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THE

PAROCHIAL HISTORY

OF

CORNWALL.

J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, 25, PARLIAMENT-STREET.

THE

PAROCHIAL HISTORY

OF

CORNWALL,

FOUNDED ON THE MANUSCRIPT HISTORIES

OF

MR. HALS AND MR. TONKIN;

WITH ADDITIONS AND VARIOUS APPENDICES,

BY

DAVIES GILBERT,

SOMETIME PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY,
F.A.S. F.R.S.E. M.R.I.A. &c. &c.
AND D.C.L. BY DIPLOMA FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. IV.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY J. B. NICHOLS AND SON;

AND SOLD BY

J. LIDDELL, BODMIN; J. LAKE, FALMOUTH; O. MATTHEWS, HELSTON; MESSRS. BRAY AND ROWE, LAUNCESTON; T. VIGURS, PENZANCE; MRS. HEARD, TRURO; W. H. ROBERTS, EXETER; J. B. ROWE, PLYMOUTH; AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS IN CORNWALL AND DEVON.

1838.

HISTORY

OF THE

PARISHES OF CORNWALL.

STITHIANS.

HALS.

Stithians is situate in the hundred of Kerrier, and hath upon the north Gwenap, west Gwendron, east Gluvias and Peran-well, south Mabe.

I take it to be the same place taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, by the corrupt name of Stachenue.[1] At the time of the first inquisition into the value of Cornish Benefices this church was not endowed if extant, nor its daughter church Peranwell; but in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was rated by the name of Stedians, £14. 0s. 8d. The patronage formerly, as I am informed, either in the rector and fellows of the College of Regular Priests at Glasnith, or the Governor of St. John’s Hospital at Sithney, now in Boscawen; the incumbent —— Hillman, and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, £104. 4s. 0d.; the rectory in —— Boscawen.

This church is dedicated to St. Thomas à Beckett, and accordingly their parish festival is kept on St. Thomas’s

Day, July 7th, as was its superior collegiate church of Glasnith, founded by Walter Branscomb, Bishop of Exeter, A. D. 1256.

The barton and manor of Penalmicke, id est, the head or chief coat of mail armour, so called for that such armour was made or lodged in this place in former ages by the possessors or proprietors thereof; which place gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen from thence surnamed de Penalmick; from whose heirs it passed to Skewish, tempore Queen Mary, of whose posterity Collan Skewish, gent. tempore 3d of James I. sold the same to Sir Nicholas Hals of Fentongollan, knight, whose son John Hals, esq. sold the same to Pendarves, now in possession thereof as I am informed.

Tretheage, alias Tredeage, in this parish, is the dwelling of John Morton, gent. that married —— Wilton.

On the south-west part of this parish towards Gwendron, near the highway, are still to be seen nine stones perpendicularly erected in the earth, in a direct manner, called the Nine Maids or Sisters, probably set up there in memory of nine religious sisters or nuns in that place, before the fifth century (See St. Colomb Major and Buryan); not women turned into stones as the English name implies, and as the country people thereabout will tell you. See also Gwendron.

This parish is enriched with streams and lodes of tin in abundance.

TONKIN.

Stithians is in the hundred of Kerrier, and hath to the west Gwendron, to the north Gwenap, to the east St. Piran Arwothall, and to the south Constanton and Mabe.

This parish takes its name from its guardian saint St. Stithians [rather Stithian. But who was he? W.]

It is a vicarage, valued together with St. Piran Arwothall in the King’s Book [see Piran Arwothall before],

and hath the same patron, impropriator, and incumbent with that. I shall begin with the chief estate in it,

THE MANOR OF TRETHEAGE,

—the fair town or dwelling. [The fair house. W.] And so it may be well called, considering the country it lies in, as being for that pleasantly situated on the river which runs under Ponsannowth or New Bridge, and emptieth itself under Piran Arwothall church. This was formerly a manor of large extent, but now strangely curtailed.

Of late years it hath been the seat of the family of Morton; the last of which who lived here, John Morton, gent. who married —— the daughter of John Wilton of Dunveth, gent. was oddly outed of it (169..) by Nicholas Pearce; who having gotten a great deal of money in Magdalen Ball in Gluvias, settled it on his son Nicholas Pearce, lately dead, leaving by —— his wife, the daughter of —— Trewren, esq. of Trewardreva, one son Nicholas Pearce, a minor, who is the present lord of this manor. Morton’s arms were, Argent, a chevron between three moorcocks Sable.

THE EDITOR.

The church and tower of this parish are handsome objects built of granite, which abounds throughout all that district.

Mr. Lysons gives, as usual, on account of the ancient manors. The manor of Kennal, he says, belonged in the reign of Edward the Second to Matthew Penfern, afterwards to the Carminows, one of whose coheiresses brought it to the Arundells of Lanherne; by whom, in the year 1800, it was sold to three brothers of the name of Bath, who are the present proprietors. The manor of Roseeth is the property of Thomas Hocker, esq. the devisee of Thomas Reed, esq. The barton of Tretheage is the residence of

Mrs. Curgenven, widow of the late proprietor, Captain Curgenven, of the Royal Navy. The barton of Penalurick belongs to Mr. Hocker, and Stephen Ustick, esq. The bartons of Treweek and Tresavren belonged to the family of Hawes, but now to Mr. James Brown.

Tretheage, situated near the turnpike road leading from Truro to Helston, has a very pleasing appearance in the midst of a country almost bare of trees. About fifty or sixty years ago this place was the residence of a gentleman called Tincombe, who had been a practitioner of medicine, but retired to Tretheage, where either he or his father had built the present house. He married a Miss Kniverton of Tredreath in Lelant, but died without children.

Trevales has been for many years the residence of the late Mr. Thomas Reed, and of his ancestors; who having been long what is termed good livers in the parish, advanced themselves by successful adventures in mines, and by conducting a tin smelting house in the parish of Perran Arworthall. Mr. Thomas Reed never married, and devised the greater part of his property to Mr. Hocker his near relation.

Mr. Lysons says, the church of Stithians was given by Edward the Black Prince, to the abbey of Rewley near Oxford, in exchange for the manor of Nettlebed. It appears from the printed documents relative to that abbey, that Edmund Earl of Cornwall, in pursuance of his father’s direction, Richard King of the Romans, founded Rewley Abbey in the year 1280.

His charter, inter alia, has these words:

Sciant præsentes et futuri quod nos Edmundus, claræ memoriæ domini Ricardi regis Alemanniæ filius, et Comes Cornubiæ, dedimus, concessimus, et hac præsenti carta nostra confirmavimus Deo et Ecclesiæ beatæ Mariæ de Regali-loco juxta Oxon. et Abbati inibi commoranti, et quindecim Monachis capellanis ordinis Cisterciensis sibi professis, pro anima Ricardi quondam Regis Alemanniæ patris nostri divina celebrantibus, et eorum successoribus

ibidem commorantibus, Deo servientibus et imperpetuum servituris, omnes terras et tenementa quæ habuimus in North Oseneye juxta Oxon —— cum Advocatione Ecclesiæ de Sancta Wendrona et aliis pertinentiis suis in hundredo de Kerier in Cornubia. Preterea dedimus —— totum nemus quod habuimus apud Netlebedde ——.

And in the Valor Ecclesiasticus, taken after the dissolution by Henry the Eighth, is this entry:

Com. Cornub.

Wendrono et Stadyon, Firma Rector’ £22. 0s. 0d.

But nothing appears relative to the exchange of Nettlebed for Stithians.

The late vicar, the Rev. Edward Nankivell from St. Agnes, had been for several years Chaplain to the Factory at Smyrna.

