A VESTAL FESTIVAL.
BY JOHN ALT PORTER.
ALL persons interested in Cornish customs are looking expectantly forward to a folk-comedy to be played on the summit of Worvas Hill, in the parish of Lelant, on the 25th of next July. It is then the feast of Saint James the Apostle, and on that day one John Knill, of pious, but most eccentric, memory, provided by will that every five years, two widows and ten virgins should dance round his tomb! The time occupied by this healthful and invigorating exercise was to be one quarter of an hour; it was to be accompanied by fiddler's music; and at its expiration the breathless ladies were to sing the 100th Psalm!! The deed of the foundation of this observance is comparatively modern, dating from 29th May, 1797. In 1881 the 17th quinquennial celebration took place—in the wet. I was a spectator; however, it is not my intention to give here an account of the ludicrous performance, but rather to confine myself to the particulars of its origin.
According, then, to the local papers, John Knill, who confessed in his will that vanity prompted him to erect his mausoleum on that lonely hill-top, was a Cornishman. He was born at Callington, in East Cornwall, on the first of January, 1735, and died at his chambers in Gray's Inn Square, London, on the 29th March, 1811, at the age of 77. His family connections were highly respectable. Knill's mother was one of the seven daughters of a Mr. Pike of Plympton, Devon, who married an Edgcumbe of Edgcumbe. His father descended from an old knight of that name, at Knill, in Herefordshire. Of his early years no record has been preserved: nothing, in fact, is known, either of his education or pursuits, until he reached the age of 30, except that he was trained for the profession of the law. He served his clerkship as an attorney in Penzance, and from thence removed to the office of a London lawyer. He then became a local agent to the Earl of Buckinghamshire, who at that time held the political interest of St. Ives. In the year 1762 Mr. Knill accepted the office of collector of Customs at St. Ives; in 1773 he went to Jamaica; in 1774 he once again resumes his position in the little Cornish town; and in 1782 bethinks himself of his latter end, and resolves on a memorial. This takes the shape of a pyramid built of huge blocks of granite, 50 feet high, a cavity reached by an arch in the base being left for the reception of a coffin. On one face of the superstructure are the words, "Johannes Knill"; on the second, the word "Resurgam" carved high up in bold relief; underneath are the Knill arms and motto, "Nil desperandum,"* while on the third side is the text, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." Knill obtained the design himself, and superintended its erection by John Dennis, of Penzance. The cost, including five guineas paid to Lord Arundel for the land, was £226 1s. 6d.
The Royal Cornwall Gazette of the 29th July, 1881, gives the following particulars of the will of this peculiar man. By a deed dated 29th May, 1797, Knill settled upon the mayor and capital burgesses of the borough of St. Ives, and their successors for ever, an annuity of £10, as a rent-charge, to be paid out of the manor of Glivian, in the parish of Mawgan, in the county of Cornwall, to the said mayor and burgesses, in the town hall, at twelve o'clock at noon, on the feast of the Nativity of Saint John (Midsummer Day) in every year. The £10 then received are to be immediately paid by the mayor and burgesses to the mayor, collector of Customs, and the clergyman of the parish for the time being, to be by them deposited in a chest secured by three locks, of which each of them is to have a key, and the box is left in the custody of the mayor. Of this annuity a portion is directed to be applied to the repair and support of the mausoleum, another sum for the establishment of various ceremonies, to be observed once every five years, and the remainder "to the effectuating and establishing of certain charitable purposes." In his will he directed that at the end of every five years, on the feast day of St. James the Apostle, £25 shall be expended as follows:—£10 in a dinner for the mayor, collector of customs, and clergyman, and two friends to be invited by each of them, making a party of nine persons, to dine at some tavern in the borough; £5 to be equally divided amongst ten girls, natives of the borough and daughters of seamen, fishermen, or tinners, each of them not exceeding ten years of age, who shall, between ten and twelve o'clock in the forenoon of that day, dance for a quarter of an hour at least, on the ground adjoining the mausoleum, and after the dance sing the 100th Psalm of the old version, "to the fine old tune" to which the same was then sung in St. Ive's Church; £1 to a fiddler who shall play to the girls while dancing and singing at the mausoleum, and also before them on their return home therefrom; £2 to two widows of seamen, fishermen, or tinners of the borough, being 64 years old or upwards, who shall attend the dancing and singing of the girls, and walk before them immediately after the fiddler, and certify to the mayor, collector of Customs, and clergyman, that the ceremonies have been duly performed; £1 to be laid out in white ribbons for breast knots for the girls and widows, and a cockade for the fiddler, to be worn by them respectively on that day