The Parochial History of Cornwall/Volume 1/Burian
BURIAN.
HALS.
Burian is situated at the western extremity of the county, having two adjoining parishes, Senner and St. Levan annexed; the former of which includes the Lands' End. In Domesday tax this district was rated by the name of Beriand, for Berian or Bury-an; synonymous words, signifying a cemetery or burying place for human creatures; that is to say, that place which is now called the churchyard, which was an inclosure, as in most other places, converted to that use before and since the church was erected therein. This instance of a Domesday Roll, wherein this district is named Beri-an, overthrows the story of Camden's conjecture, that the name thereof was derived from one St. Buryana, an Irishwoman that was the tutelar guardian of this church, whereas the appellation of Saint, as I have elsewhere observed, at that time was not given to but one church in Cornwall. Besides, this Irish saint is not to be found in the Roman legend, or calendar, nor in Capgrave's catalogue of English and Irish Saints.
This church was founded and endowed by King Athelstan, about the year 930, after such time as he had conquered the Scilly Islands, as also the county of Devon; and made Cornwall tributary to his sceptre. To which church he gave lands and tithes of a considerable value for ever, himself becoming the first patron thereof, as his successors the Kings of England have been ever since: for which reason it is still called the royal rectory, or regal rectory, and the royal or regal peculiar. Signifying thereby that this is the church or chapel pertaining to the king, or immediately under the jurisdiction of him as the supreme ordinary, from when there is no appeal; whereas other peculiars, though exempt from the visitation or jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop within whose see they stand, yet are always subject to the provincial archbishops of Canterbury and York, or other persons.
This church or college consisted of canons augustines, or regular priests, and three prebendaries, who enjoyed the revenues thereof in common, but might not marry; and the lord chancellors of England of old visited this peculiar, which extended only over the parishes of Burian, Sennen, and St. Levan, for the king.
One of the Popes of Rome, about the time of Edward III. obtruded upon this church, the canons and prebends thereof, a dean to be an inspector and overseer over them: whom he nominated to be the bishop of Exon for the time being, who for some time visited this church as its governor, as the lord chancellor did before; which encroachment of the Pope being observed by Edward III., as appears from the register of the writs, folio 40 and 41; 8 Edward III. rot.97. This usurpation of the Pope was taken away.
[Mr. Hals here enters into long dissertations respecting secular canons, regular canons, the state generally of the church and of the clergy, benefices held in commendam, &c. which, not having any particular relation to the parochial history of Cornwall, are omitted.]
Boscawen-ros in this parish, compounded of Bo-scawen-ros, is a name given and taken from the natural circumstances of the place, and signifies in Cornish-British "a valley, notable for skeawe or scawen" trees. And indeed this place, being naked and exposed to the sea on the cliffs of the British Channel, anciently, as it seems, produced no other trees than scawen, (i.e. elder,) proper to that part of the country; neither, I think, is there any other trees at present that grow there. From this place was transnominated an Irish gentleman that settled here either by marriage or purchase, in the latter end of the reign of Edward IV., who discontinued his paternal name, and styled himself John de Boscawen, which latter name hath been the hereditary name of his posterity ever since; who from hence transplanted their dwellings to Tregameer in St. Colomb Major; and Trevallock in Creed or St. Stephen's; and from thence, by marriage with the daughter and heir of Tregothnan by Lawrence Boscawen, gentleman, attorney-at-law, temp. Henry VII., who died 1567, and lieth buried in the north aile of St. Michael Penkivell Church, as is testified by a brass inscription on his gravestone, there lately extant, upon which, on a lead escutcheon, was engraved his paternal coat armour, viz. in a field Vert, a bull passant Argent, armed Or; on a chief Ermine, a rose Gules; crest a boar Argent: out of a supposed allusion to their present name, as if it had signified a white bull and a rose. In the reign of James I. his posterity discontinued this bearing, and gave only for their arms, Ermine, a rose; which, I take it, also is the hereditary coat armour of Beverley. See St. Michael Penkivell. Since the writing hereof this place is become the hereditary honorary title of Hugh Lord Boscawen, Baron of Boscawen-rose, and Viscount of Falmouth.
