LOSTWITHIEL, a borough and market-town and
parish, having separate jurisdiction,
though locally in
the eastern division of the
hundred of Powder, county
of CORNWALL, 6 miles (S.)
from Bodmin, 26 (S.W.)
from Launceston, and 236
(W. S. W.) from London,
containing 933 inhabitants.
This place is supposed by
some to have been the Roman
station called Uzella by Ptolemy, but this opinion
does not appear to be warranted by the discovery of any
certain traces of Roman residence. According to tradition,
Lostwithiel was so called as having been the residence
of Withiel, anciently Earl of Cornwall, who had a
palace at Penkneth, now part of the borough, but in the
parish of Lanlivery. In the reign of Richard I., the
town was held under the Earl of Cornwall, by Robert
de Cardinham, who procured for it the privilege of &
market; and Richard, Earl of Cornwall, the brother otf
Henry III., made Lostwithiel, including Penkneth, a
free borough. His son Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, was
a great benefactor to the town, in which he erected
a shire hall, an exchequer office, and other handsome
buildings, and ordered that the coinage and sale of the
tin from the Cornish mines should take place at Lostwithiel
only, and that all county meetings should be held
there. These exclusive privileges were not preserved inviolate,
for, in 1314, the burgesses complained to the
parliament that the men of Bodmin, Truro, and Helston,
had caused tin to be sold at those towns, and that the
prior of Bodmin had then recently procured the county
meetings to be held at Bodmin; but notwithstanding
these grievances were redressed, Lostwithiel was gradually
deprived of its exclusive advantages, the only
remnant of which is the election of the knights for the
county of Cornwall, which still takes place here, though
the previous meetings for the nomination of the candidates
are held at Bodmin. In the summer of 1644;
this place was the head-quarters of the parliamentary,
general, the Earl of Essex; previously to which, a battle
had been fought near the town, in which a body
of the king's troops, under Sir Richard Grenville, was
defeated by Lord Robartes. Dugdale asserts that the
parish church'was profaned by the parliamentarian soldiers,
and injured by an explosion of gunpowder.
This town is situated in a beautiful vale, on the
banks of the river Fawy, on the high road from Plymouth
to Falmouth; the river, which is crossed by a
bridge, is navigable for small barges as far as the quay,
during the spring tides. The town consists of two parallel
streets, extending from the river to the foot of a
steep hill: it is lighted and paved, and there is a good
supply of water. The houses are chiefly built of stone,
and covered with slate, which abounds in the neighbourhood.
An annual regatta, or boat race, with a ball,
takes place in August, and assemblies are held in the
winter. There is a tan-yard in the town, but its trade
chiefly depends upon the importation of timber, coal,
and other articles for the miners; and the recent increase
of the copper mines in the neighbourhood has
been attended with a correspondent advance of commercial
prosperity. About three miles from the town
are the extensive mines of Lanescot and the Fowey Consols.,
surpassing, in the variety, extent, and power of their
machinery, all others in the kingdom, their produce
amounting to an eleventh part of all the copper-ore
furnished by the mines of Cornwall. The market is
held on Friday; and the establishment of a corn market,
free of toll, was recently attempted, but without
success; the market-house was erected at the expense
of Viscount Mount-Edgcumbe, in 1781. There are fairs
for horses, cattle, and sheep, March 31st, July 10th,
September 4th, and November 13th. The borough ineludes
portions of the adjoining parishes of Lanlivery
and St. Winnow. A charter of incorporation was
granted by James I., in 1623, and renewed by George II.,
in 1738, under which the corporation consists of seven
aldermen or capital burgesses, including the mayor,
and seventeen assistants, or common council-men. The
mayor is elected by the aldermen and assistants, on
the first Tuesday after Michaelmas;. and the assistants
are chosen by the aldermen, who likewise fill up vacancies
in their own body. The mayor, the late mayor,
and the recorder, are justices of the peace; and the
mayor is also coroner. A court leet is held annually
by the mayor, when presentments are made concerning
matters relating to the borough and the river; and all
persons having boats on the river are required to yield
suit and service at this court. The petty sessions are
generally held here on Friday. The quarter sessions
for the county, formerly held here in the summer, were,
a few years since, removed to Bodmin. In the old
shire hall, erected by the Earl of Cornwall, and in which
the stannary parliaments were held, is the original stannary
court-room, with a prison adjoining, which is the
only one in the county belonging to the stannaries. The
town hall is a neat building, with a prison underneath,
erected, in 1740, at the cost of Lord Mount-Edgcumbe.
The borough first returned members to parliament in
the 33rd of Edward I., and then ceased till the 4th of
Edward II., since which the returns have been regular;
The right of election is vested in the corporation; and
the mayor is the returning officer. The Earl of Mount-
Edgcumbe possesses paramount influence.
The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry
of Cornwall, and diocese of Exeter, rated in the king's
books at £ 2. .13. 4., endowed with £600 royal bounty,
and in the patronage of the Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe,
The church, dedicated to St. Bartholomew, is a handsome
edifice in the early English style, with a lantern
tower at the west end, surmounted by a fine octagonal
spire, erected in the fourteenth century; it contains an
ancient stone font, on the sides of which are sculptured
grotesque figures and armorial bearings, rudely executed,
and now much defaced. There are places of worship
for Bryanites, Independents, and Wesleyan Methodists.
A free grammar school was established by- the
corporation about 1776, the master of which has a salary
of £50 per annum. A writing-school is kept in
the town hall, the corporation allowing a salary of £ 10
per annum to the master, There is likewise a school
with an endowment of £ 5 per annum, paid out of the
proceeds of a fund left for charitable uses, by the Rev.
St. John Eliot. A Sunday school, supported by voluntary
contributions, affords instruction to about one hundred
and twenty children of both sexes. About a mile northward
of the town, on the edge of a lofty hill, are the
magnificent and venerable ruins of Restormel castle,
supposed to have been erected by Robert, Earl of Mortaigne,
and anciently the residence of the Earls of
Cornwall. At the commencement of the great civil
war, although then ruinous, it was garrisoned for the
parliament, and was taken by the royalist general, Sir
Richard Grenville, in August, 1644. The remains are
comprised within a circular area, one hundred and ten
feet in diameter, the walls of which are nine feet thick,
and are surrounded by a deep moat; at the southern
entrance, where was formerly a draw-bridge, are two
arches supporting a square tower; traces of suites of
apartments and stone staircases are visible; and the
whole, being richly overgrown with ivy, presents a
very picturesque appearance. The chapel of the Holy
Trinity, anciently appendant to the castle, is also in
ruins.