310 NATURAL HISTORY 
from it") yields in tin and lands an hereditary revenue, much 
fuperior to what the crown has in any county in England, and that 
eight of thefe boroughs 1 had either an immediate or remote con- 
nection with the demefne lands of this dutchy, a link formerly of 
much ftriCter union and higher command than at prefent. Four 
other boroughs depended on, or wholly belonged to religious houfes 
which fell to the crown at the difiolution of Monafteries, in the 
reign of Henry VIII. For inftance, Newport rofe with Lancefton 
priory b , and with it fell to the crown. Penryn depended much on 
the rich college of Glafney and its lands ; the manor alfo was alie- 
nated by Edward VI \ but reftored by Queen Mary, and the town 
privileged by her. St. Germans was (after Bodman) the chief 
priory in Cornwall, and the borough of Fawy fell to the crown with 
the priory of Trewardraith, to which it belonged. 
The other boroughs remain to be taken notice of. Michel be- 
longed to the rich and highly allied family of the Arundel s of Lan- 
hearne, and St. Ives and Callington to the family of Pawlet (Mar- 
quis of Winchefter, now Duke of Bolton) by marrying the heirefs 
of Willughby Lord Brook, fome time of Newton-ferrers in this 
county d . Now thefe leveral connexions of the additional boroughs 
may point out to us the rife of this privilege. 
Henry VII. reduced the power of the ancient Lords, and con- 
fequently advanced that of the Commons : Henry VIII. enriched 
many of the Commons with Church-lands ; and in the latter end 
of the reign of Edward VI. the Duke of Northumberland could 
not but perceive of what confequence it was to his ambitious fchemes 
to have a majority in the houfe of Commons ; and Cornwall feems 
to have been pitched upon as the moft proper fcene for this ftretch 
of the prerogative, becaufe of the large property e , and confequently 
influence of the Dutchy : Six towns therefore depending on the 
Dutchy and Church-lands, and one borough of a powerful family 
were indulged to fend fourteen members. The miniftry of thole 
days were not fo defective in artifice as not to oblige powerful Lords 
now and then with the fame indulgence which they granted to thefe 
boroughs, thereby endeavouring either to reconcile them to their 
adminiftration, or to make this guilty increafe of the prerogative 
z Whenever the Sovereign has no elded fon, 
the Dutchy of Cornwall is in the Crown. 
a Saltafh, Camelford, Weft- Loo, Granpont, 
T indagcl, Tregeny, St. Maws, and Weft-Loo. 
b The religious of St. Stephen’s Collegiate 
Church beino; removed from the brow of the hill 
into a lower fituation, contiguous to the walls of 
Lancefton, about three hundred years before, the 
town of Newport was built on the ground ad- 
joining. 
e Not. Parliamentary, vol. II. page 109. 
J Of which family one Lord was buried in the 
Church of Callington, where his tomb is ftill to 
be feen. 
c In the fifteenth of Henry VIII. the revenues 
of the Dutchy of Cornwall, with its dependant 
rights and' manors, was reckoned, fays Sir. J. 
Doderidge, at ten thoufand and ninty-five pounds 
eleven {hillings and nine pence, which property 
became greatly increafed by the fall of religious 
houfes in the end of the reign of Henry the 
eighth. 
lefs 
