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11th January 1777

Although this story begins in the 1640s, it didn’t come to light until 1824, however the date used for The Cornish Year is the birth date of William Rashleigh the owner of Menabilly at the time of the renovations on the property where the body was discovered in 1824.

William Rashleigh (who was born today in 1777) had renovations done in 1824 and during the work they found that a buttress was not supporting anything so they decided to demolish it. As the builders were starting the work they found a narrow staircase leading to a secret room right at the base of the buttress. It was in this room that the skeleton was found.

William Rashleigh ordered the remains to be buried with due reverence at Tywardreath church and had the secret room bricked up.

Consulting family records, Rashleigh had learned that certain members of the Grenville family of Stowe in Cornwall had sought sanctuary from the Parliamentarian forces during the Civil War, and surmised that one of them had taken refuge in the secret room.

A letter dated 1899 brings further light to the subject. Roger Grenville from Exeter looked at his ancestors, the Grenvilles from Stowe, and Richard Grenville the legendary Kings General and his family had taken refuge at Menabilly, then fled to Europe once the battle was lost. He returned to Cornwall in 1647 for the Royalist uprising, however the plot was leaked to the Parliamentarians and Richard Grenville escaped with his life back to Holland. However, his seventeen year old son was never heard of again, and Roger Grenville believes the skeleton is the son, also named Richard, that hid in this room and subsequently died there.

Later Daphne Du Maurier wrote about it in her book The Kings General, in the book she explained in a postscript that the workmen ‘came upon a stair, leading to a small room, or cell, at the base of the buttress. Here they found the skeleton of a young man, seated on a stool, a trencher at his feet, and the skeleton was dressed in the clothes of a Cavalier, as worn during the period of the Civil War.’

Of course we will never know the true identity of the body found in the secret room, but the story woven by Daphne du Maurier in The Kings General is very compelling, and the heroine, Honor, is also buried at Tywardreath Church.

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References:

Historic England Listing

Blog by the Cornish Bird (Elizabeth Dale)

Review of The Kings General

Wikipedia Page on Menabilly history