This lordship was the King or Earl of Cornwall’s manor of land beyond the records of time, and in particular, after Cornwall was dismembered from Devon by King Athelstan, Anno Dom. 930, of Ailmer, or Athellmaur or Athellmer, i. e. muac, great, or noble, for so the Monasticon Anglicanum, Anno Dom. 980, in tom. 1, page 258, calls him, afterwards of Algar Earl of Cornwall, Anno Dom. 1046. (Monasticon, page 1022) Then of Condura, or Condorus in Latin, who was Earl of Cornwall, when William Duke of Normandy invaded this land 1066, who as some say submitted to his jurisdiction, by paying him homage for his earldom, and swearing fealty to him; which history seems not very concordant with reason or truth; since in the second year of the Conqueror’s reign he was by him deprived of this dignity, who gave the same to Robert Guelam, Earl of Morton in Normandy, brother to King William by his mother Arlotte, who had issue William Earl of Morton and Cornwall, that entered into treasonable practises on behalf of Robert Duke of Normandy, against William Rufus and Henry I. and so lost both those earldoms, and died about the year 1035. After whose death in all probability, Caddock, though some call him Condorus II. son of Condura, was restored to the earldom
of Cornwall, and lived and died in this place, whose only daughter and heir Agnes, or Beatrix as others call her, was married to Reginald Fitz Harry, base son of King Henry First, by his concubine Anne, daughter of Robert Corbet of Allencester, in the county of Warwick, who was in her right created Earl of Cornwall by King Stephen, in the 5th year of his reign 1140.
Shillingham, in this parish, after the English, is a dwelling covered with slatestones; after the Saxon, it is a corruption of sylenhan, i. e. the paying, selling, or giving house, home, or dwelling; after the British, Sillan or Cillanham, i. e. the chapel house or dwelling; which gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, from thence surnamed de Shillingham; whose heir, as I am informed, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, was married to Francis Buller, esq. a younger branch of the Bullers of [Lillesdon in Somersetshire]; he was Sheriff of Cornwall 42 Elizabeth, who had issue Richard Buller, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 9 James I. who had issue Richard Buller, esq. afterwards knighted, Sheriff of Cornwall 12 Charles I. 1637, who had issue Francis Buller, esq. that married the sole inheritrix of Ezekiel Gross of Golden, gent. Attorney at Law; by whom he had issue John Buller, esq. who married —— and had issue ——, that died without issue; whereupon, John Buller of Morval, esq. that married Coode, second son of Sir Richard Buller aforesaid, succeeded to this estate, and is now in possession thereof; who had issue as is set forth in Morval parish.
Lastly, let it not be forgotten, that Francis Buller, esq. that married Gross aforesaid, entertained for his chaplain one Mr. D. Eaton, a priest that officiated Divine Service in his house, after the manner of the Church of England, tempore Charles II. and was so kind and respectful towards this doctor, that he made him his companion and amicus, and reposed more confidence in his integrity than he had reason to do; for this fellow, upon some discontent, went from Mr. Buller, and made oath before some justice of the
Peace, or preferred an accusation of treasonable words in the Crown Office, spoken by Mr. Buller at his table against King Charles the Second’s Government, at such time as he was his domestic chaplain.
Whereupon, Mr. Buller was taken into custody, and examined before the King and Council, and thereupon committed prisoner to the Tower of London; at length indicted and tried at the King’s Bench Bar at Westminster, upon this information of Eaton’s, and found guilty of misprision of treason by the Grand and Petty Jurors; and accordingly was sentenced by the Judges to pay to the King a fine of thirty thousand pounds, and to remain a prisoner during the King’s pleasure. Now, in order to raise this money, it occasioned the selling of the manor and lordship of Fentongollan, (See St. Michael Penkivell) though much dismembered before, to the value of five thousand pounds, by its former proprietors, John Hals and Carmenow, out of which the manor of Tregothnan was made, to Hugh Boscawen, esq.
The articles of which bargain so distasted John Buller, esq. son of the said Francis, that to obstruct the sale of that lordship, which was his mother’s lands, he forsook this kingdom, and went into France, where he remained for three years’ space, saying, he would rather sell Shillingham and Golden than Fentongallan (for at that time was extant upon it a spacious dwelling house, a tower of three or four stories high, and a consecrated free chapel), which had been the seat of several famous families.
But alas! let man pretend or intend what he will, fate or destiny is unavoidable; for by reason of his father’s circumstances, and to comply with his desire, at length he returned into England, and then was concluded with his father in a deed of sale of the premises by lease and release, for about the consideration of seven thousand pounds, to Hugh Boscawen, esq. and executed the same, in presence of the writer of these lines, at Mowpass Passage, about the year 1676, and soon after levied a fine for cognizance de droit to
dock the entail, and bar his heirs for ever. Afterwards, his father Mr. Buller, to raise the remainder of his said fine to the King, sold much other lands to make up the first payment thereof, and was forced to settle all his other estates in the hands of trustees, for raising the remainder, confining himself to an annuity of £180 during his life. Whereupon, having his liberty granted him by King Charles, he removed into Oxfordshire; where, through trouble of mind, arising from this sad accident by a malicious and perfidious priest, he grew delirious, or in a phrenzy, and died about the year 1679.
Earth, in this parish, gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, from thence surnamed de Earth, in which place Galfridus de Earth held by the tenure of knight service a knight’s fee of land, 3 Henry IV. (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 41.) From the heirs of which Geffrey, by marriage, this barton descended to William Bond, esq. now in possession thereof, that married —— ——; his father Carter, of St. Colomb, his grandfather Fountain, his great-grandfather Fitz, and giveth for his arms, in a field Argent, on a chevron Sable three Bezants.