“I believe you all honest men, and wo’nt suspect any one of you of justifying this affair; but I have put these arguments into your mouths to warn other people from this vicious way of thinking, and that you may exert yourselves in keeping this hardship from the parish, from which I could never learn this Rogers deserved so much kindness as to suffer on his account; for he never paid church, priest, or poor, when he was in possession of the estate, and withheld from many their just due. The character of the honest and just man is to relieve the poor, to pity the unfortunate; but to use their utmost endeavours to punish the guilty, and to recommend and enforce an obedience to the laws of the land, which are the only protection of our lives and properties.”
I am, gentlemen, Your friend and servant, JOHN ST. AUBYN.
The church of Crowan was given, by William Earl of Gloucester, to the priory of St. James in Bristol (which was a cell to Tewkesbury Abbey), and confirmed by Henry II. It contains a series of monuments to the family of St. Aubyn, which are engraved in thirteen plates in Mr. Polwhele’s History of Cornwall. There was formerly a chapel of ease at Binnerton, of which there are no remains. The charity-school in this parish was endowed with the interest of 100_l._ by the St. Aubyn family, about the year 1830.
This parish contains 6742 statute acres. Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._ returned to Parliament in 1815. 13,175 0 0 Poor Rate in 1831 1,588 17 0 Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831, { 2587 | 3021 | 3973 | 4332; giving an increase of nearly 67½ per cent. in 30 years. Parish Feast the nearest Sunday to the 1st of February. Present Vicar, the Rev. William Grylle, presented by Sir John St. Aubyn in 1828.
This parish, which is adjacent to that of Comborne, is composed of the same kind of rocks. The eastern half reposes on granite, the western on slate. Like Comborne it has long been celebrated for its mines. Although its general aspect is dreary and barren, yet it contains some very fertile spots; that of Clowance in particular gladdens the eye; the rich and intrinsic beauties of its pleasure grounds and extensive plantations being heightened by the contrast of surrounding desolation.