TRESMERE.

HALS.

Tresmere, alias Tresmoore vicarage, is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Tremayne, east Egloskerry, south Lanest, west St. Cleather. Under what name or jurisdiction it was taxed in the Domesday Book I know not. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Capella de Tresmoore was valued xxvis. viiid. which Church I apprehend was partly endowed by the Prior or Abbat of Tywardreth, and the other part by the Prior of St. Stephen’s, for in that Inquisition I read Prior Tywardrayth percepit de garba de Tresmoore 11s. afterwards wholly impropriated to the Prior of St. Stephen’s, who doubtless purchased in that title. The parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax for one year 1696, £42. 12s.

TONKIN.

Tresmere, in the hundred of East, hath to the west

Treneglos, to the north Tremaine, to the east part of Devonshire, to the south Egloskerry.

This signifies the same with Tre Mere, the great town or dwelling. [N. B. This name, and that of Tren-eglos, are very remarkable in thus containing a supplemental letter. W.]

This Church, by the name of Capella de Tresmore, an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. is valued (Tax. Ben.) at xxvis. viiid. being then appropriated to the Priory at Tywardreath.

It is wholly impropriated, the great and small tithes belonging to Sir John Molesworth and Francis Manaton, Esq. who ought to pay out of it for serving the cure £6 per annum, lately detained by both, the Curate not being able or willing to recover it at law. The Prior of Tywardreth did receive out of the sheaf of Tresmore ijs.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons says, that this parish is an appendage to the manor of Werrington. This would indicate its being impropriated by the Abbey of Tavistock, as Werrington was the chief seat of the Lord Abbat; but Tresmere is not noticed in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of that Abbey; but in the Valor Ecelesiasticus of Launceston Priory there occurs this trifling entry:

£.s.d.
Tresmare —Pensio 018

The tithes of this parish are completely in lay hands. When tithes were first bestowed on monasteries, the duties of the Church to which they appertained, were performed by members of the Convent, who occasionally travelled there, and succeeded each other; the “book-bosomed priests” of the Last Minstrel. In times more remote, secular clergy went on circuits from the Cathedral or seat of the Bishop and his priests; till the inconvenience of this itinerant system became strongly felt, and decrees were made in several General Councils of the Latin Church,

enacting that each benefice should have a permanently resident priest, and that a competent provision should be made for his support. This was usually done by assigning to the deputy, the Vicarius or Vicar, all the tithes except those of corn, although others were occasionally retained; but in various instances, instead of tithes, an allowance was made in money, equivalent perhaps at the time, but long since reduced to nominal payments, by the gradual depreciation in the value of gold and silver from natural causes, and by the fraudulent reduction of the standards practised in various degrees by all governments, or lastly, by the non-convertible paper currencies.

The very great difference in the circumstances of those deputies, arising from the nature of their endowments rather than any legal distinction in the offices, has affixed to one the name of Vicar, and to the other that of Perpetual Curate.

It appeared from Mr. Tonkin’s narrative, that the stipend in this parish amounted to six pounds a year, and that it had been withholden by superior force; without doubt, the liberality of modern times has long since caused it to be restored and increased.

Mr. Lysons states, that the impropriation has passed through the families of Molesworth and Manaton, and that it is now vested in Edward Coade, Esq. and that this great piece of preferment is in the Crown.

Tresmere measures 982 statute acres.

£.s.d.
Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 181558800
Poor Rate in 183150120
Population,—
in 1801,
129		in 1811,
154		in 1821,
173		in 1831,
171

giving an increase of 32½ per cent. in 30 years.

Perpetual Curate, the Rev. W. A. Morgan, presented by the Lord Chancellor in 1821.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The geology of this parish is in every respect the same as that of Trenegloss.