Upon Boscawen downs, some of which was lately the lands of Mr. Christopher Davis, stands a monument called Dance Meyns, that is to say the dance stones; which are nineteen pyramidal stones, about six foot high above ground, set in a round circle, distant from each other about twelve feet, having in the centre one pitched far bigger than the rest; a little to the north of those are two admirable great stones in perpendicular manner, much bigger than the rest, those are vulgarly called the Pipers. But since it is not probable that those stones were either dancers or pipers, I take the common appellation dance meyns, only by the dialect to be a corruption of dans meyns, id est, men's stones; that is to say stones set up in memory of once so many famous men that lived in those parts, or lie interred there, before the sixth century.[1] Mr. Davis aforesaid informed me, that, contiguous with those dans meynes, he caused not long since divers barrows of earth to be carried abroad in order to manure his lands, in several of which burrows he found two or three urns or earthern pots, sound and firm, having in them pieces of bones, and ashes.
About twenty years past, the sexton of this parish sinking a grave four feet deep in the ground, he met with a large flat marble or other stone, which he lifted up out of the earth, on which was cut or engraved a long plain cross, surmounted on four grieces or steps; on the border of this stone, round the said cross, was an inscription in Norman French, which soundeth thus in English: "Clarice, the wife of Geffery de Bolleit, lies here; whosoever shall pray for her soul shall have ten days' pardon. Amen."[2] There is a place still extant in this parish called Bolait, or Bolaith, i.e. a place of slaying or killing cows, kine, or cattle; otherwise it may be interpreted cow's milk, or a place notable for the same.
Trove, in this parish, is, in Cornish and Armorick, a dent, pit, a cavern, or valley: a name doubtless taken from the natural and artificial circumstances of the place, situate between two hills, on a cavern; also Trewoofe, that is to say the town or dwelling of ob-yarn, such as the sail-spinsters make, in order to be woof, or woven cross the warp in pieces of cloth, stuff, or serges, from whence was denominated a family of gentlemen named Trewoofe; who, out of a mistaken etymology of their name, (as many others in Cornwall,) gave for their arms, in a field three wolves' heads; whereas, try-bleith, try-bleit, is three wolves in Cornish; the heiress of which family was married to Leveale, temp. Henry VIII. of the old Norman race, whose posterity flourished here in good fame for several descents, till, for want of issue male, Lewis Leveale's daughter and heir, by Cooke of Tregussa, carried this place, together with herself in marriage, to Mr. Uspar or Vospar, temp. Charles I. who had issue Arthur Vosper, his son and heir, who married Eyans, of Eyanston in Oxfordshire, who had issue by her two daughters, married to Mr. Marke of Woodhill and Mr. Dennis of Leskeard. This last gentleman, Mr. Vospur, bathing himself in the river Isis in Oxfordshire, with other young men, was there unfortunately drowned, about the year 1679 The name Vosper or Vospur, in British-Cornish, signifies a pure or immaculate maid or virgin. The arms of Leveale were three calves or veals.
In the middle of this barton of Trove, on the top of a hill, is still extant the downfalls of a castle or treble intrenchment called, in the midst of which is a hole leading to a vault under ground. How far it extends no man now living can tell, by reason of the damps or thick vapours that are in it; for as soon as you go an arrow flight in it or less, your candles will go out, or extinguish of themselves, for want of air. For what end or use this vault was made is uncertain, though it is probable it was an arsenal or store-house for laying up arms, ammunition, corn, and provision, for the soldiers of the castle wherein it stands, in the wars between Charles I. and his Parliament. Divers of the royal party, pursued in the West by the Parliament troops under Sir Thomas Fairfax, were privately conveyed into this vault as far as they could proceed with safety, where Mr. Leveale fed and secured them till they found opportunity to make their escapes to the king's friends and party. See St. Evall.
