TOWEDNACK.
HALS.
Towednack is situate in the hundred of Penwith, and hath upon the north the Irish Sea, east St. Ive’s and Lelant, south Ludgvan, west Zennor.
In the Domesday Book this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Amall, now Amall Veor or Trenwith. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de
Tywidnick, in decanatu de Penwith, is rated at cxiiis. iiiid. vicar’ ibidem, xxvis. viiid. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it goes in value, consolidation, and presentation, with Lelant and St. Ive’s, £22. 11s. 10½d. The patronage in the Bishops of Exeter, who endowed it; the incumbent —— Hawkins; the rectory in Pitz; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year, 1696, £51. 3s. 2d.
In this parish are two notable camps, castles, or intrenchments of our ancestors the Britons, wherein they fortified themselves against their enemies in former ages, the ruins and downfalls of which are yet to be seen, the one called Castle-an-Dunes,[3] or Denis (See St. Colomb.); the other Tre-crag-an, the ragged rock town, situate upon Tre-crag-an hill or mountain, as I take it.
TONKIN.
Towednack lies in the hundred of Penwith, and has to the west Zennor, to the north the sea, to the east St. Ive’s and Lelant, to the south Ludgvan.
I take the name of the parish to signify no other than St. Wednock or Wynnock; for Ta and Da are synonymous terms for good. [It is perhaps only Ti Widnak (C.) the Whitish House. W.] It is a daughter church or chapel of ease to Lelant, and goes in the same presentation.
THE EDITOR.
There can scarcely be a doubt of this parish, Landewednack, and some chapels, being dedicated to one of the Missionaries from Ireland.
Towednack, like most of the districts situated on granite, exhibits a strange and almost unaccountable mixture of cultivated and of unreclaimed soils. On one side of a fence may be seen land producing abundance of grass and excellent for daisies, or bearing ample crops of barley, and of clover hay and on the other side, an inclosed waste, named throughout Cornwall a croft, producing nothing better than
the species or variety of furze, Ulex Nanus, and some of the most coarse grasses.
This parish has been productive of much tin near the surface; but a wide stripe of granite nearly resembling that of St. Stephen’s in Brannel, extends from the parish of Zennor through Towednack, and thence into Ludgvan, including Castle-an-Dinas, which Mr. Hals by mistake places in this parish. Its course is distinctly marked by the absence of all bolder rocks from the surface, and in some places it has been wrought for china clay, found quite equal in quality to that near St. Austell, but occurring in layers of but little breadth, and therefore expensive to pursue. This soft granite, called by the miners whetstone, permits the lodes to continue their courses through it from the hard and crystallized granite, but the tin in a great measure disappears at a trifling depth.
There is little connected with Towednack of any curiosity, that does not refer to the Editor and his family.
I am possessed of a manor still extending into five parishes, of which the vokeland, to use Mr. Hals’s term, was Amellibrea in this parish. It has descended to me from the Noyes, and particularly from my direct ancestor William Noye, the Attorney-General. I have the Court Rolls in complete succession for nearly three centuries. On these Rolls the names of Godolphin, Grylls, Mahun, Praed, St. Aubyn, Veal, occur with others as free tenants, and a great number of persons held by copy of Court Roll.
At Amellibrea are the remains of an extensive foundation said by tradition to have formerly supported a prison.
But the free tenants have been lost, and the copyholds converted into leases for life, as indeed has been the case generally over Cornwall, with the exception of ecclesiastical property; the copyholds not being renewable on the payment of a fine not exceeding two years’ value, as is the custom over most parts of England, but dependent wholly on the pleasure of the lord. The tenures were therefore in themselves much the same; and as I remember to have heard, the tenants preferred chattle property, as they termed
it, to copyhold, in consequence probably of the uniform rules of succession and the facility of disposing by will.
The last copyhold that appears on the Rolls was in the very beginning of the last century.
The particulars of holding a Court in those days, with the Steward’s charge, happen to be preserved on the Roll for 1688, and seem to me sufficiently curious to warrant their insertion.
At a Court of William Davies, esq. Lord of the United Manors of Amyll and Tillie, holden on Friday the 27th day of April, 1688.
The Homage.
Sampson Veale, esq. Foreman.
Robert Michell, James Trewhelow, John Curnow,
Francis Quick, John Quick, John Williams,
Oller Vaynfleet, John Baragwanath, John Trewhella,
Anthony Quick, Christopher Trewhella, John Gilbart,
George Beriman, James Quick.
The Oath.
You shall swear that you, as Foreman of this Homage, with the rest, shall duly inquire, and true presentment make of all such copyholds and things as shall be given you in charge; wherein you shall spare no man, from love, favour, or affection; nor present any man for malice, hatred, or envy; but according as things are presentable, shall or may come to your knowledge, by information or otherwise, so shall you make thereof true presentment without concealment,
So help you God, and the contents of this book.
The Charge.
Sirs —You that be sworn!