Stithians measures 3987 statute acres.

giving an increase of 47½ per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. C. W. Woodley, presented by the Earl of Falmouth in 1829.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

With the exception of a small patch on its eastern extremity, this parish is situated entirely on granite, affording varieties similar to those of Gwennap, Redruth, Camborne, and Crowan, all of which are intersected by beds of porphyry, called by the miners elvan courses. The slate which occurs on the eastern side of this parish is felspathic, resembling that of the adjoining parish of Gwennap.

[1] There is no such name in Domesday Books; Mr. Hals must have misread Stratone or some similar name.

STOKE CLIMSLAND.

HALS.

Stoke Climsland is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north Lezant, west Southill, east Calstock and the Tamar River, south Killington.

This parish and church take their name from the manor of Stow Climsland in this parish aforesaid, and by that name it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. It was first given by Orgar Duke of Devon, or Elphrida his lady, to Tavistock Abbey in Devon, which he had founded. (Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, page 360.) Afterwards it became the possession of the Kings of England or Earls of Cornwall, and was by King Edward III. incorporated into the Duchy of Cornwall 1336. (See the charter under Lestwithiel.) And to remove an action at law out of the Court Leet of this Duchy or Stannary Manor, or any other in Devon, as I have elsewhere noted under Helleston, the writ must be thus directed:—

Gardiano Stannarum Devon et Cornubiæ, Capitali Senescallo Ducatus sui Cornubiæ, aut suo Deputat. ibidem. Et precipue sibi aut suo Deputat. Senescallo infra manerium de Stow Climsland parcell. Ducatus Cornub. pred. infra Com. Cornub. &c.

Of Hengiston Downs, King Egbright’s victory, and tin works in this parish, I have spoken under Killington. And of this manor of Climsland, and the park of Cari Bollock in this parish are mention made in the Duke’s Charter aforesaid. Now the modern name Cary-Bollock, I take to be only a corruption of Carow-Bollogk, female deer of a stag, probably kept here in the Duke’s park, when brought out of the forest of Dartmoor.

It appears from the ancient Survey of the Duchy of Cornwall in the Exchequer, tempore Edward III. (and

Blount’s Tenures, from thence also extracted page 107), that the old tenure of this Duchy Manor of Climsland or Clemsland, was villanage.

The manor of Rillaton in this parish, was invested with the jurisdiction of a Court Leet, and is annexed to the Duchy of Stoke Climsland, with all its privileges, as I am imformed. To remove an action at law from which, the writ must be thus directed: Senescallo Decanorum, Præposit. et liberis tenent. Manerii sui de Rillaton, parcell. Ducatus sui Cornub. in Com. Cornub. salutem.

In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Stoke, in decanatu de Est, was rated at cvis. viiid. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, Stoke Climsland Church was valued at £40, the patronage in the Dukes and Earls of Cornwall that endowed it; the incumbent ——; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax, for one year 1696, £424. 14s.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Is situate in the hundred of East, and hath to the west Linkinhorne and Southill, to the north Lezant, to the east the river Tamar, to the south Kellington and Calstock.

Stoke is the same with Stow, a place; and hath the adjunct of Climsland from the great duchy manor here.

[The word is Clema’s land, Clemmow being a personal name still in Cornwall, pronounced there Clemma, and meaning Clement. W.]

This is a rectory, valued in the King’s Book £40; the patronage in the Duke of Cornwall, the incumbent Mr. John Heron.

THE MANOR OF CLIMSLAND.

This, in the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edw. I. (Carew, fol. 48) is valued in fifty, by the name of Clemysland, in which I suppose is comprehended the park of Carybullock

belonging thereto. This being one of the ancient manors belonging to the Duke of Cornwall, and so settled by Edward the Third on his son Edward the Black Prince in the eleventh year of his reign, I shall say no more of it here, but come to the most remarkable places in it; and first to

CARY BULLOCK PARK.

So Mr. Carew calls it (fol. 115), “Carybullock,” saith he “some time a parke of the Duke’s, but best brooking that name now it hath lost its qualitie, through exchanging deere for bullocks.” Sir John Dodridge (History of Wal. and Corn. p. 84, &c.) calls it Kerry-bollock; but what if I should say the right name was Caer-bollick, and did signify the intrenched inclosure on the river?—the situation would exactly answer this derivation; but, since the writing of this, I find (Salmon’s Survey of England, vol. II. p. 714) that Mr. Baxter, in Bullœum or Buelt (according to Mr. Camden) in Brecknockshire, interprets it to be Caer-Bulack or “Principis Domus,” the Prince’s town or inclosure, which (if true) would suit very well with this. [This is a judicious application of one of Mr. Baxter’s etymons to the present place; Bulœum, as Baxter says the name is written in the superior copies of Ptolemy’s Geography, Baxter thinks with Lhwyd to be the modern Caer Phylli. Bel, he says, is properly a head, and figuratively a king. This makes Caer Bulack, “quod ara est Regia.” “Certe,” he adds, very usefully, “vel ipsi novimus in Montegomerica nostra Regione Domunculam antiqua Rhesi filii Theodori progenie nobilem;” ennobled by the birth of Rhys ap Tudor, “vel hodie nominatam Caer Bulach, tanquam Principis dicatur domus.” In proof of Mr. Baxter’s seemingly unfounded interpretation of Bel, Bol, or Bul, a head and a king, we may observe the name of the sun Beal, in the Beal-tine of Cornwall and the Beil-tine of Ireland for the fires on May-day in

honour of the sun; Beal, Bil (I.) a mouth; Bil (W.) the mouth of the vessel; Bollog (I.) a shell, a scull, the top of the head; Fal (I.) a king or great personage; Folar (I.) to command; Folarthoir (I.) an emperor; Folladh (I.) government; Ffelaig (W.) a general, a captain, a leader; Belee, plural Belein (C.) a priest or priests; Belek (A.) a priest; Pol-kil (C.) the hinder part of the head or the top of the neck; and in Belinus, Cunobelinus, and the promontory Bolerium of the ancient Britons; and Caer-Bulack, as a royal house is called equally in Wales, would in the Cornish mode of pronunciation be Cerry-bullock, as Car-hayes is Carry-hayes at present. W.]

Which since its being disparked by King Henry VIII. has been set out at lease to several gentlemen, and is now held by Sir John Coryton, of Newton, Bart.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons enumerates the manors; the principal of which are the manor giving its name to the parish, part of the ancient possessions of the duchy of Cornwall, and the manor of Climsland Prior, extending into Linkinhorne, which formerly belonged to the priory of Launceston; and after the general dissolution was given with many other manors forming the modern duchy in exchange for the honour and castle of Wallingford.

Carrybullock, disparked by King Henry the Eighth, was held under a lease from the duchy by Mr. Weston Helyar.

Mr. Lysons mentions other manors and bartons of no general interest, with the exception of Whiteford, on account of its late proprietor.

Mr. John Call was one of those individuals of whom the country adjacent to the Tamar may be proud.

It is understood that he was born on the Devonshire side of the river, and various tales are related of his first advancement in life; these are usually little worthy of attention,

and are most frequently exaggerated from an innate love of the marvellous. Mr. Call having proceeded to India as an engineer, most eminently distinguished himself in that field, more ample than any recorded in history for the successful display of abilities, and active persevering industry; and where, for the first time since distinct nations have been brought into contact by the improvements of navigation and of commerce, the vanquished have become debtors to the more successful party for protection, for the administration of equal laws and of impartial justice, and for the introduction among the inhabitants of the spirit of honour, the glory of modern Europe.

Here Mr. Call having served his country, and justly acquired the legitimate rewards of fame and of ample fortune, retired to his native country, purchased Whiteford, which he converted into a handsome seat, and much other property in the neighbourhood. His active mind could not, however, remain unemployed; he became a banker, a manufacturer of plate-glass, and a copper smelter. He served the office of Sheriff for Cornwall in the year 1771; afterwards represented Callington in Parliament, and was finally created a Baronet.

