289
CUBERT, or ST. CUTHBERT.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Pider, and hath upon the north St. George's Channel, or the Irish Sea; west Peransabulo; east Crantock. This new name of Cuthbert is Saxon, and compounded of Cuth-bert, id est, knowledge, skill, wisdom, or understanding, clear or bright, and refers to St. Cuthbert, the tutelar guardian and patron of this church; for in Domesday Roll, 20 Will. I. 1087, this district was taxed under the name of Chynowen, now Chynoweth. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the revenues of Cornish benefices, Ecclesia Sancti Cuthberti in Decanatu de Pider, is valued iiiil. xviis. viiid. Vicar ibidem, xs. In Wolsey's Inquisition, 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, is rated 8l. 6s. 8d. The patronage formerly in the prior of Bodman, who endowed it; now Prideaux. The incumbent Bradford; the rectory or sheafe in Prideaux; and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax 1696, 99l. 9s. 6d.
The history of St. Cuthbert.—He was born in Cumberland, of British Saxon parents, about the year 600; and had his Christian education as a monk in Bangor Monastery, in Ireland; from whence he removed to the abbey of Landisfarne, opposite to Northumberland and North Durham, where, after he had remained some years, he was chosen or made a bishop of that diocese. I remember to have seen in this church, painted against the wall, about thirty years past, the portraiture of a bishop, attired in his episcopal robes, with mitre or crown on his head, a crosier or shepherd's crook or staff in his hand, and an inscription in ancient character near it, viz. St. Cuꞇhbeꞃꞇun. Which picture, I am told, is since covered over with lime by the churchwardens.
