CARMINOW OF CAEMINO"W. 221 



Worcester, in his Itinerarium A.D. 1478, gives the name as 

 found hy him in entries in the Bodmin G-ospels thus, Kaermynaw 

 1299, Carmynaw 1349, Carmynew 1369. 



2. ANTIQUITY AND PEDIGEEE OF CARMINOW. 



Under this head a considerable amount of romance has been 

 allowed to take the place of proof : but when these two elements 

 have been separated by reference to the best evidence which is 

 attainable, it will be seen that a very respectable antiquity 

 remains to garnish the pedigree with which so many Cornish 

 families may claim alliance. 



The earliest authority for a very remote antiquity is the 

 celebrated Scrope and Grrosvenor Eoll'''' in which one of the 

 witnesses is represented to have said that in the reign of Edward 

 the 3rd, Carmynow of Cornwall had challenged Sir Eichard 

 Scrope with wrongfully bearing his arms, and that it had been 

 found by six Knights chosen to decide the controversy (which 

 arose in the English camp before the gates of Paris), "that 

 Carminow was descended of a lineage armed Azure a lend Or 

 since the time of King Arthur," whose death has been usually 

 stated to have occiu-red in the year 542. f 



The editors of the 'Visitation of Cornwall in 1620, J cite 

 Cleaveland's History of the House of Courtenay, as mentioning 

 the still more astounding tradition that one of the Carminows 

 led a body of troops to oppose the landing of Csesar. 



Further, this family was once classed amongst those related 

 to the blood royal. || 



There seems to be no proof of this relationship, and the 

 editors of the Visitation of 1620, appear to treat it as quite 

 unfounded, originating in the supposition, now shown to be 

 erroneous, that Sir Oliver Carminow's second wife Elizabeth, 

 was the sister of John Holland, Earl of Kent, whose mother 

 was the ''fair maid of Kent," grand-daughter of Edward the 

 first, whereas she is now shown to have been Elizabeth Pomeroy.§ 

 The learned editors of the visitation pay the Carminows the 

 great compliment of exhibiting a ' comparative pedigree ' of 



* Privately printed by Sir N. H. Nicolas, 2 Vols., ro. 8vo. 1832. 



t Annals of England, 1865, Vol. i, p. 59. 



X Vol. IX of Harleian Soc : Publ : Preface, p. vi. 



II Harl : MSS. 1074, fo. 330. 



§ Vol. IX of Harleian Soc ; Publ ; — see Pedigree also. 



