RUAN MAJOR.

HALS.

Ruan Major is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north and west Mullyan and Cury, east St. Kevorne, south Ruan Minor.

Partly in this parish stands the barton of Erisey or Herisey; from this place was denominated an old family of gentlemen surnamed de Erisey, now in possession thereof,

who have flourished there in worshipful degree for many generations; and particularly George Erisey, esq. was sheriff of Cornwall, 4 Henry VIII. 1514; also the present possessor, Richard Erisey, esq. son of James Erisey of Brickleigh in Devon, by —— Dowrige, was sheriff of Cornwall the 7th of William III.: he married —— sister and coheir of George Killigrew of Arwinick, esq. (son and daughter of Sir Peter Killigrew, Baronet) by whom he had issue one only daughter named ——; which lady and her said daughter, after some years’ cohabitation with Mr. Erisey, upon some discontent eloped from him, and by no entreaties could be persuaded to a reconcilement or return to her said husband, or to restore his daughter on her begotten, to his possession, which she kept with her; whereupon, in the year 1701, Mr. Erisey brought down a trial at law against Mr. Lister, cognominatus Killigrew, his brother-in-law, before Mr. Justice Blencowe at Lanceston, who then also lodged and detained his said daughter from him; upon which trial at the crown bar, Mr. Killigrew aforesaid and his niece appeared, when it was manifested to the court that he laid no restriction upon the young lady; but, if she would, she might at any time go to her father’s house; yet her eloped mother so influenced her, that the judge nor court could not prevail with her to do it, though her father Mr. Erisey was then and there also in court ready to receive her with tears, she being the heir-at-law both to his and much of her grandfather Sir Peter Killygrew’s lands; so that from Lanceston she went again to her mother, with the said Mr. Lister Killygrew, and was afterwards married to one captain or colonel West, a soldier of fortune, by whom I hear she had two daughters now living; after which she died, her father and mother living in a separate state as aforesaid: of which gentleman, Mr. Erisey’s vexation and trouble for the loss of his wife’s company, I am informed its parallel to that of Hector’s, whom Homer makes thus to speak.

I do not doubt but stately Troye

Will have a grievous fall;

And warlike Priam’s people eke,

And Priam shall be thrall;

But care of people nor of sire,

Nor eke of Priam’s Kinge,

Nor brother’s, though many of them,

And worthy in each thinge,

Shall dye in hands of foes, soe much

Doe pinch my pensive heart;

As care of thee, my dearest wife,

Doth vex, and cause me smart.

From whence it appears that Homer and Hector thought a good and righteous marriage the only happy state of human life; for a good, faithful, and loving wife brings up the husband’s children in order, governs his family, saves his substance, rules his house as well as increases his offspring, with the greatest faithfulness and integrity.

And if any charge or labour happen, for no state of human life is without a cross, verily this only is that light burden and sweet yoke which is found only in honest wedlock: especially if the wife be such as Hector’s was, in whom no avarice, nor pride, nor deceit, nor covetousness, nor fraud, was found that joined them together.

One of those Eriseys dancing with other gentlemen and ladies at Whitehall, before King James I. through the violent motion and action of his body in the middle of the dance, had his cap slip from his head, and fall to the ground, but he instantly with his foot tossed it on his head again, and proceeded without let or hindrance with his part in that dance, to the admiration of all that saw it, which gave occasion to King James to inquire who that active gentleman was; and being told that his name was Erisey, he forthwith replied, I like the gentleman very well, but not his name of Heresy. The arms of Erisey are in a field Sable, a chevron between three griffins segreant

Or; which arms of ancient erection by James Erisey, Sheriff of Cornwall, 4 Henry VIII. were lately extant in the glass windows of this church.

At the time of the Norman Conquest, this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Lizard or Lizart. In the inquisition into the value of Cornish benefices by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, this church was not extant or endowed; though before Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it had revenues by the masters or governor of St John’s Hospital at Sithney, or the Carmenows of Carmenow, who were patrons thereof, and valued at £10. 10s. 0½d. The patronage now in Robinson, who purchased it from Carmenows’ heirs; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, 1696, £23. 8s.

TONKIN.

Ruan Major is in that part of the hundred of Kerrier, called Meneage, hath to the west Mullian, to the north Cury and Mawgan, to the east St. Keverne, to the south Ruan Minor. This parish takes its name from and is dedicated to St. Ruan, as the former. It is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book, £16. 10s. 0d. ob. The patronage in the heirs of George Robinson, esq.; the incumbent Mr. William Robinson, his cousin-german, and right heir in blood.

THE EDITOR.

There does not appear to be any thing demanding particular notice in this parish. The family of Erisey were seated here from remote antiquity, on a manor and barton of the same name. Mr. Lysons states that the mansion house was rebuilt about the year 1620; and that the family became extinct in 1722, when their estates passed with an heiress to Col. John West, and since by purchase to the Boscawens of Tregothnan.

The advowson of the living belonged to the late Rev. William Robinson of Nanceloe.

If the translation from Homer is by Mr. Hals himself, the lines prove him to be a very moderate poet; if they were from a work then before the public, we may congratulate ourselves that Pope has introduced the greatest of Bards into English society, arrayed in a more appropriate garb. Ιλιαδος, z. 440.

Τηνδ’ αυτε προσεειπε μεγας κορυθαιολος Ἑκτωρ.

Iliad, Book the 6th, l. 570.

Yet come it will, the day decreed by Fates,—

How my heart trembles, while my tongue relates!—

The day when thou, imperial Troy! must bend,

And see thy warriors fall, thy glories end.

And yet no dire presage so wounds my mind,

My mother’s death, the ruin of my kind,

Not Priam’s hoary hairs defil’d with gore,

Not all my brothers gasping on the shore;

As thine, Andromache!

This parish measures 2,325 statute acres.

£.s.d.
Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 181584500
Poor Rate in 1831140120
Population,—
in 1801,
142		in 1811,
167		in 1821,
187		in 1831,
162

giving an increase of 14 per cent. in 30 years, but with a diminution in the last ten years.

Present Rector, the Rev. H. T. Coulson, presented by P. V. Robinson, esq. in 1828.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

This parish is entirely situated on the serpentine of the Lizard district, but as it no where extends to the sea coast it is not favourable to geological pursuits.