Parishes: Davidstow - Duloe

Davidstow

DAVIDSTOW, in the hundred of Lesnewth, and deanery of Trigg-Major, lies about three miles from Camelford, which is the post-office town. The principal villages in this parish are Trevivian and Tremeal. The site of the manor of Treglasta, which lies chiefly in Alternon (fn. n1), seems to have been at Treglasta, in this parish.

The manors of Halwell and Hendraburnick, held formerly under Launceston Castle, and the manor of Tremeal, partly in this parish and partly in St. Juliot, which had belonged to the Grenville family, were, in 1620, the property of Richard Piers or Pierce, Esq., of Halwell.

The barton-house of Davidstow, adjoining to the church, now inhabited by labourers, and Trehane, now a farm-house, were formerly seats of the family of Pearse, and passed, in marriage, to that of Nicholls: they have long since passed again to the family of Pearse, and are now the property of William Pearse, Esq., who is impropriator of the great tithes formerly belonging to the priory of Tywardreth. The advowson of the vicarage was annexed to the duchy of Cornwall in 1540, when several estates were settled on that duchy, in lieu of the honor of Wallingford. The registers of the see of Exeter record three chapels in this parish, dedicated to St. Augustine, St. Ellen, and St. Michael. (fn. n2)

St. Dennis

ST. DENNIS, in the deanery and in the east division of the hundred of Powder, lies about four miles south-east from St. Columb, which is the post-office town. The principal village in the parish is Hendra.

The manors of Ennis-Caven and Dimiliock, which had long been in the family of Arundell, were purchased, a few years ago, by Thomas Rawlings, Esq., of Padstow, who is the present proprietor. Dimiliock was held under the Arundells, by Sir Hugh Courtenay, in the reign of Henry VI. (fn. n3)

The manors of Hendra and Menna have long been in the Boscawen family, and are now the property of Lord Falmouth.

St. Dennis is held under the same presentation with St. Michael-Carhayes, which is the mother-church, and St. Stephen, in Brannell. The incumbent has the great and small tithes of the three parishes, of which he is spiritual vicar and rector, sine curâ animarum. Lord Grenville is patron, in right of his manor of Brannell. Robert Dunkin, incumbent of this parish, who was dispossessed by the Puritans, and lived to be restored to his benefice, was a learned divine, and published some tracts against Milton.

St. Dominick

ST. DOMINICK, in the deanery and in the middle division of the hundred of East, lies about three miles south-east from Callington, which is the post-office town, and six north from Saltash. Hals says, that the manor of Halton belonged to an ancient family of that name, whose heiress, in the reign of Edward II., married Wendyn; that the heiress of Wendyn married Whitlegh, of Efford, in Devonshire, whose coheiresses, in the reign of Henry VII., brought this estate to Grenville and Hals. Mr. Tonkin, on the contrary, supposes Halton to have been the seat of the Inkpens, and, indeed, it appears by record, that the manor belonged to that family in the reigns of Edward I. and Edward III. (fn. n4); Hals's account of the Haltons and Wendyns possessing the manor at that period, must, therefore, be incorrect. The manor was soon afterwards in the family of Fichet (fn. n5); in the fifteenth century, it was in severalties, two of which appear to have passed, by marriage, to the families of Hill and Keryel (fn. n6). At a later period, the whole became vested in the family of Rous of Edmerston, in Devonshire, a younger branch of the ancient family of Rous of Little Modbury. It was purchased by John Rous, uncle of Sir Anthony. Francis, son of the latter, was born at Halton, in 1579. This Francis became a distinguished character in Cromwell's time; was a speaker of the Little parliament, a member afterwards of the upper house, and provost of Eton college. He died, in the month of January 1659, at his house at Acton, in Middlesex, and was buried with great funeral pomp at Eton (fn. n7). The manor of Halton passed, not many years afterwards, together with that of Tynall, in this parish, to the family of Clark. They are now the property of Mrs. Bluett, wife of the Rev. —— Bluett, and daughter of the late John Clark, Esq., who is also patroness of the rectory. The old mansion at Halton is occupied as a farm-house.

Westcote, in this parish, some time a seat of the Brendons, is now the property and residence of William Pode, Esq., who possesses the manor of Ashton or Ashtorre-Barrett. This manor passed, with the heiress of the ancient family of Barrett, to the Prestwoods, in 1707. It has since passed, by successive sales, to the families of Huddleston, Rashleigh, and Spurrell, and from the latter, by bequest, to Mr. Pode.

Charles Fitz-Geoffrey, rector of this parish, published a life of Sir Francis Drake, "written in lofty verse, when he was Bachelor of Arts," Latin poems, a collection of poems out of his own and the works of others, made in the early part of the reign of James I., under the name of "Choice Flowers and Descriptions," a book which appears to have been extremely scarce, even in Anthony Wood's time; and several sermons, amongst which were those preached at the funerals of Sir Anthony Rous, of Halton (1622), and Philippa his lady (1620), and "The Curse of Cornhoarders; with a Blessing of seasonable Selling," in three discourses. Mr. FitzGeoffrey died, and was buried at St. Dominick, in the year 1637. (fn. n8) There were formerly chapels of St. Ethelred and St. Ildract in this parish (fn. n9). The sites are not known, but it is probable that one of them was at a place called Chapel, near the Tamar.

Duloe

DULOE, in the hundred and deanery of West, lies five miles and a half from Liskeard, and three and a half from Looe, which is the post-office town. The principal villages in this parish, exclusively of the Church-town, are Higher, and Lower Tredinneck.

