St Just In Roseland

"ST. JUST IN ROSELAND, (or St. Jeast), a parish in the W. division of the hundred of Powder, county Cornwall, comprising the disfranchised borough of St. Mawes; it has also constant communication with Truro and Falmouth. The parish is bounded on the W. and S. by the river Fal, forming the eastern shore of Falmouth harbour, and on the S.E. by St. Mawes creek. Part of the lands formerly belonged to St. Anthony's Priory. Here stands St. Mawes Castle, built by Henry VIII. for the protection of the coast, and still kept in repair; and a little below it on the same cliff a modern battery of eight guns. The tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £520. The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Exeter, value £425. The church of St. Just stands on the coast, backed by a mass of dark rock, and mantled with ivy. There is also a chapel-of-ease at St. Mawes, built by the Duke of Buckingham in 1812. There are places of worship for Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists and Bryanites. There is a small free school and a National school. On Bartini Hill are traces of a circular fortification, and at Rosecassa the ruins of an ancient chapel.

"ST. MAWES, a small seaport and ancient market town in the parish of St. Just-in-Roseland, hundred of Powder, county Cornwall, 3 miles E. of Falmouth, across the harbour, and 14 from Truro. The ferry from Falmouth to Flushing is worked every half hour, from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. in summer. Its name is supposed to be a corruption of St. Mary's, to whose priory at Plympton it anciently belonged. Other writers refer to a tradition which derives it from St. Mawe, or Machutus, a Welsh monk, who also gave name to the town of St. Malo, upon the coast of France. The former derivation, however, appears the more reasonable, and is supported by ancient records, in which the town is frequently written St. Mawes, alias St. Mary's. A castle was erected here in 1542 by Henry VIII. during the French war, as a protection to Falmouth Harbour. It stands upon the solid rock, a little to the right of the town, at an elevation of 117 feet above high-water mark, overlooking a most dangerous part of the coast, owing to the roughness of, the waves, which in stormy weather break upon the rocks. In 1646 it was bombarded by Sir Thomas Fairfax, who captured in it thirteen pieces of ordnance, two brass guns of 13,000 lb. weight, and a large proportion of stores. It continued for several generations the property of the Vyvyan family, to whom it was given, with other lands belonging to the priory of St. Mary's at Plympton, at the Dissolution. In 1855 the tower tier, or battery, was mounted with twelve heavy guns, eight 65 pounders, and four of 96 lb., carrying shot of 130 lb., but the upper tiers are still unmounted. Opposite rises Pendennis, with its ancient keep, also the Lone Point and lighthouse, with the heights of St. Anthony to the left. The town, which is built at the foot of a precipitous hill, consists chiefly of one street fronting the sea. It is irregularly laid out, and chiefly inhabited by fishermen and pilots. The only branch of manufacture is that of cables and ropes for small craft. The pilchard fishery, formerly so productive, has entirely declined. A portreeve, or mayor, is chosen by the jury at a court-leet of the lord of the manor, held in October. It formerly returned members to parliament from the reign of Elizabeth, but was disfranchised by the Act of 2 William IV. cap. 45. It contains a chapel-of-ease dedicated to St. Mawes, also places of worship for Independents, Wesleyans, and Primitive Methodists. There is a National school for boys and girls, and one founded by the late Duke of Buckingham. The chief landowners are Viscount Falmouth, Sir S. T. Spry, and Hugh O. Olivy, Esq. A small market is held on Friday for butcher's meat.