Pentre, otherwise Pendrea, in this parish, id est, the head town, or town at the head of some other, denominated a family of gentlemen from thence called Pendre, who gave for their arms, Argent, on a bend Gules and Sable, three fleurs de lis of the Field. John Pendre, the last of this tribe, temp. Henry VI leaving only two daughters that became his heirs, who were married to Bonython of Carclew, and Noy. To Noy's share fell this tenement of Pendrea, which was the dwelling of him and his posterity for several descents; and here was born, as I was informed, William Noy, the Attorney-general to Charles I., who designed to have built a notable house here but was prevented by death, having before brought great quantities of materials to this place in order thereto; his grandson, William Noy, Esq. sold this place and several others to my very kind friend Christopher Davis, Gent, now in possession thereof.
Burnewall, in this parish, id est, the walled well or well-pit of waters, so called from some such place on the lands thereof, was also formerly the lands of the said William Noy, who sold it to the said Mr. Davis, who conveyed it to his nephew Henry Davis on his marriage with Hester, daughter of Humphrey Noy, Gent, younger brother of the said William Noy, now in possession thereof, and hath issue. The arms of Davis are, Argent, a chevron Sable between three mullets Gules, which also is the coat armour of Davey of Greedy in Devon.
Leah, also Lahe, id est, lawe, or leh, a place or dwelling, is the seat of Oliver Ustick, or Usteck, Gent, (id est, Nightingale; otherwise, Eus-teck is fair nightingale,) that married Roscrow of Penryn.
From Als, now Alse, and Alsce, viz. lands towards or upon the sea-coast, as this whole parish and its members are situate, was denominated John de Als, or from Bar-Als-ton in Devon; temp. Henry I. and King Stephen, ancestor of the De Alses, formerly of Lelant, now Halses, see Lelant; which place was heretofore the voke lands of a considerable manor, now dismembered and in the possession of Trevanion and others. This family, in Edward III.'s days, wrote their surname De Als, now Halse. See Prince's Worthies of Devon, upon Hals.
TONKIN.
This parish is of large extent, and the land generally good, and lying very warm on the South Sea, which, with the desire of living quiet, has induced several gentlemen to settle themselves in this remote corner of the kingdom, where they may liberally entertain all such as out of curiosity come to visit the Land's End.
Mr. Francis Paynter was brother to Doctor William Paynter, Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, (elected in 1690, died Feb. 19, 1715, aged eighty, was rector of Wootton in Northamptonshire, where he is buried,— Editor;) both younger brothers to Mr. Paynter of Trelisick's father, who by his skill in husbandry, in which he has scarce his fellow, not his superior in the county, and some helps of the law, has purchased to himself a very fair younger brother's inheritance. Though this place lies near the sea, and very much exposed, yet has this gentleman, by the means of furze ricks and other ingenious contrivances, raised several fair walks of trees about it, and made it a pleasant and profitable seat, which I mention here, that those who live under the same inconveniences may imitate his industry. At Leigha liveth Mr. Oliver Ustick, married to Julia the eldest of two daughters of Roscrow of Penryn, of the family of Roscrows of Roscrow. Leigha is part of the manor of Rosemadans, now the property of Mr. Grosse.
Boscawanrose, in this parish, gave name and habitation to the famous and honourable family of Boscawan, who, led away, as many other Cornish gentlemen have been, by the similarity of sound between words in the Kernawish tongue and others in French or in Latin, have mistaken rose a valley, for the flower a rose; and more anciently they are said to have borne in their arms, besides a rose, an ox, having mistaken the word bos, which signifies a house or dwelling, for the name of that animal.
THE EDITOR.
It seems very improbable that King Athelstan, after founding and splendidly endowing a church to commemorate or to sanctify bis conquest of Cornwall, should bestow on it a name so very indiscriminate as The burial-ground; more especially at a time when missionaries from Ireland had recently converted the inhabitants to Christianity, and had left to posterity a reputation for piety so elevated as to invest them at once with the appellation of saints, and to procure for them, in after times, the dedication of almost all the churches throughout the County.
St. Burian is mentioned by Leland, Camden, Tanner, and various other antiquaries, as a holy woman from Ireland, to whom King Athelstan dedicated this church, and in Doctor Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints, &c. her festival is given on the 4th of June.
