Saint Ives parish church was consecrated by the Bishop of Exeter on February 3, 1434 (Hicks’ MS.). We may suppose that the day which united the patronal feast with the consecration of the church was kept with very special solemnity and rejoicings. It was customary in those ages, when a church had been restored or enlarged, or for any other reason reconsecrated, to join another or other saints in a new dedication, in addition to the former patron. This seems to have been done at Saint Ives when the old chapel of Saint Ia gave place to the present parish church. Saints Peter and Andrew were added as the new patrons, and at the present day the church is commonly known only by the name of the latter Apostle; still, the fact that the festival day of Saint Ia (February 3) was chosen for the consecration is sufficient evidence that her name was retained in the dedication. There was no doubt a peculiar fitness in dedicating to God, under the invocation of the Galilean fishermen, the building which was to be used by so many thousands of the toilers of the deep.

The parish festival, locally termed ‘feastentide,’ being the anniversary of the glorious death of the virgin martyr Ia, the apostle of Saint Ives, has its place in the calendar under February 3; but a long time ago it had become the practice to transfer it to the first Sunday after Candlemas Day, and in quite recent times it has been held on the Monday following the first Sunday after Candlemas Day. Among the sports held on the feastentide is the game of hurling, which ancient Cornish sport is now kept up only at Saint Ives and Saint Columb; and, at Saint Ives, only on Saint Ia’s day.

The parish of Saint Ives was anciently under the spiritual charge of the Augustinian canons regular, an order which was very strong in Cornwall, and with which the ancient Celtic monastic foundations had been consolidated. The Ecclesiastical Valuation made by command of King Henry VIII. in 1535 supplies us with particulars as to the church lands and revenues in the Saint Ives district. To these we shall refer later.

The orderly and reverent disposition of Saint Ives church to-day forms a striking contrast to its state during the last century and the first half of the present, and, indeed, gives us a faint notion of what the interior was like at the period which, not without good reason, is called by some the Age of Faith, and by others the Dark Age. It is interesting to reflect upon the various phases through which this parish church has passed, and to contrast the artistic light of the Dark Ages with the, at any rate, æsthetic darkness of the enlightened eighteenth century.

In Catholic times we can imagine the dim interior, its windows storied with angels and saints; the solemn altar of stone, with its crucifix and lights; the beauteous fretwork of the rood-screen, its loft surmounted by the rood or image of the crucified Redeemer, flanked by images of those who ‘stood by the cross of Jesus’—the blessed Virgin, and the disciple whom Jesus loved. We may fancy ourselves to be present at high Mass on the feastentide, and see the deacon, in his dalmatic of red velvet bordered with gold, going from the chancel through the little door in the wall of the Trenwith aisle up into the rood-loft, to chant the Gospel of the feast and to read from an illuminated book the Legend of the Acts of Saint Ia. We hear the organ pealing to the chant of ‘Gloria tibi Domine,’ while the sub-deacon incenses the Book of the Gospels, two surpliced serving-boys standing by, their tapers held aloft; and afterwards the lifting up of the consecrated elements, amid solemn silence, save for the tinkling of the altar-bell, answered by six deep tones from the lofty tower.

Our next picture shall be of the church as it existed under King Edward VI. The rood and its images have been destroyed, and probably burned in the adjacent market-place, along with, let us suppose, a miracle-working image of Saint Ia. The walls have been covered with ‘necessarie partes of scryptour and othere wholesome wrytynges’ deemed suitable to wean the parishioners from the old religion. Sidesmen parade the aisles, keeping strict watch that none cross themselves, or use rosary-beads in the church.

