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)
This parish, with Crowan and Lelant, are dedicated to St. Uny, or St.
Unine, of whom nothing is known, and therefore conjecture represents
this saint as one of the missionaries from Ireland. The advowson of
the rectory is appurtenant to the honor and manor of Tehidy, which has
been in the Basset family since early times of the Plantagenets.
In the town a chapel has very recently been built, probably near to
the spot where the one formerly stood, that was dedicated to St.
Rumon, of whom little more is known than of St. Uny.
The abbey of Tavistock was dedicated to the honor of Almighty God, in
the names of the Blessed Virgin and of St. Rumon, by Ordgar Earl of
Devonshire, about the year 960, and confirmed by King Ethelred about
twenty years after. In Leland’s Collectanea de Rebus Britannicis, vol.
IV. p. 152, are noticed the following heads of a Life of Rumon:
“Rumonus genere fuit Scotus Hiberniensis. Nemea sylva in
Cornubia plenissima olim ferarum. Sanctus Rumonus faciebat
sibi oratorium in sylva Nemæa Falemutha. Ordulphus Dux
Cornubiæ transtulit ossa Rumoni Tavestochiam.”
Doctor Butler says of this saint:
“William of Malmesbury informs us, that the History of St.
Rumon’s life was destroyed by the wars, a misfortune he says
that has also happened on other occasions in England.
“He was a bishop, although it is not known of what see; his
veneration was famous at Tavistock in Devonshire, where
Ordulf, Earl of Devonshire, built a church under his
invocation, before the year 960. Wilson, upon information
given him by certain persons of that country, inserted his
name on this day (January the 4th) in the second edition of
his English Martyrology.”
Since there seems to be very little probability in the supposition
that the name of this parish can have reference to the Druids; and as
two strong objections may be alleged against its being derived from a
ford of red water, from the absence of any red stream, or ford; is it
too hardy to conjecture, that with variations in the orthography, and
in the pronunciation of the name, and perhaps with some adjunct
syllable, the long-sought-for etymology may be found in a patron
saint, when three other parishes, Ruan Major, Ruan Minor, and Ruan
Lanihorn, are dedicated to his name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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