Here in their crimson crosses glow’d;
But, on just law-givers bestow’d,
Those emblems Cecil did invest,
And gleam’d on Wise Godolphin’s breast.
Sidney Earl of Godolphin died in 1712, and was succeeded by his son Francis, then called Lord Rialton, who had married Henrietta Churchill, eldest daughter of the Duke of Marlborough.
This lady became Duchess of Marlborough on the decease of her father in 1722, under the provision of a special Act of Parliament, but dying in 1733 without issue, the Dukedom and property devolved on her nephew
Charles Spencer Earl of Sunderland, son of her sister Ann Churchill.
The Earldom of Godolphin expired also on the death of Francis Godolphin in 1766; but a Barony had been conferred on him, with remainder to the heirs of his uncle Henry Godolphin; this fell to his first cousin Francis Lord Godolphin. On his decease in 1785 the name and honour of Godolphin became extinct. But Mary, daughter and eventually sole heir of Francis the second and last Earl of Godolphin, had married Thomas Osborne, fourth Duke of Leeds, and his great-grandson Francis Godolphin D’Arcy Osborne, Duke of Leeds, inherits the property as heir-at-law.
The Godolphins appear never to have possessed an estate in land beyond the limits of what might fairly belong to a private gentleman; but the produce of tin has been very great from the period recorded by Mr. Carew, so that the name of the place may well be derived from that metal; subsequently, the produce of copper has exceeded that of the tin. The whole parish of Breage is covered by mines, and the largest and most productive, and most expensive tin mine ever known, is now producing a greater quantity of metal than was yielded in former times by the whole county. Whele Vor, now employing several steam-engines of the largest size to exhaust the water, and numerous others to draw up the ore, and afterwards to reduce it into the state of a fine powder, is said to have used, about a century ago, the first steam-engine ever seen in Cornwall.
Pengelly in this parish was the residence, for many generations, of the Spernons or Sparnons. The family became extinct on the death of a gentleman in the medical profession at Lostwithiel, and the property was sold about fifty years ago.