The establishment consisted of a dean and three prebendaries, who are said by Mr. Lysons to have held from the King by the service of saying a hundred masses and a hundred psalters for the souls of the King and of his ancestors. It is not stated how frequently those recitations were to take place.
Bishop Tanner, in the Notitia Monastica, states that this deanery was seised into the king's hands in the time of Edward III. under the pretence that John de Mount, the third dean, was a Frenchman. In 18 Henry VI. this deanery was given to his college (King's) in Cambridge; and afterwards, by Edward IV. probably in the true spirit of party, to the collegiate church of Windsor. It was, however, soon separated from Windsor, and continues, according to the foundation of Athelstan, exempt from all inferior jurisdiction, and consequently since Henry VIII.'s assumption of all temporal power exercised by the Pope, there is not any appeal from the local authorities but to the king himself; a constitution most inexpedient, and likely to produce the most serious inconvenience, if matters of much importance ever came for investigation and decision before a court wholly unfitted, from its very nature, from entertaining them; and yet empowered to declare a judgment final to all intents and purposes, unless it is immediately revised by the highest and most expensive ecclesiastical tribunal.
This exemption from all episcopal authority has, in times not very remote, admitted of such abuses in the administration of divine service, and of the spiritual care of the three parishes, as would not otherwise have been endured. It would be worse, however, than useless to expatiate on a system which is fortunately passed by.
I believe that no dean has resided since the final dissolution of the college; the Royner's hand having been there so forcibly applied as to wrest off the whole glebe, not leaving even an habitation, nor the smallest portion of land on which a house could be built. The nominal deanery of St. Burian, like that of Battle and two or three more, is not esteemed a dignity in the church: yet with cure of souls, and for no better reason than its not being mentioned eo nomine in the canons and acts of Parliament, this living is allowed to be tenable with all other preferments, and at all distances.
Pendrea, the birth place and property of Mr. William Noye the attorney-general, was sold by his eldest son, Edward Noye, to Mr. Davies of Burnuhall, and by his grandson to Mr. Tonkin, whose great grandson, the Rev. Uriah Tonkin, possesses it at this time. At Burnuhall there still remains a curious performance of shell-work, said to have been made by Mr. Davies' daughters, strongly expressive of the political feelings then almost universal throughout Cornwall. King Charles II. is represented flying from his enemies, and one of them, in full pursuit, has a legend, "This is the heir! come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be our own!" whilst an angel exclaims in the same manner from a cloud "Is it not written, Thou shalt do no murder?" The material of this work is found in great variety and beauty round the coast, and particularly at Porth Kernow, near the Logging Rock.
The last Mr. Davies of Burnuhall married . . . . . Kegwin of Newlyn; he wasted the remains of a property which had been gradually diminishing in the hands of his father and of his grandfather; so that about the year 1750, Burnuhall and some other farms were sold to Admiral Boscawen.
Boskenna is the property and residence of Mr. Francis Paynter, a very respectable gentleman and magistrate, the great-grandson, I believe, of the individual distinguished by Mr. Hals for his skill in husbandry. There is a tradition of his having purchased the place of one whose family had long possessed it, but who had ultimately become the huntsman of a pack of hounds kept originally as his own.
Mr. Francis Paynter, uncle of the gentleman now possessed of Boskenna, was greatly distinguished for his wit and humour. He was either the sole or joint author of a poem made in imitation of Prior's Alma, and in ridicule of the then dean of Burian, called "The Consultation." Mr. Paynter practised his profession of the law near St. Columb. He married Miss Pender of Penzance, and left several sons. The exercise of wit is not always, perhaps not frequently, associated with pecuniary gain. The Editor has heard Mr. Paynter declare that "The Consultation" prevented his obtaining a valuable stewardship from the family of which the dean was a member.
The Vyvyans of Trelovornow are said to have originated from Treviddror in this parish. And Lord Chief Justice Tresilian was from Burian, in whose descendants Pendor and Ristchurch, after the lapse of nearly five centuries, some of his property still remains.
From about fifty to seventy years ago Boskenna attracted much attention, and gave occasion to various conjectures over the whole neighbourhood, in consequence of a gentleman and lady residing there under the assumed name of Browne, and withdrawing themselves entirely from public observation. They were conjectured to be members of some distinguished family on the continent implicated in political disputes; or at the least, some very eminent persons of our own country, till at last the mystery was explained by a disclosure of their real name and condition.
