LOSTWITHIEL  , a

market town and municipal borough in the $odmin parliamentary division of Cornwall, England, 302 M . W. of Plymouth by the Great Western railway . Pop . (1901) 1379 . It is pleasantly situated on the banks of the river Fowey . The church of St Bartholomew is remarkable for a fine Early English tower surmounted by a Decorated spire; there are also beautiful Decorated windows and details in the body of the church, and a richly carved octagonal font . A bridge of the 14th century crosses the river . The shire hall includes remains of a building, called the Stannary prison, dating from the 13th century . The Great Western railway has workshops at Lostwithiel . Lostwithiel owed its ancient liberties—probably its existence—to the neighbouring castle of Restormel . The Pipe Rolls (1194-1203) show that Robert de Cardinan, lord of Restormel, paid ten marks yearly for having a market at Lostwithiel . By an undated charter still preserved with the corporation's muniments he surrendered to the burgesses all the liberties given them by his predecessors (antecessores) when they founded the town .

These included hereditary

succession to tenements, exemption from sullage, the right to elect a reeve (praepositus) if the grantor thought one necessary and the right to marry without the lord's interference . By Isolda, granddaughter of Robert de Cardinan, the town was given to Richard, king of the Romans, who in the third year of his reign granted to the burgesses a gild merchant sac and soc, toll, team and infangenethef, freedom from pontage, lastage, &c., throughout Cornwall, and exemption from the jurisdiction of the hundred and county courts, also a yearly fair and a weekly market . Richard transferred the assizes from Launceston to Lostwithiel . His son Edmund, earl of Cornwall, built a great hall at Lostwithiel and decreed that the coinage of tin should be at Lostwithiel only . In 1325 Richard's charter was confirmed and the market ordered to be held on Thursdays . In 1386 the assizes were transferred back to Launceston . In 1609 a charter of incorporation provided for a mayor, recorder, six capital burgesses and seventeen assistants and courts of record and pie powder . The boundaries of the borough were extended in 1733 . Under the reformed charter granted in 1885 the corporation consists of a mayor, four aldermen and twelve councillors . From 1305 to 1832 two members represented Lostwithiel in parliament . The electors after 16o9 were th. twenty-five members of the corporation . Under the Reform Act (1832) the borough became merged in the county .

For the

Thursday market granted in 1326 a Friday market was sub stituted in 1733, and this continues to be held . The fair granted in 1326 and the three fairs granted in 1733 have all given place to others . The archdeacon's court, the sessions and the county elections were long held at Lostwithiel, but all have now been removed . For the victory gained by Charles I. over the earl of Essex in 1644, see GREAT REBELLION .