HALS.
St. Mawgan rectory is situate in the hundred of Kerryer, and hath upon the north Gwendron and Helston, south Cury and St. Martin’s, west Gonwallo. Under what jurisdiction this parish was rated in the Domesday Tax, 1087, I know not, probably under the names of Gwendron, Helleston, Lizard, or Trevery; for the modern names of St. Mawgan, or Maneage, were not then heard of. However,
at the time of the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Sancti Mawgani in decanatu de Kerryer, is valued £10. In Wolsey’s Inquisition, 1521, Ecclesias de St. Maugani in decanatu de Kerrier, £35. 10s. 0½d.; the patronage formerly in the Prior of St. Michael’s Mount, who as I am informed endowed it, now Trevillian; the incumbent Trewinard; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, £148. 8s.
This district of Meneage is a kind of peninsula, formed between the lakes or rivers Looe and Hayle, conjoined at the neck only by a little part of this parish of Mawgan with that of Gwendron and Helleston; from whence further south in length and breadth, the land shooteth in towards the British Ocean, in the several parishes of St. Martin’s, Manaccan, St. Anthony, Kevorne, Ruan Major, Ruan Minor, Landawednack, Grade, Cury, Mullyan, Gonwallo. Which peninsula is further notable for its great fertility between the rocks for corn and grass; for as at St. Kevorne and other parishes, if wheat corn be seasonably tilled and well manured, it will produce commonly in the beginning of July a harvest of twenty bushels Cornish measure, that is to say sixty bushels Winchester to a Cornish acre of land; so in like manner this neck of land, being the most south-west part of this island of Britain, and situate between two seas, will in ten weeks time after the sowing of barley, produce a harvest in many places of much greater increase than that of wheat aforesaid. Moreover, it is also profitable for breeding and feeding bullocks and sheep of all sorts; and particularly Gon-hilly Downs, id est the Hunting Downs, is notable for the breed of an under-statute sort of mares and horses, swift and sure of foot, and of great strength and hardiness for travel and labour. Which Downs consist of many hundred acres of land, all overspread with grey cloos, or a kind of marble stones as aforesaid.
The barton and manor of Carmenow, Car-mynow, Carminou,
in this parish, words of one import, is the rockhill or mountain, a name given and taken from the natural circumstances of the place, viz. lands situate upon the rocks and hills abutting upon the sea-cliff of the British channel, and the Looe creek or cove therof. I know, contrary to this etymology, Mr. Carew tells us that Carminow is a little city, p. 55 Surv. Cornwall. But Caer-Vyan, or Caer-Byan, or Vyan-Caer, is a little city in Cornish; Caer-Broas, Bruse, a great, large, or extensive city. Again, page 142, he tells us that the interpretation of Car-mynow is often-loving; from which contradictory or cross etymology of this compound word aforesaid, it is evident he knew very little of the language of our ancestors the Britons, as his successor Mr. Camden did much less.
This local place gave name and original to an old British family of gentlemen surnamed de Carmynow, now extinct, who flourished there for many generations in great fame and riches; in particular here lived Robert de Carmynow, who held £16 per annum by the tenure of knight service, who was summoned by writ, 48 Henry III. to come and take his degree of knighthood. (Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 50.) This gentleman, as tradition saith, accompanied King Edward I. in the Holy War in Palestine. He had issue Ralph Carmenow, said to be Chamberlain to King Edward II.; who had issue Ralph Carmenow, Sheriff of Cornwall 2 Richard II. 1379. Betwixt whom and the Lord Richard Scrope, of Bolton Castle, in Richmondshire, Lord Chancellor of England temp. Edward III. (father of William Lord Scrope, Earl of Wiltshire and Lord Treasurer of England 21 Richard II. and Knight of the Garter, beheaded at Bristol for attainder of treason against Henry IV. anno Dom.. 1399,) happened a memorable trial in the Court of Chivalry, or Earl Marshal’s Court, about the bearing on their shields, or coat armour, viz. Azure, a bend Or.
In this action the Lord Scrope was plaintiff, who declared that he was lineally descended from one Scrope, a
French or Norman soldier, that came over into England under the banner and conduct of William the Conqueror, against King Harold, anno Dom. 1066; and that he gave for his arms, (portoit) d’Azur, à la band d’Or; and that his posterity till that instant (1360) ever gave the same arms, and to corroborate this their bearing, they produced a copy of the record thereof in the Earl Marshal’s Court; therefore Mr. Carmenow’s thus assuming and bearing their proper arms, it was contrary to law, and equity, and arms.
To this declaration the defendant pleaded not guilty, and in justification of the bearing aforesaid, said that his ancestors were Cornish Britons; and lived at Carmenow long before the Norman Conquest; and particularly, that one of them was sent by King Edward the Confessor an ambassador, either to the French King or Duke of Normandy; who gave those arms in and for his device, or shield; and that from that time to the time of King Edward III. aforesaid, which was about three hundred years, his posterity had ever given or borne the same arms, without interruption or alteration.