The Parochial History of Cornwall/Volume 1/Cornelly

by Davies Gilbert

CORNELLY.

HALS.

Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the north, Probus; east, Tregony; south, the Vale River; west, Lamorran and Merther. For the modern name of this place, Cornell-y or Kornell-y, it signifies the angle, nook, canton, quarter, or corner; and, suitable to its name, it is a dismembered district from Probus parish; a remote canton or corner of land in respect thereof, but as to spirituals consolidated, and goes in presentation with it as a daughter church. The patronage is in the Bishop of Exeter; the incumbent Baudree (Duddowe).

This parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 72l. 4s. The rectory or sheaf in possession of Hawkins and Huddy. In the Domesday tax, 20 William I., 1087, this parish was taxed under the name and jurisdiction of Pen-pell, that is the far off or remote top or head. In Wolsey's Inquisition, 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, this church is called Gro-goth.

Tre-den-ike in this parish, (i.e. the man town, creek, or cove of waters,) also Tre-warth-en-ike, (i.e. the farther town of, in, or upon the cove, creek, lake, or bosom of waters,) is the dwelling of my very kind friend John Gregor, Esq. who married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Walter Moyle, Knight; his father, Francis Gregor, Esq. married one of the coheirs of Prideaux of Gunlyn, sheriff of Cornwall 19 Charles II.; his grandfather, Jane, daughter of Nosworthy, of Truro. And he giveth for his arms, Or, a chevron Gules, between three partridges Proper, out of a supposed allusion to their name in Cornish, wherein Grugyer and Gyrgirk is a partridge.

TONKIN.

I take the word Cornelly to be a corruption of the Cornish Caren Gli, that is love of God.

In this parish is Trewithenike, compounded of Tre-with en-ike. The dwelling-tree, or a rivulet, (query, tree?—ED.) which was in Queen Mary's days the lands of William Weyte, Gent, as appears from an old deed in my custody, who was also lord of divers other tenements in those parts, as also of Fentongimps in St. Pyran Sabolo. He had a brother that lived at Lestwithiel, and was mayor of the town in the time of Henry VIII. whose daughter and heir was married to Kendall of Treworgye or Pelris, whose inheritance was no small augmentation to the paternal estate of that family. The arms of Wayte, Argent, a chevron between three salmons erect Azure. This barton is now the property of John Gregor, Esq. who has lately built a fine new house here. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Walter Moyle of Boke. His father, Francis Gregor, was sheriff of Cornwall 19 Charles II. (21 Charles II. A.D. 1669.—Ed.) He married one of the heiresses of Prideaux, of Gurlyn in St. Erth.

It is said by some that St. Cornelius the Centurian is patron of this parish; if so, the name Cornelly is probably from him. Nearly the whole of this parish is included within the manor of Grogith or Crogith.

THE EDITOR.

Francis Gregor, son and heir of John Gregor and Elizabeth Moyle, married a daughter of William Harris of Pickwell in Devonshire; and their son Francis Gregor, born in 1728, left two sons, Francis Gregor, sheriff of Cornwall in 1788, and member for the county from 1790 to 1806, and the Rev. William Gregor. Mr. Francis Gregor first married the eldest daughter of Mr. William Masterman, of Restormal, who had married a Cornish lady, and made a large fortune by the practice of the law, as a solicitor in London, and afterwards represented Bodmin in Parliament. Mr. Gregor married secondly Miss Urchuarth from Scotland, but died in 1815 without any family; and his brother, the Rev. William Gregor, survived but a few years, leaving an only daughter, who died at the age of three or four-andtwenty, and with her the name of Gregor became extinct.

But Mr. Masterman had a second daughter, married to Mr. Francis Glanville Catchfrench, who also left an only daughter. To this lady Miss Gregor gave the whole of her property, with an injunction to take her name. Miss Granville is married and has several children, having made Trewarthenick her residence, and improved the fine new house mentioned by Mr. Tonkin into one of the largest and most decorated mansions to be seen in Cornwall.

This parish contains 1047 statute acres.

Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815	£. 1704	s. 0	d. 0
Poor Rate in 1831	88	3	0

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

in 1801, 137

in 1811, 151

in 1821, 168

in 1831, 170;

giving an increase of 24 per cent. in 30 years.

GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.

Near Tregony Bridge, a fine grained, glossy, and very fissile blue slate is exposed in a quarry, which appears to be the prevailing rock of this small parish. This slate probably contains beds of massive lamellar rocks, as the same kind of slate does in the adjoining parishes, but they are not in this particular district visible on the surface. All these rocks belong to the calcareous series.

 

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