Doctor Walter Borlase married Margaret, daughter of the Rev. Henry Pendarves, vicar of the adjoining parish of Paul; and he is said in consequence of this marriage to have quitted the law, in which profession he could scarcely have failed of attaining some considerable distinction. They had a very numerous family of sons and daughters; but, none of the sons having left a son, the family estate has passed, under an entail, to the descendants of Doctor William Borlase, and now belongs to his great-grandson.
Doctor Walter Borlase built the house at Castle Horneck. The family arms are, Ermine, on a bend Sable, two hands issuing at the elbows from as many clouds Proper, and rending a horseshoe Or.
Trereife has been long the residence of the Nicholls’s, of whom the most distinguished person was Frank Nicholls, M.D. Physician to King George the Second, and son-in-law of the celebrated Dr. Mead. His life has been written in Latin by Dr. Lawrence, sometime President of the College of Physicians, with his portrait. It appears from this work that Dr. Nicholls was born in 1699, that he became a member of Exeter College, Oxford, in March 1714, took his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1729, and was
chosen a Fellow of the College of Physicians in the following year, being previously a Fellow of the Royal Society. Nine different communications from Doctor Nicholls are printed in the Philosophical Transactions, and he published a separate work: “De Anima Medica,” to which is added a treatise, “De Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Homine Nato et non Nato.”
His reputation stands deservedly very high as an Anatomist. Several dissections of the viper’s head and poisonous fangs, engraved for Dr. Mead’s work, are believed to be his; and to him is attributed the invention of what are termed corroded preparations. He died in January 1778, having completed his 79th year.
This gentleman’s elder brother married in London, but finally settled at Trereife, with one son and two daughters. The two daughters married, the eldest Mr. Love of Penzance, the second William Harris, of Kenegie, Esq. but neither left any family. The son, William Nicholls, married Miss Ustick, of Penzance, and died leaving one son. Mrs. Nicholls subsequently married the Rev. Charles Valentine Le Grice, of Bury St. Edmunds, then Lecturer of Penzance, and bore him a son, who, together with Mr. Le Grice, now hold the estate as tenants in remainder, and by the courtesy, under the will of Mr. Nicholls, Jun. who lived to the age of twenty-three or twenty-four years.
Trengwainton appears to have been inhabited by branches of the Arundell family, for a long series of years, and finally the last Mr. Arundell, of Menadarva, removed there, having in a great measure rebuilt the house. Soon after his decease it was sold, and Mr. Praed, of Trevethow, became the purchaser. Trengwainton was thus chiefly used as a farm-house till the late Sir Rose Price, wishing to form a seat in that neighbourhood, obtained it as an accommodation from the late Mr. Praed, and under his hands it has become a splendid residence.
It appears that a gentleman of the name of Price accompanied Venables and Penn in their successful expedition
against Jamaica, during the Protectorate, and obtained an extensive grant of land, which his descendants lived on and improved, till early in the last century one of the sons was sent to England for education and health. It is understood that Doctor Nicholls was consulted as a physician, and that he recommended the climate of Penzance; perhaps Mr. John Price may have been the first invalid ever sent from a distance to breathe the soft air of this all but island in the Atlantic. At that time Mr. Henry Badcock, from the parish of Whilstone, in the north-eastern extremity of Cornwall, held the office of Collector at Penzance, where he had married Parthenia Keigwin, daughter of Mr. John Keigwin, of Mousehole. The young patient was received into their house by Mr. and Mrs. Badcock, who had several daughters. Mr. Price married in the year 1736 Margery, one of their daughters; but having gone back to Jamaica he died there three years afterwards, leaving her with an only son, also John Price.
This gentleman, having gone through the usual stages of education, ending with Trinity College, Oxford, went also to Jamaica, and there married Elizabeth Williams Bramer, daughter of John Bramer, a physician. They had only one son, who lived to a mature age, and succeeded his father in January 1797.