It may be interesting to insert some miscellaneous information which the gentleman communicated to this Editor in Oct. 1798, while he resided for a few weeks or months at Marazion, and which was imperfectly noted at the time.

He received the whole of his education as an engineer under Mr. Benjamin Robins, F.R.S. Engineer-General to the East India Company, the well-known author of various mathematical tracts, and especially of a treatise on the principles of gunnery, the force of gunpowder, and on the resisting power of the air to bodies in swift and in slow motion. This treatise his pupil Mr. Call transcribed for the press; and no doubt he assisted in making those admirable experiments and mathematical deductions from them, which have given a new character to this important branch

of military science, as well in respect to small arms, and more especially to rifled barrels, as to cannon and mortars, in reference to which Mr. Call made an additional improvement so as to discharge shells from long guns by placing the fusee internally, with its orifice concentric to the surface instead of projecting, and thereby securing it from injury as the shot rolls in passing out of the gun.

He successfully defended Fort St. George at Madras; and in 1761 conducted the siege of Pondicherry, which ended in the capture of that place, the chief seat of the French power in India. Sir John Call also mentions as a curious circumstance, illustrative of the decisive effects produced by the well-directed fire of field artillery, that in a battle where he was present (query, was it Plassey?) a shell from an howitzer caused the explosion of a carriage containing gunpowder, which produced some confusion and disorder in the enemy’s line; the commander instantly ordered a charge, and the victory was decided.

And he related another anecdote on a very different subject. That having with other amateurs of astronomy made preparations for observing the transit of Venus by constructing a temporary observatory on the flat roof of the government house at Madras, they waited with impatience after a long continuance of fine weather, for the important 3d of June 1761, when a most violent storm on the preceding night injured or destroyed their instruments so as to render any observation impossible; and, what added to their mortification and disappointment, a long continuance of fine weather succeeded this tempest.

Whiteford is now the residence of his son Sir William Pratt Call, who was Sheriff of Cornwall in 1807, and has a family.

The manor of Climsland Prior paid to the monastery at Launceston, the free tenants 8s. the conventionary tenants £6. 13s. 9d.

The advowson of the living seems to have been appurtenant to the ancient duchy manor of Stokeclimsland.

This parish measures 7973 statute acres.

giving an increase of 39½ per cent. in 30 years.

Present Rector the Rev. C. Lethbridge, presented by the Prince of Wales in 1805.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The southern part of this parish includes the whole of the granite of Kit Hill, which is for the most part of the coarse-grained crystalline variety so common in Cornwall. Proceeding northward, the rest of the parish is found to belong to the schistose rocks; those next to the granite are felspathic, and contain beds of porphyry, but those more remote, which form the greater part, must be referred to the calcareous series.

STRATTON.

HALS.

Stratton is now situate in the hundred from thence denominated Stratton, (formerly Major Trigshire Cantred) and hath upon the north Powghill, east Lancells, south Marhamchurch, west Bude Bay and the Channel. As for the name, after the Saxon, it is compounded of Strat-ton, i. e. street or highway town, a lane or public road, derived perhaps from the Latin strata, a street or Roman highway; and by this name of Stratton, it is taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester aforesaid 1294, Ecclesia de Stratone, in decanatu de Major Trigshire, was rated £7. 13s. 4d. vicar’ ibidem 20s. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was valued

£10. 11s. 6½d. The patronage formerly in the prior of Lancells, who endowed it as I am informed; now ——; the incumbent ——; and the rectory in possession of ——; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, £290. 18s. The town of Stratton is privileged with a weekly market on Tuesdays, and Fairs annually on the 8th of May, 28th of October, and 30th of November.

Thurlebere, Thurle-ber, bir, in this parish, was another district taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, from whence was denominated an ancient family of gentlemen surnamed De Thurlebere, or whurle-ber; i. e. cast, whirle, twine, the spit, short spear, dart, pike, lance or broach, for so the terminative particle ber, bere, bir, indifferently signifies. See Floyd upon Obelus. In this place John de Thurlebere held by the tenure of knight’s service, twenty pounds per annum in lands, tempore Edward III. and John de Cobham had likewise in it by the same tenure the third part of a knight’s fee. (Survey of Cornwall, page 40 and 52.) One of those Thurleberes married the daughter and heir of Thomas de Waunford, Lord of Ebbingford, alias Efford in Bude Bay, and afterwards made it the place of their residence, tempore Henry V. till at length the daughter and heir of those Thurleberes was married to Arundell of Trerice, tempore Edward IV. whose posterity are now in possession thereof.

Near this town of Stratton, in a field called —— there happened on Tuesday the 16th of May 1643, a sore and bloody battle between the army or soldiers of King Charles I. under conduct of his general Sir Ralph Hopton, knight, and Major-General Chudleigh, Commander of the Parliament Forces in those parts; where, after a sharp contest from five of the clock in the morning till three in the afternoon, the fight or success continued doubtful: so that Sir Bevill Grenvill, knight, was unhorsed, and his troop put into disorder by Chudleigh’s men; and

the king’s party had been totally overthrown had not Sir John Berkeley with great courage and conduct led up the musketeers he commanded to their seasonable assistance, maintaining the charge with that stoutness, that the Parliament army, after the loss of about three hundred soldiers, gave ground, and Chudleigh was taken prisoner, with seventeen hundred more of his party. The king’s army having sustained the loss of about two hundred persons, had the plunder of the field, wherein they found seventeen brass pieces of ordinance, seventy barrels of powder, three thousand arms, with ammunition, provision, and biscuit, proportionable.

The country people hereabout will tell you, that the field aforesaid where this battle was fought, being afterwards tilled to barley, produced sixty bushels of corn, Winchester measure, in every acre (See St. Sennan); the fertility whereof is ascribed to the virtue the lands received from the blood of slain men and horses, and the trampling of their feet in this battle.

For this victory, Sir Ralph Hopton, knight of the Bath, was by Letters Patent dated at Oxford, 4th September, 19 Charles I. by him created Baron Hopton of Stratton; but he dying without issue at Bruges in Flanders, King Charles the Second, in the 12th year of his reign, conferred that honorary title of Straton, upon Sir John Berkeley aforesaid (younger son of Sir Maurice Barkley of Bruton in Somerset) who also was one of the four managers of martial affairs in Cornwall for King Charles I. together with the Lord Mohun, Sir Ralph Hopton aforesaid, and Colonel Ashburnham; he also reduced Exeter, and was made governor thereof, and gave for his arms in a field Ruby a chevron Ermine, between ten crosses pattee Pearl, six in chief, and four in base.

The ancestor of this Sir Ralph Hopton, knight, came out of France or Normandy, a soldier or huntsman under William the Conqueror 1066, by the name of the Norman

Hunter, to whom he gave Hopton in the Hole in the county of Salop, (from whence afterwards he was denominated De Hopton,) which he conveyed to him and his heirs, and failing the remainder, to the crown.

Sir William de Mohun, one of the founders of the Abbey of Newham in Devon, 30th Henry III. gave to the same the bailiwick of the hundred of Axminster, and also the manor of Norton, with the hundred and bailiwick of Major Trigshire, now Stratton in Cornwall. (See Prince’s Worthies of Devon.) After the dissolution of Newham Abbey, 26 Henry VIII. it fell to the crown, from whence the present titles of those bailiwicks are derived.

TONKIN.

Stratton is in the hundred of the same name, and is bounded to the west by the north or Severn channel and Poughill, to the north by Kilkhampton, to the east by the river Tamar, to the south by Lancells, Marhamchurch, and Poundstock.

As for the name, it is no other than the street town, from its consisting chiefly of one street, and being a great thoroughfare, but more probably from a Roman Way. [from the Roman stratum or street certainly, on which it lies. W.]

