TRURO.
HALS.
Truro is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Kenwen, east Clement’s, south an arm of Falmouth Harbour, where twice a day, upon spring tides, the sea makes its navigable flux and reflux to the walls, keys, and streets thereof.
In the Domesday Book 1087, this place was taxed under the appellations of Trewret and Treured, which shews that it then consisted of two privileged manors or jurisdictions, viz. the borough of Trewret and the manor of Treured,
now known, and still distinguished, by the names of the borough and manor of Truro, under the like circumstances.
In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Trewroe, in decanatu de Powdre, was rated liiis. ivd.
By the Charter of its incorporation from King John, the town was incorporated by the name of Burgus de Trewrow.
In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, this church’s revenues were valued at £16. The patronage formerly in Bodrigan or Trenowith, now Edgecumb. The incumbent Pagett; and the borough of Truro was rated to four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £186. 7s. That here was a Christian free chapel before the Norman Conquest I doubt not, implied in the word Trewrow, now a Rectory Church; in the glass windows of which, the north side thereof, is yet extant the arms of John Earl of Cornwall, who succeeded to the Crown of England 1199, and was made Earl of Cornwall by his father King Henry II. at nine years old (though he had not the possession thereof till the time of Richard I. 1190, which was but a hundred and twenty-four years after the Norman Conquest, and but one hundred and three years after the Conqueror’s death); which arms were: in a field Ruby, three leopards in pale passant gardant Tophaz, over all a bend Sapphire, which leopards are now called, and metamorphosed in the blazon of the Kings of England’s arms to lions, as it is testified by Nicholas Upton, who wrote his Book of Heraldry 1440, whose words be these: “Monsieur Johanes Roy d’Angleter, port de Gowles, ove trois lyopers d’Or.”
There is likewise extant in the same windows, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall’s badge, in a field —— three ostrich feathers with this motto or inscription, Ich Dien, or Ich Thyen, Saxon, I serve, which coronet was won by Edward the Black Prince, the first Duke of Cornwall,
from John of Luxemberge, King of Bohemia, at the battle of Cressy, 1346, and ever since worn by him and his successors, Dukes of Cornwall and Princes of Wales; which arms we may conclude was erected in this glass window soon after that victory, he being High Lord of this borough, which is held of his contiguous Duchy Manor of Moris, together with the Coinage Hall, which King John built and gave it; as also the royalty over the whole Harbour of Falmouth as far as Carike Road and the Black Rock Island (see Falmouth) in consideration of twelve pence rent and suits to that Manor Court, which privileges and royalty this town enjoyed till the time of King James II. and executed their water processes all over the said harbour for debt and damage; but then, upon the petition of Sir Peter Killigrew, Bart. it was given by him as an augmentation of profit to Mr. Quaram, Rector of Falmouth, and his successors for ever, but under what rent I know not.
The church was built at the proper cost and charge of the inhabitants, and other pious benefactors, with free-stone, in that costly and curious manner as it now stands, in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. as appears from an inscription in the glass windows thereof, under the name and arms of Margaret Tregian, one of those benefactors 1514; wherein also are yet extant the arms of the Arundells, Bevills, Trenowths, Carmenows, Edgecombs, and other benefactors; however, this church hath no tower or steple of bells as other churches.
And moreover, as when it was a free chapel, the minister subsisted on the oblations and obventions of the altar, so now, comparatively, upon the piety and charity of his hearers by voluntary subscriptions; from whence it may be presumed the rector must demean himself well, and labour hard in his vocation, to get a competent maintenance, at least he must walk with such upright and wary conduct as he that went barefoot upon the edge of a sharp knife and did not hurt his feet; since he must converse with, and have to do with, men of divers principles and opinions
in religion in this place, viz. Anabaptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers, as of old his predecessors had with monks, Dominican and Franciscan friars, who were sharers or peelers of his profits by their predicaments. I shall not enter into the controversy whether the Gospel were better preached before churches were endowed with revenues, or since, the one being a motive to pride, sloth, and laziness; as the other is an inducement to humility, temperance, and virtue.
In this church stands a curious monument erected to the memory of John Robartes, esq. that married Gaurigan (ancestor of the Right Honourable Charles Bodville, Earl of Radnor) though much defaced in the interregnum of Cromwell; whose ancestor John Robarts, Mayor of Truro, that lies entombed thereby, mightily enriched himself in this town by trade and manufactures.
There is also near the same another funeral monument, erected to the memory of three brothers of the Mitchells, tempore James I. viz. Thomas, John, and James, as I remember, who, as the inscription saith, had all one God, one womb, and one tomb.
