And of Cornwall Sir Peter Edgcumbe 14th and 15th of Henry VII. also 21st; also 8th of Henry VIII. also 26th. Sir Richard Edgcumbe 2d and 3d of Queen Mary, also Peter Edgcumbe 11th of Elizabeth, Richard Edgcumbe 8th James I. in all or total sixteen times Sheriff of Cornwall and Devon, from the year 1487 to the year 1640, which is but 150 years; the like instance of Sheriffs not to be given of any other family in England except the Arundels, of Lanhearne, Trerice, and Tolverne, who have been twenty times.
Richard Edgcumbe, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 8th of King James I. had issue Richard Edgcumbe, Esq. created one of the Knights of the Bath, at the Coronation of King Charles II. He married the Lady Anne Montagu, daughter of the Right Honourable Edward Earl of Sandwich, and had issue Richard Edgcumbe, Esq.
Finally, Mr. Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall, hath written so large a history of this family, the magnificence of the house, and sweetness of the dwelling, that I refer the reader thereto as not being able to make further addition.
Half of Millbrook in this parish and of Mount Edgcumbe lands, are part of the county of Devon, though severed from it by the Tamerworth sea or harbour ever since King Athelstan, anno Dom. 930, separated Devon from Cornwall, and made them several jurisdictions, which before were but one county or regniculum; and the reason in all probability why several parcels of land, not only here in this place, but in divers others on the east and west side of the Tamer river, the Devonshire side lands are annexed to Cornwall, and the Cornwall side lands to Devon, was in all probability by reason the owners of those lands were possessed of lands both in Devonshire and Cornwall; and it could not in any sense consist with justice that the Cornish men should lose their lands in Devon, or the Devonshire men lose their lands in Cornwall, because those counties were divided by the river Tamar, and both people under the dominion of one king.
This town of Milbrook, as I am informed, amongst others was once privileged with the jurisdiction of sending of two Members to sit in the Lower House of Parliament, but was divested of that privilege propter paupertatem, tempore Henry VIII. for that the town was not able to pay their Burgesses’ salary of 4s. per diem whilst they sat in Parliament; however, Mr. Carew in his Survey of Cornwall, p. 101, tells us, that within his memory this town had near forty ships and barks at one time pertaining to the inhabitants thereof, that followed trade, merchandize, and fishing; but upon the breaking out of Queen Elizabeth’s wars with Spain, the townsmen neglected their usual honest employments and took up a more compendious though not so honest way of gaining, and began by little and little to reduce those plain dealers to their former undeserved plight, &c. id est, by piracy and privateering at sea.
In this parish standeth Cremble Passage, the common place of transferring passengers by boat or barge over the rapid and dangerous waves of the Tamerworth Harbour or Sea Haven from the Cornish shore to the Plymouth or Devonshire side or lands, wherein many persons heretofore by the violence of the seas and wind in their passage have lost their lives.
TONKIN.
Mr. Tonkin has not noticed this parish.
THE EDITOR.
This parish, forming the western boundary of Plymouth harbour, and extending between Hamoaze and the sea, occupies a situation more beautiful than any other on the whole coast.