In anno 1291, 20 Edward I. the rectory was valued (Tax. Ben.) at £7. 13s. 4d. being appropriated to the Priory of Lanceston; and the vicar at 20s.

This church is a vicarage, valued in the King’s Book, at £10. 11s. 6d. ob.; the patronage in the crown.

THE MANOR OF STRATTON.

In Domesday Book Stratone was one of the manors given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother Robert Earl of Morton, when he made him Earl of Cornwall.

In the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. (Carew,

fol. 48), it is valued in 21. In 3 of Henry IV. (Id. fol. 40 b.) Ranulph de Albo Monasterio (Whitchurch)

THE EDITOR.

Stratton is a neat although a small town. Before the great roads were made through the middle of the county along the central ridge and above the formation of deep valleys, a northern entrance into Cornwall passed through this town.

Mr. Lysons says, that the manors of Stratton and Binomy belonged at an early period to an ancient family called in various records De Albo Monasterio, or Blanchminster and Whitminster. The property passed by an heiress to the family of Hiwis; and Emmeline the heiress of Hiwis, married first, Sir Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, who lost his life through popular violence in the year 1388; and secondly, Sir John Coleshill.

Sir John Coleshill, son of the above, was killed at the battle of Agincourt in 1415, leaving an infant son; after whose death in 1483 the large estates of this family passed by a female heir to a younger branch of the Arundells, and were afterwards divided among its numerous representatives.

The manors of Binomy and Stratton having been purchased by the Grenvilles, have descended to Lord Carteret.

The manor of Efford or Ebbingford, belonged at an early period to the Waumfords or Waunfords, from whom it passed by a coheiress to the Durants, and from them by an heiress to the Arundells of Trerice, from whom it is derived to Sir Thomas Dyke Acland of Killerton.

The church and tower are fine specimens of the style of architecture prevalent throughout the West of England. There are also several monuments; and Mr. Lysons quotes

from the register, the baptism and death of Elizabeth Cornish, who lived between these two dates, 113 years 4 months and 13 days. She was baptized in Oct. 1578, and was buried March the 10th, 1691.

The great tithes and the manor denominated Sanctuary, or Sentery, as was usual with such professions, belonged to the Priory of Launceston. After the dissolution of monasteries, this manor carrying with it the advowson of the vicarage, was annexed to the Duchy of Cornwall, with various other lands, in exchange for the honour and castle of Wallingford.

The great tithes were granted to the family of Wadder, but they have since been sold in parcels.

The place of most importance in this parish after the town, is Bude. This place has always given some shelter for boats, and afforded sand for manure. It has within about twenty years received most essential improvement. A pier or jetty has been built out into the sea, and a canal with inclined planes has been made for the conveyance of coal and merchandise into the country, and for bringing down slate and the produce of land; but above all, for supplying sand as a manure. The sand at this place consists entirely of powdered shells, as it does along the whole north coast of Cornwall, and it is found to be so efficacious for imparting fertility to clay lands, that it is frequently conveyed in wheel carriages to so great a distance from the coast, as to require the draft cattle remaining out a night.

The boats used on this coast are formed like boxes, having within each side a closed trough containing two wheels, which project a very little beyond the lower surface. These wheels are consequently no impediment to the boats floating on the water, but they enable them to ascend or to descend the inclined planes with the facility of other carriages. See a Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation, by R. Fulton, 1 vol. 4to, London, 1796, p. 32, where this plan is suggested perhaps for the first time.

Bude is also become a place of resort for sea bathing; and several houses for the accommodation of strangers have been built by Sir Thomas Acland, so that it has acquired the well-known appellation of a watering place.

The Editor having omitted through inadvertence to notice in the adjoining parish of Launcels a gentleman one of the most respectable in the north-eastern part of Cornwall, hopes that he may be excused for inserting his name here.

Launcells House, a modern building on the spot where formerly stood the residence of the Chamonds, is the seat of George Boughton Kingdon, esq. respected by every one who has the honour of his acquaintance, for scientific and literary acquirements, and esteemed as a benefactor to his neighbourhood in the characters of a magistrate and of a worthy country gentleman.

An instance of longevity has been given in the parish of Stratton, and an occurrence has been stated to the Editor, which proves that Launcells participates in the general healthiness of that district.

It seems the identical six men who rang the bells in Launcells tower on the Coronation of King George the Third, rang them also on the day of his jubilee, having continued the parish ringers during all that time.

Their names are recorded in the parish, and may therefore be inserted here.

John Lyle, Henry Cadd, Richard Venning, John Ham, John Allin, Richard Hayman.

And of these, John Lyle rang at the accession of King George the Fourth, and of his present Majesty King William the Fourth, being then in his ninety-sixth year: but all are now gathered to their fathers.

And here, as appertaining more to the general character of the country than to any particular parish, in reference to the terrific cliffs which surround this coast, it may be proper to state a fact communicated by Mr. Kingdon; that, from actual measurement taken by himself, Hennacleve cliff on Westcot Down, in the parish of Moorwinstow, is 430 feet above the level of the beach.

Stratton measures 2300 statute acres.

giving an increase of 68 per cent in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Jacob Hawker, presented by the King as Prince of Wales in 1833.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

This parish, like the adjoining one of Kilkhampton, is composed of compact and of schistose varieties of dunstone, occasionally interspersed with beds of calcareous schist and limestone.

TALLAND.

HALS.

Talland is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the north Pelynt, east the haven or harbour of Looe, south the British Channel, west Lansallas.

In the Domesday Book 1087, this district was taxed under the Jurisdiction and in the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de Talland 1294, was rated at £8. vicar ejusdem 40s. In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, it was not valued or named. The patronage is in ——; the incumbent ——; and the rectory in possession of ——; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year, £156. 15s. But if the word Talland be compounded only of Ta-land, it signifies the good acceptable land.

West Looe, alias Porth-Vyan, Porth-Byan, alias Porth-Bichan or Porth-Bigan, or Pigan, all synonymous words in British, only varied by the dialect, which signifies the little gate, cove, creek, or entrance, according to the natural circumstances of the place, where daily the sea makes its flux and reflux some miles up into the land or country, through a narrow passage betwixt the parishes of St. Martin’s and Talland aforesaid, over which is a curious and strong stone bridge of about twelve arches, which as an artificial ligament fastens those parishes and the towns of East and West Looe together; which latter, by the name of Porth Byhan, was taxed as the voke lands of a privileged borough or manor in the Domesday Book as aforesaid, 1087, and still known by the name of Porth Byan or West Looe; and by this name all its privileges were confirmed, and the town incorporated 16th of Queen Elizabeth, by the name of the mayor and burgesses thereof, consisting of a mayor and twelve burgesses.

The members of Parliament are elected by the majority of freemen; and the precept from the Sheriff, or the writ for electing those members, as also for removal of an action at law depending in this court to a superior, must be thus directed:

Majori et Liberis Burgensibus Burgi sui de Porth Byan, alias West Looe, in comitatu Cornubiæ, salutem.

And as a further testimony of its present grandeur, though I take it much inferior in riches and building to the late erected town of East Looe, it hath ever, and still stands as a noun substantive in the Exchequer, and was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, by the name of the borough of West Looe, £15. 13s. 1696. Whereas, the borough of Michell falls under the tax of Newlan and St. Enedor parishes; Bosinney or Trevena under Dundagell; and Camelford under Lantegles, in the Exchequer, without name or value.

This town is also privileged with a fair yearly, on 25th April, and markets weekly.

Seal of “Portuan otherwys called West Lo.”

The arms of this borough are, a soldier or man of war Proper, with a bow in one hand, and an arrow in the other. For the etymology of Looe, see East Looe.

This manor of borough of Porthbyan, as I am informed, was heretofore villanage tenure, and pertained to the Bodrigans.

