WHITSTONE.

HALS.

Whitstone is situate in the hundred of Stratton, and hath upon the north part of Bridgerule and Marhamchurch, west Wike St. Mary and Tamerton, south Werrington and St. Stephen’s.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Witeston, in decanatu de Trigmajorshire, was valued at £4. 6s. 8d. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £14. 11s. 0½d. The patronage in the Bishop of Exeter, who endowed it; the incumbent Tregena or Hosken; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, 1696, for one year £124. 12s. 6d. tempore William III.

The barton of Benett, in this parish, was formerly the seat of George Heale, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall, 4 and 5 of Charles I. that married ——; as also of Edmund Hele, esq. his son, Sheriff of Cornwall, 22 Charles I. whose son dying without issue, those lands and much other descended to his daughter Lucy, the wife of John Basset, of Tehidy, esq. now in possession thereof. The name Hele, Heale, is Saxon English, and signifies the same as hell in British, viz. a hall, either of a dwelling house or refectory, or a place of judicature or prætorium, a tabernacle or a tent.

The arms of Heale are Gules, a bend lozengy Ermine.

TONKIN.

Whitston is in the hundred of Stratton, and hath to the west St. Mary Week, to the north Marhamchurch and Bridgerule, to the east the river Tamar, between it and Devon, to the south Tamerton.

The name of the parish is derived from a white rock, on which part of the church is founded. It is a large white

stone in the south side of the church; the part which appears is of an oval form. This account I had from Mr. Nicholas Hoskins, jun. and vicar of Boyton, son to the rector of this.

In anno 1291, 20 Edw. I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at £4. 6s. 8d. having never been appropriated.

This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book, £14. 11s. ob.; the patronage in the heirs of Sir John Arundell; the incumbent Mr. Nicholas Hoskins.

THE MANOR OF WHITESTONE.

This, in Domesday Book, is called Witestan, being one of the manors given by William the Conqueror to Robert Earl of Morton, when he created Earl of Cornwall the said Robert.

In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edw. I. (Car. f. 48), this, by the name of Wilston and St. Petnell (St. Petronel, I suppose), is valued in two.

The 3 Henry IV. (Idem, f. 40 b.) John de Cobbeham held one fee in Wiston and Serpeknol, which I take to be the same with the former, only wrong spelt.

[The name of the parish is not derived, I apprehend, from any white stone on which the church is founded. From the very description here given of it, it could never have given name to the church itself. Only “part of the church is founded” on it. Nor is this part “founded” on it. There is only “a large white stone in the south side of the church;” and this is plainly built up in the side, as it is said to be “of an oval form.” The reference of the name to this stone, therefore, has been merely the idle play of intellect, in those who in antiquarian matters did not know how to exert their understandimg seriously. The real name of the church is “St. Petnell, St. Petronel, I suppose.” The church then could not give name to the parish. And the parish actually received its name from the manor, as the manor received it from its manerial

house, this being built upon a white rock, that very rock assuredly from which the white stone in the wall of the church had been brought. W.]

THE EDITOR.

The church and tower of this parish, like several others in the north-eastern part of Cornwall, are fine objects in themselves, and are placed on commanding situations.

There are several monuments to former residents and proprietors in the parish. Among these is one to the memory of George Hele, of Bennetts, esq. who died in 1652, and of his son Warwick Hele, who died in 1650. The family of Hele had resided for many generations at Bennetts, which came into the Basset family in the latter part of that century, by the marriage of John Basset, esq. of Tehidy, with Lucy Hele. Their great-grandson, the late Lord Dunstanville, was in the habit of visiting Bennetts for several weeks at a time. This place had been leased for lives to a respectable family of the name of Webbe, probably soon after it came to Mr. John Basset.

The advowson of the living belonged to the Arundells of Lanherne and Wardour, who sold it about fifty years ago; and, after passing through various hands, it came to the Rev. John Kingdon, who is also the incumbent, instituted in 1793. The net value of the living in 1831 was £231.

Whitstone measures 3429 statute acres.

£.s.d.
Annual value of the Real Property as returned to Parliament in 1815183200
Poor Rate in 1831205130
Population,—
in 1801,
345		in 1811,
397		in 1821,
466		in 1831,
481

giving an increase of 40 per cent. in 30 years.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

Whitstone, like all the other parishes in this division of Cornwall, is situated on the calcareous series, more particularly on the compact schistose varieties of dunstone.