The manuscript relating to this parish is lost.
TONKIN.
Minster, a rectory in the hundred of Lesnewith, is bounded to the west by Trevelga, to the north by Farrabury, to the east by St. Juliot, and to the south by the parish of Lesnewith.
In the taxation of Pope Nicholas this parish is named Talkarn, and is valued at £5. In Wolsey’s valuation it is taken at £22. 17s. 10d. The patronage in Edward Amy, Esq.; the incumbent Mr. James Amy his brother.
THE EDITOR.
Near the church are some ruins still to be seen of a monastic establishment, said by Mr. Lysons, on the authority of Doctor William Borlase’s manuscript collections, to have been a priory of Black Monks called Minster, or Tolcarne, founded by William de Botreaux, as a cell to Tywardreth, itself subject to the abbey of St. Sergius and Bacchus, in Angiers. Tywardreth, however, after having been seized into the King’s hands, as an alien priory, was made independent and denizen, and continued till the general dissolution by Henry the Eighth. Probably therefore Minster remained as a parcel of Tywardreth up to the same eventful period.
Tanner, however, calls it merely an alien priory to the abbey of St. Sergius and Bacchus at Angiers, without any notice of Tywardreth.
In Dugdale’s Monasticon is the following addition to
Tanner: Minster Prior, alienigena habet in proprios usus Ecclesias de Minster et Bodecastell; and in a note there is a reference to muniments in Exeter Cathedral, and to MS. collections in the British Museum, vol. XL. p. 39, for a resignation of this priory by the abbot and convent de Valle, or Vale Royal, in Cheshire; from which it would seem that this house was not restored to Tywardreth after the sequestration of both.
The manor of Pollifont, in Lewannick, (see that parish) which formerly belonged to this priory, is now an appendage to the living, so that the rector of Minster is lord of the manor of Pollifont; and the customs of the manor are said to be, that on the accession of a new rector, after the decease of the former, but not otherwise, the tenants pay him thirty pounds and one penny, raised according to some ancient schedule among themselves.