HALS.
Tamarton vicarage, alias North Tamarton, is situate in the hundred of Stratton, and hath upon the north, part of Whitson; south, part of Devon and Boyton; east, the Tamar river, from whence it hath its denomination Tamarton, that is to say, the town situate upon the Tamar river; which river on the Devonshire side gives also name to Tamarton Decenna, or hundred there, as also to Tamarton vicarage parish, and Tamarton chapel, situate on the banks of that famous river; as also Stoke Damarell vicarage and parish. For Stoke Tamar-oll parish; that is to say, Stoke chapel or college in Cornish British, in Devon; and for the etymology of the word Tamar, see my Cornish Vocabulary, and Liber I. Chap. III.
This is the ταμαρα ποταμος, the Tamara Potamos, mentioned by Ptolomy the Greek geographer 1500 years past; that is to say Tamar fluvius, flumen, amnis fluentum, the Tamar river, in the province of the Cornavy, for Cornubia, or Danmonij.
In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was then taxed under the name and jurisdiction of Hornacott, i. e. iron cot or house, so called from Hornacott free chapel then extant there, and for aught I hear yet standing. The present church of Tamarton is either of late erection or endowment, since it is not mentioned in either of the inquisitions as to its value of First Fruits, unless it passed as a daughter church to some other, or was wholly impropriated. The parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, at £48. 16s. 4d. The manor of Tamarton was formerly the lands of Walesbury, by whose heir it passed to Trevillian of Somerset, now in possession thereof, as I am informed.
Upon the bastard King Athelstan’s victory over the Cornish Britons, Anno Dom. 930; and dismembering from that regniculum the district of Devon, and confining their dominion only to the west side of the river Tamar, the Saxon poets triumphed in verse, one of which hath those words of this division.
Hinc Anglos, illic cernit Tamara Britannos, i. e. on this side Tamar beholds the English, on the other the Britons.
TONKIN.
Tamarton is in the hundred of Stratton, and has to the west St. Mary Wike, to the north Whitstone, to the east part of Devonshire and the river Tamar, to the south Boyton.
As for the name, it took it from the old Roman Tamara [which however did not stand here, but at Saltash, a long way below. W.]; as that did from the river Tamar, turned into the English termination, to signify a town on the river Tamar.
It is not valued in the King’s Book, but in the Taxatio Benefic. anno 1291, 20 Edward I. this church, by the name of Capella de Tamerton, is valued at 46s. 8d. and was formerly appropriated to ——.