PENRYN, a town and a sub-district in Falmouth district, Cornwall. The town is in St. Gluvias parish; stands on a creek of Falmouth harbour, and on the Falmouth branch of the Cornwall railway, 2 miles N W of Falmouth; dates from ancient times; was held by the Osbornes, under the bishops of Exeter; had a seat of the Bishops, and also a college founded about 1270 by Bishop Bronscombe; is a borough by prescription; was firstchartered by James I.; is governed, under the new act, by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors; forms part of the parliamentary borough of Falmouth; stands partlyon a declivity, partly in a sheltered and very fertile valley; consists chiefly of one wide street, and two or threenarrow ones; and has a head post-office, † a railway station with telegraph, a hotel, a bridge, a town hall, a market house, a mechanics' institution and news-room, a church, 3 dissenting chapels, and a slightly endowedgrammar school. A weekly market is held on Saturday; fairs are held on the Wednesday after 6 March, 12 May, 7 July, 8 Oct., and 21 Dec.; and fisheries, a coasting-trade. and some ship-building are carried on. The chiefexports are early vegetables and granite; and the latterhas long been known for its fine grain, and was used in the construction of Waterloo bridge and Chatham docks. Acres of the borough, 325; of which 35 are water. Real property, £7, 675. Pop. in 1851, 3, 759; in 1861, 3, 547. Houses, 700. The sub-district is conterminate with St. Gluvias parish.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))