THE MANOR OF LANHEARNE.
This place had formerly possessors of the same name, but how long they lived in it is uncertain; for I can meet with but one and the last of them; John de Lanhearne, who by Margaret, the daughter and heir of Richard Fitz John, had only one daughter and heir, Alice, married the 15th Henry III. (A. D. 1231) to Sir R. Arundell, of Trembleth, Knight, ever since which time Lanhearne hath been the principal seat of this illustrious family. I shall not here enter into a detail of the many great men it hath produced, referring myself to their well known pedigrees; and shall only take notice here that the Lord Arundell of Wardour, Arundell of Tolvorne, Trevethick, &c. were descended from younger branches thereof; and insert what Mr. Camden and Mr. Carew say of them. The first hath these words:
“Near which place (St. Colomb), at a little distance from the sea, stands Lanhearon, the seat of the family of the Arundells, knights, who upon account of their vast riches, were not long since called ‘The Great Arundells.’ They are sometimes called in Latin De Hirundine; and appositely enough in my mind, for a swallow in French is Hirondelle, and their arms are, in a field Sable, six swallows Argent. ’Tis certainly an ancient and noble family, as also very numerous: to the arms whereof Brito, a poet, alludes, where he describes a warlike man of this family attacking a Frenchman, about the year 1170.
Swift as the swallows whence his arms device
And his own name are took, enraged he flies
Through gazing troops, the wonder of the field,
And sticks his lance in William’s glittering shield.”
Mr. Carew says of this family:
“Their name is derived from Hirundelle, in French a
swallow, and out of France at the Conquest they came, and six swallows they give in arms. The country people entitle them ‘The Great Arundells,’ and greatest for love, living, and respect, in the country heretofore they were.” (See Carew, p. 343, Lord De Dunstanville’s edition.)