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Lostwithiel in Cornwall County England History and GeographyLOSTWITHIEL, a borough, market town, and parish, having separate jurisdiction, though locally in the eastern division of the hundred of Powder, county of CORNWALL, 6 miles (S.) from Bodmin, 26 (S.W.) from Launceston, and 236½ (W.S.W.) from London, containing 933 inhabitants. This place is supposed by some to have been the Roman station called Uzella by Ptolemy, but this opinion does not appear to be warranted by the discovery of any certain traces of Roman residence. According to tradition, Lostwithiel was so called as having been the residence of Withiel, anciently Earl of Cornwall, who had a palace at Penkneth, now part of the borough, but in the parish of Lanlivery. In the reign of Richard I., the town was held under the Earl of Cornwall, by Robert de Cardinham, who procured for it the privilege of a market; and Richard, Earl of Cornwall, the brother of Henry III., made Lostwithiel, including Penkneth, a free borough. His son Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, was a great benefactor to the town, in which he erected a shire hall, an exchequer office, and other handsome buildings, and ordered that the coinage and sale of the tin from the Cornish mines should take place at Lostwithiel only, and that all county meetings should be held there. These exclusive privileges were not preserved inviolate, for, in 1314, the burgesses complained to the parliament that the men of Bodmin, Truro, and Helston, had caused tin to be sold at those towns, and that the prior of Bodmin had then recently procured the county meetings to be held at Bodmin; but notwithstanding these grievances were redressed, Lostwithiel was gradually deprived of its exclusive advantages, the only remnant of which is the election of the knights for the county of Cornwall, which still takes place here, though the previous meetings for the nomination of the candidates are held at Bodmin. In the summer of 1644, this place was the head-quarters of the parliamentary general, the Earl of Essex; previously to which, a battle had been fought near the town, in which a body of the king's troops, under Sir Richard Grenville, was defeated by Lord Robartes. Dugdale asserts that the parish church was profaned by the parliamentarian soldiers, and injured by an explosion of gunpowder. This town is situated in a beautiful vale, on the banks of the river Fawy, on the high road from Plymouth to Falmouth; the river, which is crossed by a bridge, is navigable for small barges as far as the quay, during the spring tides. The town consists of two paralled streets, extending from the river to the foot of a steep hill: it is lighted and paved, and there is a good supply of water. The houses are chiefly built of stone, and covered with slate, which abounds in the neighbourhood. An annual regatta, or boat race, with a ball, takes place in August, and assemblies are held in the winter. There is a tan-yard in the town, but its trade chiefly depends upon the importation of timber, coal, and other articles for the miners; and the recent increase of the copper mines in the neighbourhood has been attended with a correspondent advance of commercial prosperity. About three miles from the town are the extensive mines of Lanescot and the Fowey Consols., surpassing, in the variety, extent, and power of their machinery, all others in the kingdom, their produce amounting to an eleventh part of all the copper-ore furnished by the mines of Cornwall. The market is held on Friday; and the establishment of a corn market, free of toll, was recently attempted, but without success: the market-house was erected at the expense of Viscount Mount-Edgcumbe, in 1781. There are fairs for horses, cattle, and sheep, March 31st, July 10th, September 4th, and November 13th. The borough includes portions of the adjoining parishes of Lanlivery and St. Winnow. A charter of incorporation was granted by James I., in 1623, and renewed by George II., in 1738, under which the corporation consists of seven aldermen or capital burgesses, including the mayor, and seventeen assistants, or common council-men. The mayor is elected by the aldermen and assistants, on the first Tuesday after Michaelmas; and the assistants are chosen by the aldermen, who likewise fill up vacancies in their own body. The mayor, the late mayor, and the recorder, are justices of the peace; and the mayor is also coroner. A court leet is held annually by the mayor, when presentments are made concerning matters relating to the borough and the river; and all persons having boats on the river are required to yield suit and service at this court. The petty sessions are generally held here on Friday. The quarter sessions for the county, formerly held here in the summer, were, a few years since, removed to Bodmin. In the old shire hall, erected by the Earl of Cornwall, and in which the stannary parliaments were held, is the original stannary court-room, with a prison adjoining, which is the only one in the county belonging to the stannaries. The town hall is a neat building, with a prison underneath, erected, in 1740, at the cost of Lord Mount-Edgcumbe. The borough first returned members to parliament in the 33rd of Edward I., and then ceased till the 4th of Edward II., since which the returns have been regular: The right of election is vested in the corporation; and the mayor is the returning officer. The Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe possesses paramount influence. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Cornwall, and diocese of Exeter, rated in the king's books at £ 2. 13. 4., endowed with £600 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe. The church, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, is a handsome edifice in the early English style, with a lantern tower at the west end, surmounted by a fine octagonal spire, erected in the fourteenth century: it contains an ancient stone font, on the sides of which are sculptured grotesque figures and armorial bearings, rudely executed, and now much defaced. There are places of worship for Bryanites, Independents, and Wesleyan Methodists. A free grammar school was established by the corporation about 1776, the master of which has a salary of £50 per annum. A writing-school is kept in the town hall, the corporation allowing a salary of £10 per annum to the master. There is likewise a school with an endowment of 5 per annum, paid out of the proceeds of a fund left for charitable uses, by the Rey. St. John Eliot. A Sunday school, supported by voluntary contributions, affords instruction to about one bundred and twenty children of both sexes. About a mile northward of the town, on the edge of a lofty hill, are the magnificent and venerable ruins of Restormel castle, supposed to have been erected by Robert, Earl of Mortaigne, and anciently the residence of the Earls of Cornwall. At the commencement of the great civil war, although then ruinous, it was garrisoned for the parliarnent, and was taken by the royalist general, Sir Richard Grenville, in August, 1644. The remains are comprised within a circular area, one hundred and ten feet in diameter, the walls of which are nine feet thick, and are surrounded by a deep moat; at the southern entrance, where was formerly a draw-bridge, are two arches supporting a square tower; traces of suites of apartments and stone staircases are visible; and the whole, being richly overgrown with ivy, presents a very picturesque appearance. The chapel of the Holy Trinity, anciently appendant to the castle, is also in ruins. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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