Rhaith is in old British a law; Rhaithow the law; so that it signifieth the church of laws, or of the laws, according to this etymology, which I will not venture to say is a true one, but it is the best that I can give at present.
This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s book at 32l. The presentation in John Francis Buller, Esq. by purchase from the late Charles Grills, Esq. The incumbent, Mr. Richard Grills, only brother of the late patron.[10]
As I take Court to be the head place of this manor, from whence it is so called, to have been the chief seat of these Seriseauxes, I shall here insert what I find of them.
Richard de Seriseaux or Cereseaux, junior, was one of the men-at-arms who had 40l. in rent of lands 17th Edward II. (Carew, p. 139, Lord Dunstanville’s edition).
Richard de Cereseaux, I suppose father to the former, was one of those that had 20l. per annum of lands or rent, or more, 25 Edward I., and was summoned to attend the King, and to go into parts beyond sea.
Richard Sargeaux, son, I believe, of the former, was Sheriff of this county the 12th of Richard II. A.D. 1389. This I take to be the same person with that Richard de Seriseaux who sold his estate in the 3d. of Henry IV. He held lands also in Kelland and Kilkoid in the hundred of Trigg. Carew, p. 126.[11]
This Sir Richard Ceriseaux or Sergieaux, for he was knighted, had one only daughter and heiress, called Alice, who first was married to Sir Guy St. Alban, Knt. and secondly, to Richard de Vere, Earl of Oxford; and, thirdly, to Sir Nicholas Throwley, Knt. By the first she had issue; and the last Earl of Oxford of the Veres, Aubrey de Vere, who died in 1702, quartered her arms, Argent, a saltire Sable, between twelve cherries slipped Proper; from whence I guess that Sergiaux was only by way of abbreviation, their coat alluding to his name, cerise being in French a cherry. This Sir Richard Ceriseaux must have lived to a great age, since his great-grandson, Geffrey St. Aubin, Esq. was Sheriff of Cornwall but ten years after him, in 22d Richard II. A.D. 1399, or, I rather suppose, that this Sir Richard Ceriseaux may have left a son, who was the Sheriff, and that upon his death, without issue, Alice his sister became the heir.
THE EDITOR.
It appears from Mr. Lysons’s researches, that the manor of Lanreath, with the barton of Court, passed from the Serjeaux to Pashleys, Chudleys, and Chamonds, from which last they were carried by heiresses to Trevanion and Grylls.
William Grylls, of Tavistock, is said in a pedigree of that family to have married the widow of Knight, and to have settled at Court in Lanreath; perhaps this lady was the coheiress of Chamond.