SITHNEY.
HALS.
Sithney is situate in the hundred of Kerrier, and hath upon the north Crowan, east Helleston and Gwendron, south the Loo Pool and British Channel.
In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Trew-thall or Truthall. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, into the value of the Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Sancti Sithany, in decanatu de Kerryer, was rated at £6. 6s. 8d. Vicar ibidem xxxiiis. iiiid. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was valued to first fruits £19. 11s. 4d. The patronage formerly in the master or governor of St. John the Baptist’s Hospital in this parish, who endowed it, now in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent —— Hawkins; the rectory in possession of —— Paynter; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, 1696, £147. 9s. by the name of Sithney.
In this parish at St. John’s formerly stood an hospital, commandery, or preceptory, dedicated to St. John Baptist, and distinguished by the name of the Hospital of St. John the Baptist of Jerusalem, for Christians that were sick or wounded in the war; also for entertainment of Christian pilgrims and travellers that came to that city. This hospital of St. John’s in this parish was subject to the master of St. John’s Hospital in London, as all other in England were, and was valued at the suppression thereof 26 Henry VIII. at £12. 6s. 8d. saith Dugdale, £14. 7s. 4d. Speed. This sum it seems was the value of their rents on leases, so what their domains were I know not.
Here the MS. is again deficient.
However, those who pretend to skill in taste and palate
eating, prefer the saltwater trout before this Loo trout; nevertheless, I take it to be a fish of good taste and digestion, and when killed in his proper season not inferior in redness to the sea-trout; this pool on the one side being situate on Mr. Penrose’s lands, hath entitled him to free fishing therein time out of mind.
But the absolute royalty and jurisdiction of this river pertained to the ancient earls now dukes of Cornwall, or to the kings of England, in right of their adjacent manor of Helleston in Kerryer; and for further proof thereof, I will give an ancient testimony out of the pleas of the Crown in the Exchequer 12 Edward I. 1282, (See also Blount’s Ancient Tenures, from thence, p. 52.) where we may read these words.
Wilhelmus de Trevelle tenet unam acram terræ Cornubiensem, in Degemue et Eglesderry in Kerrier, per serjantiam inveniendi unum Batellum et Rethiam, ad piscandum in Lacu de Helleston, quandocunque Dominus Rex venerit apud Hellestone, et quamdiu moram ibi fecerit.
From whence I conclude that this William de Trevelle either had or was keeper of the royalty of this lake or pool by inheritance, and held one Cornish acre of land in Eglesderry, that is to say, one hundred and eighty English acres by the tenure of Sergeanty for that purpose, and providing a fishing hook or iron crook and a net, as long as the king should stay or tarry in the manor of Helleston, fishing or so doing. This Degemue and Eglesderry are lands in the manor of Helston Chaumond in Kerrier. This name and tribe of Treveale are still extant in Roach and elsewhere in Cornwall.
TONKIN.
Sithney is in the hundred of Kerrier, and is bounded to the west by St. Breage, to the north by Crowan, to the east by Gwendon and Helston, to the south by the British Channel.
This parish is denominated from its tutelar Saint (with a little variation, euphoniæ gratiâ) St. Midinnia (Tax. Benef.)
It is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book £19. 11s. 4d. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, the incumbent ——.
In 1291, 20 Edw. I., the rectory of this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at £6. 6s. 8d. and was appropriated to the priory of Montacute in Somersetshire; the vicarage being valued at 33s. 4d.
I shall begin with
THE MANOR OF PENROSE.
The head of the valley [or rather, the Hill of the Heath,] which hath given a name and dwelling to a very ancient family, seated there (it is said) before the Conquest.
It is pleasantly seated on the side of the Looe Pool, which for the most part belongs to it, of which Mr. Carew (fol. 152) thus, “Under it (Heilston) runneth the river Lo, whose passage into the sea is thwarted by a sandy bank, which forceth the same to quurt back a great way, and so to make a pool of some miles in compass. It breedeth a peculiar kind of bastard trout, in bigness and goodness exceeding such as live in the fresh water, but coming short of those who frequent the salt. The fore-remembered bank serveth as a bridge to deliver wayfarers, with a compendious passage, to the other side; howbeit sometimes with more haste than good speed, for now and then it is so pressed on the inside with the increasing river’s weight, and a portion of the outer sand so washed down by the waves, that at a sudden out breaketh the upper part of the Poole and away goeth a great deal of the sand, water, and fish, which instant, if it take any passenger tardy, shrewdly endangereth him to flit for company, and some have so miscarried.
“To this Pool adjoineth Mr. Penrose his house, whose kind entertainment hath given me and many others experience of these matters. He married the daughter of Rashleigh. He beareth, Argent, three bends Sable, charged with nine roses of the Field.” But before I leave the Loo Pool, I must observe that the name of the river
is taken from the Pool, for such are called Loghs or Los in our ancient tongue. Neither is the bar which forms it of sand; but Leland gives this account of it (Itin. vol. VIII. fol. 3), “Lo-Poole is a two miles in length, and betwixt it and the mayn se is but a barre of sande; and ons in three or four years, what by the wait of the fresch water and rage of the se, it brekith out, and then the fresch and salt water meting makith a wonderful noise; but soon after the mouth is barred again with sande. At other tymes the superfluitie of the water of Lo-Poole drenith out through the sandy barre unto the se. If this barre might be alway kept open, it would be a goodly haven up to Heilston. The commune fische of this Poole is trout and ele.”
