Just a hundred years ago such a series of events took place with reference to the possession of Skewis, a farm in this parish, as would induce any one of the present time to think that he must be living in another land, under a different administration of the laws, and in a totally dissimilar state of society. Skewis had been, for I know not how long, the freehold patrimony of a succession of yeomen proprietors of the name of Rogers. There were now two brothers, the elder married and lived on the farm, but without a family, the younger brother, Henry Rogers, married and had several children. He carried on for several years in Helston the trade of a pewterer, then of considerable importance to Cornwall, although it is now lost. A large portion of the tin was then exported in the shape of pewter made into plates, dishes, &c. all of which have been superseded by earthenware. At the first introduction of earthenware, provincially called clome, it was a popular cry to destroy the clome, and to bring back the use of tin. He had for some years retired to this parish. I have made many diligent inquiries about Henry Rogers, and they have not gone to represent him as a bad man, but as one little in the habit of restraining his passions, of great bodily strength, and of what is termed a wilful disposition; and his prejudices were probably supported by an opinion, still prevalent among country people, that freehold lands, which have once descended to an heir cannot be alienated by any possessor without the concurrence of his heir. The elder brother died, when a will was produced giving all the freehold property to his widow, whose maiden name was Millett. Henry Rogers averred, and possibly believed, that the will was spurious, and would be invalid at all events. Under that impression, and despising legal remedies, he waited for an opportunity when his sister-in-law was from home; he then turned some female servants out of the house, and took forcible possession. The widow of course appealed to the law, with the voice of the whole country, however, against her; and it is universally reported that Sir John St. Aubyn, the principal gentleman of the parish, would have supported Rogers in a legal proceeding. However that may be, he prepared for violence, and refused to yield up possession when judgment was given against him; so that the Sheriff was at last directed to eject him by force. But Rogers got several persons, ignorant and lawless as himself, to remain with him in the house, which had been barricaded and adapted for defence, and great numbers of people, partly from curiosity, but in part also to countenance his resistance, having assembled on the spot, the civil power was completely resisted, and two men killed by shots from the house; the Under Sheriff himself having narrowly escaped,――as he states in his evidence, rather ludicrously, that the discharge of a gun from the house burnt his wig and singed his face.