As illustrative of the changes in all respects, that have taken place in the last three-quarters of a century, the following curious relation, although trifling in itself, may be allowed to find a place.
A family about to embark at Falmouth, no longer ago than the year 1748 or 1749, hired a coach and horses in London to convey them there, a system of travelling practised on the continent up to the present time; the driver having delivered his charge, made known his desire for obtaining, what he perhaps denominated a back-freight, on easy terms, and a party of young men availed themselves of the opportunity, stipulating, however, that in the event of their reaching a town at any part of the day where cockfighting would take place in the evening, the coach should lie by to afford them an opportunity of being present at the diversion.
Truro has not been measured as a distinct parish, and is therefore included in Kenwyn.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._ returned to Parliament in 1815 6958 0 0 Poor Rate in 1831 1119 4 0 Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831, { 2358 | 2482 | 2712 | 2925. giving an increase of 24 per cent. in 30 years.
It must be observed, that the amount of Real Property, the Poor Rate, and the Population, relate only to the ward rather than the parish of St. Mary, constituting Old Truro. In a note attached to the last Population Abstracts, it is said that the whole town is supposed to have contained 8,468 inhabitants in the year 1831.
The present Rector of Truro is the Rev. E. Dix, who was presented by the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in 1833. The net value of the living, as returned in 1831, was 135_l._
The town of Truro stands on the same kind of argillaceous slate that prevails in the adjoining parishes of Kenwyn and St. Clement’s.
[8] Brady, p. 43, from Dugd. Bar fol. 610.
St. Tudy, alias St. Tidy or Tudy, is situate in the hundred of Trigg, and hath upon the north Michaelstow, east Brewar, south St. Mabyn, west St. Kew. For those names, they are all synonymous, and signify St. Udye, or St. Udith, (or the Holy Udith,) referring to the name of St. Udith, the tutelar guardian and patroness of this church, and by the name of Mama Tedy or Tidy,[13] i. e. Mother Udith, it was taxed in the Domesday Book 1087, which plainly shows here was an endowed rectory church dedicated to her before that time. In the Inquisition of the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, into the value of Cornish Benefices, Ecclesia de St. Tudy, in decanatu de Minor Trigshire, was valued 1294 for its revenues, c_s._ In Wolsey’s Inquisition 1521, £31; the patronage in ――――; the incumbent Trelawny. This parish was rated to the four shillings per pound Land Tax for one year, by the name of St. Udy, £144.