The Parochial History of Cornwall/Volume 1/Egles-Kerry
EGLES-KERRY.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of East, and hath upon the north North Petherwin; east, St. Thomas; south, Trewenn; west, St. Cleather. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, Capella de Egleskerry in Decanatu de Major Trigshire xll.; after which time, but before the statute of Richard the Second against the total impropriation of vicarages, it was, by its patron and endower, the Prior of Launceston, alias St. Stephen's, wholly impropriated; so that it is not named in Wolsey's Inquisition, 1521, and I take it Tremayne vicarage was then as a daughter church consolidated into it by the said Prior: whereby it is only a lectureship, the Vicar subsisting on a small stipend.
In the Domesday Roll, 20 William I. (1087), this district was taxed under the name of Pen-hall-an, now Penheale, then and still the voke lands of a considerable manor. Soon after the Norman Conquest, if not before, the De Boterells, alias De Botreauxes, were possessed of this place; for in the time of Henry the Second and Richard the First, Richard de Botreaux held 12 knights' fees in Cornwall (Carew's Survey thereof, p.49); one of which was held of the King in this place by his posterity to the 3d Henry the Fourth; where we further read, p.41: "William de Boteraux tenet dimid. part. feod. de Morton, in Penhele, de Rege." From the Botreauxes, for want of issue male, those lands, by a daughter, with much other, were carried in marriage to Hungerford; as Hungerfords' heirs, in like manner, carried it to Hastings. By Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, it was sold to George Grenvill, Esq. that married Julyan, one of the daughters of William Vyell, of Trevorder, who sold it to John Speccot, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 20th James I. grandfather of my kind friend the Hon. John Speccot, Esq. three times chosen Shire Knight for this county, temp. William III. (in order to which the writer hereof and many of his friends were his votes). He married the Lady Essex Robartes, daughter of the Right Hon. John Earl of Radnor, who died without issue, and settled those lands upon his kinsman Thomas Long, Esq. now in possession thereof; and who giveth for his arms, Sable, a lion rampant between eight cross-crosslets Argent: descended from the Longs of Wiltshire.
John Speccot, Esq. gave by his last will and testament a thousand pounds for the benefit of a mathematical school in the county of Cornwall, where all children were to be taught gratis; the master to have the interest of the 1,000/. This school was first opened at Penryn, but is now at Looe.
Tre-lyn-ike, in this parish, i.e. the town of the lake, leate, or bosom of waters, is the dwelling of Christopher Baron.
Since the writing hereof this gentleman is dead; and this place, for want of issue, is descended to his sister's son, Mr. Saltern, now in possession thereof.
TONKIN.
This church is dedicated to St. Kyryasius, or Carisius, Bishop of Ostia, in Italy, and who is said to have suffered martyrdom in the year 226. But Moreri relates of this person, or of one similarly named, that he pointed out to the Empress Helena the spot where the true Cross had been concealed.
The Hon. John Speccot, three times Knight of the Shire, married the Lady Essex Robartes, daughter of the Right Hon. John Earl of Radnor, but on the very day subsequent to their marriage Mr. Speccot was seized with the small-pox; and the lady experienced a fatal attack from the same dreadful disease about a month afterwards, just as her husband was getting well. His father married a daughter of John Eliot, of Port Eliot, Esq. Mr. John Speccot died in August 1703, without issue, and gave a great deal to charitable uses ; but he devised the bulk of his estate to the heirs of his aunt, and, after many lawsuits and disputes, his first cousin, Thomas Long, came into possession of Penhele. He was Sheriff of Cornwall in 1724, and left one son, John Speccot Long, and three daughters. This gentleman died sine prole. He was the last male heir, and the property went among his sisters.
The arms of Speccot are, on a bend Gules, three millrinds pierced Argent. Penhele, or Penhale, is the head of the river.
THE EDITOR.
Of the three sisters of Mr. John Speccot Long, one remained single. Another married Mr. Charles Phillipps, of Camelford, eldest son of Mr. John Phillipps, attorney-at-law. This gentleman represented Camelford in Parliament, and was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Cornwall Militia. He survived his wife, and acquired through her a third part of the Long property, which, with all his other possessions, he bequeathed in equal portions to his two brothers, Mr. Jonathan Phillipps, a Captain with him in the militia, and the Rev. William Phillipps, Rector of Lanteglos, the parish including Camelford. These two brothers carne to some arrangement with the two sisters, by which this share of Penhale at least reverted to them.
The third sister, Margaret Long, first married Mr. Charles Davie, of the family settled at Orleigh, in Devonshire. He carried on, however, some business in Bristol, and is said to have been in very bad circumstances. He died after a few years, and in her old age the widow was induced to marry Mr. John Bridlake Herring, a Major in the army, who resorted to all possible methods for extorting money from the old lady; one that will scarcely be credited, by terrifying her with supposed apparitions. The three sisters are reputed to have excelled in beauty of person, but to have been so utterly neglected in their education, as scarcely to possess the common acquirement of reading.
The Editor remembers to have seen Penhale and the old lady in 1788. Her appearance, then near eighty, justified the report respecting her youth, and the house seemed to rank among the very finest specimens of ancient buildings in Cornwall, as well for size as for architectural decoration. Near the entrance stood a very curious dial, probably placed there by Mr John Speccot, who founded a mathematical school.
The barton of Penhale is again divided; one portion belonging to a grandson of Major Herring, who has taken the name of Cloberry, and another to the Rev. Charles Sweet, of Kentisbury, in Devonshire.
This parish measures 2,829 statute acres.
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | £. 2195 |
s. 0 |
d. 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 301 | 17 | 0 |
| Population,— | in 1801, 307 |
in 1811, 395 |
in 1821, 436 |
in 1831, 537 |
giving an increase of 74 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. John Serjeant, instituted in 1826.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
Egles-Kerry is almost entirely situated on that extensive chain of downs, which runs across the country from Launceston to the Bristol Channel; composed of rocks which are very quartzose, but in many parts appear to be almost entirely felspar, commonly, however, united with some colouring material which stains them to a dark blue. This is particularly the case near the church, where the rocks very strongly resemble those at Rosecradock, and in other parts of St. Cleer. Northward, these rocks appear to pass into the Dunstone; but it must be confessed that their geological position is not yet elucidated; for, like the compact rocks of King Arthur's Castle in Tintagel, of St. Stephen's, and Pentire Points, on each side of Padstow Harbour, and elsewhere, they yet require to be carefully and patiently investigated.