On the west side of this town was of old a Dominican Chapel and Friary; part of their house and consecrated well yet standing; their revenues dispersed into several hands since the dissolution of their house 26 Henry VIII. and now in possession of ——.
In the centre of this town was a nunnery of Clares closed up, who had considerable revenues, now in possession of Sir John Seyntaubyn and others; their consecrated walled well at Edles in Kenwen, and their house called Anhell, i. e. the hall or tabernacle, was fairly built of free-stone, though lately pulled down, and converted to shops and dwelling houses.
The town of Truro was made a coinage town by King John as aforesaid, and had all its privileges confirmed by a charter from Queen Elizabeth, by the name of the Mayor and Capital Burgesses; and consists of a Mayor, Recorder,
and twenty-four Capital Burgesses. The members of Parliament are elected by the majority of inhabitants of the said Corporation; the arms of which are, a ship man-of-war in full course, with sails spread, on the seas, wherein are fishes swimming.
The precept on the Parliament writ from the Sheriff, and a writ for removing an action at law depending in this court leet, must be thus directed:
“Majori et Burgensibus Burgi sui de Trewrow in comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem.” als. “Manerium de Trewrow, viz. Senescallo et Ballivor. Manerij sui de Trewrow in Comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem.”
This place is more notable as being the birthplace and honorary title of John Lord Robarts, Baron Robarts of Truro (see Lanhydeiock). It is also privileged with fairs annually, on the 19th of November, the 8th of December, Wednesday after Midlent Sunday, and on Whitsun Monday or Tuesday, and markets weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays; wherein all commodities necessary for the life of man are vended in great plenty at a moderate rate, viz. fresh fish, oysters, lobsters, and crabs of all sorts, corn, fruits.
The salary of the collector of the Custom House here is yearly £40, two tidemen and a waiter £80 per annum.
The chief inhabitants of this town are John Manly, esq. barrister-at-law; Mr. Gregor, Dr. Maye, Dr. Cloake, Graduates in Physic; Mr. Hawes, Mr. Hickman, Mr. Granvill Hals, Mr. Hickes, Mr. Herle, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Mayow, Mr. Williams, Mr. Foxworthy, Mr. Grebhle, Mr. Pawley, Mr. Michell, and others.
Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall 1602, tells us this town of Truro, for wealth and riches, exceeded any other town in Cornwall, and for buildings all other except Lanceston; I think it still under the same circumstances.
In this town at some time lived Captain William Upcott that married —— Bruce of Scotland, daughter of Edward Bruce, esq. of Edinburgh; after her death, Anne,
daughter of Adam Bennet, of this town, gent. son of John Bennet, of Penton in Devon, gent. a man of approved valour and conduct in the war, who in all the unhappy Civil Wars between King Charles I. and his Parliament, was bred up in the school of Mars from his youth, first an Ensign, then a Lieutenant, lastly made a Commander of a foot company under the Earl of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax’s armies for the Parliament; afterwards he was made Coronet of General Monk’s Horse Troop or Brigade, who specially favoured him, and in that capacity accompanied him throughout all the fatigues of the English, Scots, and Irish wars, managed by him and Cromwell against Kings Charles I. and II.; and when Monk came out of Scotland and returned into England with his army, and restored King Charles II. to his throne.
TONKIN AND WHITAKER.
Truro is situate in the hundred of Powder, and is surrounded to the south, west, and north, by Kenwin, and to the east by St. Clement’s, being washed on each side by two rivulets (of which that which comes from St. Allen is the principal), and which joining together at the bottom of the town, fall into an arm of Falmouth Harbour, and form a beautiful basin and key there. This takes its name from the town, as that does from the three principal streets of which it consists, Tri, three, and Ru, a street, turned to Truro, euphoniæ gratiâ. [See below concerning this Etymon, which is adopted from Camden, and is obviously absurd, as the town must have had a name long before it forked out into three streets; and indeed from the first moments of its existence as a town, as a parish, or as a manor. W.]
This church, which is dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary, is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book £16; the patronage in the Honourable Richard Edgcombe, esq.;
the incumbent Mr. Joseph Jane, who in 17— succeeded Mr. Simon Paget, as this last did Mr. Samuel Thomas.
In an. 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at liijs. iiijd. having never been appropriated.
Leland (Itin. vol. III. fol. 11) speaketh thus of this town: “This Creke of Truru afore the very toun is divided into two partes, and eche of them hath a brook cumming down, and a bridge, and the toun of Truru bytwixt them booth. The White Freres house was on the west arme yn Kenwyn Streate.
