on the other, is said to exist among the papers and documents preserved by the Arundells of Lanhearn, and of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire.[14]
In one of the letters Cromwell is understood to have complimented the Prior on the possession of every active virtue, especially as displayed in the good government of his convent; he assures him that the King is fully sensible of his merits; and in consideration of his great age and faithful services, the King out of special grace and favour would allow him not only to resign the painful office of governing such a society, but would admit of his recommending a successor.
Collyns’s answer is full of thanks to the Lord Vicegerent, and of gratitude to the King, whose approbation he esteemed above all worldly matters, and next to the conscious satisfaction of having discharged faithfully his duties towards the Almighty in the station to which it pleased God that, without any merits of his own, he should be advanced. He offered his most humble and grateful thanks to the King for the great favours profferred to him; but that, feeling his health and strength sufficient for enabling him to continue the discharge of duties which the King had approved, he owed it to his conscience not to withdraw from them.
This brought a letter from Cromwell, declaring that the horrible savour of his sins, his crimes, and his iniquities had ascended before the Lord; and that, unless he immediately relinquished an office which he had most grossly abused, an ecclesiastical commission would proceed to inquire into his misdeeds, and to punish him accordingly. This latter is understood to have produced either an immediate surrender of the priory, or Collyns’s resignation preparatory to it. He was elected in 1506, and died in 1539, as appears from his tombstone in the chancel.
The site of this priory was granted in 1542 to Edward Seymour, then Earl of Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, and Protector. It subsequently became the joint property of the St. Aubyns and the Pendarveses of Roscrow. The late Lord Dunstanville inherited the latter portion, and acquired the former by purchase.
It seems that a manor of Tywardreth, which in early times must have been paramount over the others, passed from Ricardus Dapifer to the Cardinhams. Mr. Lysons says it was sold towards the latter part of the 13th century, by Isolda de Cardinham to the Champernownes, for a hundred pounds. From this family it passed to the Herles and Bonvilles, and fell to the Crown on the attainder of the Duke of Suffolk in 1554. It belonged to the family of Rashleigh, in the early part of the subsequent century; with whom it still remains, including the entire impropriation of the great and small tithes.
Menabilly has been the seat of that distinguished family for a period of at least two hundred years. At the last visitation of the Heralds in 1620, Jonathan Rashleigh of Fowey, who married Alice, daughter of —— Bonithan of Kertleowe, is said to be alive, having two sons. The eldest John Rashleigh, aged 34, and Jonathan Rashleigh the second. John Rashleigh, ancestor of these two brothers, in the fifth degree, is stated to have been of Barnstaple.
Individuals of this family have represented Fowey during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Charles the First, Charles the Second, and King William; and since the accession of King George the Second, up to very recent times, scarcely a Parliament has been assembled that could not count a Rashleigh among its members.
Mr. Jonathan Rashleigh was elected Member for Fowey in 1728, and continued to represent that town in eight successive Parliaments, and in the last with his eldest son.
This gentleman married Mary, daughter of Sir William Clayton of Surrey, and died in 1764, leaving a very numerous family, all of whom have been distinguished as persons