Tresmarrow immigrations

"The Dawe family emigrated to Canada from Tresmarrow circa 1908, taking with them the ‘screaming skull’. The skull was returned to Launceston in 2001, and is now on display in the Lawrence House museum."

From  Jim Edwards on the Launcestone Then website.

The Lawrence House Museum website doesn't seem to feature the skull, though a visitor reviewing the museum on their own website (It's full of old stuff) says "Both the delights and frustrations of this collection are epitomised by the display case containing a chunk of bone which, so a label tells us, is what remains of 'The Screaming Skull of Tresmarrow' - but offers nothing of its history or nature!"

 

Tresmarrow emigrations

But if there remains but the most meagre trace of the worship of saintly relics in England, there remain tokens of what appears to have been at a remote period a veneration for the heads of ancestors or founders of houses.

Near Launceston is the ancient house of Tresmarrow that belonged to Sir Hugh Piper, Governor of Launceston Castle under Charles I. By the marriage of Philippa, daughter and heiress of Sir Hugh, the house and property passed into the Vyvyan family; then it passed to a Dr Luke, whose wife was a Miss Vyvyan. He sold it to an old yeoman farmer of the name of Dawe, and it remained in the Dawe family till about five years ago, when it was again sold.

Now, in a niche in the old buildings for centuries was to be seen a human skull. All recollection of whose it was had passed away. One of the Dawes, disliking its presence, had it buried, but thereupon ensued such an uproar, such mighty disturbances, that it was on the morrow dug up again and replaced in its recess. The Dawe family, when they sold Tresmarrow, migrated to Canada, and have taken the skull with them.

From Sabine Baring-Gould's 'Book of Folk-Lore', 1913.

Tresmarrow Farm, Cornwall

In the farmhouse of Tresmarrow in Cornwall, in a niche, is preserved a human skull. Why it is there, no one knows. It has been several times buried, but, whenever buried, noises ensue which disturb the household, and the skull is disinterred and replaced in its niche. Formerly it occupied the gable head.

From Sabine Baring-Gould's 'Strange Survivals' (1892) in which he talks about heads and figures on gables.