ST. TUDY.
HALS.
St. Tudy, alias St. Tidy or Tudy, is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north Michaelstow, east Brewar, south St. Mabyn, west St. Kew. For those names, they are all synonymous, and signify St. Udye, or St. Udith, (or the Holy Udith,) referring to the name of St. Udith, the tutelar guardian and patroness of this church, and by the name of Mama Tedy or Tidy,[13] i. e. Mother Udith, it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, which plainly shows here was an endowed rectory church dedicated to her before that time. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de St. Tudy, in decanatu de Minor Trigshire, was valued 1294 for its revenues, cs. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £31; the patronage in ——; the incumbent Trelawny. This parish was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, by the name of St. Udy, £144.
The history of St. Udith is as followeth: she was the natural daughter of King Edgar, by the lady Wolfchild, who was afterwards made Lady Abbess or mother of the maids of the Nunnery of Wilton in Wiltshire, wherein she demeaned herself so well as to her conduct, piety, and purity, that, as Capgrave tells us, she obtained the reputation of a saint, though the author of Polychronicon, Liber 6, chapter 9, tells us, that Bishop Ethel wold sharply reproved her, for deviating from her rule, and being too curious in her attire; to whom she replied that God regarded the heart more than garments, and that sin might be
covered as well with rags as robes; to which the Bishop answered, that, though our corrupt mortal bodies were covered with silk, silver, and gold, it could neither procure a minute’s life or health for us, nor hide our sins from God’s sight, but were rather an argument of our pride and vanity, than sincerity or humility.
After the brother of St. Udith, Edward the Martyr, was slain, St. Dunstan had a mind to make her Queen of England to defeat Etheldred the lawful heir, but her piety or policy would not permit her to accept the proffer: she died Anno Dom. 984, and was buried in the church of Denis of her own building at Wilton. She is commonly called Udith the younger, to distinguish her from St. Udith her aunt.
Hengar was formerly the seat of the Billings, alias Trelanders, whose daughter and heir was married to John Trelawny of Coldrinick, esq. by whom she had no issue; after his decease she was married to Dr. Lower, Physician in Ordinary to King Charles the Second, by whom he had three daughters, one married to Edward Morice of Werrington, esq. (by whom she had no issue); after his decease she was married to the honourable Major-General Charles Trelawny, governor of the Royal Citadel of Plymouth, now in possession of this place. Another daughter was married to Captain Mitchell; the third to —— Lower of St. Winnow.
Pen-vos, alias Pen-vose. It is now the dwelling of Humphrey Nicoll, esq. Commissioner for the Peace, that married —— Cudworth.