In this town of West Looe, was born Charles Wager, as I am informed, son of —— Wager; who, being placed an apprentice at sea, grew so expert in navigation and the mathematics, that he became a great master in that art; and being after in the sea fight between Queen Anne and the French and Spaniards, he behaved himself so well in his valour and conduct, though to the loss of one of his arms, that by Queen Anne or King George he was afterwards knighted, and preferred, not only to the command of a third-rate frigate, but made Admiral of the Red Squadron of Men of War, for him and his son King George the Second, in the Baltic Sea and British Channel 1729.

In this parish stands the barton and manor of Killygarth. This lordship, tempore Edward III. was the lands of the Sergeaulxes, and particularly of Richard de Sergeaulx, who is mentioned in Mr. Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, page 52, 25 Edward III. then to have held in

Cornwall, by the tenure of knight service, £20 per annum in lands and tenements. His son Sir Richard Sergeaulx, knight, was Sheriff of Cornwall, 12 Richard II. whose son Richard Sergeaulx held in Killygarth, Lanreth, and Lansulhas, three little knight’s fees of land of Morton, as also two fees and a half in Colquite, (idem librum, p. 42,) 3 Henry IV. (five knight’s fees was four thousand acres of land); who dying without issue male, his three daughters or sisters became his heirs, and were married to Seyntaubyn and Beare of Cornwall, and Marney of Essex, as I am informed; after whose decease, Beare became seised of this lordship, was married and had issue Thomas Beare, esq. Sheriff of Cornwall, 4th of Edward IV.; and William Beare, Sheriff of Cornwall, 6th of Edward IV. who gave the bear for his arms, the colours I know not.

This William Beare had issue only one daughter, married to Peter Bevill, a younger brother of John Bevill of Gwarnack, esq. who had issue by her, John Bevill, esq. that married Mileton of Pengersick; who by her had issue Sir William Bevill, knight, Sheriff of Cornwall, 31st of Elizabeth 1591, that married ——, but had no legitimate issue: so that his brother Philip’s daughter Elizabeth became his heir, and was married to Sir Bernard Grenvill of Stowe, knight, father of Sir Bevill Grenvill, knight, that sold this lordship of Killygarth to Killygrew, from whom it passed to Hallet, and from him to Kendall of Middlesex, now in possession thereof.

The arms of Bevill are Ermine, a bull passant Sable.

Hen-darsike in this parish is a contraction of Hen-dowers-ike, i. e. old, ancient cove, creek, lake, or bosom of waters, lands probably under such circumstances. It is the dwelling of John Morth, esq. that married —— Buller of Morvall; his father William Morth was Sheriff of Cornwall 2 William III.

This family in genteel degree hath flourished in this place for many generations, though I am not informed as to the particulars.

In this parish at Trenake is the dwelling of Thomas Achym, gent. which family hath flourished in those parts for many generations in genteel degree, and give for their Arms, in a field Argent a maunch mantail Sable, within a bordure of the First charged with cinquefoiles of the Second. If the name of Achym be a monosyllable, it signifies in British a descendant, issue, offspring, or progeny.

TONKIN AND WHITAKER.

Talland is in the hundred of West, and is bounded to the west by Launcells, to the north by Pelynt, to the east by Looe river, and to the south by the British Channel.

This is a vicarage, not valued in the King’s Book; but in anno 1291, 20 Edward I. it was valued, the rectory (Tax. Benef.) at £8, it having been appropriated to Launceston Priory; and the vicarage at 40s. The patronage is in Archdeacon Kendall, and the incumbent Mr. Doidge.

Mr. Thomas Kendall had a younger brother, Colonel James Kendall, who was Governor of Barbadoes in ——, one of the lords of the Admiralty under Queen Anne, and a member of Parliament in several Parliaments: he died suddenly, unmarried, July the 10th, 1708, at his house in London, very rich, and left a natural son by Mrs. Colliton, who now goes by the name of Kendall.

Under Killygarth is Porth-Para, vulgo Polpera, id est, the sandy port. “A little to the eastwards,” saith Carew, (fol. 131 b.) “from Killygarth, the poor harbour and village of Polpera coucheth between two steep hills:” [from which circumstance, as I know of no word similar to para in the Cornish, and signifying sand in English, I might more aptly take the name to be (as Carew writes, and as usage sounds it) pol-pera, pol-poran, the close or strait pool. But the fact is, that the name is purely English, with a Cornish pronunciation. “By est, the haven of Fowey upon a iiii miles of,” says Leland, Itin. vii. 121), “ys a smawle creke cawled Paul Pier, and a symple and poore village upon the est side of the same, of

fisharmen, and the bootes ther fishing by [be] saved by a Peere or key. In the est side of this Paul Pirre,” &c. And since the cove is still written as Leland first writes it, “Paul Pier” (See Borlase’s map) so is it obviously allusive to the “Pier or Key,” which he mentions at it. W.] where plenty of fish is vented to the fish-drivers, whom we call “jowters” [men who jolt about with horses and panniers to sell fish]. And between this and the church is Porth Talland.

The manor by the name of Tallan, in the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. is valued in six. (Carew, fol. 49.) [Here let me just note what Mr. Tonkin has omitted, the etymology of the name of the parish, and of the manor. Written originally Tallan, and gaining only the final T. by vicious pronunciation, the manor and the parish derive their name apparently from the church; and this takes its appellation from its site, I apprehend, being seated upon the high bold shore of the channel, and so being called Tal-Lan, the high church or the church upon a high position; just as Tal-ar (C.) signifies a high land or headland, and as a high rock in St. Allen is called Tal-Carne. W.] Of the ancient lords of which manor I shall give a full account on the other side [see towards the end]; and only take notice here, that within it, and

Next is the church. Near this the family of Murth hath long dwelt. “In the same parish where Killingworth is seated,” saith Carew, (fol. 131), “Master Murth inheriteth a house and demaynes: hee maried Treffry: his father Tregose. One of their ancestors, within the memory of a next neighbour to the house called Prake (burdened with a hundred and ten yeeres of age), entertained a British

master and his guests at a Christmas supper, carrieth them speedily unto Lantreghey,” [or the church town in Bretagne] “and forceth the gentleman to redeeme his inlargement with a sale of a great part of his revenues.”

The present owner is Jeffry Murth, esq. who is a Justice of the Peace, and a very honest good-natured gentleman: he is married to the daughter of John Oxenham, of Oxenham in Devon, esq. His father, John Murth, esq. married Elizabeth, the daughter of John Buller, of Morval, esq. Arms of Murth, Sable, a chevron between three falcon’s legs erased, with bells, Or.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Bond has given so good and ample an account of this parish in his Topographical and Historical Sketches of East and West Looe, 1 vol. 8vo. printed by Nichols, 25, Parliament Street, Westminster, 1823, that the whole which is addative to Hals and Tonkin, is here inserted.

West Looe is situated in the parish of Talland, within which parish is a hamlet called Lemain, and part of West Looe lies in this hamlet. On the barton of Portlooe in the parish of Talland, just opposite Looe Island, was a cell of Benedictine Monks, called Lammana, subject to the Abbey of Glastonbury, to which the site appears to have been given by the ancestors of Hastulus de Solenny; there are some remains of the chapel still in existence.

I measured this chapel on the 13th of April 1815, and found it, within the walls, about forty-seven feet long by twenty-four wide. About three or four hundred yards to the eastward of the chapel are the remains of some antient building, perhaps that in which the monks dwelt. The remains of the eastern end wall thereof, at present eight or ten feet high, have two very narrow windows or openings, still in being. The situation of this chapel and house is very pleasant; they lie in a sort of natural amphitheatre, sheltered from the north winds by high land.

