom little more is known than of St. Uny. The abbey of Tavistock was dedicated to the honor of Almighty God, in the names of the Blessed Virgin and of St. Rumon, by Ordgar Earl of Devonshire, about the year 960, and confirmed by King Ethelred about twenty years after. In Leland’s Collectanea de Rebus Britannicis, vol. IV. p. 152, are noticed the following heads of a Life of Rumon: “Rumonus genere fuit Scotus Hiberniensis. Nemea sylva in Cornubia plenissima olim ferarum. Sanctus Rumonus faciebat sibi oratorium in sylva Nemæa Falemutha. Ordulphus Dux Cornubiæ transtulit ossa Rumoni Tavestochiam.” Doctor Butler says of this saint: “William of Malmesbury informs us, that the History of St. Rumon’s life was destroyed by the wars, a misfortune he says that has also happened on other occasions in England. “He was a bishop, although it is not known of what see; his veneration was famous at Tavistock in Devonshire, where Ordulf, Earl of Devonshire, built a church under his invocation, before the year 960. Wilson, upon information given him by certain persons of that country, inserted his name on this day (January the 4th) in the second edition of his English Martyrology.” Since there seems to be very little probability in the supposition that the name of this parish can have reference to the Druids; and as two strong objections may be alleged against its being derived from a ford of red water, from the absence of any red stream, or ford; is it too hardy to conjecture, that with variations in the orthography, and in the pronunciation of the name, and perhaps with some adjunct syllable, the long-sought-for etymology may be found in a patron saint, when three other parishes, Ruan Major, Ruan Minor, and Ruan Lanihorn, are dedicated to his name. In consequence of the immense extension of workings on lodes of copper all round the northern and eastern junctions of the forest granite, with the killas or slate, the town of Redruth has grown into a large size, and into considerable opulence. The main street is rendered splendid on both sides by continued lines of shops, and the market on Friday is supplied in great abundance with every thing that can be wanted in the ordinary concerns of life. Large quantities of fish, of pork, and of home manufactures, especially of shoes, are brought from Penzance market, held on the preceding day, so that the road over Hayle Causeway is thronged with carts throughout the intervening night; and the long street of Redruth is scarcely adequate to contain the people who come there from all these populous mining districts, although a new and spacious market place has been constructed within about thirty years, on the south side of the main street, in which all the standings were previously fixed. Much more recently a bell tower and clock have been added, by the liberality of the late Lord Dunstanville. To the northward of Redruth, and running nearly parellel with it, lies the village of Plengwary, a name undoubtedly connected with the Amphitheatre or Round, which, till within half a century, remained distinctly marked adjacent to it. See Doctor Borlase’s Antiquities, second edition, p. 208; and his Natural History, p. 297, and all that is stated on this subject respecting the Round in Perran Zabuloe. That gwary means a play or exhibition of games and sports, cannot admit of a doubt. In Lhuyd’s Archæologia Britannica, theatrum is rendered in Cornish guardy. But Mr. Tonkin’s exposition of the first syllable, plan or plen, by flat, level, is very doubtful, being founded perhaps on no other basis than an accidental coincidence in sound with an English word. This village, frequently called Little Redruth, is not only grown into a town, but extends so as almost to join the larger portion. A curious document relative to this parish was placed in my hands by the Rev. Samuel Gurney, during thirty-two years vicar of St. Erth, and for many years preceding curate of Redruth. The paper has the following attestation: Taken from the original, by me, William Rowle, 28th November, 1772. Redruth 1500. The copy of a muster book for the said parish made in the year aforesaid, and now in the custody of Richard Crane, esq. Camborn, captain.[13] 24 light horse, and six men to carry meat, and them appointed victuallers; the rest where [wear] bows and arrows. John Nacothan, senior, doth horse and harness Thomas Renfry. Richard Michell doth horse and harness Henry Jenkin. Thomas Polkenhorn doth horse and harness John Raile. John Robert Lytho doth horse and harness John Robert Vean. John Torleh doth horse and harness George Monhure. Edy Webber doth horse and harness Sondry Renfry. John West doth horse and harness Richard Clemowe. Regnald Trevingy doth horse and harness Perkin Jenkin. John Davie doth horse and harness Henry Gwihter. John Hawes doth horse and harness Thomas Perre. Thomas Sondry doth horse and harness Richard Vivian. John Roben doth horse and harness John Stephens. Thomas Andrews doth horse and harness himself. Richard John Rawe doth horse and harness himself. Henry Refry doth horse and harness himself. Thomas Cocke doth horse and harness himself. John Henry Woolcock doth horse and harness himself. George Brend doth horse and harness himself. Nicholas Rogers doth horse and harness himself. Pasco James doth horse and harness himself. Richard Angove doth horse and harness himself. John Hack doth horse and harness himself. In all 24 men, with horses, weapons, harness, and victuallers for the same. (Signed) William George, Richard Andrew, Thomas Webber, Thomas Oppie, David Warren, Henry Gwiator. On the same paper is the following: Memorandum.