It seems that Great Skewish, in this parish, belonged to a family of that name, one of whom was an author at a period so early as the reign of Henry the Sixth, when he compiled an abridgment of the Chronicles and the Wars of Troy; but in all probability the work has never been printed, since it is not noticed by Warton; nor is the author’s name to be found in the catalogues of our public libraries.
But the glory of this parish is Michael Tregury, Archbishop of Dublin.
Six or seven years ago, my attention having been drawn to this individual, who may justly be considered an honour to Cornwall, I applied to the Very Reverend J. R. Dawson, Dean of St. Patrick’s, through his brother the Right Honourable George Robert Dawson, when the Dean most kindly and liberally supplied me with a drawing of Archbishop Tregury’s tomb, as it is restored by the celebrated Doctor Swift, and furnished me with all the particulars known of my distinguished countryman.
I procured a wood engraving to be made of the drawing, and sent it, with whatever I could collect of Tregury, to the Gentleman’s Magazine, a reprint of which will here be inserted:
SEPULCHRAL EFFIGY OF ARCHBISHOP TREGURY, IN THE CATHEDRAL OF DUBLIN.
Mr. Urban, Tredrea, Cornwall, March 2, 1831.
You will much gratify me, and, I may venture to add, many other correspondents, by inserting in your most excellent repository, which has now survived one century with a spirit and vigour that give promise for its continuing through another, some particulars of an individual sprung from this county, who must have been a man of talent and of learning sufficient for adding lustre to any origin; but who is now almost entirely forgotten, his family having long since become extinct, and the records of the University, of the Church, of the Diocese, and of the Province over which he presided, having in great measure perished in the devastations of the civil war, and especially of those aggravated by religious dissensions.
Mr. Lysons, in his History of Cornwall, states, that in the parish of St. Wenn is situated Tregury, Tregurra, or Tregurtha, the seat of a family so called, of whom was Michael de Tregury, Archbishop of Dublin, who died in 1471. The last heir male of the elder branch of this family died in the reign of Henry the Fifth, leaving three daughters coheirs, who sold this barton to the family of Botreaux, from whom it passed successively, by inheritance or sale, through the families of Hungerford, Hastings, Edgcumbe, Parkins, and Vivian, to Mr. William Hals, who wrote the Parochial History of Cornwall, and resided here in the latter part of his life. The estate, now called Tregotha, is the property of Thomas Rawlings, Esq.