Trevanion of Carhayes. — Their pedigree is traced to Sir John Trevanion, who was of Trevanion in Carhayes, six generations before the reign of Edward IV. This family, who acquired the manor and barton of Carhayes by marriage with an heiress of Arundell, became extinct in the male line by the death of William Trevanion, Esq., M. P. for Tregony in 1767. His two sisters and coheiresses married John Bettesworth, LL.D., and Admiral Byron, grandfather of the present Lord Byron. The grandson of Dr. Bettesworth and Frances Trevanion, the elder sister, John Trevanion Purnel Bettesworth, took the name and arms of Trevanion by His Majesty's sign-manual in 1801, and is the present immediate representative of this ancient family, and the possessor of Carhayes.
This family have married the heiresses of Beaupré or Belloprato, Archdekne, Carminow, Arundell, Witchalse, and the coheiresses of Petit and Drummond. A younger branch of the Trevanions, seated at Trevalster, became extinct after three generations: the coheiresses married Trefusis, Bligh, and Boscawen. Another younger branch was settled at Trelugan in Gerrans. Hugh Trevanion, the last of this branch of the family, which had continued above two centuries, who married one of the coheiresses of Chamond (fn. n13), and the heiress of Mayow alias Hellier of Lostwithiel, died, one of the poor knights of Windsor, in 1730. There was also another branch of the Trevanions settled for many years at Trevascus in Gorran, which became extinct by the death of Charles Trevanion, Esq., in 1767.
A hundred and fifty years ago a visitor to Caerhays would have found a ruined mock Castle surrounded by a Deer Park. Caerhays has been lived in by two families since 1370. The Trevanions from 1370 to 1840. The Williams family purchased the property in about 1855. The first owner, Michael Williams, Mine Owner and Banker, died in 1858 so it is highly unlikely he ever lived at Caerhays.
A great deal had to be done to the property and his son, John Michael, a man with international mining interests, carried through even more repairs. His eldest son and successor, J.C. Williams, was born at Pengreep in 1861 and succeeded to the property on his father’s death in 1880. For a few years John Michael’s widow lived at Caerhays until her death in 1884 which, in turn, was the same year that J.C. Williams married his cousin Mary Christian. It would appear therefore that it was not until 1892 that Caerhays became a proper home for the Williams family.
As a result Caerhays missed the excitement of the Indian plant discoveries of Wallich and the later introductions of Sir John Hooker from Sikkim. The first Cornish gardens to try out these new arrivals were Carclew and, later, Heligan.
J.C. Williams and his cousin and friend, P.D. Williams of Lanarth, became members of the Royal Horticultural Society in about 1892/93. J.C. Williams had become attracted to the gardening ideas of William Robinson and was beginning to harbour ambitions for making a wild garden at Caerhays but, in 1897, he was diverted by a new interest; namely that of daffodil breeding. If J.C. Williams became interested in something he was not one to take half measures. His friendship with the Reverend George Engleheart began in 1897 and was very opportune as Engleheart had started to show off his work as a pioneer on daffodil hybridising. JCW was a heavy purchaser of these new varieties and they formed the chief basis for his future hybridisations. The other basic varieties he used for plant breeding were Lulworth, Monarch and Weardale Perfection, coloured representations of which had featured in William Robinson’s magazine, ‘The Garden’.
J.C. Williams was a very private person and prized his privacy. It is almost certain that he was not very pleased when William Robinson visited Caerhays in 1899 whilst J.C. Williams was away and described developments being made with Rhododendrons, Bamboos, Tree Ferns etc. The article was signed with a large ‘V’ which possibly showed that he thought getting into Caerhays was a triumph.
The next stage was the arrival in Veitch’s Nursery of the first new rhododendrons from China which had been collected by E.H. Wilson. It is then that the subsequent debate that must have occurred as to where these new varieties, which held great potential for British gardens, were to be tested. Caerhays was chosen. Many of the original Wilson species and plants from this time can be seen in the garden. The biggest cluster is in the Big Quarry which visitors will see when they come down the hill when leaving the garden (that is if they follow the suggested blue route around this garden!).
Mr Wilson continued to explore China but changed his employers leaving Veitch’s Nurseries and going to work for the Arnold Arboretum which is outside Boston, Massachusetts. At that time, the Arboretum was under the management of the greatest expert of the new Asiatic plants, Professor Charles Sprague Sargent.
Wilson remained in close contact with J.C. Williams and must have told the Professor about Caerhays and the way Chinese plants were being tested.
So it was in 1911 that plants arrived from the Arboretum some of which visitors may come across in their garden wanderings today.
It was the Trevanions who built Caerhays and it was they who went bankrupt so spectacularly around 1839 that they managed to almost vanish from the history of Cornwall.
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