The Parochial History of Cornwall/Volume 1/Bridgerule

by Davies Gilbert

BRIDGERULE.

HALS.

Bridgerule is situate in the hundred of Stratton, i.e. street or highway town. Now the part of the parish that is on the north side of the river Tamar, hath upon the north Launcells, west Marham Church, south Whitstone, east the Tamar river. The church stands on the Devonshire side, in the Halisworthy hundred, so that this rule or dominion of the Bridge extendeth itself into both counties, as to spirituals and temporals. In the Valor Beneficiarum, it is called Brige Rowell. Ecclesia de Bridge Rule, in Decanatu de Stratone, was taxed to the Pope's annats, in 1294, at vl. iiis. 8d. Vicar ibidem nihil propter paupertatem. In Wolsey's Inquisition it was taxed at 14l., and the parish was rated to the 4s. land-tax, in 1696, at 45l. 3s.

At the time of the Domesday Roll, 20 W. Conq. this district was taxed under the name of Tacabere, which place is now the dwelling place of Mr. Samuel Gilbert.

TONKIN.

Mr. Risdon, in his History of Devon, part ii. p. 298, gives the true etymology of this place, in those words, "Bridge Renold, of the vulgar Bridge Rule, anciently Brige, by which name it is simply so called before the Norman Conqueror bestowed it upon Reginald^[1] Adobed, and hence it took the adjunct of its owner." The original of the primitive name is the bridge connecting the two parts across the Tamar.

The manor of Tackbere, in Domesday called Tacabere, was one of those which the Conqueror bestowed on his half-brother the Earl of Morton.

THE EDITOR.

This manor of Tacabre, or Takkebere, which appears to have been very extensive, is said by Mr. Lysons to have been bestowed by King Edward the Third on the Abbey of St. Mary of Graces, which appears in Tanner's Notitia Monastica to have been founded by that king in the years 1349—50, in the new church-yard of the Holy Trinity, eastward of the Tower of London. The manor has since acquired the name of Merrifield, probably Maryfield, from the monastery. It was for many years the property of Gilberts, a branch from the Gilberts of Crompton Castle, near Torbay. The only daughter of the last Mr. Gilbert, of Tackbere, married Mr. Cotton Amy, of Botreaux Castle, who left two daughters; Anne, who survived her sister, but died unmarried after a long insanity; and Grace, married to Mr. Jonathan Phillipps, of Camelford, and of Newport, near Launceston, who was subsequently knighted in 1786, on the memorable occasion afforded by Margaret Nicholson. This lady had several children: two daughters were alive at the time of her decease in 1788, but they both died in twelve months after their mother, and Tackbere has ascended through the two female lines, and become vested in the right heirs-at-law of Mr. Samuel Gilbert, the father of Mrs. Amy.

The portion of this parish which is situated in Cornwall, measures no more than 851 statute acres.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815	£. 719	s. 0	d. 0
Poor Rates in 1831	80	1	0

Population, $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$

in 1801, 191

in 1811, 176

in 1821, 238

in 1831, 250;

giving an increase of just 31 per cent. in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. Thos. Hockin Kingdon, B.D.

Doctor Boase has not noticed this small division of a parish. The geology will probably be stated with that of some parish adjoining.

 

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1. The Domesday surname, however, is still nearer to the modern orthography; being, not Reginald, but Ruald.—Edit.