“Contemporary with Hals, as a collector of materials for a parochial history of Cornwall, was THOMAS TONKIN, Esq. of Trevaunance, some time member for Helston, a gentleman of an ancient family, who had made great progress in preparing such a history for the press, and had completed several parishes. Mr. Tonkin began to write his parochial history in 1702, at which time he had the use of Hals’s collections. Dr. Borlase seems to have supposed that Hals’s collections were brought down from 1702 to 1736 by Tonkin; the truth is, that they both brought down their collections to that period, without any communication with each other, which seems to have ceased soon after the first period above-mentioned. Mr. Tonkin himself says, speaking of Hals in the year 1739, ‘it is between twenty-five and thirty years since I have seen any of his collections, and, I believe, at least twenty since I have seen him. I am told that he has greatly improved and polished them since that time; but as his method is quite different from mine, and that I have some other reasons not necessary to be mentioned for not corresponding with him, I can safely say, that in this present work of mine, I have not made use of one single line out of his compositions.’ Mr. Tonkin, in one of his MSS. dated March 27th, 1733, desires that, ‘if by death, or any other accident, his MSS. should fall into other hands, they would by no means publish them in the dress in which they then appeared, but be pleased to new-model them after the method followed in those few which had received his last corrections, such as at St. Agnes, St. Piran in the Sands, St. Michael-Penkevil,’ &c. In 1737 he had made sufficient progress in his collections to enable him to put forth proposals, in which he announced the plan of his publication.
“In the year 1739, Mr. Tonkin had completed his MS. of the first part of his work, which was to treat of the county of Cornwall in general; his epistle dedicatory of that date is printed at the beginning of Lord de Dunstanville’s edition of Carew, addressed to Sir William Carew, Bart. and Sir John St. Aubyn, Bart. then representatives in Parliament for the county of Cornwall. In this letter he recapitulates what had been done towards the topography of his native county. Besides the works of Leland, Camden, Norden, and Carew, he mentions the general collections of Hals and Anstis, and those of Pearce and Gwavas on the Stannaries, the Cornish language, &c. Towards the conclusion of his epistle, he says, ‘I wish I could say that many more of my countrymen had assisted me with their kind endeavours. I do not yet despair of having several; for which reasons I have, in my proposals, enlarged the designed time of the publication of this part. I hope they will be so good as to send in contributions. If they persist in their refusal, they must be contented with such coarse fare as I am able to give them, which I will endeavour to make as palatable for them as I can; perhaps, when they come to taste of this, they may be prevailed on to supply me with something better towards the two remaining parts. All that I can promise them is, that I will give them the best account I can, without the least partiality; neither shall any one person have a just occasion given him to charge me with any wilful omission or sophisticated truth.”