Pillaton, in the hundred of East, joins to the west with Quethiock and Lanrake, to the north with St. Mellyn, to the east with St. Dominick and Landulph, to the south with Botusfleming.
This church is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book at £16. 15s. 6d.; the patronage in Sir John Coryton, Bart. In 1291, 12 Edw. I. this church was valued (Tax. Benef.) at xlvis. viiid. having never been appropriated.
The manor is called in Domesday Book “Pileton,”
being one of the manors which William the Conqueror gave to Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall.
THE EDITOR.
Mr. Lysons gives a short history of the principal or only manors in this parish. The manors of Pillaton and Hardenfast were at an early period in a family bearing the singular name of Inkpen; then they belonged to Dorothy Dillington, heiress of John Charles, esq. who sold them to Thomas Moone. From this gentleman, Mr. Lysons says the manors passed to the family of Coryton, although he does not state in what way. They were ultimately devised by Sir John Coryton, who died in 1739, to his widow, and by her to the family of Helyar.
Pentillie Castle is in this parish, one of the most splendid seats in the whole county, as well in regard to the magnificence of the castellated house constructed by the present proprietor, John Tillie Coryton, esq. on the site of a former house called Pentillie Castle, as to the beauty and grandeur of the scenery, and to the romantic hill and dale of the grounds.
This place was the seat of Sir James Tillie, who left the property to his sister’s son, Mr. James Woolley, who took the name of Tillie, and his granddaughter brought the estate to the late John Coryton, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall in 1782, as his son has been in 1808.
The church and tower are not distinguished from others in the neighbourhood, except by a south transverse aisle belonging to Pentillie, and containing monuments to different members of the family. In the body of the church is an inscription commemorating the Rev. Ralph Eliot, who died in 1625, having been Rector of the parish during fifty years.
The church town is small, and there is but one other village, called Penters Cross.