“Kenwen Streate is severed from Truru with this arme, and Clementes Streat by est is separate on the est from Truru with the same arme.
“One paroche chirch in Truru; Kenwen, and Clementes Streates have several chirchis, and bere the name of the Sainctes of the paroche chirchis.
“Coynage of tinne at Midsomer and Michaelmas at Truru.
“Truru is a borow toun, and priviledged. There is a Castelle, a quarter of a mile by west out of Truru, longing to the Erle of Cornwale, now clene doun. The site therof is now used for a shoting and playing place. Out of the body of Truru creake, on the est side, breketh a crek estwarde a mile from Truru, and goith up a mile ——, perhaps to Kigan, and thens to Tresilian Bridge.”
Nothing can be better described than the situation of this town is here by Leland; only as to the castle, it is so far from being a quarter of mile out of the town that it is in it at the head of St. Pancras-street, to the left hand of the way as you go to Kenwyn church, which by the bye is no Saint as Leland has here made it, or ever called St. Kenwyn. [The difference between Mr. Tonkin and his author concerning the castle, is no difference at all. Mr. Tonkin forgets the interval of time between Leland’s writing and his own. At that time the castle was assuredly out of the town; St. Pancras-street then going up but a little way from the open area by the church-yard, and the castle
being now “at the head” of this street.] It lies very pleasantly, and from it you have a view of the whole town, the country around it, and the river, or rather arm of the sea, which, when the tide is in, looks like a fine canal of two miles in length, [and in coming up the canal by boat, the town with its new spire below, and the church of Kenwin with its new vicarage-house above, form a most pleasing view]; but the castle itself is more like an old Danish camp or round, than a place that had been once inhabited, there not being the least sign left of any wall, &c.
At the last visitation of this county (Heralds’ Office) it is said that “the town and borough of Truro was incorporated by the name of mayor and burgesses by Reignald Earl of Cornwall, natural son to Henry I. which as appeareth by record, was done by Richard Lucy alias Lacam, testibus Rogero de Valitort, Roberto de Edune Anvilla, Ricardo de Raddona, Aldredo de Sto. Martino, sealed with an ancient seal with a man on horseback.
“And at the time of this present visitation, the 9th of October 1620, was Gregory Frignis Major, Thomas Burgess, Richard Daniell, James Lawarren, William Catcher, aldermen, Everard Edmonds, Henry Williams, Edward Kestell, William Avery, Walter Penarth, Germaine Grees, Francis Noseworthy, Francis Gregor, Cuthbert Sidenham, Humphrie Sidenham, Gawen Carverth, Thomas Burgess, jun., Richard Hill, John Adlington, Nicholas Paule, Edward Grosse, Robert Kemp, Nicholas Stephens, John Pernall, and William Cosens, burgesses, Hugh Boscawen, esq. recorder, and John Michell, town-clerk of the said borough and corporation.
“We find also that the Mayor of Truro hath always been, and still is, Major of Falmouth, as by an ancient grant now in the custody of the said Mayor and Burgesses doth appear.”
Here I shall add some remarks that will illustrate the origin of this town more than Mr. Tonkin has done.
Truro takes its name from its castle. This, in Leland’s time, belonged to the Prince of Wales as Earl of Cornwall, and was therefore one of the castellated palaces of the Cornish Earls; it was only a small one, however. This the ground of it shows when the walls are gone. Even in Leland’s time, it was “clene doun;” and the area was used as a place of exercise for shooting with bows and arrows, and for other diversions. It “is now,” says Mr. Tonkin, “more like an old Danish camp or round than a place that had been once inhabited.” What ideas Mr. Tonkin had of an “old Danish camp,” I cannot say; but the castle carries no appearance of a camp at all, either Danish, Saxon, or Roman. Nor is it more like a round, if by “a round” Mr. Tonkin means a Cornish one, like the amphitheatrical “round” of Piran. The only remains of the castle, indeed, are the name, a waste area, and the old mount or keep, the earth of which is nearly gone, and is daily vanishing by application of it to other purposes. This artificial mount marks the centre of the castle, had the main tower upon it, and constituted the principal part of the whole; and a small ward must have gone round it, standing on the natural ground, and forming the offices to this petty palace.
