HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the east Probus, north Newland, west St. Allen, south Clements. As for the name it is derived from St. Herme, the tutelar guardian saint of this church, extant and endowed long before the Norman Conquest, by the Lord of the Manor of Polsew or Polduh, taxed in Domesday Roll, and therefore the Church again is taxed in Domesday Roll 20 William I. 1087, by the name of Ermen-hen, i. e. old or ancient Herme. In the taxation of benefices to the Popes in Cornwall, made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Hermita in Decanatus de Powdre is rated at 6l. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, by the name of Erme 22l. 13s. 4d. The patronage in Lutterell, Lord of the Manor of Polsew, aforesaid. The incumbent Carthew, and the parish rated to the 4s. in the pound Land Tax, 1696, 120l.
The following short account of the patron saint is substituted for six or eight pages of uninteresting legend given by Mr. Hals.
St. Hermes or St. Ermes, the supposed patron saint of this parish, is said to have suffered martyrdom at Rome in the persecution raised by the Emperor Adrian, about the year 132. His tomb in the Salian Way was ornamented by Pope Pelagius the Second, who filled the chair of St. Peter from 577 to 590. The name of St. Hermes is much celebrated in the ancient martyrologies.
In the Missale Romanum is the following prayer, to be used on the 28th of August, the day consecrated to his memory:
Deus, qui beatum Hermetem Martyrem tuum virtute constantiæ in passione roborasti, ex ejus nobis imitatione
tribue, pro amore tuo, prospera mundi despicere, et nulla ejus adversa formidare. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum filium tuum.
Tre-gasa, alias Tre-gaza, in this parish, id est, the wood town, to prove which etymology there is still extant a considerable wood adjoining to the town place thereof, was the dwelling of Thomas Coke, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 27 Charles I. that married Lance, his father Herle. His grandfather John Coke, Gent. attorney at law, of Trerice, in St. Allen, who first came into those parts temp. Elizabeth, from St. Mary Ottery, in Devon, without money or goods, placed himself a servant or steward under Sir Francis Godolphin, Knight, where he began from, and with his inkhorn and pen, to turn all things that he touched into gold (as King Gyges), and that by indirect arts and practices as tradition saith; for that Sir Francis taking a great liking to him, left the management of his estate and great tin works to him, his said steward Coke. He accordingly took care that all such tin of his master’s as was melted at the blowing-house into slabs or blocks, was justly marked with the dolphin stamp, as is customarily done on those gentlemen’s tin to this day. After some years, Mr. Coke remaining in service as aforesaid, by his subtle arts and contrivances, out of Sir Francis’ toll, and the shares of other adventurers, and the wages of labouring tinners, he produced considerable quantities of his own block tin, which, when melted at the blowing-house, as aforesaid, to distinguish it from his master’s, he marked thereon the figure of a cat; the same, it seems, being the coat armour of his family or ancestors. At length, against coinage time there was more tin brought by Mr. Coke to be coined at the coinage towns, marked with the cat, than there was of his master’s marked with the dolphin.
Whereupon, Sir Francis’s Lady being informed of his ill practices, and resolving by the next coinage to be better instructed in this mystery, at such time as Godolphin blowing-house was at work, privately, with one of her
maids, in a morning, on foot, went to that place, where according, as common fame reported, she found many more blocks or slabs of tin marked with the cat than there were with the dolphin; the one part pertaining to Sir Francis, the other to Mr. Coke. Whereupon, abundantly satisfied, the returned to Godolphin House, but could not be there timely enough against dinner; whereat Sir Francis was greatly distasted, having at that time several strangers to dine with him. At length the lady being arrived, she asked all their pardons for her absence, and told them it did not proceed from any neglect or want of respect, but from an absolute necessity of seeing a strange and unheard-of piece of curiosity, which could not be seen at any other time; viz. to see the cat eat the dolphin (indeed cats are great lovers of fish elsewhere as experience shews) and then gave an account of the premises, to their great wonder and admiration: whereupon, soon after, Sir Francis dismissed him from his service. But by that time he had gotten so much riches, that forthwith he purchased the little barton and manor of Trerice, in St. Allen, and made that place his habitation till he purchased this barton and manor of Tregasa, and seated himself here; where, by parsimony and the inferior practice of the law, he accumulated a very considerable estate in those parts. But, maugre all his thrift and conduct in providing wealth for himself and posterity, his grandson Thomas Coke, aforesaid, succeeding to his estate, upon the issueless decease of his elder brother Christopher Coke, and buying in his widow’s jointure at a dear rate, and also undertaking the building of the present new and finely-contrived house at Tregasa, though never finished, yet the said fabric was so costly and chargeable to him, together with the vain extravagance of his wife (Lance), that he was necessitated to sell divers parcels of lands, in order to raise money for his necessary occasions; and finally to mortgage this manor and barton of Tregasa, and all his other lands that were before unsold, for about fourteen thousand pounds, to Hugh Boscawen, of Tregothnan,