The parish of Duloe is divided into three districts; west, north, and south. Almost the whole of the west district is held under the Hon. Mrs. Agar, (as representative of the Robartes family). A yearly court is held for this estate at Pendriscot; but the several proprietors of estates in fee in this district, exercise manerial rights over their respective lands.

The manor of Treworgye belonged, for many generations, to the ancient family of Kendall, who had their seat there. It was sold, in the seventeenth century, to the family of Williams (fn. n10), who were merchants at Bodenick; a descendant of this family sold it to the father of Mr. John Eliot, of Bartholomew-Close, in London, who is the present proprietor. The manor-house is occupied by the tenant of the demesne farm.

The manor of Tremoderet, now called Tremadart, belonged, at an early period, to the family of Hewis or Hiwis. Emmeline (fn. n11), the heiress of this family brought it to Sir Robert Tresilian, Chief Justice of the King's-Bench, who was executed at Tyborn, in 1388, for having been the adviser of arbitrary measures, which his misguided Sovereign had not the power to enforce. In the year 1391, Sir John Coleshill, second husband of Emmeline, procured a grant to him, his wife, and their heirs, of this and some other manors, which had been forfeited by the Chief Justice's attainder (fn. n12). Sir John Coleshill, their son being then about twenty-three years of age, was slain at the battle of Agincourt, leaving an infant son, who died without issue in 1483, being then Sir John Coleshill, Knt.; his only sister, Joanna, was thrice married, to Sir Renfrey Arundell, a younger son of the Lanherne family, Sir John Nanfan, and Sir William Haughton. By the former she had two sons, Sir Renfrey, and John, who was made Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1497, and, in 1501, translated to Exeter. On the death of Sir Edmund Arundell, grandson of Sir Renfrey, without issue, Tremoderet and several other estates in Cornwall, devolved to the two sisters of Sir Renfrey Arundell the younger (married to Stradling and Whittington), and their half-sister (the daughter of the heiress of Coleshill, by her second husband Sir John Nanfan (fn. n13) ), married to Bolles, or their representatives. A descendant of Whittington (a Gloucestershire family) left six daughters coheiresses, married to Poole, Berkeley, Bodenham, Throgmorton, St. Aubyn, and Nanfan. The latter having no issue, her share in the inheritance of the Coleshills was divided among her sisters. John Arundell, Esq., of Trerice, having purchased Bodenham's share, left it to his second son Thomas, younger brother of John Arundell, the brave defender of Pendennis-castle. This Thomas settled at Tremoderet, and purchased, not only the smaller shares which had belonged to the Pooles and Berkeleys, but the two-thirds of the estate which had been purchased of the families of Danvers (heirs of Stradling) and Bolles by the Bevilles, and had descended to the Grenvilles. Thomas Arundell died in 1648, being possessed of the whole of the estate, except St. Aubyn's inheritance and that of Throgmorton, which had been purchased by the St. Aubyns (fn. n14). In 1708 John Arundell, Esq. (the last of this branch of the family) bought what belonged to the St. Aubyns, and in 1711 sold the whole to Sir John Anstis, Garter King of Arms, from whom the present proprietor, Thomas Bewes, Esq., of Tothill, near Plymouth, is descended in the female line. The manor-house is now occupied by the tenant of the demesne farm. William of Worcester, who wrote an Itinerary of Cornwall in the reign of Edward IV., speaks of a dilapidated castle, called Bodleit (fn. n15), near Sir John Coleshill's mansion, at Tremoderet.

The manor of West-North was given, in marriage with a daughter of the Kendall family, in the reign of Edward IV., to Kelliow, whose daughter brought it to Bastard. In 1671, William Bastard, Esq. sold West-North to Sir John Anstis, before-mentioned, author of the Register of the Garter, and other heraldic works, and an industrious topographical collector, who made West-North his principal residence. The old mansion, which is much decayed, is occasionally visited by Mr. Bewes, the present owner of the estate, for the purpose of meeting his tenants, and holding his courts.

The manor of Great-Trenant was, at an early period, in the Hiwis family, from whom it descended, with Tremoderet, to the Coleshills, Arundells, and Whittingtons. In 1620, it was in moieties between the St. Aubyns, in right of a coheiress of the Whittingtons, and the Gifford family (fn. n16). At a later period, the whole became vested in the family of Treise, from whom, after the decease of Sir Christopher Treise without issue, it passed to the Morsheads. John Morshead, Esq., of Trenant-Park, was created a Baronet in 1783. In 1806, he sold this estate to Rear-admiral Sir Edward Buller, who was created a Baronet in 1808.

The manor of Bodbrane, which belonged to the Arundells of Lanherne, is now the property, by a late purchase, of Mr. Joseph Grigg. Killigorick or Kilagoric, in ancient records called a manor, belonged formerly to the baronial family of Bottreaux (fn. n17). It is now the property of Richard Hall Clarke, Esq., of Bridewell, in Devonshire.

In the parish-church is the monument of Sir John Coleshill, the last of that family, who died in 1483; an altar-tomb for John Kelliow, Esq., of WestNorth; and some memorials of the families of Arundell of Tremoderet, and Coffin. Sir John Anstis, Garter King of Arms, who died in 1743, and his son, John Anstis, Esq., who succeeded him in that office, and died in 1754, both lie buried at Duloe; but there is no monument for either. The advowson of the rectory of Duloe, which was in moieties between the families of Arundell of Tremoderet and St. Aubyn, was sold by them, in 1701, to the Master and Fellows of Baliol College, in Oxford. The rectory, which is a sinecure with a stipend of fifty pounds per annum, was united to the vicarage about the middle of the last century. There was formerly a chapel at Hille, in this parish, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. (fn. n18)