329 



NOTE ON A PETITION FEOM ST. MAWES TO BE ALLOWED TO 



EE-BUILD ITS ANCIENT CHAPEL OF EASE. 



By henry M. JEFFERY, F.R.S., Vice-President. 



A copy of the following document was left behind by the 

 Eev. Dr. Eodd, at St. Just Eectory, in 1836, with a memorandum 

 that it was "an old paper found amongst the deeds of Mr. J. 

 BuUer, of Morval." The petitioners probably wished to procure 

 the Bishop's Kcense ; if one may judge from the style and orthog- 

 raphy, and from the circumstance that no allusion occurs to 

 dissenting chapels, the petition may have been drawn up towards 

 the close of the 17th century. 



The following extract from Lake's Parochial History of 

 Cornwall, 1868 (vol. II, p. 309), contains all that is known of 

 the chapel. " The ancient chapel of St. Mawes or S. Manduit 

 'is mentioned in Bishop Lacy's Register, August 18th, 1427. 

 ' This chapel was afterwards turned into a dwelling house. 

 ' A great deal of Pentewan stone was used in its construction, 

 ' and the floor was formed of blue stone neatly cut into squares. 

 ' On the north side of the house the ancient wall remained 

 'nearly entire early in the present century, and had a small 

 ' Gothic arch of stone, curiously wrought. In building on or 

 ' near this place, human bones were dug up in clearing the 

 ' foundations. These buildings are styled in their leases the 

 ' CTiwpel Yard tenement, and the house adjoining, the Chapel 

 ' tenement. In this chapel the inhabitants of St. Just had a 

 ' license to attend Divine Service since the Reformation. The 

 ' ancient well still exists : the water is good, but somewhat 

 ' hard. The fountain is pre-eminently designated S. Mawes 

 'weU." In Lysons' Cornwall (1814), p. 153, similar notices 

 appear, taken from Whitaker and Borlase's collections. 



A reference to the chapel may be also cited from Leland's 

 Itinerary (1545). " Scant a quarter of a mile from the castel 

 " on the same side, upper into the land, is a praty village or 

 "fischar town with a pere, caullid S. Maw's; and there is a 

 " chapelle of hym, and his chaire of stone* a little without, and his 



* Such a chair of Elvan Stone, called after the patron Saint, St. Germoch, is 

 still preserved in Germoe churchyard 