and on the Sunday following; £1 to purchase account books from time to time, and pay the clerk of the customs for keeping the accounts. The remaining £5 to be paid to a man and his wife, widower or widow, 60 years of age or upwards, the man being an inhabitant of St. Ives, and a seaman, fisherman, tinner, or labourer, who shall have bred up to the age of ten the greatest number of legitimate children by his or her own labour, care, and industry, without parochial assistance or having become entitled to property in any other manner. Secondly:—When a certain sum of money shall have been accumulated in the chest, over and above what may have been required for repairs of the mausoleum and the above payment, it is directed that on one of the fore-mentioned days of the festival £50 shall be distributed, in addition to the £25 spent quinquennially, in the following manner:—£10 to be given as a marriage portion of the woman between 26 and 36 years old, being a native of St. Ives, who shall have been married to a seaman, fisherman, tinner, or labourer, residing in the borough between the 31st of December previously and the day following the said feast day, that shall appear to the mayor, collector, and clergyman to be the most worthy, "regard being had to her duty and kindness to her parents, or to her friends who shall have brought her up"; £5 to be given to any woman, single or married, being an inhabitant of St. Ives, who, in the opinion of the aforesaid gentlemen, shall be the best knitter of fishing nets; £5 to be paid to the woman, married or single, inhabitant of St. Ives or otherwise, who shall by the same authorities be deemed to be the best curer and packer of pilchards for exportation; £5 to be given between two such follower-boys as shall by the same gentlemen be judged to have best conducted themselves of all the follower-boys in the several concerns, in the preceding fishing season; and £25, the remainder of the said £50, to be divided among all the friendly societies in the borough, instituted for the support of the members in sickness or any other calamity, in equal shares; if there be no such society, the same to be distributed among ten poor persons, five men and five women, inhabitants of the borough, of the age of 64 years or upwards, and who have never received parochial relief.
The funds of the trust have not always admitted of several of these latter bequests being carried out, but the dancing around the mausoleum by ten children, accompanied by the fiddler and the two old women, has always been observed. The money, also, is regularly paid to the father or mother who has brought up the largest family without parish help; and the dinner, of course, has never been forgotten.
It was these features of the bequest that were observed on St. James's Day in 1881. The scene at the obelisk was very laughable. In former years the custom has been for the dancers to walk in procession from the town to the mausoleum. Last time, however, the weather was so unfavourable that the old practice was departed from, and the actors were driven up in a wagonette. Then they marched inside the railings, where they danced round the monument, much to the merriment of the motley crowd of onlookers. The names of the children were Annie Richards, Wilmot Chard, Nancy T. Bryant, Bessie Peters, Bessie Hollow, Margaret Dunn, Mary Ann Quick, Elizabeth J. Perkin, Mary Richards, and Margaret W. Bryant—all under ten years of age. The widows were Elizabeth Trevorrow, 76, and Nancy Stoneman, 74. These ancient crones, with their very much younger sisters, managed, at the end of their shambling, to quaver out the "Old Hundredth," and a "fine old tune" they made of it. During the afternoon the money was paid to the recipients at the office of Mr. Hicks, and the sum of £5, for the man who had brought up the largest family of children up to ten years of age, was awarded to Andrew Noall, 71, who had had sixteen children, nine of them being under the specified age. The fiddler received £1. In the evening the dinner was held at the Tregenna Castle Hotel. Mr. W. T. Tresidder, who acted as the mayor's deputy during the day, presided, Mr. Cogar being ill, and the other gentlemen present were the Rev. J. Balmer Jones, Vicar of St. Ives; Mr. R. Minors, collector of Customs; Messrs. Tonkin Young and W. Kernick, the mayor's guests; the Revs. R. F. Tyacke and R. E. Coles, the vicar's guests; Messrs. G. B. Pearse and G. Hicks, guests of the collector of Customs; and Mr. H. Hicks of the Customs, who acts as clerk under Knill's bequest.
Previous to the day's ceremonies the mausoleum was repainted and generally restored. The coffin within was found to be full of water, a curious phenomenon, inasmuch as its huge "casket" is supposed to be water-tight. On the occasion of re-opening the tomb some of the villagers become possessed of a curious desire to drink of this coffined liquid. Truly there is no accounting for taste!
* [Mr. Douthwaite, in his recently-published work on Gray's Inn and its Associations (1886), includes the name of John Knill as Treasurer, 1805, and states that his arms were, with many other noted members', emblazoned in the West Window of the Hall at Gray's Inn. His escutcheon is numbered 12 in the diagram inserted on page 131 of the work above named.—editor.]
Extracted from The Western Antiquary, Volume 5, No. 10, March 1886, pp227-230.