In the taxation of Pope Nicholas IV, 1288-1291, is the following entry under S. Burian.
In Archidiaconatu Cornubie & Decanatu de Penwid.
| Ecclesia S. Beriane taxatur ad | £20 0 0 | Decima | £2 0 0 |
| Prebenda David de Bodlegh in eadem | 2 10 0 | 0 0 0 | |
| Prebenda Hugonis Splot in eadem | 2 6 8 | 0 4 8 | |
| Prebenda Johannis Coci in eadem | 0 15 0 | 0 1 6 |
A collegiate church is said to have been founded here so early as 930. In Domesday book reference is made to a college of Canons here. The establishment consisted of a dean and three prebendaries, who are said to have held it from the King by the service of saying a hundred masses and a hundred psalters for the souls of the king and his ancestors.
It appears that the establishment was well conducted for some time after the conquest, but was afterwards much neglected from the non-residence of the deans. Leland states, “Their longeth to S. Buryens a deane and a few prebendarys, that almost be nether ther.”
Much unpleasant feeling existed between the bishops of the diocese and the crown, respecting the control of the deanery. On the death of Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, Edward I. claiming it as a royal free chapel, gave Sir William de Hameldon, his chancellor, dean of York, and a great pluralist, this deanery. But the neglect of residence was objected to by Bishop Thomas de Bytton, (1292), and a suit in the king’s court was the consequence, which was not decided at the death of that prelate, September 25, 1307. His successor, Bishop Stapledon, offered equal opposition, when Queen Isabella appointed her chaplain, John Maunte, a foreigner, to the deanery. He was afterwards excommunicated by Bishop Grandisson, for neglect of duty, and disregarding his monitions. His supporters suffered with him, for on the fourth of November, 1328, the bishop being at S. Michael’s Mount, excommunicated with all form the principal delinquents, especially Richard Vivian, the most obnoxious of all. At his visitation on July 12, 1336 the bishop found the parishioners returned to a sense of their duty, and at their earnest supplication he absolved them from their censures, and preached to them from 1 Peter, ii. 25. To add to the bishop’s satisfaction, the dean, John de Maunte, on August 16, 1336, waited upon him at Bishop’s Court, Clyst, promised amendment in future, and took the oath of obedience to him and his successors in the see of Exeter.
But the contest, did not end here; within fifteen years Edward III. revived the claim of exemption. But eventually the strife terminated in favour of the stronger party, and to the last the dean received institution from the Duke of Cornwall as his ordinary, though the patronage had often been exercised by the sovereign, when the dukedom was vacant.
Of the deans, the only names recorded in the episcopal registers are the following—:
Arnold a prothonotary of Richard, King of the Romans, and Earl of Cornwall, admitted on the presentation of his royal patron, on Friday after the translation of S. Thomas, July, 1259. Two years after he was preferred to the living of Bradninch, Devon.
Stephen Haym, admitted May 26,12G9, under the same patron, He held several other benefices.
William de Hameldon, Patron, Edward I.
Ralph de Manton, 30 Edward I.
John de Maunte, or Medintû. Patron Isabella, queen of Edward II.
Matthew de Medentor, 9 Edward II.
Matthew Boileaux.
John de Hale, May 2, 11 Edward II.
Richard de Wolveston, Oct. 13, 23 Edward III.
John Saucy.
David Macguerd or Maynard, 27 Edward III.
Alan de Stokes, April 16, 4 Richard II.
John Boor, January 1, 17 Richard II.
Nicholas Slake, September 28, 18 Richard II.
William Lochard, February 24, 11 Henry IV.
Adam Moleyns, or Molyneoux, 1439, made bishop of Chichester, 1445.
Peter Stucle, 24 Henry VI.
Robert Knollys, February 20, l Edward IV.
To this list the following may be added:
Dr. Thomas Bagh, in 1535. He was living in 1553.
The following is from Veysey’s Valor, 1536.
| Decanatus sive capella Regia de Beryan, unde Dominus Rex est fundator ubi Thomas Bagh est Decanus et Rector | £58 8 2½ | £0 0 0 |
| Reotoria de Beryan | 4 17 2½ | 0 0 0 |
| Prebenda ibidem de Trethyny, Johannes Byase | 7 0 0 | 0 14 0 |
| " de Respewell, Johannes Westcott | 7 6 8 | 0 14 8 |
| Parva Prebenda ibidem, Johannes Longe | 2 0 0 | 0 4 0 |
| Cantaria ibidem, Benedictus Phellype | 5 0 0 | 0 10 0 |
The college shared in the general suppression, and the following pensions were paid, anno. 1553: to Thomas Bauge (Bagh) dean, £25 17 4; to William Woodward, £5; to Philip John, £4 10; to Lewis Jenkins, £2; to Robert Whitster, £2.
John Gayer and William Fairchild occur successively as incumbents towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth.
—— Murry was dean by the grant of James I, when Prince Henry appears to have successfully asserted his right of patronage.
Dr. Robert Creighton was dean in 1637. He was chaplain to Charles I., and II.
Dr John Weeks, 1645. He had been chaplain to Archbishop Laud, and held the deanery until his death.
Dr. Seth Ward. He was also bishop of Exeter, 1662, and it is said that he procured the deanery to be settled for ever on the see, by the king’s letters patent.
Dr. Anthony Sparrow succeeded in 1667.
Dr. Thomas Lamplugh in 1676. He leased the tithes of S. Burian, March 30, 1683, to Hugh Jones, Esq., of Penrose, and Francis Paynter, gent., of Boskenna, for three years. Rent £240, payable February 2.
Dr. Sir Jonathan Trelawny in 1688; on whose translation, in 1707, to Winchester, the deanery became separated from the see of Exeter.
John, Harris, clerk of the closet to the Princess of Wales, was dean August 11, 1717, when the present oval and ungraceful seal was provided. It presents a burlesque figure of Athelston, with the legend “sigil. pecvl: ivrisdic. dec. stæ. berianæ. 1717.”
Arthur Ashley Sykes, D.D., February, 1739, which he held till his death, November 23, 1756.
The Hon. Dr. Nicholas Boscawen, December 8, 20 George II, 1746, He died at Quendon, Essex, July 4, 1793.
Samuel Alford, October, 1793. He died August, 1799.
Henry Jenkins, D.D., August 9, 1799, by H.R.H. George, Prince of Wales, who established the right of the duchy as against the crown. He died December 21, 1817.
The Hon. and Rev. Fitz-roy Henry Richard Stanhope was preferred in 1817. At his demise in 1864, the deanery, which comprised the parishes of S. Burian, Sennen, and S. Levan ceased to exist, and those parishes became separate and independent rectories.
The Rev. Thomas Borlase Coulson, nephew to the late high sheriff, is the present rector of S. Burian, under whose superintendence a commodious and appropriate residence is now being built, 1866.
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