In Hearne’s Appendix to Adam de Domerham, is a grant of Hastulus de Solenny, confirming the Island of St. Michael de Lammana (most probably that of St. George opposite Looe) to the Monks of Glastonbury; a grant of Roger Fitzwilliam quitting claim to the lands of Lammana, which he held for life under the Church of Glastonbury (reserving the house which Mabil his sister occupied), and one of Richard Earl of Cornwall, granting the Monks a licence to farm out the church, and the Island of Lammana. It appears that Abbat Michael, about the middle of the thirteenth century, leased it to the Sacristary of the Convent. The Free Chapel of La Mayne in Cornwall, was granted to Edward Bostock, 5th Jac.—Lysons’s Mag. Brit.

Two of the grants noticed by Mr. Lysons, are printed in the New Edition of Dugdale’s Monasticon.

Carta Hastuli filii Johannis de Soleneio.

Universis Christi fidelibus, ad quos præsens scriptum pervenerit, Hastulus filius Johannis de Solenneio, salutem in Domino. Universitati vestræ notificetur, quod Ego Hastulus filius Johannis de Solenneio concessi, et præsenti carta confirmavi, Deo et ecclesiæ beatæ Virginis Mariæ Glaston. et ejusdem loci conventui, totam Insulam Sancti Michaelis de Lammana, cum omnibus pertinentiis suis, et terris, et decimis, quam ab antiquo, dono prædecessorum meorum, tenent; ut in omnibus, tam libere, et quiete, et honorifice, ab omni servitio sæculari et exactione servili, ipsam possideant, integre, plenarie, et pacifice, in planis et pascuis, et in omnibus consuetudinibus liberis, sicut Ego melius et liberius terram meam in dominiis meis possideo, et ut omnia pecora sua cum meis ubique pascantur. Concedo etiam eis plenarie decimas dominii mei omnes de Portlo, et ut jura, libertates et consuetudines, sicut ego in mea curia, ita ipsi in sua curia habeant. Prohibeo siquidem, ne aliquis ex ballivis vel servientibus meis, illis quacumque occasione aliquam molestiam inferant; vel

sæculare servitium ab eisdem exigere præsumant, unde fratres mei, Monachi Glastonienses, in prefato loco Lammana Deo servientes, ab eisdem famulatu, ullatenus præpediantur. Si quis autem huic concessioni meæ fidem et effectum adhibuerit, a pio Judice mercedem condignam inveniat. Qui vero eam in irritum ducere præsumpsit, deleat eum Deus de libro vitæ, et cum Juda proditore sine fine pœnas exolvat. Ne igitur facti mei tenor vacillet in dubio, præsentis scripti paginam sigilli mei appositione roboravi. His testibus,

Helya, tunc ejusdem Priore, et ejus socio Monacho Johanne —Henrico filio Milonis —Willelmo Milite —Grimbaldo —Roberto Clerico —Jordano Decano —Angero de Surtecote —Jocelino Milite fratre ejus —Gervasio Capelleno de Sancto —Marco —Rogero Ruffo —Rogero Cileintenat —Willelmo filio Roberti —et multis aliis.

Carta Ricardi Comitis Cornubiæ.

Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos præsens scriptum pervenerit, nobilis vir Ricardus Comes Cornubiæ salutem in Domino. Noveritis nos, pro salute nostra, et hæredum et successorum nostrorum, remisisse et quieta clamasse in perpetuum pro nobis, heredibus et successoribus nostris, viris religiosis, Abbati et conventui Glaston. ac Ecclesiæ ejusdem loci, Hospitia cum arreragiis, sectas comitatum, schire hundredorum, et curias de factum, et omnes alias sectas et consuetudines quæ ad nos et hæredes et successores nostros alicujus jure pertinebant seu pertinere poterant, de terris et possessionibus suis de Lammena, cum pertinentiis, videlicet —pro x solidis sterlingorum annuatim solvendis senescallo nostro vel ballivo Cornubiæ apud castrum de Lanstavetone ad festum sancti Michaelis. Concessimus etiam, in puram et perpetuam elemosinam, dictis Abbati et conventui ecclesiæ Glaston, pro nobis et hæredibus et successoribus nostris imperpetuum, plenam licentiam et liberam potestatem ponendi Ecclesiam et insulam

de Lammana, præfatas ecclesias, terras et possessiones ejusdem loci cum pertinentiis, ad firmam alienandi. Insuper eas, si voluerint, vel aliter de eisdem, pro ipsorum bene placitodis ponendi, sine aliqua contradictione, exactione vel impedimento nostri vel hæredum aut successorum nostrorum.

Et ut hæc nostra remissio, quieta clamantia, et concessio rata sit et in posterum perseveret, huic scripto sigillum apposuimus. His testibus, Dominis Ricardo de Latur, Willelmo Talebot, Petro Gandi, Olivero de Aspervile, Petro de la Mare, militibus, Johanne de Latur, Ricardo Basset, et aliis.

MIDMAIN ROCK.—PORTNADLER BAY.

Between the main land and Looe Island stands a rock, higher than the surrounding ones, which is called Midmain or Magmain. Small vessels frequently pass between the island and the main land, when the tide is in. An imaginary line drawn from Looe Island westward, to a high rock called horestone or orestone, about a mile distant, would form the outer boundary of a piece of water called Portnadler Bay; from whence the name is derived I know not.

CORPORATION.

Queen Elizabeth incorporated West Looe 14th February 1574, in the sixteenth year of her reign, by the name of Mayor and Burgesses of the Borough of Portbyhan, otherwise West Looe, in the county of Cornwall. Twelve chief burgesses were appointed by this charter. The mayor is elected from the Chief Burgesses, by their votes and the votes of the Free Burgesses, on Michaelmas-day annually, between nine and twelve of the clock in the forenoon, and then sworn into office. The mayor is also a Justice of the Peace, as is likewise the steward. The mayor has no power

to appoint a deputy. The steward, however, has such an authority; but his deputy is not a Justice of the Peace.

WEST LOOE DOWN.—GIANT’S HEDGE OR MOUND.

Just above the houses (the intermediate space filled up with gardens and orchards) is a common or down, called West Looe Down, of near a hundred acres, on which are the remains of a mound of earth that runs many miles across the country, and is noticed by Borlase, who, from its extent and other circumstances, supposed it to be a Roman work. His account of it as follows: “That the Romans had ways in the eastern parts of the county about Loo and Lostwithiel, the following antient work, shewn me by the Rev. Mr. Howell, Rector of Lanreath (June 25 and 26, 1756), will abundantly confirm. It is called the Giant’s Hedge, a large mound, which reaches from the valley in which the Boroughs of East and West Looe are situated, to Leryn, on the river Fowey. It is first visible on West Looe Down, about two hundred paces above the Mills; whence it runs to Kilminarth Woods; from and through them to Trelawn Wood, about three hundred paces above Trelawn Mill; then through Little Larnick to the barton of Hall, in which there are two circular encampments, about four hundred paces to the north of it; thence quite through the said barton, making the northern boundary of fields to the glebe of Pelynt Vicarage, called Furze Park; then cross the barton of Tregarrick; and thence, through the north grounds of Tresassen and Polventon, to the glebe lands of the rectory of Lanreath, where I measured it seven feet high and twenty feet wide at a medium; thence it stretches through the tenement of Wyllacombe to Trebant Water; whence it proceeds, through the barton of Longunnet and some small tenements, to Leryn; from which there is a fair dry down, called St. Winnow Down, leading north along to Lostwithiel. This risbank, or mound, ranges up hill and down

hill indifferently; has no visible ditch continued on any brow of a hill, as intrenchments always have; there is no hollow, or foss, on one side more than the other; it is about seven miles long, and tends straight from Looe to Leryn Creek, in the direct line from Looe to Lostwithiel. By all these properties, its height and breadth, in wanting the fosses of fortification, its straightness and length, the grandeur of the design, and the labour of execution, I judge that it can be nothing less than a Roman work. In this supposition I am the more confirmed, first, because several Roman coins have been found on the banks of Fowey river (as see “Antiquities of Cornwall,” p. 282), and, as I have been informed, also in the run of this notable work; secondly, by its tendency to the first ford over the navigable river of Fowey; for it must be observed that the Romans, thoroughly sensible of the delays and hazards of crossing friths and arms of the sea, and the danger of bridges getting into the possession of the natives, were equally averse both to bridges and passing large rivers; they had therefore in constant view the nearest and most commodious fords of rivers, and directed their roads accordingly. Now near Leryn Creek, where the work ends, there is a ford, and no where below is the river Fowey fordable; which plainly accounts for their conveying this road so high up the country, that it might at once convey their troops towards their station at Lostwithiel, and afford them a safe passage over the river Fowey into the western parts, through Grampont and Truro.”

