Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/335

MINSTRELS-PRIESTS. 303 (21st July), but certainly took part in occasional religious services. The "mynstrelle" still lives in enduring granite at the eastern end of our parochial chapel. It will be remembered that, in October 1478, certain Royal Commissioners were at Dunheved, enquiring into the possessions there of the young prince, who was then Duke of Cornwall. We have given at pp. 158-9 the first four interrogatories exhibited by those Commissioners, and the answers thereto of the mayor and burgesses. The fifth interrogatory was reserved for this division of our history. It is as follows : The v Int'gatorye ys, whether that any of the pfytts of the sayd lands hath been bestowed vppon the fyndyng of any p'st [priest], how myche, & w fc in whatt tyme. And the answer to it runs thus : To that the sayd Mayr & Burgesses do say, that they and theyr p'decessors have ev, from yere to yere, hyered syngyngmen, sometym p'sts sometyme laymen, sometyme bothe, for the fornys [furnishing] of theyr queare yn the chourche, as yt ys mayntyned at this p'sentt w* laymen and chyldren j and the p'sts of old tyme byn hyred, sometyme one, sometyme two, besydes the scolem' [schoolmaster], as well to wayt vppon the Meyr, & to make his accompte & rel-yng, as to maynteyne theyr sayd quere, & some- time to say masse before the meyr & burgesses, at theyr appoyntm*; but they saye that ther was nev pst theyr by them retayned that had any land, or stipend yn p'petuyitie, or for t'me of lyve, or for tyme of yeres, to say masse for any sowle depted, or had any other man r of suretie of cotynnance yn svys, but from yere to yere, at the Meyr's wyle and pleasure, yerely coducted by a peny [as earnest money] : And the Meyr for the tyme beyng, or soche as he dyd appoynt, hath payd ther wages, nor was the am 1 of ther wages certen, but sometyme more, sometyme lesse, as they covvld agree vppon theyr convenant, and when layemen sved, the fewer psts were heryed, but the Meyr dyd alwaye fore see to have the quere well maynteyned, whether yt were w fc psts or laymen : And ferd r saye, that abowte the x th yere of Kyng H. the iiii th