MENHENIOT.
HALS.
Men-hyn-yet, Men-hin-iet vicarage, is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Linkinhorne, east Quethiock, south St. Germans, west Leskeard. For the modern name of this parish, it is taken from the manor of Men-hin-iet within the same; which is compounded or
conjugated of Cornish and Saxon, and signifies old or ancient stone gate; for the terminative particle yet, jet, in Saxon signifies a gate (as porth in British). This manor is one of the franchises of Cornwall, privileged with the jurisdiction and freedom of a court leet, for plea of debt or damage between party and party, within the precincts thereof, by the Kings of England or Earls of Cornwall; and hath its steward and bailiff to attend the public services thereof, as the hundred of East hath.
At the time of the Norman Conquest this district was taxed under the jurisdiction of Trehavock, now Trehawke, of which more under. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish benefices, 1294, Ecclesia de Manyhynyet, (id est, English Saxon, and Cornish, many ancient or old gate,) in decanatu de Est, is rated £8. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, £21. 15s. 4d. The patronage in Exeter College, in Oxford; none but Fellows admittable to the cure; the incumbent Snell; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, temp. William III. £332. 6s. by the name of Men-hyn-iet, as aforesaid.
Men is the common contraction of meyn, mein, main, a stone; and hyn, him, the corruption of hen, heyn, hain, old, ancient. See Floyd upon Lapis.
This manor of Men-hyn-yet, as I remember, was formerly the lands of one Carmenow, a soldier or military man; by whose daughter and heir it came first in marriage to Trelawny, in Edward the Fourth’s days. Within the precincts of which lordship is situate the house and barton of Poole, so called after the English from the natural circumstances of the place; where, by reason of the level or evenness of the town place, in winter season many lakes and pools of water stand. Of which place thus speaks Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall: “Poole, for its lowe and moyst seate, is not unaptly named, houseth Sir Jonathan Trelawny, far beneath his worth and callinge. He
marryed Sir Henry Killigrew’s daughter, his father the coheir of Reskimer, his grandfather Lamellyn’s inheritrix. His arms are Argent, a chevron Sable, between three oak leaves Vert.”
There is a public fair held yearly in this church town, on June 11.
Ten-creek, Den-creek, in this parish, was formerly the lands and possessions of Richard Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans, second son of King John; who probably at some time lived at it (as also at his castle of Leskeard), for in the old dilapidated houses of this once famous fabric, I saw the ruins of a moorstone oven, about fourteen foot diameter, in testimony of the hospitality once kept here. And moreover, in the front of the castlewise moorstone gate, or portal, I beheld his arms cut in stone; viz. within a bordure bezantée, a lion rampant crowned, whose arms in colours I think ought to be thus blazoned: ill port ung lyon rampant de Gowles, en Argent, bordure de Sable, talentée.