Next let us peep in at the worship of our great-grandfathers. We shall hardly recognise Saint Ives church. Whitewash reigns supreme; the waggon roof is hidden by a flat ceiling, from which depends a huge brass chandelier of many branches. At the east end of the church towers the good old-fashioned ‘three-decker’ pulpit, from the top of which the black-gowned parson looks down upon his flock, over the head of the drowsy clerk; both are barricaded by obese cushions, with heavy tassels at the corners. The altar has long ago given place to a Communion-table, on which what remains of the church plate is displayed; and the sculptured or painted reredos has been replaced by the Ten Commandments, or a list of benefactors on a black board. The wall, where perhaps formerly the worshipper beheld the inscription, ‘He who looks on Saint Christopher’s picture will not suffer sudden death this day,’ only cautions the eighteenth-century parishioner against marrying ‘his grand-mother, grandfather’s wife,’ etc. At the west end of the church a heavy wooden gallery, locally known as the ‘singan-laft,’ faced by the lion and the unicorn fighting for the crown, is the arena for the melodious performances of the bass-viol and the clarionet which accompany the singing of the versified Psalms. The floor of the building is rough and uneven; and most of the old seats have been ousted by family boxes by way of pews, some of them additionally fortified by locks and bolts, and sheltered by red curtains on brass rods. The ‘storied windows, richly dight,’ were smashed a century ago by Major Ceely’s Puritans, and have been replaced by round-headed, square-paned lights like those of an engine-house.

Courtney’s ‘Guide to Penzance,’ printed in 1845, and now a scarce book, gives the following somewhat gloomy picture of the state of Saint Ives church in his time:

‘The church is a very good old building, and the tower one of the best of its time in the county. The interior of the church has been disfigured by the erection of heavy flat galleries in the north and south aisles; and its original symmetry greatly impaired by the substitution of close pews of various heights and shapes, painted according to the tastes of the owners, for the low and uniform seats of beautifully carved oak, with which it was at first furnished, and a few of which yet remain as a memento of its primitive grandeur. The ceiling is also of carved oak, but by divers coatings of whitewash its beauty has been destroyed.’

From these unlovely surroundings it is refreshing to turn to the present interior of Saint Ives church, which is admirable in its neatness and fitness-save only for the well-meant but incongruous reredos, displaying the Ten Commandments in their usurped position on the east wall of the chancel. A handsome brass eagle lectern, copied from that in Wantage church, Berkshire, was by the present vicar, the Rev. J. B. Jones, presented to the church on its restoration; and a crowd of the Saint Ives Dissenters, who perhaps had never been inside the church before, came to ‘hear the great bird sing,’ as they said. A modern organ stands at the east end of the north aisle. The new glass is not of the best; but it was given by those who earnestly desired to beautify the parish church, and it is, at least, better than none. That in the chancel window depicts our Lord and Saints Peter and Andrew. In the south aisle there is a window with paintings of Saint Ia, Saint Levan, and Saint Senan; and an inscription to the effect that it was dedicated in memory of the late John Newman Tremearne and Matilda his wife, by their children John, Matilda and Frances, in 1886. In the spandrels of some of the windows there are fragments of the ancient glass picked up when the church was restored in 1866. At the same date the old flooring of stone was taken up, and encaustic tiles laid down instead. In the centre of the floor of the nave are coloured tiles representing a shield, with the arms of England and France quarterly. The wooden altar-table is covered with a handsome frontal, adorned with artistic needle-work; and on the table are a brass cross, and a pair of candle-sticks of the same metal. At the back is a small carved wooden reredos of a temporary character.

Saint Ives church has two bells, concerning which we extract the following particulars from Dunkin’s ‘Church Bells of Cornwall.’

The first bell has a diameter of thirty-six inches at its mouth. It is inscribed:

‘Rich^d Hichens Esq^r Mayor. M. M. T. T. Jun^r & W. H. Church Wardens. Copper House Foundry. Ja^s Oatey Maker 9 June 1830.’

The diameter of the second is forty-eight inches. It bears this inscription:

‘James Halse Esq^r M.P. Matthew Major, Thomas Tremearne Jun^r & William Hichens Church Wardens. S^t Ives, June 1830. J^s Oatey fecit.’

