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The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

"LISKEARD, a parish, market town, municipal and parliamentary borough, locally in the hundred of West, but having separate jurisdiction, in county Cornwall, 15 miles S.W. of Launceston, 18 from Plymouth, and 225 W.S.W. of London. It has a station on the Cornwall and West Cornwall railway, which passes through the parish at Moorswater. This place was anciently called Liskerrett, and was given by William the Conqueror to Robert, Earl of Mortaigne, from whom it came to the earls of Cornwall, and was, by Act of Parliament, annexed to the duchy in the reign of Edward III. The castle, of which there are still some vestiges, was occasionally the residence of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and King of the Romans. During the Civil War the parliamentary forces were routed here by Sir Ralph Hopton, who took possession of the town for Charles I. Liskeard is one of the most ancient and considerable towns in the county, having been one of the four coinage or stannary towns. It was first chartered by Earl Richard in the reign of Henry III., and re-chartered by Queen Elizabeth. From the time of Edward I. till the passing of the Reform Act it returned two members to parliament, but since that event only one, the boundaries of the parliamentary borough being extended so as to include the whole of the parish. The population of the municipal borough in 1861 was 4,689, and of the parliamentary 6,704. Under the Muncipal Reform Act it is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors, with the style of "mayor and burgesses of Liskerret, otherwise Liskeard." The revenue of the borough, chiefly arising from the town lands, is about £560, and its acreage 8,129 acres. The town, which is chiefly built on steep hills at the upper extremity of a valley, stands near the turnpike road from Plymouth to Falmouth. It is irregularly laid out, but the streets are well paved, and lighted with gas. It contains a townhall, erected in 1707, on granite arches and columns; a handsome market-house for poultry, fish, and vegetables, built in 1822; two branch banks, savings-bank, mechanics' institute, East Cornwall Gunpowder Company, literary society, union poorhouse, and the house occupied by Charles I. in 1644. There are also tanneries and a paper-mill. Considerable facility for water carriage has been afforded by the canal cut from the river Looe, which terminates about 1 mile W. of the town, where are coal wharves and limekiln. The land in the neighbourhood is in a high state of cultivation, and in some parts is deep rich loam. The surface is hilly. The subsoil is brownstone, with mica slate, and traces of tin and other minerals. The town is a polling place for the eastern division of the county, the head of a Poor-law Union embracing 26 parishes, and the seat of new County Court and superintendent registry districts. Mr. Marshall's harriers hunt round here. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Exeter, value £303. The church of St. Martin is a spacious edifice, built of slate-stone, with a low embattled tower erected in 1627, containing six bells. It contains monuments of the Trehawkes, who had the manor, and one to Lieutenant James Huntley, who fell in a gallant attack on a squadron of Russian gun-boats in the Gulf of Finland. At Dubwalls or Dobwells, a small village in this parish, is a chapel-of-ease to Liskeard. There are chapels for Roman Catholics, Independents, Wesleyans, Wesleyan Association Methodists, Society of Friends, and Bible Christians. The charities produce about £202 per annum, including Eliot's school endowment of £5. There are British and Foreign schools, erected in 1835, and Sunday-schools in connection with the several places of worship. Part of the conventual buildings belonging to the nunnery of Poor Clares, founded by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, yet remain, and have been converted into dwelling-houses. Saturday is market day. Fairs are held on Ascension Day and old St. Matthew's Day for cattle, besides several minor fairs."

"DOUBLEBOIS, a hamlet in the parish of Liskeard and hundred of West, in the county of Cornwall, 13 miles S.W. of Launceston, and 3 from Liskeard. It is a station on the Cornwall railway."