Mary Jane Vosper was born at St Clether to the north of Bodmin Moor in 1850. She was the eldest child of Nathaniel Vosper, a farm labourer, and his second wife Jane. The census records tell us that Nathaniel moved at least twice during the 1850s, ending up south of the moor at Trebarret Farm, … Continue reading Driven mad by overwork? The sad story of Mary Jane Vosper
Callington calling
At the beginning of the 1800s Callington in east Cornwall was little more than an overgrown village. In the 1790s it was described as ‘shabby’, with ‘one short street of very poor houses’. Things had not improved much by 1824 when a visitor noted the ‘one broad street; and being very irregularly built, and very … Continue reading Callington calling
Contrasting Budock biographies
Edward Tresidder had been born in rural Budock. His father Robert was a farm labourer who died in the 1850s, leaving his wife Grace to cope with the five children. In 1881 Grace was making a living from selling groceries in the village but her two eldest sons, including 11 year old Edward, had to … Continue reading Contrasting Budock biographies
Budock: town and country
These days, to the consternation of some of its residents, Budock is being inexorably joined to Falmouth by the remorseless sprawl of new housing. However, the urbanisation of Budock is not new. In the mid-nineteenth century the former boundaries of the parish extended as far as the estuary of the Fal to the north of … Continue reading Budock: town and country
Denying destiny: The Baptist from Breage
Our final foray into the lives of Breage Victorians introduces an example of social mobility. The vast majority of our forebears married partners from a similar social background. Children of labourers married labourers, the offspring of miners got hitched to miners, sons and daughters of farmers tended to end up with other farmers’ sons and … Continue reading Denying destiny: The Baptist from Breage
Absent husbands
As we saw in the previous blog, some people in the Victorian Lives project left while others stayed. It’s gradually becoming clear that sons and daughters of farmers were less likely to leave Cornwall than the offspring of the poor or those from mining families. But there were exceptions. Here is the tale of two … Continue reading Absent husbands
Mixed fortunes at Breage
Priscilla Carter was born at Trescowe, Breage, the second child of Francis and Elizabeth. Francis worked as a tin miner, as did the majority of the men of the parish. Priscilla grew up at Trescowe Hill and by 1871 she and a younger sister were at the dressing floors, while her elder brother and father … Continue reading Mixed fortunes at Breage
The rise and fall of Wheal Vor
Breage is the first major mining parish on our list. Although its glory days had passed, 60 per cent of the 54 children in the Victorian Lives database living in the parish in 1861 had been born into mining families. In the 1850s Wheal Vor was the major mine in the parish, employing over 1,000 … Continue reading The rise and fall of Wheal Vor
The boys from Braddock
Braddock is another small, rural parish in east Cornwall, best known as the site of a battle in 1642. This began the heroic story of the Cornish army that met its nemesis on the walls of Bristol within a year. By the early 1800s the sounds of battle were long gone, the clash of pikes … Continue reading The boys from Braddock
Boyton sunrise to Waterloo sunset
From Botusfleming on the lower reaches of the Tamar we travel up to Boyton on its upper reaches. Boyton was a border parish with the Tamar demarcating its eastern side. It’s six miles from the nearest town - Launceston - and by the 1850s was well into a process of rural depopulation. Its population, 551 … Continue reading Boyton sunrise to Waterloo sunset
Cornish studies resources 