144 MURAL GRAVE, &C., CARMINOW. 



the coffin. The coffin was filled with rubbish, which contained 

 three skulls, a quantity of human bones, some small fragments of 

 alabaster and of stained glass, the iron j)art of a hammer, and 

 part of a rake with remains of its wooden handle, which had sur- 

 vived the wooden coffin in the moister grave beneath. Two 

 Nuremberg counters were found in that part of the wall which 

 contained the stone coffin. These have been submitted to Mr. 

 Albert Way, who pronounces them to be of not very uncommon 

 types; and as they were, most probably, not older than 1500 — 

 1550, they must have found their way into a crevice in the wall 

 long after the date of the grave. 



The family of Carminow was one of the most ancient in Corn- 

 wall, and was reputed to have resided at CarminoAV, in Mawgan 

 parish, before the Norman Invasion. They were lords of the 

 ancient Manor of Winnianton, of which Carminow was parcel, 

 together with other manors in Meneage. Winnianton is identical 

 with " Winetone" in Domesday, and it gave name to one of the 

 seven divisions of the county at that date. 



Davies Gilbert {Parochial Histonj of Cormvall, 18.38, III, 129), 

 quotes old Hals as recording a trial in the Earl Marshal's Court in 

 the reign of Edward III, in which Lord Scrope complained that 

 Carminow had assumed his arms : Azure, a bend or. Carminow 

 pleaded the antiquity of his arms and family, saying that his an- 

 cestor was ambassador from Edward the Confessor to the French 

 King, who gave him the arms. Scrope being Lord Chancellor, 

 the Cornish squire had to consent to "difference" his coat in 

 future with a label of three points gules ; but the antiquity of the 

 family does not appear to have been disputed, though the foreign 

 origin of the armorial coat may have been deemed objectionable.* 



The elder branch of the family of Carminow became extinct 

 in the male line in the person of Sir Thomas Carminow, who died 

 about 1370,+ leaving three co-heiresses, the eldest of whom, Jane, 

 married Arundell of Lanherne, who was one of the largest land- 



* See Lysons^ Cornwall, cxx, cxxv, and a Pedigi'ee in Pohvhele's Corn- 

 wall, Bk. II, 43. 



Some Deeds in possession of Mi'. Eogers of Penrose (who now has the 

 Carminow and Winnianton Manors) have perfect seals attached, A.D. 1339 — 

 1361. The label of three points does not occur on any of them. 



f The Penrose deeds show that Sir Thomas was living in 1361. 