We learn from a writer in the St. Ives Weekly Summary that these bells were cast from the material of five older ones, one of which bore the inscription: ‘Thomas Anthony, Mayor, 1721.

As to the old plate and other belongings of the church, the earliest entry on the subject among the churchwardens’ accounts is the one dated 1650, according to which the goods in question were the following:

‘2 silver flagons holding above a pottle each.’ (The gift of Grace, widow of Lewis Hurley, of Saint Ives, vintner; grandmother of Hicks, the manuscript historian.)

‘2 silver cups with covers.’ (Described in a list of 1680 as flagons or chalices. One of these was presented by Alice, wife of Thomas Sise, of Saint Ives, merchant, and is inscribed: ‘The Guift of Alse Sise to the Church of S^t Ies. A.D. 1641.’ Davies Gilbert says: ‘There is also a silver cup of much greater antiquity,’ by which he seems to mean a pre-Reformation chalice. In 1713 the squire of Pendarves gave a communion-plate to this church. It bears the inscription: ‘ Pendarves de Pendarves Ecclesiæ dedit Anno 1713.’)

‘2 pewter pottles.

‘2 pewter flagons.

‘6 font cloths.

‘4 table-cloths for the communion table.

‘1 stamen carpet for the communion table.

‘1 green carpet for the table.

‘1 flannel carpet for the table.

‘1 scarlet pulpit-cloth and cushion.

(It is probable that some of these were made out of the old vestments of the priest.)

In the list of 1680 there were in addition:

‘1 new bag to hold the plate.

‘1 large Bible.

‘The works of Bishop Jewel against Harding.’ (Thomas Harding, D.D., the famous Jesuit, whose ‘Rejoinder to Mr. Jewel’s Replie’ was printed at Antwerp in 1566 in black letter. Bishop Jewel’s book was to be found in many churches; moreover, this was the time of the great ‘Popish Plot,’ from which a trembling nation was saved by the patriotic Mr. Titus Oates.)

¹The parish registers commence with the year 1651 (baptisms), the earlier volumes having been lost. Those which remain are long narrow tomes bound in old calf.

Many curious entries of different sorts are to be found upon the fly-leaves, especially of the first volume. We cannot do better than transcribe them in full here:

‘A Register.
William Polkinghorne.
John Keigwin Minister of S^t Ives, 1726.
Jo : Bullock minister of S^t Ives 1669.
Jonathan Toup lecturer of S^t Ives, July 4 1721.’

The above are all in the handwritings of these ministers respectively. Under the last is written in another hand:

‘Jonathan Toup editor of Longinus &c born at S^t Ives 1713; sometime lecturer of S^t Ives, afterwards curate of Sennen & St Levan; afterwards Vicar [sic] of S^t Martins where he died.’

Then follow particulars of restorations in the church fabric:

‘The tower of this Burrough of S^t Ives was Pointed y^e Mo^s of 7^ber 8^ber & 9^ber 1727, By one M^r Knott of Devonshire and a Kinsman of his of the same place and one Pharez a S^t Agnes man. Likewise Two Pinacles y^e North East and Northwest Being blown down, as ’twas supposed, an hundred years since Lying in y^e Church yard was put up in Their places all same Time in 9^ber Mo and a Vane put up on y^e Northwest pinacle, hoping they’ll remaine some Centuries of yeares. This 10^th of 9^ber 1727.’ (One of the pinnacles was again blown down more than a hundred years later, but was soon put back.)
‘The large Window of y^e Southern Isle of y^e Church was Taken down And rebuilt ͡p s^d Men all same time.
‘The window over the Communion Table att y^e East end of s^d Church was Taken down and Rebuilt ͡p Fran. Richards joyner [a wooden affair, therefore] and J^no Hall Glasier att same time 1727. M^r Vivian Stevens & M^r W^m Busvargus, Church wardens.’ (And a very churchwarden-cum-joiner result they produced!)
‘All the rest of the s^d Windows was Taken down and all New glass put in ͡p Jn^o Hall Glasier The year Following in 1728. M^r Tho^s Sprigg and M^r John King, Churchwardens.
‘The Branch of Candlesticks was set up in our Church in April and ye New Canopy was set up in May Following 1730. Mr Charles Worth and Mr John Hichens, Churchwardens.
‘Another new branch of Candlesticks was fix’d up in our Church in the Latter End of the year 1739.’

