313 



THE PRIORS OF TYWARDRETH IN THE 12th CENTURY. 



AN INVESTIGATION OP THE PROBABLE DATE OF THE CHAKTER BY WHICH 



THE CHURCH OF S. BREWVBRED DE HAMATHETHI WAS GRANTED TO THE 



BENEDICTINE PRIORY OF S. ANDREW AT TYWARDREATH. 



BY WILLIAM SINCOCK. 



" The parish of Bruered, alias S. Breward, is not named in 

 Domesday; the whole district having been taxed under Hamotedi 

 (Hamatethy), of which great manor we have no doubt this 

 parish formed a portion. The earliest mention we find of a 

 church here is in the time of King Richard I, in whose reign, 

 by an undated deed still extant with its seal appendant, printed 

 by Dr. Oliver in Mon. Dioc. Exon. p. 42, the church of St. 

 Brewvered de Hamthethi was granted to the priory of Tywardreth 

 by William Peverell, then lord of the manor."* 



" The parish church was originally founded by a lord of 

 the manor of Hamatethy, and anciently appertained to that 

 manor. There is no certain evidence when it was founded. The 

 first record relating to it, so far as we know, is an undated 

 charter, which the learned Dr. Oliver attributes to the reign 

 of King Stephen or Henry II, or a little later. Inasmuch, 

 however, as Robert de Cardinan who was one of the attesting 

 witnesses was alive in 1224, and Hugh Bardolph another witness 

 was sheriff in 1185 and in 1201, and died in 1203, we must 

 conclude that the charter was not made much earlier than the 

 close of the twelfth century. By the charter alluded to, William 

 Peverell granted the church of S. Brewvred to Grod and the 

 church of S. Andrew, of Tywardreth, and the monks there 

 serving Grod, for the good of the soul of the said William, the 

 souls of his father and mother, and all his ancestors ; in consider- 

 ation of which gift, Andrew, then prior, and the convent granted 

 to William Peverell and his heirs to have service three times a 

 week in his chapel at Hamathethi from the mother church, 

 whensoever the aforesaid William or his wife should be present 

 there." 



* A Parochial History of Trigg Minor, by Sir John Maclean, F.S.A., vol. I, 

 p. 347. 