You know the customs of this court, and what you ought to present, which is grounded all on these three things, that
is to say, upon truth, judgment, and justice, for this comprehends all you have to do.
It standeth upon truth, for that you ought to present nothing but the truth, and likewise not to omit any thing that is true and presentable being here unpresented.
It standeth upon judgment, that you do not present any thing rashly, or unadvisedly; but certainly to know the truth thereof before you do present it.
And it standeth upon justice that you do not for favour, affection, corruption of money, or other reward, for fear of any man’s displeasure, or for any private gain or profit, leave any thing unpresented that is here presentable; neither for malice present any thing contrary to truth.
These three principal things you ought duly to consider of; and so hoping that you will have a special care thereof according to your oaths and duties, and the trust that is reposed in you, I will cease to trouble you any further about them.
First, you shall inquire whether all such persons as owe suit and service to this court be here to do the same; and all that make default you must present.
Also you shall inquire if any tenants be dead since the last court, or before, and his death not yet presented; and you shall inquire what lands he held of these manors, and what is due to the Lord on his death;[4] and also if any copyholder has leased his copyhold for any longer term than a year and a day, without the Lord’s license, it is a forfeiture of his copyhold. And also if any copyholder deny to pay his rent, or deny to come to his Lord’s Court, or deny to be sworn of the homage, it is a forfeiture of his copyhold.
And also you are to present all alienations that you may know among the tenants, who they are, and for what.
You are also to present all such as remove any bounds bounding the lands of these manors and the lands of any other Lord, or between tenant and tenant, or elsewhere in those manors.
You are likewise to present any one that has taken any
goods out of the pound wilfully by force, or any pound-breaker by the way, as they are driven to pound.
You are likewise to present any man that hath fished or fowled in these manors, or hawked or hunted.
And also you are to present any that doth refuse or neglect to grind at the mill of those manors; and if you are not well served, you that are ill dealt with by the miller, he is lyable to be prosecuted, and make satisfaction.
You are to present all tin broken in these manors that hath not paid farme nor toll.
You shall swear by the contents of that Book; that you will be true and faithful to the Lord of those manors, and shall from henceforth bear, do, and pay to your said Lord, and to his heirs, at times assigned, all such rents, customs, and services as you ought to pay, and for all such lands and tenements as you claim to hold of him; So help you God.
As the Steward’s name in not appended, I am unable to say who was the author of this perspicuous, eloquent, and argumentative address. It is probably in a great measure conformable to the approved model of that day.
Having omitted to insert in its proper place axPetition from my great-grandmother to King Charles the Second, I shall give it here, as being in some degree connected with the property.
To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.
The humble petition of Hester Noye, widow of Humphrey Noye, esquire, son and heir of the Attorney-General Noye, and eldest sister and coheir of Edwyn Lord Sandys, deceased,
Humbly sheweth,
That King Henry the VIII. in the 14th year of his reign, created your Petitioner’s great-grandfather William Sandys a Peer of this Realm, by the style of William Lord Sandys, Baron of the Vine, who granted a Patent of the said honor
to him and his heirs, which hath been ever since enjoyed by his descendants both male and female accordingly; and last of all by the said Edwyn Lord Sandys, who is lately deceased, leaving your said Petitioner and five other sisters his coheirs.
That your Petitioner’s father served your late Royal Father of glorious memory in the late unhappy wars, and raised a Regiment of Foot, and another of Horse for that service, and was himself slain therein.[5]
That your Petitioner’s late husband was likewise active in his late Majesty’s service, being a Colonel in the Army, and suffered very much for his loyalty in the late rebellious times, by whom your Petitioner had issue William Noye, esq. his son and heir, who is still living.
Now forasmuch as your Petitioner is advised that upon the death of the said Edwyn Lord Sandys, it is in your Majesty’s power to dispose of the said honor to which of the said sisters and coheirs your Majesty pleases,
Your Petitioner therefore humbly prays, that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to permit your Petitioner and her heirs to enjoy the said honour and title.
And your Petitioner shall ever pray.
It is almost unnecessary for me to add that this Petition did not prove successful.
Towednack is now included with Lelant in the borough of St. Ive’s, sending one member to Parliament.
The great tithes belong to Mr. Praed of Trevethow, who, together with the heirs of the late Duke of Bolton, possess the remainder of the parish.
The parish feast is kept on the nearest Sunday to April 28.
This parish measures 2,569 statute acres.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 1483 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 153 | 8 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 465 | in 1811, 532 | in 1821, 582 | in 1831, 736 |
giving an increase of 58 per cent. in 30 years.
The extreme northern part of this parish is formed of a narrow slip which runs out considerably beyond the regular boundaries, and terminates on the sea shore; about half of the protuberance is composed of felspathic rocks, belonging to the porphyritic series, and all the rest of the parish is situated on granite.
[3] This is in Ludgvan.
[4] An Inquisitio post mortem.
[5] April the 6th, 1644.