Mr. Berty Birge, having been involved in the pecuniary affairs of an individual who subsequently became insane, found himself obliged to retire, although it is understood that nothing discreditable to his character occurred in the transactions. On that individual's decease Mr. Birge resumed his real name, and removed to Penzance, where he passed the remainder of his life.
The church of St. Burian is among those most distinguished for size and beauty in the west of Cornwall. It is situated on high ground, with a lofty tower, conspicuous therefore from a very great distance. It possessed, till within these few years, a curious rood-loft.
A station of the great trigonometrical survey was placed in 1796 very near Burian church, and in the Philosophical Transactions for 1800, the latitude of the tower is stated to be 50° 4' 32.8′", and the longitude is 5° 36' 10.5", or in time 22' 24.7" west of Greenwich.
Burian measures 6274 statute acres.
| The annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | £. 7288 |
s. 0 |
d. 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 350 | 0 | 0 |
The parish feast is kept on the nearest Sunday to old May day.
| Population, | in 1801, 1161 |
in 1811, 1188 |
in 1821, 1495 |
in 1831, 1707. |
being an increase of 47 in a hundred in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Hon. F. Stanhope.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The whole of this parish, with the exception of a small patch of slate at Rosemodris, rests on granite. Judging from what occurs in the eastern part of Cornwall, one might be led to expect that the land of St. Burian must be sterile. In some elevated spots it undoubtedly is so, but in general the parish is well cultivated and highly productive.
This difference in the granitic soils of east and of west Cornwall, maybe, in part, explained by the gradual diminution of height towards the west, accompanied by a corresponding improvement of the climate; but in this part of the county more of the debris, especially of diluvial clay, is retained on the surface, that of the more elevated eastern ridges having been in great measure swept away.
This circumstance must not, however, be omitted. The granite of Burian exhibits more varieties than have been yet found in the eastern district. The slate in the cliffs at Rosemodris is a felspar rock, and its contact with the granite is distinctly seen; where it may be observed at the eastern extremity traversed by numerous granite veins; and the granite near this junction abounds in shorl.
NOTE BY THE EDITOR.
Doctor Paris has remarked on the granite of this district, that it contains full twenty-five per cent of felspar, which he says at once explains the rapidity of this stone's decomposition, and the fertility which is so very unusual in granitic countries; and that this granite in a state of decomposition, when it is provincially called growan, has actually been applied to some lands as a manure, and with the best effect.
I had the pleasure of attending Doctor Withering (author of the Arrangement of British Plants, &c.) to the Land's End in 1793, when he expressed much surprise at the fertility of a granitic soil, and explained it as Doctor Paris has since done, by observing that in all the granite he had previously seen siliceous matter abounded, and that the very word was synonymous with sterile, but that here felspar and fertility appeared together.
Felspar is said to contain nearly a third part of its weight of alumine, about an eighth part of lime, and a twentieth of soda.
- ↑ That there exists, however, a prevalent connection of these monuments with allusions to dancing, is shown in the the Essay on Dracontia, by the Rev. J. B. Deane, F.S.A. in Archaeologia, vol. xxv. The name of Dans Maen is generally given to the various stone circles in the county of Cornwall. Dr. Borlase remarks that there are four circles in the hundred of Penrith, having nineteen stones each; viz. Boscawen-un, Rosmodrevy, Tregaseal, and Boskednan, the two most distant being not eight miles apart. Of Boscawen-un there are views in the works of Borlase and Stukeley, as well as among the more accurate etchings by William Cotton, Esq. 4to. 1827. He has also given a view and plan of the dans-meyne at Bolleit in this parish; and two obeliscal stones at the same place are represented in Borlase, pl. 10. See also in pl. 14 the hanging stone in Karn Boscawen, and a Maen Tôl, or holed stone, both in Burian; as is the circle called Rosmodrevy.—Edit.
- ↑ Engraved in Gough's Camden, vol. I. pl. 1.