This was plainly the origin of the town:—where an ancient Earl’s house was, however small in its extent, and however occasional in its use, it naturally drew the traders of the country to it. The wants of such a Lord’s household, and the accompanying treasury of a kingdom in a county, created such a call for wares, and produced such a currency of wealth, as made it for its season the little centre of trade to the adjoining country; and a town grew up in time, the weakly child of its castle at first, but able to subsist without the castle at last. Such, undoubtedly, was the
origin of Truro. This lay upon the more westerly of the two currents; the westerly side of the town, therefore, would be the primitive and original part of it; accordingly, we see the White Friars’ house constructed with it. From this current it extended, as it enlarged, to the easterly one. The erection of a church on that side, when a district was taken out of Kenwin parish, and the peninsulated ground between the currents was formed into a parish of itself, drew it easterly with great power. The town consisted at first, probably, of the street running from the foot of the hill on a part of which the castle stood, and extending backwards with its yards and gardens to the western current; and this part of course adopted the previous appellation of the castle, and was called with it Tre-vereu, Tre-ureu, or Truru, Treuro, or Truro, the house or castle upon the Uro or Uru, the same denomination of a river with that of the Vere in Hertfordshire, the Vera-lamium of the Itineraries, the Uro-lanium of Ptolemy, and with that of the Eure in Yorkshire, the Uluracum, and the Is-urium of the geography and itineraries.
So originating from the castle, in that primary part of the whole, the western side of the town, and in that most primary point of all, the line of houses above, the town would naturally shoot out next in the line of houses opposite to this on each side of the opening towards the church, and beside the church on each side, drawn on by the strong attraction of the church itself. The roads into the town from east and west would then allure it down to their respective passes over the current; the road from the west then coming down, as it still does, at the bottom of the first line of houses; and that from the east coming within these thirty years by the narrow street near the church, at the corner of which is the rectory-house. The town would then extend from the western access into it, in a street of houses running at right angles with the original street of the whole, and pushing directly in a line from the access. These must have been the three streets from which Camden supposed
the name to have been derived: “Truro, Cornwallice Treuru, a tribus plateis dictum,” (page 138); but this last street was afterwards split by the corporation into two, by the erection of a town-hall above and a market-house below, along the middle of it. In this state stood the town probably for some time, with the continuance of this middle row of buildings, with the erection of a coinage-hall for tin a little beyond the termination of it, and with the extension of the two original sides of this third street up to it. It then stretched up the hill towards the castle, ranged over the confining currents on the east and west, into the parishes of St. Clement’s and Kenwin, and expatiated down to the quay and beside it. It ranged over the western current, now probably covered with a bridge, before it pushed up the hill towards the castle, as that line of houses is called Kenwin-street, even by Leland, and this is denominated St. Pancras-street by Mr. Tonkin; that was then the way, the circuitous way to Kenwin Church, when this is the direct way, and the present; and the principal alteration which has happened to Truro since, has resulted from the erection of a new bridge over the eastern current, longer and grander than the other, a few yards lower in the channel than it, lining with the eastern road, and leading directly to the Town-hall and market-house. This naturally produced a Bridge-street, leading up at one end of the Coinage-hall, so falling into what was then the principal stem of the town, and thus communicating with all the branches; and all will be consummated in a few years by executing an Act of Parliament which has already passed, in taking down that middle row of buildings which is formed by the town-hall and its accompaniments, restoring this street to its original width, and multiplying houses for the dislodged inhabiters in the extreme parts of the town.
When the church was originally built I know not, but it was then dedicated to St. Pancras, I apprehend, though it is now to St. Mary, as the street leading down to one corner of the large area at it, which is popularly denominated
Pider-street at present, is still denominated St. Pancras-street by Mr. Tonkin; but the present church of St. Mary is of that light and elegant sort of Gothic architecture which took place among us in the reign of Henry VII. and which perhaps might be wished to have still continued among us, as being a happy union of the solemn solidity of the Gothic and of the luminous lightness of the Roman. At this period the church must have been built, the architecture of London by degrees reaching out its influence into Cornwall; and accordingly in the southern window, which is the third from the east, is a date of 1518.