Borlase also, in his Natural History, says, “There are the remains of a causey between Liskeard and Looe, near Polgover, the seat of Mr. Mayow, which, as well as the cross road from Dulo to Hessenford, vulgar tradition makes to be Roman.” This causey I have never been able to find out.

The above-mentioned mound is first visible directly above Looe bridge; so that, if a line was drawn west, as

the bridge tends, it would come to it at the head of a field called Bridgend meadow, where a small orchard is planted. There is a very visible ditch all along West Looe Down to the north of the rampart. On the barton of Hall, however, the ditch is to the south of the rampart. This rampart on the barton of Hall is at least fifteen feet high and about twenty feet thick at the base. About four hundred paces north of it, as Borlase says, there are two apparently (though not perfectly, as I was informed by Captain Dawson, who assisted in taking the Trigonometrical Survey, under Colonel Mudge) circular encampments, situated in a field called Berry Park. Berry Park contains about eighteen acres, and may be termed a tongue of land. It has a valley on each side, and also at the bottom. Across the isthmus, if I may so term it, of this tongue of land, runs the mound, protecting that part of the field which the valleys do not extend to. The circles (or rings, as they are now called by the tenant) consist of one entire circle of about 122 paces diameter, surrounded with a rampart, ditch, and breast-work; the height of which rampart, from the bottom of the ditch, is, I imagine, upwards of fifteen feet, and must originally have been much higher. This circle has but one gateway into it, which is guarded by mounds without ditches, running upwards of fifty feet into the circle. The part of this circle where the gateway is, is surrounded by about three fourths of another circle, whose sweep, had it been continued, would have intersected the inner circle; but the southern part of this outermost circle, when it comes within twenty or thirty feet of the inner, falls into the segment of another circle, which runs parallel to the inner circle, leaving a platform of about fifty feet breadth between the two ditches, and surrounding about a third part of the inner circle. From the gateway of the inner to the opposite point of the outward circle, is about 144 paces, which may be about three fourths of the diameter. The outer circle has a similar rampart, ditch, and breast-work with the inner circle, and one gateway,

which is not quite opposite that of the former. These circles command very fine prospects both of land and sea. Rame Head and the entrance into Plymouth are visible from Berry Park. You can see these circles from Bindown Hill with the naked eye; and from the elevation of that hill you look down on them so as to see their areas.

In a field a short distance south-west of Pelynt church-town, and about half a mile in a direct line from the said circles, are many barrows. The field in which they are, is I believe, called the The Five Barrows. At the bottom of this field is a highway, leading from Pelynt Church-town to the Fowey road. In this highway, just at the bottom of the said field, a few years since, a grave was discovered by some men mending the highway. It was formed by four stones on their edges, and a covering stone. In this kestvaen was an urn, with burnt ashes in it; and round the urn were piled, in a regular manner, the unburnt remains of human bones. I went to Pelynt purposely to see this curiosity, but found the grave had been filled up, and its contents buried. The urn was described to me by a man who saw it as having ornaments of flowers and leaves on its outside, and that it fell into sheards when touched. I could not learn that any coin or other thing was found in the urn or grave; indeed, I fancy there was a lack of curiosity in all concerned.

Part of the mound on West Looe Down has been from time to time dug down, to obtain earth for building and plastering. I have several times desired the labourers, in case of their finding any coin or other thing curious, to preserve it; but have never heard of any thing being found of late years. A celt (commonly called in this neighbourhood a thunderbolt[2]) was some years ago found on this Down; and it was given by the late Mr. Bawden, of Looe,

to Mr. James, of St. Kevern. I have a celt, made of a hard black stone, which was found in pulling down an old house at East Looe a few years since; it is between six and seven inches long, and very perfect. I lately saw some like it in shape and stone, but not so large, in the British Museum.

I also remember seeing a celt that was found, about thirty years ago, at Kilminarth, near the ruin of the said mound: about which time a gold chain and several instruments of brass were found in a decayed hedge, or side of a highway, near Little Larnic, by an apprentice girl. Her mistress described them to me as being somewhat like hatchets, and said “she believed they were things which the warriors used in antient times.” I applied to the mistress, in hopes of getting a sight of them; but her apprentice had sold them to a buyer of old brass. The hedge formed one side of the high road, not far from the said mound. The apprentice told me that the gold chain was about a foot and a half in length —that when she found it, not thinking it was gold, she tied it to the end of a stick, and made a sort of whip of it to drive home the cows. She some time after discovered that it was gold, and kept it by her for several years, when she gave it to her brother, who sold it to a Mr. Patrick, a jeweller at Dock, for three pounds. The brother told me that Mr. Patrick said it was Corsican gold; and he (the brother) also told me that he well remembered the brass instruments, and that some of them were like the tops of spontoons.

POLVELLAN.

On West Looe Down the late John Lemon, esq. (M.P. for Truro, and who died April 5, 1814), about the year 1787 erected a small but extremely neat house in the cottage style, and inclosed some ground round it by virtue of a grant from the Corporation. He gave it the name of Polvellan, and laid it out with great taste. Pol, in Cornish,

signifies a Pool, and Vellan a Mill; and below the house are a mill and pool, inclosed by a stone wall of about half a mile sweep, in a circular direction. I cannot describe the contrivance and use of this pool better than in the words of Mr. Carew, in his “Survey of Cornwall.”—“Amongst other commodities afforded by the sea, the inhabitants make use of divers his creekes for grist mills, by thwarting a banke from side to side, in which a flood-gate is placed, with two leaves; these the flowing tide openeth, and, after full sea, the weight of the ebb closeth fast, which no other force can doe; and so the imprisoned water payeth the ransome of driving an under shoote wheel for his enlargement.” I apprehend the mill and pool-wall were built by one of the Arundells of Tremodart, in Duloe parish. The wall is about six or eight feet high, and almost broad enough for a coach to pass over it, and must have cost a great deal of money. It appears by a deed which I have seen, that the Mayor and Burgesses of West Looe, on the 30th of May, in the twelfth year of the reign of James the First (1614), granted all that parcel, quantity of ground, oze, or water, now surrounded by the said mill-pool-wall, to Thomas Arundell, of Tremodart, in the parish of Duloe, esq. for 500 years, from thence next ensuing; that afterwards the said Thomas Arundell built a mill-house, and four grist-mills, and other houses, and also the mill-pool-wall. On November 3, 1648, the said Thomas Arundell made his will; and I believe the mills and mill-pool-wall were built by him before he made his will. Afterwards this term in these premises were assigned over by the Arundells (father and son) and one Drew (perhaps a mortgagee) to Sir Jonathan Trelawny, for the remainder of the said term. I am apprehensive, however, that there was a mill at this place previous to the aforesaid grant.

INCLOSURE OF THE DOWN DESIRABLE.

