The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 3 (of 4) — John Shaqi
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)
Lelant was for centuries the residence of three old and respectable
families――Praed, Hoskin, and Pawley. The Hoskins still remain
possessed of their ancient freehold, and other property; and Mr. Henry
Hoskins, the present head of the family, resides in a house at the
northern extremity of Tredreath, or Lower Lelant Town, bearing all the
marks which distinguished the dwellings of private gentlemen in the
times of the Tudors or Plantagenets. The Pawleys are extinct, having
declined through a series of years; Goonwhyn, or Gunwin, (the White
Croft) where the family had long resided, together with some other
remnants of property, came to Miss Jane Pawley, sufficient, however,
to give her the reputation of an heiress: but misfortunes and
disgraceful conduct reduced her so very low, that the Editor
recollects her soliciting charity from those who once looked up to her
superior station; and this representative of an ancient family closed
her mortal career in a parish workhouse.
The Praeds are also extinct; but the name has, with singular felicity,
arrived at tenfold splendour in a new dynasty.
The original family became at last represented by two brothers: the
elder distinguished as Colonel Praed, married a Basset of Tehidy, but
died soon after, leaving all the personal property to his widow: the
younger brother succeeded to the real estate; but having been
unsuccessfully engaged in trade, and finding the farms mostly leased
on lives with the payment of small quit-rents, according to the custom
of those times, he became more and more embarrassed; till, meeting
with a gentleman of the family of Mackworth, in Glamorganshire, bred
to the higher department of the law, he arranged with this gentleman,
that on being freed from all pecuniary difficulties, and receiving a
certain annuity for life, the whole Cornish estate should be
transferred to Mr. Mackworth; on the further conditions of his taking
the name of Praed, and what seems almost ludicrous, of his engaging,
so far as the consent of one party could be sufficient, to marry Miss
Penrose, of Penrose, near Helston, the heiress-at-law to Mr. Praed’s
estate.
Mr. Praed died about the years 1716 or 1717, when Mr. Mackworth came
into possession, having performed every engagement to the utmost of
his power; for the Editor recollects having heard from his son, the
late Mr. Humphrey Mackworth Praed, that his father went to Penrose in
execution of the condition dependent on another; but that, so far from
obtaining success, he found some difficulty in escaping with his life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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