It would be interesting to know what sorrow oppressed the unknown writer of the lines which are here scrawled across the page:
‘Domine bone mei miserere nam pauper sum & in miseria.’

Then come other notes of restorations, marking the commencement of a return to ancient artistic feeling:

‘The east windows of the north and south aisles, being those referred to on the first page of this book as erected in 1727 and 1728, and made of wood with large square panes of glass of execrable design, were removed in 1850, and the present ones with granite mullions and tracery with painted glass were erected at the sole cost of Robert Hichens, Esq., of London, a native of this town of St. Ives.
‘The east window of the Trenwyth aisle was repaired and filled with new glass at the same time by the said Robert Hichens. The south windows of the Trenwyth aisle were rebuilt and restored to their original form, and filled up with new glass at the same time by the said Robert Hichens.
‘The window over the altar was rebuilt and filled with new glass of beautiful design in the year 1852, at the cost of H. L. Stephens, Esq., and Mrs. Davy.’ (Henry Lewis Stephens, of Tregenna Castle, was brother to Mrs. Sarah Maria Davy.)

On the next page it was evidently intended to commence the registers, as appears by this heading:

‘A Register of the Christenings or Baptizings, Marriages and Burialls of Persons whatsoever w^th in the Parish of S^t Ives in Cornewall beginning Anno Domini 1652.’

Instead, however, the page contains a list of collections levied towards the repair of various churches throughout England, and sundry other charitable purposes, in the years immediately following the Restoration:

‘Collected in this borrough the Tenth day of March toward the Repaireing of the Peere And key of the burrough of Watchett in the Countie of Sumersett the sum̃e of Twenty ffower shillings and sixe pence in the yere of our Lord God 1660.
‘Collected the vj^th day of June in the yere of o^r Lord 1661 toward the Repairing of Illmester in the Countie of Summersett the sum̃e of Eight teene shillings and ffower pence.
‘Collected the 7^th July in the yere of our Lord 1661 ffor wakenham in the Countie of Norfolke the sum̃e of ffifteene shillings.
‘Collected the vj^th of ffebruarie 1661. Toward the Repaire of the church of the Towne of Bolingbrooke in the Countie of Lincolne the sum̃e of ffower shillings and sixe pence.
‘Collected the 16^th octo. 1664. ffor M^r Thomas Willye, M^r William Bedforde late of the Ile of Acorne neere the Countie of Corke in Ireland the sum̃e of sixe shillings seven pence & p^d M^r John Wellye.
‘Collected for Grantham in the Countie of Lincolne the sum̃e of eight shillings & presently p^d to the Collector the 6^th May 1665.
‘Collected the 1^st Oct. 1665. for M^r Will. Smith, Eliz. Cooper & M^rs Mary Rich lately inhabiting in the Ile of Glaningquire in Monster & kingdome of Ireland seaven shillings and presently deliuered unto them. The 8^th October.
‘Collected then for severall pore Captaines of Gallyes in Barbary nyne shillings, eight pence; left with M^r Bullocke.’

The actual registers then begin at the top of the next leaf:

‘Baptisings or Christnings. Anno Domini 1651. Elizabeth y^e daughter of Jo: Richards was baptized y^e 4^th of Aprill.’

We shall have frequent occasion in subsequent chapters to refer to the contents of these registers.

The following are extracts from the Churchwardens’ Book of the parish of Saint Ives, which begins at Easter, 1726:

1 [Ed. The accents and other textual decorations in this section, which I have tried to replicate as closely as possible, may come out strange on some systems due to the limitations of the fonts available.]