The Parochial History of Cornwall/Volume 1/Cubert
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.
Now, it happened after the death of St. Cuthbert, that the island of Landisfarne was extremely troubled with the piratical thievish Danes, who wasted the same, without regard of secular or religious persons and places. Whereupon the Bishop of St. Ethelwin, with his monks, privately escaped into Northumberland, and left their houses and estates a prey to their enemies, anno Dom. 800, carrying with them as their chief treasure the enshrined relics or skeleton of St. Cuthbert, with which, during the lives of twelve titular bishops of Landisfarne, they wandered up and down Northumberland for the space of ninety years, without any fixed place of abode or settlement, till Aidwyn, titular bishop of that island, obtained leave of King Alfred, ann. Dom. 890, to pitch and settle his episcopal church at Durham, where he and his monks laid the foundation thereof; which, after it was by them finished, was consecrated and dedicated to the honour of Almighty God in the name of St. Cuthbert, where they again erected his shrine or relics; thereby transferring or translating the bishopric of Landisfarne to that place, and no more styling themselves bishops thereof, but of Durham.
But this fabrick of Bishop Adelwyn, though a stately- church, was pulled down by William Carilepho, the 29th bishop (13 Will. I. 1080), who in the place thereof laid the foundation of that cathedral church now extant there; though he did not live to see it finished; but Ralph Flambard, his successor, Lord Treasurer of England, went on with the work, and brought it to that perfection it now showeth; though some additions indeed were made by Nicholas de Farnham, and Thomas Welscomb, prior thereof, 1242.
King Alfred, and Guthrun the Dane, his deputy-governor of Northumberland, gave much lands to this church between the rivers Tees and Tyne, which King Alfred confirmed by his charter.
In William the Conqueror's days it was reputed a county palatine or principality, and had engrave upon its seal an armed chevalier, holding a naked sword in one hand, and in the other the arms of the bishopric, viz. Azure, a plain cross between four lions rampant Or.
But the immunities of this church of Durham were shortened by the statute 27 Henry VIII., and the lordly absolute power of this bishopric conferred upon the king. Afterwards, temp. Edw. VI. the lands and whole title of the bishopric of Durham was by act of parliament conferred upon that king, which act was repealed 1 Queen Mary, when the dissolved bishopric and the royalties of it were in a measure revived and restored as it now stands
In this parish is that famous and well-known spring of water called Holy-well (so named the inhabitants say, for that the virtues of this water was first discovered on Allhallows-day). The same stands in a dark cavern of the sea-cliff rocks, beneath full sea-mark on spring-tides; from the top of which cavern foils down or distils continually drops of water, from the white, blue, red, and green veins of those rocks. And accordingly, in the place where those drops of water fall, it swells to a lump of considerable bigness, and there petrifies to the hardness of ice, glass, or freestone, of the several colours aforesaid, according to the nature of those veins in the rock from whence it proceeds, and is of a hard brittle nature, apt to break like glass.
The virtues of this water are very great. It is incredible what numbers in summer season frequent this place and waters from counties far distant.
Chynowen, now Chynoweth, id est, New-house, was the voke-lands of a considerable manor, under which jurisdiction this parish was taxed, 20 Will. I. 1087, from which place was denominated an old British family of gentlemen, now in possession thereof, surnamed De Chynoweth; which (were not comparisons odious) I would, for antiquity, rank with or before the tribe of any other family extant in this province; though I do not understand their estate, or post in the public service of their country, was ever above the degree of a juryman of the parish of Chynoweth (now Cuthbert), or that of a hundred constable; for, if tradition may be credited, some of this blood were possessed of those very lands before the Norman Conquest, and then at; length, after the manner of the French, writ de Chynoweth.
The present possesser, John Chynoweth, Gent, giveth for his arms, Sable, on a fess Or, three eagles' heads erased Gules.
Carynas, or Carrynas, id est, dead carrions, in this parish, it seems, was so denominated from the lodging of such dead bodies of bullocks, horses, or sheep, as died of age, poverty, or sickness, and were either on trees, or in carrion pools, laid up here for hunters or their dogs. It is the dwelling of John Davis, Gent, that married Lannar, alias Vincent; his father Hoblyn, of Penhall; his grand-father.
TONKIN.
By the register of this parish (which is very ancient) it appears that in the year 1569 there was a great plague here, by which died, from the 20th of August to the 10th of November, seventy people, and it then abating, from the 25th of December to the 23d of February fifteen more; which is the more considerable, for that in the parish at present, in its flourishing condition, there are not above three hundred and fifty souls; and so healthy is the place in general, that I have been assured by Mr. Bradford, the present Minister, there was not a single burial from the 12th of September, 1699, to the 18th of October, 1700, the year following.
The Holy Well, if it may properly be so called, (it being nothing but a little water dropping out of the cliff under Kelsey, in a small cove made by the sea, to be come at only when the tide is out,) has been much frequented of late, and several strange cures attributed to it. It is a water that petrifies of itself, as may be seen by the incrusincrustations on the rock over which it runs; and these incrustations make the ascent to it very slippery and dangerous.
The Manor of Hellanclose, that is, the four halls, belonged to Robert Trencreek, Esq. fell to Degory Polwhele, Esq. who sold it to Sir Richard Robartes, in whose family it still is, Henry Earl of Radnor being the present lord thereof. The barton has been in lease for four generations to the Hoskins, the wealthiest farmers in those parts. Mr. Joseph Hoskin is the present possessor.
The church is seated upon the top of a hill, and so visible at a great distance.
One part of the parish is drowned in the sands, and that promontory of land is called Kelsey, famous for feeding the sweetest mutton (though but small) in England.
THE EDITOR.
This parish contains 2009 statute acres.
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | £. 2552 |
s. 0 |
d. 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 185 | 2 | 0 |
| Population,— | in 1801, 269 |
in 1811, 289 |
in 1821, 322 |
in 1831, 487 |
giving an increase of 81 per cent. in 30 years.
The parish feast is celebrated on the Sunday next after the 4th of October.
Present Vicar, the Rev. Thomas Stabback, instituted in 1809; he is also patron of the vicarage.
GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
This parish is contiguous to Crantock, and has precisely the same geological structure.