The Parochial History of Cornwall/Volume 1/St Breward

by Davies Gilbert

ST. BREWARD.

HALS.

St. Breward is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north Advent, south Blisland, east Altar Nun, west St. Tudy. There was not such parish or church extant in Cornwall at the time of the Norman Conquest as Brewer; probably it was taxed under Tudy. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, in order to the Pope's annats, 1294, Ecclesia de Bruerd, in Decanatu de Trig-minor-shire, was valued at 7l. vicar ejusdem 20s. In Wolsey's inquisition, 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, 8l.; the patronage in the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; the incumbent Downes, the rectory or sheaf, in , and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound land-tax, 1696, by the name of Brewer, 111l. 12s. The present name of this church is celebrated in memory of its founder, William Brewer, (son of William Lord Brewer, Baron of Odcombe in Somerset,) who was consecrated Bishop of Exeter, 1224, and was afterwards, by King Henry III., sent on divers embassies to foreign princes, and to conduct Isabel, sister of the said King Henry, to be married to Frederick the Emperor, whom he and Peter de Rupibus, Knight, afterwards accompanied into Palestine, and were made generals of 40,000 men against the Turks. And after all those fatigues, as Bishop Godwin saith, he returned home safely to his see of Exeter, and spent the remainder of his days in building and endowing churches, adorning and enriching his own cathedral church, and instituting within the same a dean and twenty-four prebendaries, allowing the latter a stipend of 4l. per annum, since augmented to 20l. (which is no more than 4l. in those days was worth). He also set up a chantor, chancellor, and treasurer within the same. To the chantor and subdean thereof he appropriated the rectory of Rainton and Chudleigh in Devon, and the rectory then, now a vicarage, of Egloshayle, in Cornwall. To the chancellor he appropriated (or impropriated) the vicarage of Newlan in Cornwall, and Stoke Gabriel in Devon, on condition that he should preach a sermon once a week. To the canons a lecture in Divinity, or on the Decretals, within the cathedral of Exeter, and in case the chancellor should fail in this particular, it should be lawful for the bishop thereof for the time being to resume the said churches so appropriated, into his own hand, and bestow them at his pleasure; as appears from a deed between the said bishop, dean, and chapter, 12th May, 1662, as Hooker saith. But this covenant is exactly kept ever since by the chancellor or his clerk, who once a week, at six o'clock morning prayers, preach a sermon to the canons.

This Bishop Brewer appropriated this church bearing his name to the dean and chapter of this cathedral, which he had as aforesaid erected. He lies buried in the middle of the choir thereof, with an inscription still legible, which, amongst others, containeth these words: Hic jacet Willielmus Brewer, quondam hujus Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Episcopus; fundator etiamn quatuor principalium ejusdem Ecclesiæ Dignitatum. By the four principal dignities or dignitaries of the church, I suppose, is meant the dean, chantor, chancellor, and treasurer thereof.

The deanery of Exon was founded by William Briwere, Bishop of Exon 1225.^[1]

TONKIN.

This parish of St. Breward is also called Simon Ward; and the popular legend has changed a pious and venerable bishop into one Simon Ward, a domestic brewer to King Arthur. I rather conjecture that on the division of parishes it was called Brewer from "bruiers," which in the French tongue is "heath."

THE EDITOR.

The principal villages in in this parish are Lank Major, Lank Minor, without doubt Lank Vrauz, and Lank Vean; perhaps lank may be lan, varying with local pronunciation in the absence of all orthography, when the names will signify the great and small inclosure; also Swallock. Mr. Lysons states that the ancient manor of Hamethy, or Hametethy, is situated in this parish, five-sixths belonging to Mr. Mitchell of Hengar, in the adjacent parish of St. Tudy, and the other sixth to Mr. Kekewich.

But this parish is distinguished from all others in Cornwall by the locality of Roughtor and Brown Willy; these hills, pre-eminent from their elevation, and from the granite crags studded over the whole expanse of their surfaces, may be seen from an elevation crossed by the road near llfracombe in the north of Devon, and from the high land in Zennor, about ten miles from the Land's End.

This parish contains 8552 statute acres.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815	£. 2561	s. 0	d. 0
Poor Rates in 1831	289	2	0

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

in 1801, 513

in 1811, 506

in 1821, 554

in 1831, 627.

increase on a hundred in 30 years of 222/10 per cent.

Present Vicar, the Rev. T. J. Landon, presented in 1815 by the Dean and Chapter of Exeter.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

The greater part of this parish is situated on granite, including within its boundaries Roughtor and Brown Willy, the highest hills in Cornwall, the latter being 1368 feet above the level of the sea. The composition of this granite has been already noticed under the head of Advent: it affords few varieties, which may be owing to its offering few opportunities for examination.

The circumstance most attractive of attention is the great sterility of this extensive district; some few contracted spots are indeed brought into cultivation; some parts afford summer pasturage for cattle, and others turf for fuel; but by far the greater portion of the whole lies entirely unproductive. And this character belongs to the whole insulated patch of granite more than ten miles in diameter; and the church of St. Breward is the only one to be found on this extensive surface of perhaps from forty to fifty thousand acres; while nine churches are to be found on the granite district of the Land's End, where this substratum, departing from its usual qualities, gives fertility to the soil.

The western extremity of this parish is fertile, resting on a peculiar kind of slate, which possesses geological interest. It may be seen at Combe, at Penrose, and at other places near the river Camel, and appears to be a variety of mica slate, being composed of granular felspar, interlaminated with mica. It contains beds of dark purple felspar rock, very similar to that which abounds in the mining district in the western part of the county. This micaceous slate gradually passes into a thick lamellar rock, which extensively disintegrates and becomes argillaceous, exactly resembling the stone quarried for building at Bodmin.

 

---

 

1. This is written in a different hand.