SHEVIOCK.

HALS.

Sheviock is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north St. German’s Creek, east Anthony, west St. German’s, south the British channel.

At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of the Abbey town, now St. German’s. In the inquisition of the Bishop of Lincoln aforesaid 1294, Ecclesia de Sevyock, in decanatu de Est, was rated cvis. viijd. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, at £26. 14s. 6d.; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, at £166.

This church was founded and endowed by those knightly gentlemen, lords of the barton and manor aforesaid, surnamed Daunye or Dawney. Mr. Carew tells us in his Survey of Cornwall, that the funeral monuments of two of those knights are yet extant in this church, though the inscriptions about them are worn out by time. Certes, this was a very famous and flourishing family on the barton of Shevyock aforesaid, for several descents, till the time of King Richard II. when the sole daughter and heir of Sir John de Dawney, knight, named Emelyn, was married to Edward Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon, 1380, by whom he had issue Edward Courtenay, surnamed the blind, the 12th Earl of Devon, and Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccomb, knight; the which Edward, at the request of his said mother, by his deed bearing date the 2d of King Henry Fifth, settled upon the said Sir Hugh Courtenay his brother, the manors of Gotherington, South Allington, and Stancomb Dawney in Devon, which were the lands of her ancestors the Dawneys. Afterwards, the said Edward died, 7th Henry V. 1418. (See Brooke in his Catalogue of Devon Earls.)

By this Emelyn Dawney, as traditions amongst the family of the Courtenays have it, Boconock came first into their tribe, though others say that it came to Sir Hugh Courtenay of Haccomb, by Lerchdeacon’s heir, but more truly that his said mother settled it upon him on his marriage with Lerchdeacon of Haccomb’s heir.

One Nicholas de Dawney, 3 Henry IV. held in the hundred of East, by the tenure of knight service, two knight’s fees and a half. (Survey of Cornwall, page 41.) Of the arms of those gentlemen thus speaks Nicholas Upton in his Latin manuscript, before printing was invented 1440. Monsieur Gwilliam Dawney port d’Argent, oue trois popinjays en bend oue deux cottises. Again, Monsieur John Dawney port d’Argent, en une bende Vert trois rose de Or, oue deux costs de Azure; from whence I infer there were either several families of those Dawneys, that gave different arms, or that in those days they had no positive record of their bearings.

One Sir John Dawney, knt. of Cowick, in Yorkshire, Sheriff of that county 35 Henry VIII. gave for his arms, in a field Argent, on a bend cottised Sable, three annulets of the Field, which is the recorded arms of Dawney.

TONKIN.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book at £26. 14s. 6d. The patronage in Sir William Carew, Bart.; the incumbent Mr. Archdeacon Kendall.

In anno 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at 106s. 8d. having never been appropriated.

THE MANOR OF SHEVIOCK.

“The next parish upon this river (Lyner),” saith Mr. Carew, (lib. 2, fol. 108), “is called Sheviock, sometimes the ancient Dauny’s inheritance and inhabitance, by whose

daughter and heir the same, together with other fair possesions, descended to the Earls of Devon.”

In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edw. I. (Carew, fol. 486) Sheviock is valued in £100, to which no other manor in the county comes up, but that of Lanrake and Pawton.

In 40 Hen. III. (Ibid. fol. 50), Henricus de Dones (whom I take to be the same with Dawney) is certified to hold £15 per annum by knight’s service.

In 3 Hen. IV. (Ibid. fol. 41) Johanna de Rame ten. 1 fe. magnum de Seviock; probably this Joanna was the mother of the following Nicholas, and held this estate in jointure, for this manor was at this time his inheritance.

Nicholas Danne ten. 1 partem feod. dict. feod. de Morteynne in Tregantle de Modeton.

Idem Nich. ten. 1 magnum feod. de Trecan et Trecarnel et Charleton de prædict. Abbate.

THE EDITOR.

The church has the appearance of being very old, but the exterior does not possess any beauty, and the whole is disfigured by an irregular truncated pyramid adjoined to the western end as a tower. Within, the church is neat although it is unusually small, but containing a series of splendid monuments, ancient and modern.

Mr. Carew says, “The next parish on this river (the Liner) is Sheviock, some time the ancient Daunyes’ inheritance, by whose daughter and heir the same (together with other fair possessions) descended to the Earls of Devon. In the church there lie two knights of that name, and one of their ladies by her husband’s side, having their pictures embossed on their tombs in the side walls, and their arms once painted round about; but now, by the malice, not of men, but of time, defaced. They are held to be father and son; and that the son was slain in our wars

with France, and was from thence brought home to be here interred;” but Mr. Lysons conjectures that one of those monuments is to a Courtenay.

“There runneth also a tale amongst the parishioners, how one of the Daunyes’ ancestors undertook to build the church, and his wife the barn adjoining; and that, casting up their accounts upon finishing of their works, the barn was found to have cost three halfpence more than the church: and so it might well fall out, for it is a great barn, and a little church.” The advowson belongs to Mr. Carew’s descendant, the Rt. Hon. R. P. Carew, of Anthony.

The barn, or what remains of it, almost adjoining to the church, adds to the very singular appearance of the whole group. Scarcely any remains of the mansion house, the residence for several ages of a family so distinguished as the Dauneys, can now be discovered.

The principal village in this parish is Crofthole, situated on what was till very lately the turnpike road from Tor Point to Leskeard, and just at the point where the road branches off to Looe and Fowey.

This village stands nearly on the brow of a lofty cliff, down which the road to Looe descends by repeated turnings. Mr. Lysons says the ancient name was Croftilborowe, and that it possessed a weekly market on Wednesdays, granted to Nicholas Dauney, then Lord of Sheviock, with a Fair for three days at the Festival of St. James. The market has long been discontinued. The village is at this time far from large, or from presenting any appearance of opulence. Mr. Carew says it then contained but twelve dwellings, and adds one of those coarse tales, which are usually applied as jokes against any small place, endowed with privileges or immunities above what its importance would seem to justify.

On the edge of the sea, nearly under Croftshole, is a small pier protecting a narrow beach of sand between rocks, called Porth Wrinkle: it gives shelter to fishing boats and small vessels. The ancient pier, which had stood

during a great number of years, was destroyed by the violent storm of Feb. 2, 1822. It is however replaced.

Trethil belonged for some time to the family of Wallis.

The family became represented by two brothers—

John Wallis, who had an only daughter married to Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth; and Samuel Wallis, Captain in the Royal Navy, the celebrated circumnavigator and discoverer of Otaheite. This gentleman married Miss Betty Hearle of Penryn, and has also left an only daughter, now the widow of the late Samuel Stephens, esq. of Tregenna in St. Ives. Most of the recent monuments are connected with this family.

Sheviock measures 2122 statute acres.

£.s.d.
Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815278700
Poor Rate in 183141860
Population,—
in 1801,
409		in 1811,
428		in 1821,
491		in 1831,
453

giving an increase of 10½ per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector, the Rev. Reginald Pole, presented by the Right Hon. R. P. Carew in 1825.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The rocks of which this parish is composed belong to the calcareous series, and are similar to those of the southern part of St. German’s.