It is much to be regretted that West Looe Down is not wholly inclosed; the soil is very good, as is apparent from

the fine state of the grounds of Polvellan. The Looes being bounded by the sea on one side, and by rivers and woods on the other, arable land is much wanted. The objection raised against this inclosure is, that the poor of West Looe would be deprived of gathering furze and fern for firing. But does not the labour wasted and cloaths worn out in gathering this fuel more than counteract the gain? If an inclosure were to be made, in a year or two the hedges would produce greater quantity and more substantial fuel than can now be obtained. The Down belongs to the Corporation; but various tenants of houses and fields claim a right of putting what is called Breaths (cattle), some more, some less, to depasture on it. To such as are entitled to put breaths on this, common allotments should be made in proportion to the number of breaths they are entitled to; and an allotment to the poor might be made in lieu of their claim (if it is a legal one) to take furze and ferns for firing. The many advantages which would arise to the poor in particular from an inclosure, should be considered. Exclusive of the numerous productions which would follow, labour would be demanded, hedges must be made, manure procured, land ploughed, corn tilled, cut, &c. &c. &c. Milk, potatoes, &c. &c. would be obtained at a much more moderate price than at present; and, no doubt, the poor rate would soon find the beneficial effect of an inclosure. In short, the advantages arising herefrom would be very great; and I sincerely hope the prejudices of the interested will soon be done away, and that the commoners will get an Inclosure Act passed. Formerly the Corporation used to let out certain parts of this Down for tillage. There are several memorandums of such lets in the Town Books. In 1621 that part of West Looe Down which lieth on the west part of the Homer Well, was let to rent, for two crops, at 6s. 8d. per acre.

TRADE.

Formerly a pretty considerable trade was carried on at Looe, and many ships belonging to this port used to go from thence to France, Spain, and up the Straits, &c.

Even so late as the beginning of the last century there were several ships kept here, principally employed in foreign voyages; but, for seventy or eighty years last past, few, if any, have been so employed.

Tallan Church is most romantic in its situation; it contains a curious monument to one of the Bevilles. Polbenro, divided between this parish and Lansallos, affords picturesque scenery superior to any on the southern coast of Cornwall; and the whole road from Fowey to Looe, by Polruan, Lansallas, Polperro, and Talland, will amply compensate the fatigue of climbing hills, and descending into deep vales, by the singular and striking prospects varied at every point.

The manor of Killigarth belonged at an early period to the family of Kilgat, evidently implying some relation between the names.

Kilmenawth, or Kilmenorth, formed a part of the large possessions belonging to Lord Chief Justice Trevilian, who was murdered under some forms of law in the year 1388, the 11th year of Richard the Second. This place was the residence of Admiral Sir Charles Wager.

The hamlet of Lemain or Lammana, which seems to have included a considerable portion of the parish with the island, must have been of importance, since a record exists, which states a division of the monastic property of Glastonbury, between the bishop and his chapter on one part, and the monks on the other, when about the year 1200, Pope Innocent the Third removed the see of Wells to that place.

The words are, “De Prioratibus quoque ad Glastoniensem Ecclesiam pertinentibus, ita ordinatum est. Ut

Prioratus de Hibernia ad ordinationem Episcopi, Prioratus vero de Basselake, et de Lamana ad ordinationem conventus pertineant.”

Portlooe appears to have been the principal estate of the hamlet, but no traditions are extant about its antiquity. It belonged about the middle of the last century to Mr. John Hoskins of East Looe, probably by purchase; he left an only daughter, who married first Mr. Edward Buller, a brother of the Judge, This gentleman had been educated in Holland according to the customs of those times, with a view to trade, which however he never pursued, but settled on his wife’s barton of Portlooe, and died there, leaving several children. Mrs. Buller, nevertheless, married secondly Mr. Thomas Escott, an officer in the Cornwall Militia.

The island has probably passed through different hands since the dissolution of Glastonbury Abbey. It recently belonged to the family of Mayow, by whom it was sold for a very trifling consideration, to Sir William Trelawny, afterwards Governor of Jamaica.

Pel-Vellan, (the Mill Pool,) created and named by the late Colonel John Leman, is an exquisite specimen of that gentleman’s taste. The editor remembers it a wild uncultivated uninclosed common, adjacent to the tide Mill. About twenty years after the commencement of decorations, he placed the following inscription where a rill of water formed a small cascade under the shelter of some shrubs, and of three or four trees which had stood on the Down.

Παρα την σκιην

Καθισον· καλον το δενδρον,

Απαλας σειει δε χαιτας

Μαλακωτατῳ κλαδισκῳ·

Παρα δ᾿ αυτῳ γ᾿ ερεθιξει

Πηγη ρεουσα Πειθους·

Mr. Bond has given a detailed history of Admiral Sir Charles Wager, pages 165 to 173.

The Admiral represented West Looe in Parliament, and resided in the parish, but Mr. Bond has not been able to collect any traces of his birth, either from tradition or from records. There is a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey, with a long and appropriate inscription.

The barton and manor of Kyllygarth, including a division of Polperro, are within this parish. The great tithes and the advowson belong to the family of Kendall.

Talland measures 2208 statute acres.

giving an increase on the parish of 10½ per cent., on West Looe 57 per cent., on both together of 26 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. N. Kendall, instituted in 1806: he is also the patron. The net income of the vicarage in 1831 was £110. The impropriator of the great tithes is J. Graves, esq.

GEOLOGY, BY DOCTOR BOASE.

The rocks of this parish are similar to those of Lansallos and Lanteglos near Fowey.

[2] The common people believe these celts to be produced by thunder, and thrown down from the clouds; and that they shew what weather will ensue by changing their colour.

TAMARTON.

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 ——.

It is now a rectory, being endowed by the endeavours of the present incumbent Mr. John Bennet; who, and his successors for ever, are to pay a fee-farm rent to the crown of £6. 13s. 4d. out of the sheaf; the patronage being alternately in Henry Rolle of Stephenton, and Richard Coffin of Portledge, both in Devon, esquires. [The sheaf then appears to have belonged to the Crown, and had been set by the Crown, at £6. 13s. 4d. to its lessees the patrons. The chapel was therefore inserted as a mere curacy in the last Valor, but has been now endowed by the lessees giving up their lease to it, and so improving their own patronage. W.]

THE MANOR OF TAMARTON.

This, in the extent of Cornish acres, 12 Edward I. (Carew, fol. 48), is valued in eight. In 3 Henry IV. (id. fol. 40 b.) Halvethas Malivery held half of a knight’s fee here.

THE EDITOR.

Mr. Lysons gives the descents of property in this parish. He says the manor of North Tamarton was given by Roger de Valletort to Richard Earl of Cornwall, and that Roger Earl of Cornwall gave it to Gervase de Harningate. It was afterwards in the Carminows. In 1620 it belonged to Tristram Arscott, esq. and afterwards to the Rolles, of whom it was purchased by the late Sir John Call of Whiteford.

The manor of Hornacot or Horningcote belonged at an early period to a family of that name; in 1620 it was possessed by Sir Charles Howard, in right of his wife, the daughter of Sir John Fitz of Fitzford near Tavistock, and was afterwards in the Courtenays; and finally passed from them by purchase to the late Mr. George Browne of Bodmin.

Ogbere, called by Norden Ugbere, was in his time the seat of William Lovice, and had been the residence of Leonard Lovice, probably the father or grandfather of William, and is stated, by a monumental inscription still extant in the church, to have been Receiver-general of the Duchy Revenues for Queen Elizabeth.

Vacye, in remote times the seat of a family bearing the same name, is now the residence of George Call, esq. younger son of the late Sir John Call.

This parish contains besides the church town three small villages called Alvacot, Headon, and Venton.

Tamarton measures 4788 statute acres.

giving an increase of 28 per cent. in 30 years.

Present incumbent, the Rev. C. P. Coffin, instituted in 1813.

THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The geological structure of this parish is the same as that of Boyton.

ST. TEATH.

HALS.

St. Teath is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north Dundagell, south-east Michaelstow and Lantegles, west the Irish Sea, or Trevelga, south-west St. Kewe and St. Udye.