The Parochial History of Cornwall/Volume 1/St Evall
ST. EVALL.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Pider, and has upon the north St. George's Channel, or the Irish Sea; west, Mawgan; south and east, St. Ervyn and St. Colomb Major. In the Domesday Tax it was rated by the name of Avalde. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester (1294,) Ecclesia de Avello, in Decanatu de Polton, was valued to first fruits vil. xiiis. iiiid. Vicar ejusdem xxs. In Wolsey's Inquisition, (1521,) rated at the same value; the patronage in the Bishop of Exon, who endowed it; the incumbent Bagwell: the rectory, or sheaf, in Hawkins; the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, (1696,) 82l. 15s. 6d. The sheaf, or rectory, pays an annuity of 20l. per annum as an augmentation yearly to the vicar incumbent for ever, by virtue of an act of parliament. Probably the tutelar guardian and patron of this church is St. Ewalld or St. Evalld, from whence it obtained the appellation of St. Evall, or Avalld; who, as Malmesbury, in his Chronicle, and Herbert, in his Festivity of the Saints, tell us, was the son of Ethelbert the Second, martyred by the Danes, anno Dom. 749, brother to St. Edmnnd, king of the Saxon East Angles, who also was martyred by those people, and had his country wasted by them, till reduced by the West Saxon king, Edward the Elder; and though, after the death of St. Edmund, his brother Ewalld had right and title to the crown, and was requested by the people to take it upon him, yet he told them in answer that he preferred a religious and solitary life before all the kingdoms in the world, and therefore retired to Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, to a monastery called Cornehouse, where in great piety and holiness he lived, and died anno Dom. 850, and was interred, and held in great veneration for many supernatural facts done there after his death, whereby he obtained the reputation of a saint.
Trethewoll, Tretbvall, in this parish, was the seat of John Nanfan, Sheriff of Cornwall 7th Henry VI. who at first, as tradition saith, was a servant to one of the Eriseys, temp. Henry V. and in that prince's wars with the French was by them promoted to a captain's post in that expedition, wherein he behaved himself with such valour and conduct, always attended with success, that he was highly rewarded by that prince, with much lands in England and France; upon which foundation, and by his thrift and good conduct, he laid up a very great estate in lands, and particularly was the purchaser of this manor and barton of Trethvall, and Tregenyn in Padstow, where he seated himself. He was again, because of his great advancement by his prince's bounty, made Sheriff of Cornwall 15th Hen. VI. Again, his son John, 29th Hen. VI. Again 35th Hen. VI. by the name of John Nanfan, Esq. who is the first gentleman, on the Records of the Pipe Office for Cornish Sheriffs, distinguished by the name of an Esquire, which appellation or terminative distinction in Cornwall, was not given generally to those officers till about the middle of Henry the Eighth's reign. He was also made Sheriff of Wiltshire 30th Henry VI. He had issue Richard Nanfan, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 20th Edward IV. also 4th Henry VII. who dying without issue male, in grateful remembrance of Mr. Erisey's kindness and favour to his grandfather, he gave this barton and manor, and Tregerryn also, to James Erisey, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 4th Henry VIII. by some of whose posterity it was sold to Grenvill; and by the Grenvills to Smith of Exeter; and by the Smiths to Leach, father of Sir Simon Leach, Knt. of the Bath, temp. Charles II. who married Vivian of Truan; his father Gully; and giveth for his arms, Party per fess engrailed Gules and Ermine, in chief three ducal crowns Or. The arms of Nanfan were, Sable, three martlets, 3, 2, 1, and Argent.
TONKIN.
Mr. Tonkin has nothing of the least consequence different from Mr. Hals.
THE EDITOR.
This parish measures 2,707 statute acres.
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | £. 2399 |
s. 0 |
d. 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 175 | 6 | 0 |
| Population,— | in 1801, 288 |
in 1811, 309 |
in 1821, 323 |
in 1831, 354 |
giving an increase of about 23 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Vicar, the Rev. Walter Kitson, collated by the Bishop of Exeter in 1803.
GEOLOGY.
Doctor Boase observes that this parish is composed of the same rocks as the adjoining parish of St. Ervan.