Mr. Tonkin has written much more on this parish than on most others, but the details relative to families, and to individuals long since forgotten, and never of any distinction, are quite uninteresting.
Mr. Lysons has abridged it to the following effect, intermixed with additions of his own.
Tonkin says that Mevagissey, lately a poor fishing village, contained in his time two hundred houses; that a pier had been constructed at the expense of the Trewolla family; that it was the most convenient place on the coast for the pilchard fishery; that on an average twelve thousand hogsheads were cured annually. The present number of houses is about 370. The eastern part of the town, which in old deeds is called Porthilly, belongs to the Hoblyns; the middle part to the Grenvilles, of Stowe in Buckinghamshire, as parcel of the manor of Trelevan; the western part is included in Mr. Tremayne’s manor of Penwarne.
Ships of 100 tons burden may ride securely in the pool. The fishing cove of Porthmellin is partly in this parish.
The manor of Trelevan belonged for several generations to the family of Trewolla, of Trewolla in St. Goran. It was by them sold, about the year 1667, to Walter Vincent, Esq. of Truro, who in 1680 was appointed one of the Barons of the Exchequer, but died on his way to London before he had been sworn into that high office. His grandson Nicholas Vincent, who died in 1726, mortgaged this estate, the manor of Tregavethan in Kenwyn, and the greater part of his property, to John Knight, Esq. of Gosfield Hall in Essex. This gentleman’s widow married Lord Nugent, whose only daughter and heiress carried the whole to the Grenvilles, now Dukes of Buckingham.
The barton of Trelevan was successively the seat of the families of Croome and Stevens, as lessees under the Trewollas. The Vincents, having bought in the lease, made it their residence; and, after the decease of the last of the
Vincent’s, Mr. Tonkin resided there for some time, being the heir-at-law, but the property was too much incumbered for him to retain the freehold.
The manor of Pentuan was the property and its barton the chief seat of the Pentires, after they removed from Pentire in Endellion. The heiress of Pentire married Roscarrock, from whom this estate passed by a marriage to the Darts, of Dart Ralph in Devonshire, who sold it to Robarts, of Lanhidrock; and the last Earl of Radnor bequeathed it to Mr. James Laroche, a merchant of Bristol, afterwards created a Baronet. This gentleman becoming insolvent, sold the manor, together with a large property scattered over Cornwall, to a friend, who soon afterwards dying restored the whole by his will; but in a little while, and as it would seem with the intention of guarding against the possibility of a similar occurrence, the estate was sold a second time in parcels; when this manor of Pentire was purchased by the late Mr. Tremayne, of Heligon, and the barton, which was reserved by Mr. Dart when he sold the manor, has descended to Mr. Tremayne from that family.
The manor of Penwarne belonged to an ancient family of that name. Vivian Penwarne, who died in the reign of Henry the Seventh, left three daughters, coheiresses, married to Cosworth, Penhallow, and Penwarne, of Penwarne in Mawnan. The elder daughter inherited this manor, which passed in marriage with the heiress of Coswarth to Alan Hill, Esq. There is a monument in the church to his son Otwell Hill, of Penwarne; after his death the estate passed to a nephew, Mr. John Carew, second son of Richard Carew, of Anthony, the Historian of Cornwall.
Mr. John Carew distinguished himself at the siege of Ostend, in 1601, where he lost his right hand by a cannon ball. His only son John died in 1640, leaving five sisters, one of whom married Fortescue, in whom this property continued till within recent times: it is now, however, sold in lots.