Within this lordship is situate the borough of Grampont, Gram-pond, or Gran-pont, that is, great bridge; on which Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, saith that in his time, (about a hundred years past,) if that were its true name, it had nothing then extant but nomine sine re, though now it hath a fair stone bridge over it, built and repaired by the county stock. But, alas! notwithstanding those names, it appeared from the charter lately extant, wherein the ancient rights and privileges thereof are confirmed by Edmund Plantagenet Earl of Cornwall, son of Richard, King of the Romans, Anno Dom. 1290, that it was incorporated by the name of Coyt-fala, or Coit-fala; id est, the wood, (river) in the midst of which wood heretofore the same was situate; also Pons-mur, id est, great bridge, so named from some eminent timber bridge over the river, before that of stone was erected.
It is privileged with the jurisdiction of a court leet and quarterly sessions of the peace, within the same, before the mayor, recorder, and eight aldermen, or magistrates, and a town-clerk. The mayor to be
chosen out of the eight Magistrates that are free-men; and also with sending two Members, to sit as their Representatives in Parliament, who are to be chosen by the Mayor, Magistrates, and Freemen, or the major part of them; by election of which, if common fame be true, the townsmen have in the last ages reaped great gain and advantage. It is also appurtenanced with public fairs, upon January 18 and June 11, and a weekly market on Thursdays. The chief inhabitants of this town are Mr. Teague, Mr. Harvey, Mr. Moor.
The arms of this Borough are, a castle, two ports open, over the same a lion rampant crowned, within a bordure bezanty, which latter charge was the proper arms of King Richard Cœur de Lion, uncle of the said Edmund Earl of Cornwall, and his predecessors Caddock and Condur, Earles thereof.
Tre-veleck, alias Tre-belech, in this parish, id est, the Priest’s Town, in old British and the Armorican tongue, was of old the seat of the De Boscawens, of Boscawen Rose in Buryan, of which family was Lawrence Boscawen, gent. attorney-at-law, that married Tregothnan’s heir, temp. Henry 8th, who left this place to his younger son; where his posterity flourished in genteel degree down to the latter end of the reign of King Charles I.; when the last gentleman of this house, that married Tanner, had issue only two daughters, married to Brewar and Tousen, which latter’s daughter and heir was married to Collins, now in possession of those duchy lands.
At Ten-Creek, or Tene-Cruck, i. e. the fire-bank, or tumulus, viz. the sepulchre of one interred there before the sixth century, whose body was burnt to ashes by fire, according to the then accustomed manner of intering the dead, and his bones and ashes laid up in an urn or earthen pot, in a bank, or barrow, or tumulus, upon some part of the lands of this barton; from which facts it was called Ten-creek, in which place for many ages flourished a family of gentlemen, from thence denominated de Tencreek (which compound word Mr.
Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, by conjecture interprets as the town of the burrow, bank, or tumulus); the last gentleman of which house died in the middle of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, leaving issue only three daughters, married to Mohun, Penwarne, and Polwhele. Those lands came to Mohun, a younger brother to Reginald Mohun, Bart. father of John Lord Baron Mohun, of Oakhampton. The present possessioner, William Mohun, Esq. (my very kind friend), one of his Majesty’s Commissioners for the Peace and Taxes, that married Jane, daughter of Sir John Trelawney, of the Lawne, Bart. and hath issue Warwick Mohun, Esq. whose arms are, Or, a cross engrailed Sable. [See [Boconnoc]]. The arms of Tencreek were, Argent, a cross pattée surmounted of a chevron Sable.
Pennans, part of the Duchy manor of Tybesta, is compounded of Pen-nans, the head of the valley, a name taken from the natural circumstances of the place. It is the dwelling of Philip Hawkins, Gent. attorney-at-law, who by his great pains, care, and skill in that profession, hath got himself a very great estate in those parts. He married Scobell, and giveth for his arms, Argent, on a saltire Sable, five fleur-de-lis Or. The same coat armour is given by the Hawkins’ of Kent. He had issue John, his eldest son, who married Rashleigh, and was a doctor of divinity; Philip, that married Ludlow, of London, Member of Parliament for Grampound; and daughters.
Nan-tell-an, in this parish Duchy, was the dwelling of John Vincent, Gent. attorney-at-law, who got a considerable estate by the law; but since his death I take it this place, and all other his lands, are wasted by his son, &c. Nantellan sold to Henry Vincent, of Treleven, Esq. Mr. Vincent married Evans, and giveth for his arms as mentioned under St. Allen, the original tribe thereof.
Car-lyn-ike, in this parish, parcel of the Duchy