Boscawen History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The surname Boscawen was first found in Cornwall where they held a family seat as Lords of the Manor of Tregothnan. "Descended from Henry who lived in the reign of King John, and who took the name of Bascawen from the lordship of Boscawen-Rose, still the property of the family. " 1

So as to confirm this very early claim, another source notes: "that the Boscawens possessed this place so early as the reign of John, and that it was the original seat of that ancient family, who took from thence their name; and that the Boscawens removed to Tregothnan, in consequence of a marriage with an heiress of the Tregothman family, in the reign of Edward III. at which place their descendants still continue to reside." 2

Another interesting note about the family: "According to Hals, one of the Cornish historians, the first Boscawen who settled in Cornwall was an Irishman whose name does not appear to be now known; but whatever it may have been, it was soon exchanged for that of the place (which still bears the same name) in the parish of St. Buryan, a few miles from the Land's End, where he took up his abode, viz. at Boscawen Ros - the valley of elder trees. Other branches of the Boscawens settled in later times at Tregameer, in St. Columb Major, and at Trevallock in Creed, or St. Stephen's. All traces of the marriages of the earliest Boscawens seem to be lost until we reach the reign of Edward I, when Henry de Boscawen (about 1292) took to wife Hawise Trewoof. In 1335 John de Boscawen. by marrying an heiress, Joan de Tregothnan, acquired the Tregothnan property on the banks of the river Fal, where the family seat still is; the present building, however, dating only from 1815. " 3