Although the castle is fallen into decay, the privileges of the honor and manor to which this residence gave its name,
still continue in full vigour, possessing as royalties the whole river Tamar, from some point above the castle to Plymouth Sound, with the coast below high-water mark on such parts of the opposite shore as are not held against them by immemorial usage, which makes it the more strange that Voltersholm (new-named Mount Edgecumbe by the first gentleman of that family who acquired it) should be politically considered as in Devonshire.
Not far from Trematon Castle, and evidently an appendage to it, is situated the Town of Saltash.
After the entire change of manners and habits, of political institutions and of property, which have taken place since the feudal times, it is difficult now to conjecture why all the villages adjacent to baronial castles were favoured with municipal bodies and with corporate rights; institutions quite hostile to the gloomy and solitary grandeur of the chiefs by whom these privileges were bestowed. Perhaps they were found indispensable for the protection of persons necessary, in the rudest times, for the supply of articles of commerce, of manufacture, and even of subsistence, against the violence of retainers, who in those days supplied the want of a more regular force, always required in some shape or manner for the support of authority, and for the maintenance of civilized society.
Saltash, under the name of Esse, received its first charter of incorporation, as it appears on the authority of Doctor Robert Brady, from a source which seems in modern times wholly inadequate to bestow the gift, since the offices of Duke, Earl, and Baron have long ceased to exist in England, and these appellations, the shadows of a shade of times past by, are only known as matters of mere compliment given to the private gentlemen who now sit and vote in the Upper House of Parliament, by virtue of Letters Patent from the King. But when this charter was bestowed, the Baron de Valletorta, although the vassal of a vassal of the King of England, was yet a Prince within his small domain.
This charter, confirmed by the Earl of Cornwall, and
others substantiated by the supreme chief, raised into a borough town sending members to Parliament, with a mayor, alderman, and common council, a long narrow street, descending to the river at such an inclination as to make it quite inaccessible to a loaded carriage.
Modern improvements have however reached the Ville de Esse; a good road is made round the south side of the town, and a large vessel denominated a floating bridge, propelled by steam acting on wheels connected with two strong chains extended across the bottom of the river, conveys passengers and carriages at all times, and independently of the tide, and even of the strongest winds, to the Devonshire side, where a road is now forming along the banks of the Tamar, with causeways, so as to convert a communication with Plymouth over three or four hills, into nearly a complete level way.
The borough, which, in consequence of recent decisions of the House of Commons, had become one of close nomination, has disappeared in the great change of 1832.
Of the principal seats in the parish, Shillingham continues to be the nominal residence of Mr. James Wentworth Buller of Downs.