ST. WINNOW.

HALS.

St. Wennoe is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north Braddock and Cardenham, west the Foye river or sea, south St. Veepe, east Lanreth.

In the glass windows of this church, the Patron Saint is called after the Latin St. (Sanctus) Winotus, but further knowledge of him I have not.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed by the name of Tre-vocar-Winoe. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Ecclesia de Sancto Winotho was valued lxs. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was rated 5l. The Patronage in ——; the incumbent Laurence; the rectory in possession of ——; and the parish rated at 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, for one year, £210. 8s. 8d.

In this parish is a chapel of ease dedicated to St. Nectan, vulgo vocat. St. Knighton, or Nighton, whose revenues in the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, were thus rated, Capella de Nectan, in decanatu de West, vs. This Nectan was born in Devon about the year 940, a man of singular piety and holiness, as most of those days afforded, who lived a monkish or eremitical life, at Hartland, in Devon, where he died about the year 1010. After his death his relics (see Rawlegh’s Relicta Nomen viri) were enshrined and set up in the same little chapel where he served God there; in which place Githa, wife of Godwin Earl of Kent (or rather Goditha his daughter, afterwards married to Edward the Confessor), as Malmesbury informs us, 1030, built and endowed a monastery of secular priests, which might marry wives; valued at the suppression, 26 Hen. VIII. at £350 per annum; and the reason of this her pious foundation is said to be, for that

she was fully persuaded that her husband, Earl Godwin, escaped the danger of a shipwreck in a raging tempest at sea by his merits and intercessions.

Galfrid de Dynham, Lord of Hartland, was a great benefactor to this monastery, and changed the Secular Priests into Black Canons Augustine, who were prohibited marriage by their rule. See the Monasticon Anglicanum, tome II. p. 285, concerning Nectan and Hartland.

This barton and manor of St. Winow gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, from thence surnamed de St. Winow, of which family was that Philip de St. Winow, who had £20 lands and upwards in this place, held by the tenure of knight service, 25 Edward III. 1352 (Survey of Cornwall, p. 52,) from whose heirs it passed by descent or purchase about Henry VIth’s time to —— Upton, which Upton was originally descended either from the Uptons of Upton and Colombton, or Lupton, in Brixham parish, in Devon, whose elder brother’s estate passed by his daughter and heir in marriage to the Wingfields; as also the estate of this Upton of St. Winow did by marriage with his daughter and heir to William Lower, esq. of Trelaske, in Lawanack, Sheriff of Cornwall 16 Henry VIII. 1525. William Lower, esq. his son, or grandson, was Sheriff of Cornwall 20th of Elizabeth; he married one of Reskimer’s heirs, and had issue Nicholas Lower, esq. afterwards knighted, Sheriff of Cornwall 8 Charles I. Sir Nicholas married ——, and had issue one only daughter, that became his heir, and was married to Sir William Drummond, knight, who had issue by her two daughters that became his heirs; the one married to Charles Trevanion, of Caryhayes, esq. and to —— Roper, esq. now Lord of this place in fee. The possession by lease in Stephen Robins, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall about the year 1700, who married —— Robins, his father William of Probus, and giveth for his arms the same as Robins of Verian.

Tethe, in this parish, alias Eade or Ethy, was the seat of some of the Courtneys of Boconnock, from whose heirs it passed by purchase, as I am informed, to John Trevill, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 18 Charles II. whose three daughters and heirs carried those lands, together with themselves, in marriage, to Burthog, Savery, and Arscott; but Arscott’s lady dying under age, he purchased this barton and manor of Tethe, or Ethy, from Burthog and Savery, whose younger son Denis Arscott, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 4th King George, was then in possession thereof.

Tre-vego, alias Tre-vega, in this parish, that is to say, the town upon the top of a stiff hill or precipice, according to the natural circumstances of the place, is the dwelling of Warwick Hankey, esq. barrister-at-law, that married Jane, daughter of Giles Risdon, of Babeleigh, esq.

In this parish stands Lar-an Bridge, i. e. the Floor Bridge.

TONKIN.

The tutelar saint of this parish is St. Winnocus (Moreri’s Dictionary, vol. I. voce Bergh St. Vinoc), who was born in Armorica, or Little Britain, and having associated himself about the year 680 with St. Bertin, Abbat of Sithien, established a monastery at a place in Flanders, and died there the 6th of November 717, which place has been once called from him Bergh St. Winnox, a town being built there and surrounded with walls in 950; since that it has been regularly fortified, belongs to the French, and is about four miles from Dunkirk.

This is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book at £5.; the patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Mr. Thomas Laurenc.

In 1291, 20 Edward I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at cxs. being appropriated to the Chapter of Exeter; and the chapel of St. Nectan at vs.

THE EDITOR.

The Church of St. Winnow is beautifully situated on the eastern bank of the river, at its most beautiful part, between Lestwithiel and Fowey. The church, with its tower, are fine objects as seen from the river, which does not yield in this spot to the Dart itself. The Church contains several monuments.

The vicarage house and glebe partake of the splendour of the scenery; and during the life of their late proprietor, the Reverend Robert Walker, were among the most attractive spots in Cornwall. Mr. Walker, possessed of strong abilities, had an ardent desire to discharge all the duties attached to him as a clergyman and as a country gentleman, in a manner the most beneficial to all with whom he had any concern; in the relations of private life he was equally estimable; and as a most decisive proof of his real merits and high deserts, it may be truly said, that, although he was induced on principle to take a strong part in politics, he had not a single personal enemy.

The chapel, dedicated to the Recluse of Hertland, has still divine service occasionally performed in it, although it does not form any practical division of the parish.

The history of Ethy has been brought down to the period immediately preceding its possession by the Edgecumbe family; the house has been occupied of late years by several gentlemen, and especially by one who has done honour to the nation by his naval and military services, and to Cornwall as a private man. Admiral Sir Charles Vinicombe Penrose distinguished himself on so many occasions, that to enumerate them all would be to write a life. Two, which do not relate immediately to the more obvious features of the military profession, may, however, be selected.

In the year 1797, when the navy of England underwent the greatest disgrace it has ever experienced, by the prevalence of a mutiny which threatened our safety as a country,

this excellent officer preserved his ship in due subordination.

In the year 1814, when the Duke of Wellington invaded France from the Pyrenees, and his passage was disputed across the Adour, Admiral Penrose, uniting to scientific acquirements the skill and the bravery of an English seaman, constructed a bridge of boats where it was thought impossible to place them, and thus greatly contributed to the success of this important part of the combined attack.

In the Parliamentary Edition of the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of Pope Nicholas IV. p. 145, the entries respecting St. Winnowe are as follow:

£.s.d.
Eccl’ia de S’c’o Winnico2100
Vicar’ ejusdem100

This parish measures 5,501 statute acres.

£.s.d.
Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815430400
Poor Rate in 1831603140
Population,—
in 1801,
671		in 1811,
782		in 1821,
906		in 1831,
1048

giving an increase of 56 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Percival Frye, who succeeded the Rev. W. Molesworth in 1834, on the presentation of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter. Mr. Molesworth had been instituted in 1816. The clear value of the benefice in 1831 was £197.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are similar to those of the adjoining parishes, Broadoak, Boconnoc, and St. Veep.