To this gentleman the parish is also mainly indebted for a removal of the church.
Either cultivation began on the banks of the river, or a strong feeling of veneration was entertained for the spot where St. Kea landed from his granite trough, but so it happened that the church stood at one extremity of the parish, and that by far the least populous. Mr. Gwatkin led the way, and contributed largely towards constructing a new church much nearer to the great mass of the inhabitants; in this he was followed by other proprietors, and a spacious church is now in use for divine service between Killiow and Nanceavallan. Prayers, with a sermon suited to the occasion, were first given, after reading the Bishop’s license, on the 3d. of October 1802, being the feasten Sunday, to a congregation so large as almost to fill the churchyard as well as the church itself, which is decorated by Mrs. Gwatkin, niece of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with paintings which that great artist could not have failed to admire.
The tower alone remains to point out the site of the former church.
Mr. Reginald Haweis, mentioned as the possessor of Killiow by Hals, received his education as a Gentleman Commoner of Exeter College; but he spent the whole of the remainder of his life in retirement. One Oxford anecdote he used to relate with peculiar pleasure. It seems that he was selected to recite some Latin verses in the theatre, commemorating the victory of Blenheim, an event without parallel in the modern history of Europe till the year 1815. In the verses occurred this apostrophe, Quo, Tallarde! ruis? and as Mr. Haweis was actually pronouncing these words, the Duke of Marlborough with Marshal Tallard entered the theatre, amidst thunders of applause. But possibly the entrance of Marshal Tallard may be a mistake.
Mr. Reginald Haweis and his brother Edward, both stated to have families, died childless; and the estate devolved on Mr. David Haweis, the grandson of an uncle.
That uncle had been a beneficed clergyman, but was deprived with the two thousand turned out to poverty and to suffer persecution (see [St. Hilary parish]) on St. Bartholomew’s day 1662; a day ill chosen by those who might recollect what happened on the same festival ninety years before.
This gentleman having a family, and being without support, found himself obliged to dispose of them in any way to procure their own maintenance, and his eldest son submitted to become a barber. His son was apprenticed to the same trade; and on him the estate devolved. He married a gentlewoman, Miss Kempe, of Roseland; but persevering in low habits of intemperance, the peculiar vice of that time, he died at an early age, leaving the property to his widow for her life, with the remainder to his sisters. They were married, and in stations not more elevated than his own; their husbands were ready to pursue a line of conduct similar to that which had cut short the ’squire’s life; and in consequence, the whole reversionary interests
were soon dissipated, with the exception of one subdivided portion, transmitted by a sister’s daughter, who died early in life, to her only daughter, Mary Ann Jenkins, of whom it may be sufficient to say, that if the whole estate had devolved on her, it would have been in hands worthy of her best ancestors.
On the banks of the river, directly opposite to Tregothnan, the magnificent seat of Lord Falmouth, is a farm called Trelease, belonging to the Editor; for beauty of natural situation and for command of prospect, scarcely inferior to Tregothnan itself.
But if ancient romances could be relied on as authorities, the place most deserving of regard in this parish, or in the whole county, after Tintagell Castle, would be Carlian, since Thomas of Erceldowne, the celebrated northern poet of the twelfth century, universally known by the appellation of Thomas the Rhymer, describes Carlian as the birth-place of the renowned Sir Tristrem, Knight of the Round Table, companion of Arthur and the chief hero of chivalry, where all exceed not merely the prowess, but whatever the imagination can create in these degenerate times. Yet perhaps the armies and fleets of England may say,