History of Pengenna Manor by Richard Blewett This was included In Pieces of Eight magazine May-July 2021 The History of Pengenna Manor. records at Kresen Kernow, the County archives in Redruth. The document proves ownership by John and Joan's son, William Pentyre, after his father’s By Richard Blewett. death in 1524. Written in Latin on calfskin vellum, Pengenna appears as Many of you will be familiar with Pengenna Manor as a renowned 1 wedding and events venue, but do you know about its longer history as one of the oldest homes in our parish? Pengenna started life 800 years ago during the mid-medieval period (about AD 1200) as a very modest farmstead ‘hall’: just one large, two-storey room. Animals would have been brought in to one end to keep them secure from raiders or bad weather, with the humans living and sleeping at the other end. It 2 would have had wooden shutters on timber windows (no fancy glass at this point) and an open hearth in the middle of the room, with the smoke twisting up and out through the thatched roof. Records don't exist to tell us who lived there because the house was too modest, and this was about 200 years after the famous Domesday Book’s survey of landholdings. Scroll forwards 300 years to the 1520s 'Pengennowe'. (See photos 1 and 2 and the reign of Henry VIII, and above). members of the prominent Pentyre Move forwards 50 years to the reign of family (linked with Pentire Point) are in Elizabeth I, and unknown residents residence at Pengenna. John and Joan (possibly still the Pentyre family) embark Pentyre (née Arundell) have upgraded on a massive building project — adding the original dwelling by adding a couple a three-storey, 15-room 'extension'. An of extra rooms, an upstairs floor, stone entire new frontage to the house is mullioned windows with diamond panes created with adjoining north wing, of leaded glass, and the latest Tudor comprising eight new bedrooms, a technology — fireplaces with chimneys! drawing room, parlour, great hall and even a private family chapel. The oldest reference to Pengenna found so far exists from this time, a 1538 legal By the turbulent times of the English paper held in the Rashleigh family Civil War (1642–51), new owners are in residence. The Reverend Thomas hundreds of properties across Cornwall. Pocock, his wife Honor and their He is five times Mayor of Falmouth, children Edward, Mary, Thomas and Receiver General of the Duchy of Honor live at Pengenna, although the Cornwall (responsible for collecting Rev Pocock is actually vicar of rates for the Prince of Wales on all the Morwenstow, and of the village of Peter tin mining in the Duchy) and even MP Tavy on Dartmoor (a time when vicars for Bossiney between 1722 and 1731. could live very well off church tithes but reside elsewhere). Corker massively overstretched himself and, heavily in debt, dipped into the tin Records for both those parishes show receipts that should have been paid to that services were run by a series of Frederick, Prince of Wales (son of King curates, with Thomas Pocock's name George II, and father of King George III) appearing only fleetingly here and there. to the tune of £23,000 (£2.7m in today's Although he would have been seen as money!). He tried unsuccessfully to sell an absentee vicar, the parishioners of some of his property to cover the Peter Tavy thought enough of Pocock shortfall, but was forced to sign to erect a fine memorial inside the everything over to John Hedges, church in his memory to thank him for Treasurer to the Prince of Wales. When seeing them through the terrible Civil Corker died in March 1731, his estates War. were made over to the Prince of Wales to cover all his debts, so for a time Also noteworthy is Thomas’s father, Dr Pengenna had a Royal owner! Edward Pocock, who was the first chair of Arabic and Hebrew at the University A huge sale was held in 1735 of all his of Oxford. He travelled the Middle East property, with Pengenna and extensively during the early 17th surrounding lands being purchased on Century, charting and translating the behalf of Sir John Molesworth (4th ancient languages. He is buried in the baronet) of Pencarrow, in a joint Choir in Christchurch Oxford, where property deal with Edmund Prideaux of there is also a bust of him. Two fine Prideaux Place in Padstow. The paintings from different stages of his life property was divided again in the same hang in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. year, beginning a very stable period of ownership by the Molesworth family for In the grounds of the university grows a the next 290 years. (See photos 3 and massive Syrian plane tree that was 4) planted