But let me be more particular concerning the antiquity of Truro. The castle is not mentioned in Domesday Book;[6] it was therefore later than the Conquest. It was built by some of the Norman Earls of Cornwall, and was one of the rural palaces, as it were, which they had in the county subordinate to their grand capitals at Launceston, Tremarton, and Restormel. The town must be still later than the castle; yet it is noticed within a century after the Conquest, so nearly coeval was it with its cause, the castle. It is noticed above to have been in the possession of Richard de Lucy. It was incorporated, says the Visitation above, “as appeareth by record, by Richard Lucy, alias Lacam.” “Truro, Truru, or Trevereu,” adds that best investigator of our constitutional antiquities, because the most grounded on the evidence of records, Dr. Brady, “was some time in the possession of Richard de Lucy, a person of great note in the reigns of King Stephen and Henry II. in the eighth of whose [Henry’s] reign,” or, an. Dom. 1162, “he was made Justice of England.”[7] This Richard had got possession of this part of the old estates of the earldom, either by one of those half-alienations, which were only sub-infeodations in reality, or (as we shall soon see) by being Earl of Cornwall himself. He actually resided in the castle, as he is styled in an instrument
of Henry the Second’s, “Ricardi de Lucy de Trivereu;” and he encouraged the little town of the Earls, by incorporating it, and so giving it a legal dignity in granting it an internal jurisdiction. He even proceeded to allow it that last and highest privilege of a borough, a freedom of exemption from toll; nor was this confined to the borough itself; it extended beyond it; it extended into all the country round; it was commensurate with the whole county; and Richard must, therefore, have acted with a power, not merely of the lord of the borough, but of the earl of the county, as no one less than an earl could have given such an ample sweep of exemption. The proof of all this lies in the original charter of the town, not now in existence, but referred to in a succeeding charter, and particularised so as to be equal to the very charter itself. The town thus began about the year 1100, was incorporated about 1130 perhaps, and was made a free borough (as we shall instantly see) before 1140.
In the reign of King Stephen, who came to the throne in 1135, and in the fifth year of it, or 1140, Lucy resigned up the possessions of the earldom; as then, “Reginald Fitzroy, who was one of the illegitimate sons of King Henry the First, was created Earl of Cornwall.”[8] Reginald was, therefore, invested with all that Lucy had possessed. This he retained till his death, which happened in the 21st of Henry II.[9] or the year 1175. We accordingly find him extending his more than half-royal graces to his borough of Truro, by granting it a charter confirmatory of the privileges which Lucy had conceded to it before. “The town and borough of Truro,” says the Visitation, “was incorporated by the name of the Mayor and Burgesses, by Reignald Earl of Cornwall, natural son to Henry the First (which, as appeareth by record, was done by Richard Lucy, alias Lacam), testibus Rogero de Valitort, Roberto de Edune Anvilla, Ricardo de Radiona, Aldredo
de St. Martino, sealed with an ancient seal, with a man on horseback.” This description shows the charter to have been actually inspected by the visitors; yet Dr. Brady knows it only from the recital of a subsequent charter.[10] The original is lost in the Tower, I suppose, while its counterpart is preserved at Truro; and it runs thus in the Inspeximus, 13 Edw. I. No. 61. “Reginaldus Regis Filius,” not as in descriptive terms the son of the King, but merely as a personal and family appellative, Fitzroy, “Comes Cornubiæ; omnibus Baronibus Cornubiæ, et omnibus militibus, et omnibus libere tenentibus, et omnibus tam Anglicis quam Cornubiensibus, salutem. Sciatis, quod concessi,”—a word that shows even confirmatory charters to do, what our legal antiquaries are naturally unaware that they do, to use the language of granting just as if they were original charters, and so leave us to decide from other circumstances, which are original and which confirmatory —“Liberis Burgensibus meis de Trivereu,” where the note of previous freedom in the Burgesses proves them to have been already freed from toll, “habere omnes liberas consuetudines et urbanas,” the same exemption from toll that all cities (which were in the King’s demesne) had, “et easdem in omnibus quas habuerunt in tempore Ricardi de Lucy,” a plain evidence that they had “free customs,” and that they themselves, therefore, were “free Burgesses” in the time of Richard de Lucy, “scilicet Sacham et Socham, et Tholl et Them, et Hinfangenethuf [Infangthief],” that is, all those rights of judicature over themselves, and over others who came among them, that then belonged to all the manorial courts, and that were necessarily given to the Burgesses of Truro when they were incorporated, and by incorporation were enabled to exercise a jurisdiction independent of the common officers of justice: “et concessi eis, quod non placitent in Hundredis,
nec Comitatibus, nec pro aliquâ summonitione eant ad placitandum alicubi extra villam Trivereu,” a privilege consequent upon the grant of an internal jurisdiction, and necessary to its completion: “et quod quieti sint de Tholneo dando per totam Cornubiam, in feriis et in foris, et ubicunque emerint et vendiderint,” a privilege which must have been a very valuable one to a society of traders, and the more valuable from its long reach over all the fairs and markets of the county: “et quod, de pecuniâ eorum accreditâ et non redditâ, namium capiant in villâ suâ de debitoribus suis,” by distraining the cattle, and arresting the persons of their debtors, that came into the town, though they did not belong to it.[11] This charter is without a date; with so many and such witnesses no date being necessary; and as it must have been prior to the Earl’s death, it was before the year 1175.