The present lord of this manor is Edward Penrose, Esq. who is yet unmarried. He succeeded Robert Corker, Esq. on his death, A.D. 1731, as receiver of the duchy of Cornwall, and is in the Commission of the Peace and Lieutenancy. His father, Edward Penrose, Esq. was a very worthy good-natured gentleman, and was likewise a Justice of the Peace. He married ——, the daughter of James Praed, of Trevetho, Esq. by whom he had also one daughter ——, married to James Keigwyn, of Mousehole, Esq. and since dead without issue. His grandfather Richard Penrose, Esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall 17 Henry VIII.
THE EDITOR.
There is not any thing remarkable about this parish church; it is distant no more than a mile and quarter from Breage Church, but divided from it by a deep valley, which runs down to Porthleaven, heretofore a small fishing cove, till some projectors induced credulous persons to contribute large sums of money, for the purpose of making a harbour for vessels at this place, under the vague pretence of saving human life, a matter on which all mankind are agreed, but without being able to show that their plans would have that effect: assuming it, however, they had the
hardihood to solicit from Parliament an impost on all vessels passing within a certain distance of the Land’s End and the Lizard. Several tens of thousands of pounds have been expended on this senseless undertaking, which has utterly failed of its object, and made the small harbour less commodious for boats than it was before.
The principal seat in this parish is Penrose, the residence for centuries of a very ancient family bearing the same name, till the heiress of Penrose married Pearce of Penryn, and their only daughter married Alexander Cuming, esq. from Scotland. They parted with this property to Mr. John Rogers of Helston, younger brother of Mr. Hugh Rogers of Treasow in Ludgvan, to whom he ultimately succeeded.
Mr. John Rogers left an only son Hugh Rogers, Sheriff of Cornwall in the year 1770. This gentleman married Ann, daughter of Mr. James of St. Columb. They also left an only son Mr. John Rogers, member of Parliament for West Looe and for Helston: he married Margaret, eldest daughter of Francis Basset, esq. of Tehidy: and died the 22d of February, 1832, leaving a very numerous family. He is succeeded by his eldest son the Rev. John Rogers, Canon Residentiary of Exeter, and Rector of Mawnan.
The late Mr. Rogers added very considerably to the property purchased by his grandfather, more especially on the sales by the Arundell family; so that the Penrose domain now extends round the Lake, and affords a scope for improvements, which may convert this place into one of the most beautiful in Cornwall, and such are expected from the talents, liberality, and taste of the present opulent possessor.
Antron appears to have been a place of consequence in former times. Mr. Lysons says that it belonged to an ancient family of the same name, from whom it passed with an heiress in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to the Paynters; that it was purchased of them by the Hoblyns in 1670, and sold by the Rev. Robert Hoblyn, to John Rogers, esq. late Captain in the Naval Service of the East
India Company, who restored the place by building a new house, and by other improvements. It now belongs to his son.
Trevarnoe was purchased by the late Mr. Christopher Wallis, a gentleman who made a large fortune in Helston and in this place, by the practice of the law. He had an only daughter, married to Captain Popham, a brother of the adventurous navigator who distinguished himself at Buenos Ayres. Their son now resides here; he served the office of Sheriff in 1834, and has married a daughter of the late Sir Vyell Vyvyan, of Trelowarren.
Very little is known about the hospital of St. John in this parish. The following short notice is all that occurs in Dugdale’s Monasticon:
“Helston.—Leland, in his Itinerary, mentions an hospital of St. John yet standing at the west-south-west end of the town of Helston, of the foundation of one Killigion or Killegrew. It is mentioned in the Register of Edmund Stafford, Bishop of Exeter (from 1395 to 1419) fol. 135. In the 26th of Henry VIII. the total revenue of this hospital amounted to £14. 7s. 4d. The net receipts to £12. 16s. 4d. per annum.” At the foot of the hill, and on the south side of the road leading from Mirazion, just as it turns almost at a right angle, is a large stone placed upright, bearing in relief the sword of St. John, having its guard in such a position as to represent the potence of a cross; and this stone is believed to point out very nearly the site of the ancient hospital.
The great tithes of this parish were appropriated to the monastery of Glaseney, near Penryn; they have since the reformation passed through different hands, and belong to Sir Samuel-Thomas Spry, M.P. for Bodmin, son of the late Admiral Spry.
The present incumbent is the Rev. Samuel Cole, D.D. Chaplain General to the Navy. About a century ago this living was held, together with Phillack and Gwithian, by the Rev. Edward Collins, the Editor’s great-grandfather.
The parish feast is kept on the first Sunday in August.
Sithney measures 4896 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 5,839 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 902 | 14 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 1420 | in 1811, 1552 | in 1821, 2238 | in 1831, 2772 |
giving an increase of 95 per cent. in 30 years.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish extends from near Wendron Church almost to the Loo Bar, in the form of a long stripe running a little west of south; rather more than a quarter part of this stripe, at its northern extremity, rests on granite; all the remainder belongs to rocks of the porphyritic series. The extensive workings of Whele Vor mine are partly situated in this parish, which is intersected by numerous veins and courses of porphyry.