now known, and still distinguished, by the names of the borough and manor of Truro, under the like circumstances.
In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Trewroe, in decanatu de Powdre, was rated liiis. ivd.
By the Charter of its incorporation from King John, the town was incorporated by the name of Burgus de Trewrow.
In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, this church’s revenues were valued at £16. The patronage formerly in Bodrigan or Trenowith, now Edgecumb. The incumbent Pagett; and the borough of Truro was rated to four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £186. 7s. That here was a Christian free chapel before the Norman Conquest I doubt not, implied in the word Trewrow, now a Rectory Church; in the glass windows of which, the north side thereof, is yet extant the arms of John Earl of Cornwall, who succeeded to the Crown of England 1199, and was made Earl of Cornwall by his father King Henry II. at nine years old (though he had not the possession thereof till the time of Richard I. 1190, which was but a hundred and twenty-four years after the Norman Conquest, and but one hundred and three years after the Conqueror’s death); which arms were: in a field Ruby, three leopards in pale passant gardant Tophaz, over all a bend Sapphire, which leopards are now called, and metamorphosed in the blazon of the Kings of England’s arms to lions, as it is testified by Nicholas Upton, who wrote his Book of Heraldry 1440, whose words be these: “Monsieur Johanes Roy d’Angleter, port de Gowles, ove trois lyopers d’Or.”
There is likewise extant in the same windows, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall’s badge, in a field —— three ostrich feathers with this motto or inscription, Ich Dien, or Ich Thyen, Saxon, I serve, which coronet was won by Edward the Black Prince, the first Duke of Cornwall,
from John of Luxemberge, King of Bohemia, at the battle of Cressy, 1346, and ever since worn by him and his successors, Dukes of Cornwall and Princes of Wales; which arms we may conclude was erected in this glass window soon after that victory, he being High Lord of this borough, which is held of his contiguous Duchy Manor of Moris, together with the Coinage Hall, which King John built and gave it; as also the royalty over the whole Harbour of Falmouth as far as Carike Road and the Black Rock Island (see Falmouth) in consideration of twelve pence rent and suits to that Manor Court, which privileges and royalty this town enjoyed till the time of King James II. and executed their water processes all over the said harbour for debt and damage; but then, upon the petition of Sir Peter Killigrew, Bart. it was given by him as an augmentation of profit to Mr. Quaram, Rector of Falmouth, and his successors for ever, but under what rent I know not.
The church was built at the proper cost and charge of the inhabitants, and other pious benefactors, with free-stone, in that costly and curious manner as it now stands, in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. as appears from an inscription in the glass windows thereof, under the name and arms of Margaret Tregian, one of those benefactors 1514; wherein also are yet extant the arms of the Arundells, Bevills, Trenowths, Carmenows, Edgecombs, and other benefactors; however, this church hath no tower or steple of bells as other churches.
And moreover, as when it was a free chapel, the minister subsisted on the oblations and obventions of the altar, so now, comparatively, upon the piety and charity of his hearers by voluntary subscriptions; from whence it may be presumed the rector must demean himself well, and labour hard in his vocation, to get a competent maintenance, at least he must walk with such upright and wary conduct as he that went barefoot upon the edge of a sharp knife and did not hurt his feet; since he must converse with, and have to do with, men of divers principles and opinions
in religion in this place, viz. Anabaptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers, as of old his predecessors had with monks, Dominican and Franciscan friars, who were sharers or peelers of his profits by their predicaments. I shall not enter into the controversy whether the Gospel were better preached before churches were endowed with revenues, or since, the one being a motive to pride, sloth, and laziness; as the other is an inducement to humility, temperance, and virtue.
In this church stands a curious monument erected to the memory of John Robartes, esq. that married Gaurigan (ancestor of the Right Honourable Charles Bodville, Earl of Radnor) though much defaced in the interregnum of Cromwell; whose ancestor John Robarts, Mayor of Truro, that lies entombed thereby, mightily enriched himself in this town by trade and manufactures.