Daphne du Maurier in Vanishing Cornwall suggests that the name, Penwith, has three renderings, "the last promontory," "promontory on the left, and "the headland of slaughter," thus suggesting that this area might have been the site of prehistoric invasions of sea-borne fighters, or perhaps tribal battles.The Lordship of Penwith came with a great number of rights over the entire hundred.These included: rights to try certain cases of trespass, trespass on the law, debt and detinue, to appoint a jailor for the detention of persons apprehended, to receive high-rent from the lords of the principal manors and to claim the regalia of the navigable rivers and havens, the profits of the royal gold and silver mines, and all wrecks, escheats, deodands, treasure trove, waifs, estrays, goods of felons and droits of admiralty happening within the hundred.The institutions of the Penwith hundred were originally centred in the parish of Gwithian and were moved to Penzance in 1771 (or earlier)[2] following large successive inundations of in blown sand.The parishes of the Penwith hundred were Camborne, Crowan, St Buryan, Gulval (or Lanisly), Gwinear, Gwithian, Illogan, Lelant (or Uny Lelant), Ludgvan, Madron, Morvah, Paul, Perranuthnoe, Phillack, Redruth, St Erth, St Hilary, St Ives, St Just-in-Penwith, St Levan, Sancreed, Sennen, Towednack, Zennor.