# The Parochial History of Cornwall/Volume 1/St Dominick

ST. DOMINICK.
HALS.
Is situate in the hundred of Eastwellshire, and hath upon the north, Calstock; east, the Tamar river; south, part of Landulph; west, St. Mellen. For the modern name of this parish and church, it is derived from St. Dominick the monk of Spain, presidual saint and tutelar guardian of this ​church, who instituted that religious order of men called Ordo Prædicatorum, or the Order of Preaching Monks or Friars, (who taught the Gospel without hire or reward, except what was given them of charity or alms, as the Franciscans did; he flourished anno Dom. 1215. At the time of Domesday Roll 20 William I. 1087, this district was taxed under the name of Halton. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia Sancti Dominici, in Decanatu de Estwellshire, was rated to first fruits or annats iiil. vis. iiid. In Wolsey's Inquisition 1521, it was valued at 23l. 11s. The patronage in Clarke, the incumbent Clarke, and the parish rated to the 4s. per pound Land Tax, 1696, 164l. 8s.
History of St. Dominick, abridged from Hals:
He was born at Calarvega in Spain, about the year 1167. His father was Don Felix de Gusman, his mother Donna Giovanna Deza, both well descended and faithful servants of God. Dominick early distinguished himself by his great ability, diligence, and proficiency in learning. He first studied at the University of Placentia, and from thence he was removed to Salamanca by Frederick the Second, King of Castille. He here obtained a reputation so far above all the other students as to induce Don Diego, Bishop of Osuna, to select him as the most proper person to become a canon in his church. Dominick was soon after appointed by Don Alonzo, King of Castile, to accompany his ambassador to the Court of France. On this journey the saint first encountered some of the Albigenses, and to the extinction of their heresy he chiefly devoted the remainder of his life, by instituting his celebrated order of Dominican Preaching Friars A.D. 1215, in imitation of the Franciscans, established about six years before. St. Dominick did not, however, implicitly rely on his own exertions, or on those of his order, suited as it was to the ignorance and abject slavery of those times; but called loudly to their aid the secular arm, and established the Inquisition, so that after thousands had been converted from their heresy, and tens ​of thousands massacred, the conquerors enjoyed in the possession of their plundered property the additional conscious satisfaction of having freed the church from heretics so audacious as to deny that wheaten flour was entirely changed into the body of Christ.
Dominick departed this life in the odour of sanctity on the 6th of August 1221, having completed his fifty-first year. Having performed various miracles, and even raised people from the dead, he was canonised by Gregory IX. in 1234. Before the close of his short life, a great number of houses were founded throughout Europe for his disciples, and, faithful to the original object of the new order, he bequeathed to their charge the Tribunal of the Inquisition.
The Dominicans and Franciscans for a long time supported the power of Rome, according to the dream of Pope Innocent III. in which he saw the Lateran Church in danger of falling down, and St. Dominick sustaining its weight. But finally, the sale of indulgences, through the medium of this order, excited the resentment or the envy of others, and Friar Martin Luther, assisted by the growing genius of the age, crumbled to pieces a spiritual authority, of which it was fondly believed that destiny had said with more truth than of its temporal predecessor,
His ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono; Imperium sine fine dedi.
Hall-ton, in this parish, id est, either a town notable for a hall, or a moor-town; wherefore, the natural or artificial circumstance of the place must be considered to de​termine which. By this name the now parish of St. Dominick, as aforesaid, was taxed in the Domesday Roll 20 William I. 1087, which place gave name and original to an old family of gentlemen, surnamed De Halton, who flourished here in gentle degree from the Norman Conquest to the ninth year of Edward the Second, at which time Joan, the only daughter and heir of Richard de Halton, Lord also of the Manor of Hardfast, in this county, was married to Robert Wendyn, of Compton Gifford, in Devon, who had issue by Joan de Halton, one only daughter, that became his heir, married to John Whiteleigh, of Efford, in Devon, father of Richard Whiteleigh, Sheriff of Devon 9 Richard II. grandfather of Richard Whiteleigh, Esq. Sheriff of Devon 6 Henry VII. whose two daughters and heirs were married to Roger Grenvill, of Stowe, and Richard Hals, of Kenedon, from whom the writer of this book is lineally descended. Of this family was John de Halton, Bishop of Carlisle, who died 1318.
The 19th of Elizabeth, Anthony Rous, Esq. then Sheriff of Cornwall, was possessed of this place; as was also his son Anthony Rous, Esq. Sheriff of Cornwall 44th Elizabeth. But ——— Rous, Esq. the last possessor of this barton, dying without issue, as I take it, passed these lands to his widow for payment of debts, who afterwards married ——— Cossens, and then sold it to her brother Henry Clerk, gent, that married ——— Sescomb, of St. Kevorne, now in possession thereof. Mr. Clerk's father came into those parts as steward to the Lady Drummond.
