Aside of Milbrook, lyeth the Peninsula of Inswork, on whose neckland standeth an ancient house of the Champernons, and descended by his daughters and heires, to Forteskew, Monck, and Treuilian, three Gentlemen of Deuon. The site is naturally both pleasant and profitable; to which, the owner by his ingenious experiments, daily addeth an artificiall surplusage.
Passing somewhat farther vp, you meet with the foot of Lyner, where it winneth fellowship with Tamer, that, till then, and this, yet longer, retayning their names, though their ouer-weake streames were long before confounded, by the predominant salt water. A little within this mouth of Lyner, standeth East-Antony, the poore home of mine ancestours, with which in this maner they were inuested: Sir Iohn Lerchedekne, Knight, and not priest, (for he was so called of his family, and not by his calling, as in Froissard you shall note the like, to be familiar amongst the nobility of Gascoigne) by Cecill, the daughter and heire of Iordan of Haccumb, had issue 9. sonnes, Ralph, Waryne, Richard, Otho, Iohn, Robert, Martyn, Reignald, and Michael. Richard married Ione, the daughter of Iohn Bosowr, that bare him Thomas, in whome the heires male of this multiplyed hope tooke an end. Warine, afterwards knighted, tooke to wife Elizabeth, one of the daughters and heires to Iohn Talbot de Castro Ricardi, and on her begat three daughters and heires. Allenor, wedded to Sir Walter Lucy: Margery, to Sir Thomas Arundel of Taluerne: and Philip, to Sir Hugh Courtney of Bauncton (which I take is now named Boconnock.) From Lucy descended the Lord Faux, and others. Margery dyed childlesse, anno 1419. as is testified by her toomb-stone in West-Antony Church, where shee lyeth buried. Sir Hugh Courtney was second sonne to Ed. Earle of Deuon, & had 2. wiues: the first, Maud, daughter of the L. Beaumond; to whose children, for want of issue in the elder stock, that Earledome deuolued, & the later, our foreremembred Philip, who left her inheritance to her only daughter Ione: and she taking a patterne from her fathers fortune, espoused likewise 2. husbands, viz. Sir Nicholas Baron of Carew, and Sir Robert Fere, brother to [103] Iohn Earle of Oxford: to Sir Nicholas, shee bare Thomas, Nicholas, Hugh, Alexander, and William: to Sir Robert, Iohn, and became widdow of both. And, as after the fathers decease, good agreement betweene the mother and eldest sonne hath commonly weake continuance, because both being enfranchised to a sudden absolute iurisdiction, neither of them can easily temper the same with a requisite moderation: so it chaunced, that shee and hers fell at square, which discord (with an vnnaturall extremity) brake forth into a blow, by him no lesse dearly, then vndutifully giuen his mother: for vpon so iust a cause, she disinherited him of all her lands, being seuenteene mannours, and bestowed them on her yonger sonnes. This I learned by the report of Sir Peter Carew, the elder of that name, and eldest of our stock (a Gentleman, whose rare worth my pen is not able to shaddow, much lesse with his due lineaments to represent) at such time, as being a scholler in Oxford of fourteene yeeres age, and three yeeres standing, vpon a wrong conceyued opinion touching my sufficiency, I was there called to dispute ex tempore (impar congressus Achilli) with the matchles Sir Ph. Sidney, in presence of the Earles, Leycester, Warwick, and diuers other great personages. By the forementioned conueyance, she disposed of her sayd mannours as followeth: Haccumb, Ringmore, and Milton, shee gaue to Nicholas: Lyham, Manedon, Combhall, and Southtawton, to Hugh: East-Antony, Shoggebroke, and Landegy, to Alexander: Wicheband, Widebridge, Bokeland, and Bledeuagh, to William: and lastly, Roseworthy, Bosewen, and Tregennow, to Iohn: al which she entailed to them, and the issue of their bodies, substituting, for want thereof, the one to be heire to the other: and in witnes hereof (sayth she in her conueyance) to each of these deedes fiue times indented, I haue set my seale ; and because my seale is to many vnknowne, haue procured the seale of the Maior of the Citie of Exon, to be also adioyned.
Thomas her eldest sonne, repayred this losse, in part, by matching with one of Carminowes, daughters and heires.
From Nicholas, is descended Carew of Haccumb, who by vertue of this entayle, succeeded also to Hughs portion, as deceasing issuelesse. From William is come Carew of Crocum in Somerset shire, and from Iohn Vere, the now Earle of Oxford, deriueth his pedigree. Alexander maried Elizabeth the daughter of Hatch, and begate Iohn, who tooke to wife Thamesin, one of the daughters and heires of Holland: their sonne Sir Wymond, espoused Martha, the daughter of Edmund, and sister to Sir Anthony Denny. Sir Wymond had Thomas, the husband of Elizabeth Edgecumb, and they myselfe, linked in matrimony with Iulian, daughter to Iohn Arundel of Trerice, and one of the heires to her mother Catherine Cosewarth, who hath made me father of Richard, lately wedded to Briget, daughter of Iohn Chudleigh of Ashton in Deuon.
Touching our stock in generall, and my family in particular, being once vainly disposed (I would it had bene but once) I made this idle obseruation.
CArew of ancient Carru was,
And Carru is a plowe,
Romanes the trade, Frenchmen the word,
I doe the name auowe.
The elder stock, and we a braunch,
At Phoebes gouerning.
[104]
From fire to sonne, doe waxe and wane,
By thrift and lauishing.
The fire, not valuing at due price
His wealth, it throwes away:
The sonne, by seruice or by match,
Repaireth this decay.
The smelling fence we sundry want,
But want it without lack:
For t'is no sense, to wish a weale,
That brings a greater wrack.
Through natures marke, we owne our babes,
By tip of th' upper lip;
Black-bearded all the race, saue mine,
Wrong dide by mothership.
The Barons wife, Arch-deacons heire,
Vnto her yonger sonne
Gaue Antony, which downe to me,
By 4. descents hath runne.
All which, and all their wiues, exprest
A Turtles single loue,
And neuer did tha'duentrous change,
Of double wedding proue.
We are the fist: to swarue herefrom,
I will not though I could,
As for my wife, God may dispose,
Shee shall not, though she would.
Our family transplants it selfe,
To grow in other shires,
And Countrey rather makes then takes,
As best behoofe appeares.
Children thrice three God hath vs lent,
Two sonnes, and then a mayd,
By order borne, of which, one third
We in the graue haue layd.
Our eldest daughter widow fell,
Before our yongest borne:
So doe hard haps vnlooked come,
So are our hopes forlorne.
Mine trebled haue in either sexe,
Those which my parents got,
And yet but halfed them, which God
My graundsire did allot:
Whose grace in Court, rarely obtayned,
To th'yongst of those eighteene,
Three Kings of England Godfathers,
For Godmother, our Queene.
The Armes of our family, are Or. 3. Lyons passant, sable: armed and
Langued Gules.
It exceedeth good maners, to inuite your longer stay at our cold harbour; and yet, for that diuers strangers haue, either vpon cause or kindnesse, pretended to like well of a saltwater pond there made; and others, whose dwelling affoordeth a semblable oportunity, may (perhaps) take some light herefrom, to doe the like: if they be so disposed, I will put my selfe to the payne of particularly describing it, and you may (notwithstanding) at your pleasure, saue the labour of perusing it; wherein I will by the way interlace some notes, for the Imitaters better instruction.