Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/392

 354 ST. THOMAS CHURCH. the support of the minister officiating in the parish where the lands were situate. As Christianity extended, the owners of lands began to build churches upon their demesnes, to accommodate their tenants, and, in order to have divine service regularly performed therein, obliged all their tenants to appropriate their tithes to the maintenance of the one officiating minister. This tract of land, the tithes whereof were so appropriated, formed a distinct parish, which will account for the frequent intermixture of parishes one with another. The combined parish and hamlet of St. Thomas may illustrate by their boundaries an irregular ecclesiastical circuit. These boundaries are : On the east, Ridgegrove Mill Lane, as it descends from Dockacre ; and on the west, Carnedon and Hill Park, five miles distant. Its eastern portion is thus a mere strip between the town wall of Dun- heved, and the river Kensey, but widening and sinuous along its northern and southern margins to the western limit. We cannot tell who was the impropriator of the tithes within this ambit before or at the time of the Con- quest ; but the canons of St. Stephen were lords of the contiguous manor of Launceston at the compilation of Domesday^ and the MSS. which we have seen at Lambeth and elsewhere, show their continual acquisition of lands, advowsons, and tithes in the neighbourhood. Beyond all question, these canons were, in 1288-91, im- propriators of the tithes of St. Thomas ; and the chapel is at that time distinctly recognized by the taxation of Pope Nicholas. We have seen (p. 12) that the cemetery of St. Thomas was dedicated on the 6th November, 1333. The mayor and commonalty of Dunheved had consider- able territorial possessions in the parish of St. Thomas. They were owners of Bas Strete (St. Thomas Street, or "Old Hill," the only road which led from Northgate to St.