This church, in A. D. 1291, 29 Edward I., was valued at £8. and the vicarage at £2. 13s. 4d. it being appropriated to the Priory of Launceston.
The great duchy manor of the same name, including the whole parish and borough, I shall first begin with it, and then go on with the town, the church, castle, and the other most noted places in it.
THE MANOR OF LESKEARD.
In the extent of Cornish acres 12 Edward I. this is valued in 18. The 3d Henry IV. this manor is said to be half of a small fee of Morton, and was then in the hand of the King; who had not then, it seems, as may be made out in other places of the same book, given livery to Prince Henry of all the lands belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall; but since that time it having gone with the rest of the Duchy of Cornwall, and accounted for accordingly, I need not say any more of it here; and so come to treat of the
TOWN OF LESKEARD.
Mr. Willis, in his Rot. Parliamentaria, vol. ii. p. 27, gives this account of it: “This borough was, in like manner as spoken of in Launceston, held in the time of the Conqueror by Robert Earl of Morton and Cornwall; and afterwards, as that did, belonged to Richard, brother to King Henry the Third, created Earl of Cornwall in the 15th year of his reign, who made this place a free borough, and granted to the burgesses all those liberties and free customs which he, by his charter, had before granted to his
burgesses of Launceston and Helston. This charter is dated the 5th of June, anno 1240, in the 24th year of the reign of his brother King Henry the Third, about ten years after the date of Launceston charter, as I guess. To this Richard succeeded Edmund Earl of Cornwall, his son, who in the 3d year of the reign of Edward I. granted this whole burgh, with the rent of the same, &c. and toll of the market and fairs, and all fines, mulcts, and perquisites thereof belonging to him and his heirs, in fee farm, at the rent of £18 sterling; upon which conditions the said borough being leased to the townsmen, has remained in their hands ever since, and the corporation at present enjoy the profits of the fairs and markets, &c. which yield them about £200 per annum. The royalty of this borough has been in like manner as that at Launceston, vested in the Duchy ever since Edward the Third’s time; and the Dukes of Cornwall, as tenants of the Crown, have received the said fee-farm rent till the reign of the late King William, who alienated the same, and gave it to the present Lord Somers, to whom the corporation pay the abovesaid chief rent of £18.”
Leland, Itinerary, vol. iii. lob. 19, saith, “The towne knowlegith freedom and privileges by the gift of Richard, King of Romanes and Earl of Cornewaul.” Perhaps by him this place was antiently incorporated; but the present charter doth not say when or by whom, for thus runs the last Visitation: “The towne and burrough of Liskeret, alias Liskerd, was antiently incorporated by the name of Mayor and Burgesses of Liskeret, alias Liskerd, and re-incorporated the 6th day of July, in the 29th year of Queen Elizabeth, by the same name of Mayor and Burgesses, and by that name to have perpetual succession; and enabled in law to purchase lands, tenements, and liberties, and likewise to assign the same, and by the same name to plead and be impleaded; and that the borough and corporation should consist of 9 Burgesses, which shall be called the Common Councell of the said burrough, whereof one for
the time being shall be yearly chosen for Mayor, to have power to chuse a Steward and Recorder. That the Mayor and Burgesses shall have a common seal for their affairs; and that the Mayor and Recorder shall be Justices of the Peace within the said burrough (of which new corporation, granted by Queen Elizabeth, John Hunkin was the first Mayor), with diverse other privileges and immunities, as by their charter doth appear. And at this present visitation, the 12th day of October, 1620, was Edward Chapman, Mayor, Sᵗ William Wrey, Knight, Recorder, John Hunkin, Gent. High Steward, Thomas Jane, John Vosper, Martin Sampson, John Pott, Jeffrie Clarke, John Taperell, and William Grege, Chief Burgesses, and Walter Nicholls, Town Clark, of the said town and burrough.”
Mr. Willis goes on: “As for the right of election of Members of Parliament, ’tis vested in these nine capital burgesses and fifteen assistants, with others who are free of the borough, as many of the neighbouring gentlemen are; so that the whole number of electors is near about 100, who are all sworn freemen. The town of Leskeard is very large and populous, and contains (as I am informed) about 500 houses. It has a very considerable market, and perhaps the greatest in this county. It was in Leland’s time the best except Bodmin, which it much exceeds now, [this is a great mistake,] as the town does in buildings. This being in all respects one of, if not the biggest and best built in Cornwall [I take Falmouth to exceed by much every way, and so doth Truro too in building, if not bigness]; ’tis situate partly on rocky hills, and partly in a bottom. On the eastern ascent of the hill stands the church (of which more by and by). On the north side of the town stood the castle, of which Leland speaks thus: ‘There was a castle on an hill in the town side, by north from St. Martin. It is now all in ruin; fragments and pieces of waulles yet stand. The site of it is magnificent, and looketh over all the town. This castle was the Earles of Cornwall.’”