from seed by Dr Pocock in 3 1636. Still thriving, its trunk is 9m in diameter and the tree is thought to be the inspiration behind Lewis Carroll’s poem Jabberwocky. In 1722, Thomas's son Thomas Junior sells Pengenna to a wealthy Falmouth merchant called Robert Corker. Corker owns thousands of acres of land and 4 downstairs and bedroom upstairs, which can be identified today by the wooden sash windows with red brick lintels on the southwest corner of Pengenna. Next in the line up of tenants comes the Hicks family, with father Charles, wife Hannah, and children Charles, Jane, Alexander, George, Hannah, Margaret and Thirza. In 1852, the Pencarrow Estate Statement of Farm Rents A dream scenario when researching the records C. Hicks as renting 150 acres history of your home is to uncover at Pengenna for £136 0s 0d. A remark ownership by wealthy landowners, is made of the farm: “Capable of because they love keeping records of producing more produce if farmed by said wealth. Unfortunately, the more science.” In 1863, my family Molesworth family were not great makes its first appearance at record-keepers, and the few they did Pengenna, however they are not keep were either destroyed during the Blewetts, but Hockens. Second World War bombing of their Devonport solicitor’s office, or during a William Hocken, his wife Mary, bad flood at Pencarrow in the 1990s. daughters Elizabeth, Mary Jane, Susan, Martha, Ann, Grace, Sarah and Kate, Some tenancy records do remain in the and sons Henry and William from County archives at Kresen Kernow, Davidstow (and before that Lanteglos) however, showing that John Roskilly take over the tenancy of Pengenna. In and son John rented Pengenna from 1867, a young farm labourer from St 1735 until the 1790s, when William Kew Highway called Thomas Blewett Bligh and his wife Prudence take over. joins them to work on the farm. His hard (It is not known whether these Blighs work and determination not only are related to the famous Admiral Bligh pleases his boss William, but also of HMS Bounty who is thought to have catches the eye of William's niece, Ann been born at St Tudy, but I would love Hocken. They fall in love. A story to research that!). The Blighs remain at straight out of Jane Austen and one Pengenna until 1818 when Thomas and passed down through the Hocken family Jennifer Mills are recorded as tenants, tells what happens next. and the St Kew parish records detail baptisms for children William (1821), Selina (1822) and John (1823) before they move on. It is around this time that more building works are carried out at Pengenna — chopping into the medieval hall to add a small extension of a sitting room William Hocken, his wife Mary, daughters Elizabeth, Mary Jane, Susan, Martha, Ann, Grace, Sarah and Kate, and sons Henry and William from Davidstow (and before that Lanteglos) take over the tenancy of Pengenna. In 1867, a young farm labourer from St Kew Highway called Thomas Blewett joins them to work on the farm. His hard work and determination not only pleases his boss William, but also catches the eye of William's niece, Ann Hocken. They fall in love. A story straight out of Jane Austen and passed down through the Hocken family tells what happens next. One night, the whole family sit down to dinner at Pengenna, including Ann with Thomas as a dinner guest. William speaks up from the head of the table: "So, boy, are your intentions to my niece truly honourable?" The young Thomas William and Mary Hocken, with children replies, "Why yes sir, of course sir," to Sarah, Susan and William are also which William replies, "Well then, you photographed outside the front door, shall have the farm and that is that!" probably on the same day. William's eldest son had previously Evidently, William Hocken and Thomas emigrated to Iowa, USA, and his Blewett run the farm together for some younger son William was seen by the time, because it takes another 23 years whole family as a complete wastrel, so for William to retire. During that time, he obviously felt there was nobody else Thomas and Ann are recorded on the suitable to pass the tenancy to. Ann and census returns as living up the road in Thomas are married at St Gennys Trelill, where they have a son John Church (where her parents are living) (born 1875) and a daughter Janey (born on 30th May 1872. 1880). Around this time, the final phase of On Saturday 28th September 1895, The Pengenna’s development is completed: Cornish & Devon Post publishes a a new scullery and wash house are notice for William Hocken’s retirement added to the rear of the house, where sale at Pengenna on Tuesday 1st the Manor's kitchen is now located.