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    Transcriber's Note:

    Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
    possible. Some changes of spelling and punctuation have been made.
    They are listed at the end of the text.

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[Illustration:

J. C. BURROW, F.R.P.S. BREAGE CHURCH. Camborne.]




 THE
 Story of an Ancient Parish

 BREAGE WITH GERMOE,

 With some account of its
 Armigers, Worthies and
 Unworthies, Smugglers
 and Wreckers, Its
 Traditions and Superstitions

 BY

 H. R. COULTHARD, M.A.

 1913.

 THE CAMBORNE PRINTING AND STATIONERY COMPANY, LIMITED.
 CAMBORNE, CORNWALL.

 MR. J. A. D. BRIDGER, 112a and 112b, Market Jew Street. Penzance.


_I dedicate this small volume to the friends and neighbours who in the
first place suggested the writing of it to me by telling me stories of
the days of their fathers._




CONTENTS.


   CHAPTER                                                      PAGE

    I. THE CELTIC PERIOD                                           9

   II. THE SAXONS                                                 28

  III. FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE REFORMATION                35

   IV. THE REFORMATION TO THE END OF THE COMMONWEALTH             59

    V. RECENT TIMES                                               82

   VI. THE GODOLPHINS                                            100

  VII. THE ARUNDELLS, DE PENGERSICKS, MILTONS AND SPARNONS       115

 VIII. WORTHIES AND UNWORTHIES                                   129

   IX. PLACE NAMES AND SUPERSTITIONS                             148




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


                                         PAGE

 Breage Church, Frontispiece                2

 Celtic Cross in Breage Churchyard         24

 Frescos in Breage Church                  51

 St. Germoe's Chair                        55

 Godolphin House                          100

 A Godolphin Helmet in Breage Church      103

 Pengersick Castle                        119




PREFACE.


The facts and thoughts which comprise this little book were many of
them, in the first instance, arranged for use in sermons on the Sundays
preceding our local Feast Day, as some attempt to interest Parishioners
in the story of our Church and parish.

I have to acknowledge with gratitude much information given me most
ungrudgingly, from his great store of antiquarian learning, by the
Reverend T. Taylor, Vicar of St. Just; likewise my thanks are due to Mr.
H. Jenner for kindly help and information upon the etymology of local
place names. I must also acknowledge the free use I have made of facts
bearing upon the history of Breage and Germoe taken from Mr.
Baring-Gould's "Historic Characters and Events in Cornwall," and at the
same time I have to express my thanks to the Reverend H. J. Warner,
Vicar of Yealmpton, the Reverend H. G. Burden, Vicar of Leominster, and
Mr. A. E. Spender for valuable information and assistance. I have been
greatly helped in my examination of the Parish Registers by the
excellent transcription of large parts of them made by Mrs. Jocelyn
Barnes. Finally I have to thank a great number of kind friends at
Breage, who have imparted to me the fast fading traditions of other
times, to whom I venture to dedicate this brief record of days that are
no more.

 _Breage,
 All Saints' Day, 1912._


 Date of |
 Insti-  |          LIST OF THE VICARS OF BREAGE.
 tution. |
         |--------------------------------+-------------------------------------
 --      |WILLIAM, SON OF RICHARD         |Died or resigned during the Interdict
 1219    |WILLIAM, SON OF HUMPHREY        |
 1264    |MASTER ROBERT DE LA MORE        |Resigned to become Canon of Glasney,
         |                                |  ultimately parson of Yeovil.
 1264    |MASTER STEPHENUS DE ARBOR       |
 --      |SIR PASCASIUS                   |No date of Institution. Old, blind
         |                                |  and infirm in 1310.
 1313    |SIR DAVID DE LYSPEIN            |
 --      |SIR JOHN YURL DE TREGESOU       |No date of Institution.
 1362    |HENRY CRETTIER                  |
 --      |SIR WILLIAM PELLOUR             |No date of Institution.
 1393    |SIR JOHN GODE                   |Died at Breage.
 1403    |MASTER WILLIAM PENSANS          |Died at Breage.
 1439    |SIR JOHN PATRY                  |Died at Breage.
 1444    |SIR JOHN PEYTO                  |Died at Breage.
 1445    |SIR WILLIAM LEHE                |Died at Breage.
 1466    |SIR WILLIAM PERS                |Resigned to become Canon of Glasney.
 1505    |MASTER THOMAS GODOLPHIN         |Resigned.
 1510    |MASTER JOHN JAKES,              |
         |          Bachelor in Decrees   |Died at Breage.
 1536    |JOHN BERY, M.A.                 |Died at Breage.