Rous's arms are, Or, an eagle displayed Azure, pruning her wings, langued Gules.
TONKIN.
Crockaddon in this parish is the mansion house of James Trevisa, Esq. descended from John Trevisa, born in this place, as I am informed, and bred at Oxford. He became a secular priest and chaplain to James Lord Berkeley, by whom he was made vicar of Berkeley in Gloucestershire, ​and at his request he translated the Bible into English, although the same had been done by John Wickliff fifty years before, but not with that perfection of language that Trevisa did it, although Trevisa's translation fell as far short of Tindall's in Henry the Eighth's days; by reason the English language was still improving to a higher pitch, for they all agreed in the original sense and meaning of the text. Trevisa also translated Bartholomew de Proprietatibus Rerum, the Polychronicon of Ralph Higden, and divers other Treatises. He died a very aged man, about 1410, since which time the descendants of his family have flourished in good fame in those parts.
Their arms are, Gules, a garb Or.
Pentilly is the mansion of Sir James Tilly, Knt. formerly steward to Sir John Corington, who married first, a daughter of Sir Henry Vane, and was afterwards knighted by King James the Second. After this, having assumed the arms of Count Tilly, of Germany, together with his supporters, he had them taken from him, and was fined by the kings at arms several hundreds for his presumption. This occurrence gave rise to an unfounded story of his having been degraded from his knighthood, for that he was not a gentleman either of blood, arms, or descent; but it is clear that a knight need not be a gentleman of blood, witness the number at present that are not so. To his second wife he married the widow of Sir John Corington, his former master; she was one of the daughters of Sir Richard Chiverton, of London; but he did not leave any remaining issue by either of his wives. This Pentilly is a new name given by himself to this his seat, from its situation on the side of a steep hill, having a pleasant prospect of the river Tamar, and of the country round about. He has adorned it with fine new buildings, composed of several towers with gilded balls, and several walks of lime-trees on the side of the hill. All which together at a distance made a pretty show, Sir James Tilly dying without issue, left his estate and his house to his sister's son, James Tilly Woolley, who, ​by the name of James Tilly, Esq. is now, 1734, sheriff of Cornwall.
The manor of Halton, the town in the moor. In Domesday Book it is called Haltone; and it was one of the manors given by William the Conqueror to his brother Robert Earl of Morton, when he created him Earl of Cornwall.
I believe this parish does not derive its name from St. Dominic de Gusman, the first author of that barbarous tribunal the Inquisition, the name being anterior to him; but that it has a female patroness, Sancta Dominica, for in the Taxatio Beneficiarum, A.D. 1291, it is called Ecclesia Sanctæ Dominicæ, and valued at 3l. 6s. 8d.
THE EDITOR.
I believe that St. Dominica must be sought for in the same Canon with St. Veronica and St. Kurie Eleeeson.
Mr. Lysons says that Francis Rous, distinguished as a member of both houses during the Protectorate, was born at Halton about the year 1579. He was made provost of Eton College, and died at Acton, in Middlesex, in January 1659. The property now belongs to Mrs. Bluett, daughter and heiress of Mr. John Clerk, in whose family were this manor, and the advowson of the living,
Mr. Lysons further states that Charles Fitz-Geoffry, rector of this parish, where he died in 1637, published the Life of Sir Francis Drake, written in lofty verse and when he was only Bachelor of Arts, a Collection of Latin Verses, &c.
Sir James Tillie appears to have been at the least an eccentric man, from the fanciful directions which he gave respecting his funeral. He was succeeded, as has been stated, by his nephew, James Woolley, who took his name; and the only daughter of this gentleman's grandson married the late Mr. John Coryton, of Crockadon, descended by a female line from the Corytons of Newton. Mr. Coryton was Sheriff of Cornwall in 1782. His son, ​Mr. John Tillie Coryton, has built a splendid Gothic mansion on Pentillie, and made it one of the finest seats in Cornwall.
Both Mr. Hals and Mr. Tonkin have reference to Crockadon and Pentillie in the parish of St. Dominick, whereas Pentillie is in Pillaton, and Crockadon in St. Mellion.
The parish of St. Dominick measures 2,778 statute acres.
| Annual value of the Real Property, as returned to Parliament in 1815 | £. 4149 | s. 0 | d. 0 |
| Poor Rate in 1831 | 595 | 4 | 0 |
| Population,— $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$ | in 1801, 538 | in 1811, 534 | in 1821, 690 | in 1831, 726 |
giving an increase of 35 per cent. in 30 years.
Present Rector, the Rev. E. J. Clarke, presented by Edward Bluet, Esq. in 1803.
THE GEOLOGY, BY DR. BOASE.
The geology of this parish is the same as the southern part of Calstock and the eastern part of Callington.