Henry the Second confirmed Reginald’s charter, as Reginald confirmed Lucy’s; and all were re-confirmed by Edward the First in 1284.[12] But in all these charters, we have no intimation of that grand privilege which we are sure Truro to have possessed, and which is alluded to in the Visitation above. “We find also,” says the Visitation, “that the Mayor of Truro hath always been, and still is, Mayor of Falmouth, as by an ancient grant, now in custody of the said Mayor and Burgesses, doth appear.” The superiority of Truro over all the harbour of Falmouth we see is here attested by a record of 1622; and “an ancient grant, now in the custody of the Mayor and Burgesses,” is appealed to by the record. This distinguishing privilege had been ceded to Truro by a grant of a particular nature; but from the manner in which the Visitation refers to it, the grant must have been so early as to be without a date, and so be like Reginald’s and Lucy’s charters before; and it was probably, therefore, about the same age with them. [Whitaker.]
Truro has long claimed to be the first town in Cornwall; and the station has generally been allowed, although several others exceed it in beauty of situation. Penzance in that respect, as well as in foreign trade and the magnitude of its internal commerce; and Falmouth in the number of inhabitants.
Truro, situated adjacent to the largest mining district, at the head of a navigable river, and nearly in the centre of population, has acquired the lead in all county concerns, and has the good fortune to possess many large handsome houses, and breadth of streets unknown in the other towns. Here, too, for a long series of years, was situated the chief place of education for the heirs of Cornish families, at a time when the state of communication between places two or three hundred miles apart, rendered it a matter of serious importance to think of sending a lad to either of the public schools. Two very eminent masters of the school at Truro are still remembered, Mr. Conor, a layman, from the north of England, or Scotland, by the tradition of our fathers; and the Rev. Dr. Cardew, by some among the best classical scholars in both Universities. There is a monument to Dr. Cardew in St. Erme Church. It is also understood, that their predecessor, Mr. Jane, either established or maintained the reputation of this school. Mr. Jane is understood to have been a native of Leskeard, and a nephew of Doctor William Jane, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and Dean of Gloucester, who drew up the strong Declaration adopted by the University in favour of the principles which would have retained King James on the throne of England, and when the Revolution was effected, supported the opposite side, which gave occasion to the following epigrams:
Decretum figis solenne, Decanus ut esses;
Ut fieres Præsul, Jane! refigis idem.
Decretum statuit spe —spe meliore revellit;
Quàm rectâ Janus pingitur arte bifrons!
The Rev. J. Jane, son of the gentleman who kept the school at Truro, became a student and tutor at Christ Church, from whenee he retired to the college living of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire.
Truro has produced its fair proportion of men distinguished by their proficiencies in literature, arts, sciences, and arms. Of persons living, I would select the Rev. Richard Polwhele, as an eminent historian, poet, and divine; and the Right Honourable General Sir Hussey Vivian, companion in arms of the Duke of Wellington, an active partaker in the glories of Waterloo, since commander-in-chief of Ireland, and now (1836) occupying, perhaps, the highest office of the government not included in the cabinet.
An individual, little if at all remembered, emanated from Truro in the sixteenth century, if he was not born there. Wood says, in the Athenæ Oxonienses:
“Thomas Farnabie, the most noted schoolmaster of his time, son of Thomas Farnabie, of London, carpenter, son of —— Farnabie, sometime Mayor of Truro in Cornwall, was born in London about 1575, and became a Student of Merton College in 1590; but being wild he made no long stay there, but left the college very abruptly, and went into Spain, and was for some time educated in a college belonging to the Jesuits. He left them, however, and being minded to take a ramble, went with Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkyns in their last voyage; afterwards, it is said, he was a soldier in the Low Countries. Having suffered great distress after his return, he at last succeeded in establishing a school in Goldsmiths’ Rents, near Red Cross Street in London, where at one time he made up a number exceeding three hundred generous
youths. At length, upon occasion of some sickness, he removed about 1636 to Sevenoaks in Kent, in the neighbourhood of which place (at Oxford) he had purchased an estate, and taught there the sons of several neighbouring gentlemen, by which he acquired considerable wealth, and purchased another estate near Horsham in Sussex. He suffered some loss and imprisonment in the Civil War on account of his taking the Royalty side, and died at Sevenoaks, where he is buried, in the chancel of the church, with the following inscription:
“P. M. Viri ornatissimi Thomæ Farnabii Armigeri, causæ olim Regiæ, reique publicæ, sed literariæ vindicis acerrimi, obiit 12 Junii 1647.