—In the year 1697 there was in Cornwall a great dearth of corn. Wheat was sold at 39 or 40 shillings per bushel (the treble Winchester bushel, or 24 gallons); Barley at 28 shillings per bushel, on Saturday the 27th August, at Helstone, being their market day. On the next market day the barley was sold for 7 or 8 shillings per buhels. This array was made three years subsequent to the Cornish insurrection, when Michel Joseph and Thomas Flammock led their followers to Blackheath in Kent. Having omitted to notice in its proper place under Illuggan, the very remarkable coincidence between the measurements of former times and of our own, in respect to the honor and manor of Tehidy, it will not be improper to do so here. The Cornish, in adopting the Saxon word acre (æcer) applied it in the most extraordinary manner, either through utter ignorance of its meaning, or from an absurd attempt to designate by this term a previously existing measure of their own, between two and three hundred times as large. The Saxon acre in its true extent, was however adopted afterwards in Cornwall, consisting of one hundred and sixty square poles, each eighteen feet long. The Normans for some reason quite unknown, reduced the length of the pole from eighteen to sixteen feet and a half, and thus established the difference between Saxon or customary, and Norman or statute acres. They differ in the proportion 18 squared to 16½ squared, or as 12 squared to eleven squared, that is as 144 to 121. As 6 to 5 for any approximate conversion, and as 25 to 21 very nearly. This Saxon acre continues, up to the present time, in very general use throughout Cornwall, and is the measure by which woodlands are estimated in most parts of England. The absurdly denominated old Cornish acre, is believed to contain 280 Norman acres. Mr. Carew, fo. 46 of the original edition, p. 131 of Lord Dunstanville’s, gives the measurement in these Cornish acres, of various manors and lands as they were returned before the King’s Justices at Launceston, in the 12th year of the reign of Edward the First, A. D. 1284, where the very first article is Decunar. de Tihidi, seventy. Now 70 multiplied by 280, give 19,600 Norman or statute acres. Mr. Hitchins’s measurement gives for and the manor extends into Crowan: so that if a nearer coincidence were required, land might probably be found there sufficient to complete the exact amount. The abbreviation “Decunar.” stands in Mr. Carew’s list before de Tehidi; but no word beginning with these letters can be found either in Spelman’s Glossary, or in that of Ducange. It is impossible for me to turn away from this incidental mentioning of Tehidy, without adding, that scarcely had the press closed on the notes respecting Illuggan, containing a most imperfect and inadequate tribute to the virtues, to the manly character, to the liberality and steady private friendship of its proprietor, then in a state of bodily affliction demanding the commiseration of every one, when the final scene of life came to an end, and he was no more. The event took place on the 5th of February, 1835. Lord Dunstanville now claims neither our commiseration nor our pity: he has nobly performed the part assigned him by Providence, and we doubt not is receiving the just reward; but by an unanimous impulse the whole population of Cornwall have resolved on recording to future ages, not so much his merits, for that would be superfluous, as their own high sense, consciousness, and estimation of them; and not without the hope that such memorials may tend to excite all persons in their different stations and degrees of life to emulate examples so recorded. Meetings have in consequence been assembled, and contributions made, amply sufficient for placing a monument on Carnbre, a part of Tehidy manor, and visible from the house; on a hill the most romantic of any in the west of Cornwall, venerated as a seat of the religion of our remote forefathers, and now about to be truly consecrated by the spontaneous tribute of a whole country, to the merits of a great and good man. The families chief proprietors of land in Redruth are: Basset—High lands of the whole parish, as a part of the manor and honor of Tehidy, and possessed of some part in demesne. Trefusis. Buller, through the family of Grosse. The representatives of the late Mr. J. M. Knighton of Greenofen, in the parish of Whitechurch near Tavistock. Doctor William Pryce, author of the Mineralogia Cornubiensis, one vol. folio, 1778, and of the Archæologia Cornu-Britannica, one vol. quarto, 1790, practised here as a physician, and was, I believe, a native of the place. He took a considerable part in first making Portreath a safe harbour for coasting vessels, from whence Railways are now extended to all the neighbouring mines. Redruth measures 3763 statute acres.Illuggan 8,028 acres Camborne 5,933 Redruth 3,763 17,724;
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 7631 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 2482 | 2 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 4924 | in 1811, 5903 | in 1821, 6607 | in 1831, 8191 |
giving an increase of 66 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. J. Webster Hawksley, presented by Lady Basset in 1835.
GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.
A small triangular portion, forming the extreme southern part of this parish, rests on granite, as does also an irregular tract on the south-eastern boundary; but all the remainder, that is by far the greater part of the parish, is situated on felspathic rocks, belonging to the porphyritic series, which are very metalliferous, constituting, with similar rocks in Camborne and Gwennap (all surrounding the same central mass of granite) the most important mining district in Cornwall.
[13] The Cranes (of Crane) are noticed by the Heralds as residing in Camborn for five descents previously to 1620. Their arms, Argent, a crane Sable, on a perch raguly Vert.