The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 3 (of 4)
History
The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 3 (of 4)
Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Geology -- England -- Cornwall (County)
The manor of Pollifont, in Lewannick, (see that parish) which formerly
belonged to this priory, is now an appendage to the living, so that
the rector of Minster is lord of the manor of Pollifont; and the
customs of the manor are said to be, that on the accession of a new
rector, after the decease of the former, but not otherwise, the
tenants pay him thirty pounds and one penny, raised according to some
ancient schedule among themselves.
Several small fees are due on surrenders and on admissions at the
manor courts, and on the death of each tenant a heriot becomes due to
the lord, which is either his best beast or six guineas, and in
addition to these, there is an annual payment of four pounds.
Minster church lies in a deep valley, surrounded by trees, giving the
strongest impression of its forming the quire of a sequestered
monastery. It contains several monuments to the Henders, Cottons, &c.
One has a Latin inscription, with the curious pedantic device of
certain letters standing prominent among others in the different
words, and indicating, as Roman numerals, the various dates. Four
lines on William Cotton, son of William Cotton who held the see of
Exeter from 1598 to 1621, and on Elizabeth his wife, daughter and
coheir of John Hender, have been frequently transcribed, on account of
their extreme simplicity:
Forty-nine years they lived man and wife,
And what’s more rare, thus many without strife,
She first departing, he a few weeks tried
To live without her, could not――and so died.
This church is one of the very few in Cornwall that want the
decoration of a tower, and strange legends are circulated to account
for this defect, probably of a more ancient date than the Reformation.
The bells are said to have arrived in a vessel almost to the spot
where they would have been landed, when an expression of the captain,
implying confidence in the powers which God had given him, construed
into blasphemy by Anthopomophites of all religions, is supposed to
have caused the immediate destruction of the ship, with every one on
board; but when the ground seas roll with their accustomed violence on
this iron-bound coast, the bells are still fancied not only to ring a
peal, but to indicate by particular sounds the cause of this reputed
miracle, intended to convince mankind that they are bound to neglect
and to render vain whatever gifts the Almighty may have bestowed on
them, and thanklessly to employ their time in imploring more.
This place was in feudal times the residence of a baronial family,
bearing the name of Botreaux, which they imparted to a manor, or, as
the Court Rolls would testify, to an honor, having manors dependent,
and enclosing the town of Botreaux Castle, dignified by the
appellation of a borough; a term, it may be observed, that had not in
ancient times any reference to the privilege of sending members to
parliament.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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