“Vatibus hic sacris qui lux Farnabius olim,
Vate carens saxo nunc sine luce jacet.”
His principal works are,
Notes on the Satyrs of Juvenal and Persius.
Notes on the Tragedies of Seneca.
Notes on Martial’s Epigrams.
Notes on Lucan’s Pharsalia.
Notes on Virgil.
Notes on Terence.
Notes on Ovid.
A System of Grammar.
Index Rhetoricus and Oratorius.
Phrasiologia, Latin and English.
Anthology of Greek Epigrams, with a Latin Translation.
Tables of the Greek Language.
Various Letters to Learned Persons.
Boyle says of him in his Dictionary, that Farnaby was a learned classic, and that his notes on the greater part of the ancient Latin Poets have been of much use to young persons; that he dedicated his Horace to Prince Henry, the eldest son of King James the First, and that he was most favourably received by the Prince when he presented his
work; and that he received an order, or a request, to make similar commentaries on all the Latin Poets, in anticipation, in some degree, of the great work afterwards executed for the King’s son in France.
But the most remarkable and striking feature in the history of Truro consists of the great wealth acquired there by various families in succession during a long series of years.
The first on record is the family of Roberts, or Robartes, who are said to have began their career by retail trade in a house remaining at the commencement of this century, near the north-western extremity of what has been made the great street, by the improvement of taking down the middle row of houses, noticed by Mr. Whitaker, and completed by a new street leading from it southward towards Penryn and Falmouth.
It is possible that the very humble commencement of the Roberts’s fortunes may have been invented since their splendid elevation, to augment the wonder; but certain it is, that they resided for several generations in Truro, conducting extensive mercantile concerns, and accumulating capital, rather than obtaining it by any sudden effort; and employing their savings in the acquirement of land by great or small purchases, or more frequently, perhaps, through the medium of advancing money on mortgage, till they acquired the most scattered estate of any in the county. About the reign of James the First, this family rose into high consideration; they acquired an hereditary seat in Parliament, in a manner not very honourable at least to the Duke of Buckingham, and afterwards became decorated with the nominal office of Earl of Radnor: held the Lord Lieutenancy of Cornwall, with the Lord Wardenship of the Stannaries; and, lastly, the office of highest dignity in the gift of the Crown, the Vice-Royalty of Ireland.
The next considerable family emerging from Truro was the Vincents; in their case the practice of law was added
to trade; they repeatedly represented Truro in Parliament, and were among the first people of the county. One of their seats was Tresimple in St. Clement’s, now the property of Mr. Vivian, of Penkalenick in the same parish; but the family of Vincent has disappeared, and their very memory is almost extinguished.
After the Vincents will come the Gregors, who have now been for a long period country gentlemen. The late Mr. Francis Gregor represented the county in three successive Parliaments, from 1790 to 1806, when he retired on account of ill health.
The next large fortune acquired at Truro was by Mr. Lemon. A short account of this very extraordinary person has been given under Germoe parish. His very splendid career, not merely of acquiring wealth, but of high reputation for himself and of benefit to his country, began in the neighbourhood of Penzance; and his removal to Truro is understood to have been occasioned by the discernment of Mr. Coster, a gentleman concerned in copper smelting works at Bristol, and a representative in Parliament for that city.
Mr. Coster greatly augmented his fortune by purchasing the copper ores of Cornwall, for some time without a competitor; and undertaking to work some of the Gwennap mines in depth for copper, which had previously been productive of tin, he selected Mr. Lemon for one of his partners, with unlimited confidence in managing the whole concern.
Mr. Lemon was succeeded by Mr. Daniell, who took the whole of his great mercantile concerns off the hands of Mr. Lemon’s executors in 1760, having acquired the command of capital by his marriage with Miss Elliot, niece of Mr. Allen, of Bath. The late Mr. John Vivian acquired also a large fortune residing in Truro; and of persons now living, several might be added to the list.
Mr. Richard Hussey has been noticed in the parish of
Feock as an eminent lawyer, and likely to have attained some of the highest honours of the profession; he died unmarried in 1770. His father, who practised in Truro as an attorney, was the son of the Reverend John Hussey, vicar of Okehampton in Devonshire.
