History of Penzance

The Thursday before St Andrew's Day (30 November)

St Peter's Day (1 August); first granted in 1332

St Bartholomew's Day (24 August); originally granted to Mousehole but now obsolete probably due to the Spanish Raid of 1595

St Mary the Virgin's Day (8 September); granted in 1404

The Conception of St Mary the Virgin's Day (8 September); granted in 1404

St Peter's Day in Cathedra (22 February); granted in 1404

The Crown was paid a perpetual rent of five marks (£3 6s 8d / £3.33) in acknowledgment of the rights granted by the Charter, which was paid until 1832, but there was no grant of Parliamentary representation.

The old arms of Penzance were the head of St John the Baptist on a charger, with the legend "Pensans anno Domini 1614". The arms of the borough are Arg. a Paschal lamb proper in base a Maltese cross Az. on a chief embattled of the last between two keys in saltire wards upwards Or and a saltire couped Arg. a plate charged with a dagger point downwards Gu.

Within a year the new Borough bought a substantial degree of freedom from the Manor of Alverton then known as Alverton and Penzance for £34 plus a perpetual annuity of £1 which was last paid in 1936. A market-house and Guildhall was built, and together with the rights bought in 1615, provided almost all the borough income for more than two centuries. The southern arm of the pier was built in 1766 and extended in 1785, to add to the first pier of which was built in 1512.

During the English Civil War Penzance was sacked by the Parliamentarian