Bernard Deacon's Blog, page 35

The poor law in Poldark’s days

The following is an extract from Chapter 10 (The Prison) of my The Real World of Poldark: Cornwall 1783-1820. If the gastronomic delights of the free soup were not enough and charities insufficient, the poor could always turn to the official poor relief provided by the state since Elizabethan times …. From the late 1600s, … Continue reading The poor law in Poldark’s days →

Of Penroses and Provises

Two recent surname queries demonstrate how studying the early distribution of a name can complement the detailed researches of the family historian. The first query asked whether an ancestor in Manaccan on the Lizard in the late 1500s could have been linked to the Penrose estate near Helston. Penrose has featured here before and I … Continue reading Of Penroses and Provises →

Views of Cornwall in 1919

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan (1876-1938) was an American artist (although born in Prince Edward Island, Canada). As a young man he followed the trail of many other artists from North America and travelled to Europe, basing himself thereafter mainly in France but travelling widely. Among his journeys he visited Cornwall, where he spent some time around … Continue reading Views of Cornwall in 1919 →

The gentry at home around 1800

Two hundred years ago life was hard for most people in Cornwall. But for a small minority fortunate enough to own land things could be lot more comfortable. Much time was spent visiting each other’s houses. Staying at Tehidy, the home of the Bassets, in 1792 James Boswell described the: astounding variety of alcoholic beverages … Continue reading The gentry at home around 1800 →

Cornish and English in 16th century Cornwall

The surname Cornish was well established by the 1500s. Its presence outside Cornwall would be unsurprising, However, what requires more explanation is the considerable number of people in Cornwall itself with this name. Their presence in the 1500s implies its original meaning was not ‘someone from Cornwall’ as in Cornwall this would not be a … Continue reading Cornish and English in 16th century Cornwall →

Fuse works and the perils of powder

The introduction of gunpowder for blasting – the first example supposedly in Gwinear in the 1670s – greatly speeded up the excavation of shafts and levels in the Cornish mines. Powder was used in a series of controlled explosions that advanced the rock face. Or often uncontrolled. The main problem was in providing a fuse … Continue reading Fuse works and the perils of powder →

The Truro riot of 1796

Food riots, where crowds gathered to demand a supply of staple foodstuffs, reduce their price or prevent their export, became commonplace in Cornwall over the course of the 1700s. One of the most serious occurred at Truro in 1796. After this, one participant – John Hoskin, also known as ‘Wild Cat’, was hanged. Here’s an … Continue reading The Truro riot of 1796 →

The mystery of the missing Irish

Recent blogs on this site have uncovered migrants from across the Channel who were living in Cornwall in the early 1500s. But what about migrants from the opposite direction, from across the Celtic Sea? There were a handful of people called Welshman in the early records, Walter and John Wylsheman at East Looe and another … Continue reading The mystery of the missing Irish →

The Cornish at the Battle of Jutland

From the afternoon of 31st May 1916 into the following day British and German battlefleets clashed off Jutland in the North Sea. Over a hundred of the more than 6,000 from the Royal Navy who lost their lives came from Cornwall. It’s been estimated that three per cent of the British fleet at the Battle … Continue reading The Cornish at the Battle of Jutland →

Boswell’s 1792 drinking tour of Cornwall

The following is an extract from Chapter 7 (‘The plain an gwarry’) of my The Real World of Poldark: Cornwall 1783-1820. Drink and the public house were accepted as central to popular culture in the eighteenth century. The involvement of publicans in the national sport of wrestling has already been noted. Many pubs would also … Continue reading Boswell’s 1792 drinking tour of Cornwall →