The late Mr. John Thomas may also be included among those who have acquired fortunes and displayed ability at Truro: after retiring early in life to Chiverton, a paternal property in Perran Zabuloe, where he built an excellent house, Mr. Thomas was placed in the honourable office of Vice-Warden, which he executed with great credit for more than thirty years.
Among persons distinguished for talents, one cannot omit Mr. Samuel Foote; he was born here about the year 1720, although the family seat was Lambessa, in the adjoining parish of St. Clement. His mother was the sister of Sir John Dinely Goodere and of Samuel Goodere, a Captain in the Navy, whose history almost equals in depth of misery the well-known tragedy of Penryn; and it is a curious circumstance that Mr. Foote’s first publication is a complete narrative of this most melancholy affair, in a pamphlet signed with his name, and addressed to Henry Combe, Esq. then Mayor of Bristol, in 1741. Mr. Foote’s life and adventures are before the public in various forms.
Recently two natives of Truro have distinguished themselves throughout Europe by a most important geographical discovery. The Mr. Landers, as is well known, descended a large river from the interior of Africa to the sea, at what is called the Bite of Benin, where the river loses itself by flowing in divided streams through a delta created by the deposit of alluvial debris, brought down from the highlands by the force of its own current.
A monument is now constructing on an elevated piece of ground at the southern extremity of the town, in memory of the brother, who has most unfortunately lost his life in a second expedition, intended for the establishment of a
friendly and commercial intercourse with the inhabitants of countries thus brought within our reach.
An anecdote seems worth preserving relative to an invention, completely in anticipation of the use now made of steam for propelling vessels in all parts of the world. The mere idea of using this gigantic power instead of the human arm for moving boats and ships through the water, must have occurred to thousands; the mode of effecting the application is the real invention.
About sixty years ago Mr. Charles Warrick resided at Truro, a young man of some family and fortune, and bred to the law; a person of singular and eccentric habits, displaying much ability and genius in some cases, with an apparent want of both in others. Mr. Warrick partook of a taste very common in places situated on navigable rivers, for spending a large portion of his time on the water, or in making contrivances relative to navigation; and he constructed a boat with slender ribs, covered either with canvass or with paper soaked in substances that excluded water: on each side he appended a wheel connected together by an axis turned in the middle into the form of a staple, or what is called a double crank. In this boat he frequently paddled from Truro to Falmouth Harbour, moving the crank with his hands, and out-running all other boats; but no one thought of applying the construction to larger vessels, nor had he, in all probability, the slightest notion, that within half a century similar wheels and cranks, moved by steam-engines, would impel vessels of many hundred tons burden through the most tempestuous seas, and against winds and tides, over extensive oceans, with a safety and a precision almost equal to land conveyance.
As illustrative of the changes in all respects, that have taken place in the last three-quarters of a century, the following curious relation, although trifling in itself, may be allowed to find a place.
A family about to embark at Falmouth, no longer ago than the year 1748 or 1749, hired a coach and horses in
London to convey them there, a system of travelling practised on the continent up to the present time; the driver having delivered his charge, made known his desire for obtaining, what he perhaps denominated a back-freight, on easy terms, and a party of young men availed themselves of the opportunity, stipulating, however, that in the event of their reaching a town at any part of the day where cockfighting would take place in the evening, the coach should lie by to afford them an opportunity of being present at the diversion.
Truro has not been measured as a distinct parish, and is therefore included in Kenwyn.
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815 | 6958 | 0 | 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 1119 | 4 | 0 |
| Population,— | |||
| in 1801, 2358 | in 1811, 2482 | in 1821, 2712 | in 1831, 2925. |
giving an increase of 24 per cent. in 30 years.
It must be observed, that the amount of Real Property, the Poor Rate, and the Population, relate only to the ward rather than the parish of St. Mary, constituting Old Truro. In a note attached to the last Population Abstracts, it is said that the whole town is supposed to have contained 8,468 inhabitants in the year 1831.
The present Rector of Truro is the Rev. E. Dix, who was presented by the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in 1833. The net value of the living, as returned in 1831, was 135l.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.
The town of Truro stands on the same kind of argillaceous slate that prevails in the adjoining parishes of Kenwyn and St. Clement’s.
[6] Brady on Boroughs, p. 42.
[7] Brady, p. 43.
[8] Brady, p. 43, from Dugd. Bar fol. 610.
[9] Brady, ibid.
[10] Brady, p. 44.
[11] Brady, p. 44.
[12] Ibid.