The non-mining parish of St Breock in mid-Cornwall, which included the greater part of the small town of Wadebridge, was by Cornish standards relatively unusual in Victorian times. Nine of the 13 children of 1861 who survived until 1891 could still be found in mid-Cornwall, a very high proportion. Meanwhile, not one of the St … Continue reading St Breock: literacy and good fortune
Category: social history
St Blazey and a patriotic Cornishman
Amelia Hancock (see previous blog) was described by the Daughters of the American Revolution as an ‘extremely patriotic and intelligent woman’. The patriotism they were referring to was to her adopted homeland. Another St Blazey child of 1861 provides more evidence for a strong sense of patriotism, but this time a Cornish patriotism. Sometimes it’s … Continue reading St Blazey and a patriotic Cornishman
St Blazey’s millinery millionaire
In mid-Cornwall just east of St Austell, two out of every three families in the parish of St Blazey in 1851 were dependent on the mining industry for their daily bread. Unfortunately, the local mines, mainly exploiting copper reserves, were not best placed to weather the crisis that hit Cornwall’s copper mines in 1866. By … Continue reading St Blazey’s millinery millionaire
St Austell: the good old days
Not everyone in St Austell was fortunate enough to be born into the right family, as was John Lovering, who we met in the previous blog. Even these days, a century and a half on, if we don’t have a house or houses to sell or a fat pension to pay for an expensive care … Continue reading St Austell: the good old days
St Austell’s clay merchants
In Victorian St Austell, one of Cornwall’s largest parishes in terms of area, a new industry was emerging, even as mining collapsed and farming faltered. The extraction of clay employed just five per cent of the men of the parish in 1851 but within a generation that proportion had ballooned to 22 per cent. While … Continue reading St Austell’s clay merchants
St Anthony in Roseland: a deserted wife?
St Anthony in Meneage is found at the north-eastern extremity of the Lizard peninsula while, on the other side of the Fal estuary, St Anthony in Roseland forms the tip of the Roseland. However, both parishes were originally called Lanyntenyn, meaning the site of Entenen, a local saint. Over time, the Cornish saint was replaced … Continue reading St Anthony in Roseland: a deserted wife?
St Anthony in Meneage: moving on and moving up
St Anthony in Meneage is a small parish on the Lizard peninsula. In Victorian times it was home to a farming community together with a mix of craftsmen and a sole coastguard boatman. The coastguard was William Johnson from Norfolk, married to Mary from Wicklow in Ireland. The couple’s eldest children had been born in … Continue reading St Anthony in Meneage: moving on and moving up
St Allen and second marriages
Second marriages were probably as common in Victorian times as they are these days, although the reasons were different. Instead of divorce, early mortality was the main factor. Rapid remarriage on the part of men would have been promoted by an eagerness to obtain a domestic helper who would be cheaper than a servant. For … Continue reading St Allen and second marriages
St Agnes: let’s not forget first names
Anyone who has spent hours ploughing through nineteenth century census records cannot fail to notice the arrival of a greater range of first names in the latter decades of the century. While there is a voluminous academic literature on surnames, their origins and their distribution, there is much less on first names. Yet the names … Continue reading St Agnes: let’s not forget first names
St Agnes: travels and travails
The generation born around 1850 in St Agnes could have had little inkling of the economic disaster that lay in store for them. In 1851 71 per cent of the adult men of the parish worked on and in the tin and copper mines of the parish, one of the most intensive concentrations of miners … Continue reading St Agnes: travels and travails
Cornish studies resources 