486 PEOBUB CHITRCH AND TOWER. 



Carew, our Cornish. Historian, states that "the high, and 

 faire church tower of hewed inoorstone was builded within 

 compasse of our remembrance by the well-disposed inhabitants.'' 



Now as Carew was born in 1555, some writers have drawn 

 th.e deduction that the tower was built in the reign of Elizabeth 

 wh.en Grothic architecture had well nigh perished out of the 

 land ; and it has been pretty generally assumed that the perpen- 

 dicular style existed in Cornwall nearly a century later than in 

 the other counties of England. 



This being so, anything that throws light on the building 

 of the tower is of interest ; and I have lately found in the Star 

 Chamber proceedings at the Public Record Office* a bill of com- 

 plaint relating to the building of the tower, and the troubles 

 the parishioners incurred in their pious labours to erect the same. 

 The bill, itself, is undated, but was presented in Henry Vlllth's 

 reign, and, probably, towards the latter end. It sets forth in 

 the name of the churchwardens, John Pascoe and Stephen Gyon ; 

 how that the Church and Steeple of Saint Probus was in a 

 marvellous great ruin and decay, insomuch that God's divine 

 service could not conveniently be done there, to the great trouble 

 and unquietness of the parishioners ; so they, of their good 

 minds and devo tions, resolved to put their helping hands towards 

 the edifying of the same. 



Now, there was a quarry at Ewelmartin, in the parish, 

 belonging to John and Jane Tregian, Nicholas and Catherine 

 Carminowe — these two ladies being sisters, the elder, Jane, 

 being the heiress as before mentioned — and Robert Coker, which 

 they held in common ; the receipts being applied to the main- 

 tenance of certain lights in Probus church. 



Hitherto the church — which originally was built from this 

 quarry — had been always repaired with stones from thence with- 

 out let or hindrance ; and the owners had licensed the parish- 

 ioners to dig stone there, four of the most substantial and 

 honest men in the parish having waited on them and obtained 

 their consent. Whereupon they set to work, and, for the space 

 of three years, dug and wrought stone peacefully in the quarry, 

 when, suddenly, one of the joint tenants — Nicholas Carminowe 



* Star Chamber Proceedings, P.E.O., Bundle, 17, Number, 209. 



