HALS. Tywardreth is situate in the hundred of Powder, and hath upon the north Lanlivery and Luxillian, south the British Channel, east Giant and Fowey Town, west St. Blazey. The name signifieth the house upon the sand; and by the same name of Tywardrai, it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087. In the inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester into the value of Cornish Benefices 1294, Ecclesia de Tywardreth, in decanatu de Powdre, was valued at cvi_s._ viii_d._; in Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £9. 6_s._ 8_d._; the patronage formerly in the abbat of Tywardreth, now Rashleigh; the incumbent ―――― Woolridge; the rectory in Rashleigh; and the parish rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax 1696, for one year £205. This church is wholly appropriated or impropriated to the prior or abbat of Tywardreth, before the statute of Richard II.; and the vicar was paid only with £11 modus or stipend per annum, out of the Duchy Exchequer of Lestwithiel. It was the chief alien priory in those parts, which name of alien priors or abbats arose soon after the Norman Conquest, when certain Englishmen, Normans, and French, gave lands in England to Monasteries beyond the seas; upon which the monks built convenient houses for increasing the number of those under their own rule, and to inspect their revenues and tithes, in which houses they planted a suitable number of monks, under a superior or steward. This priory or abbey was therefore accordingly made subject to the Abbey of St. Sergius and Bacchus of Angiers in France, soon after the Norman Conquest (to whom also is dedicated their church of Luxillian). The history of whom is as followeth: These saints were Christians and Noblemen of the City of Constantinople; the one Primicerius, and the other Secondicerius; that is to say, Sergius the First, and Bacchus the Second, Secretaries of State to the Emperor Maximian; who for that they would not join with him in sacrificing to the Roman gods or idols, were cruelly tormented by the common hangman, and lastly had their heads chopped off, 7th October 310. There is pious mention of those saints in the Second Nicene Council, Martyrologers, and otherwise; and many churches are dedicated to them in Constantinople, and other parts of Christendom; and the place in Asia where St. Sergius suffered, is called Sergiopolis to this day. This abbey was first founded by William Earl of Morton and Cornwall, according to the rule of Augustine and Benedict. It was afterwards re-edified and greatly augmented in its revenues by Robert de Cardinham, tempore Richard I. 1190, (see the Monasticon Anglicanum of Dugdale); for which reason he is by some persons taken to be the founder thereof. This Robert de Cardinham I take to be the same person mentioned by the name of Robert de Cardinam, (Survey Cornwall, page 44), who held by the tenure of knight service seventy-one knight’s fees of Morton in Cornwall, tempore Richard I.