184 SKETCHES OF THE KILLIGREW FAMILY. 



views and traditions current among the Killigrews themselves, 

 and should he read with a critical eye. Mr. Killigrew, as the 

 steward, and a connection of the family, regarded the growth and 

 prosperity of the town, so far as they conduced to the benefit of 

 the Killigrews. Instances of this bias are subjoined. 



The corporation had complained to Mr. Merrill that they 

 had no corporate property to defray the necessary expenses, and 

 alleged that theirs was the single instance of that kind in the 

 kingdom. Mr. Killigrew considers it a sufficient reply, that 

 when Sir Peter had made the members of the Corporation of 

 his own simple honest tenants, as he was empowered to do, he 

 had little reason to apprehend opposition from them, or in his 

 own peculiar language, "his enslaving himself to a body, of 

 insolent tenants." Take another illustration, — the Corporation 

 paid the annuity of £3, due to the vicar of Budock, out of the 

 sums yearly levied for the poor rate. This was their obvious 

 course, and yet the author is so prejudiced, that he calls it 

 ' fraudulent.' Again, — by a bye-law, the Corporation extorted 

 an arbitrary fine on all new comers, who commenced business in 

 the town. Mr. M. Killigrew was eager to contest in a court of 

 law this impost, ostensibly in the interest of the sufferers, but, 

 really of the lord of the Manor. 



The author of these MSS. seems to have combined two 

 distinct characters : he was an honourable and fearless soldier, 

 as well as a shrewd and methodical steward, who set an old- 

 fashioned and exaggerated value on property with its advantages 

 and rights. As an author, he expresses himself forcibly and in 

 general clearly, but without elegance. We may add that his 

 sentences are involved and unwieldy, and sometimes ungram- 

 matical. His irreligious spirit is evinced in the narrative of the 

 curate he supplied to Mr. Quarme, the rector of Falmouth. 



An admirable abstract of the Falmouth MS was published 

 by E. Thomas, History of Falmouth (1828), chap V, 66—82 ; the 

 Killigrew MS. was consulted by Drew and Hitchens, in 1815- 

 24, and by Mr. W. H. Tregellas, who has used the information 

 thence derived, in his animated and comprehensive description 

 of all three branches of the Killigrews, " diplomatists, warriors, 

 courtiers, and poets." — Cornish Worthies, vol. II, pp. 115 — 195. 



