Ould Family of Cornwall

Ould Family Histories

"The Oulds Family of the Parishes of Constantine and Mawnan, Cornwall, England and the United States of America"

Researched and compiled by Mrs. Betty Farrell;
Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

[Editor's note: Unfortunately, the Tables referred to have not yet been located. Where possible, links to the genealogy pages have been effected, but the families are not complete.]

I have traced this family, in detail, from the 1780's down to the present day, although there are references long before this that lead one to suppose the family was in Constantine as far back as 1684. I have used Church Registers of the two parishes and of Budock; the Constantine Parish Book of 1720 where the name Emanuell Olds appears on the first page and continues to 1759; that 1842 Tithe Map and Apportionments for Constantine; Kelly's and other directories; copy extracts of the 1851 Census Returns; micro-films of further Church Registers; and the recollections of people living today, some descendants of the family, in their 70's, 80's and 90's. I am indebted to many people for their help, including the Vicars of the three Parishes; Truro Record Office; the County Museum and Falmouth Reference Library.

Strictly speaking, the Ould family have more connections with Constantine, but their descendants form a large part of the present day Cornish population of Mawnan. The name, however, has almost died out in this village and I only know of two, a mother and daughter. A Joseph Ould died in 1956 at the age of 97. He had no issue. John Henry Ould died in 1967 and it is his widow and unmarried daughter who still live in the village. Descendants of the family who are in the village, include Christophers, Eddy's, Pascoes, Peters, Brays, Hursts, Pitts, Rogers and probably others. A direct descent is Mrs. Bray and her family. She is in her eighties and has helped me a great deal and so has Stephen Emanuel Ould of Falmouth who is a direct descendant of two lines, his grandfather and grandmother having been third cousins. He has no children.

One name occurs right down from the entry I have mentioned in 1684, to the present day and that marriage is the name of "Emanuel". I do not think there is a single generation that has missed it out and sometimes it occurs more than once in a generation, although, laterly, it is not always used, as in the case of Stephen Emanuel. It becomes rather confusing at times when writing the story, and I may find that I have to number the ones who played the most important part in this narrative. Reference to the shortened family trees will also help. The large one I have made is far too big to include with this shortened version of what I am hoping to produce eventually. The sketch map I have made will also help in pin-pointing the area they came from. This was at Bar, situated on the North Bank of the Helford River, not far from Helford Passage, and directly opposite the village of Helford on the South Bank of the River. In 1720, Bar was part of the Budock Vean estate, Budock Vean itself being a large farm with several smaller farms attached, and although it is much nearer to Mawnan village and church, it is actually in the Parish of Constantine. (Reference to the sketch map will show boundaries of Parishes.) In the garden of one of the present-day houses above Bar Beach, are the remains of the cottages, (believed to have been semi-detached) that were at one time the only dwelling houses there apart from the Cottages at Helford Passage. Three walls, two of them with chimney-breasts and part of a stone floor, are all that now remain of a tenement for which Parish rates were paid in 1720, by one, "Emanuel Olds". The holder of Budock Vean at that time was given as "Holboro". By 1729 the tenement is held by "Emanuel Olds that was", and in 1740 Budock Vean is stated to be held by "Mrs. Pender". Henderson tells us in his "History of Constantine" that Benjamin Pender was elected one of the Twelvemen of the Parish in 1746 and that he was the son of Peter Pender, Mayer of Falmouth. It may be that "Mrs. Pender" was the widow of Peter Pender, as in 1751 Budock Vean was held by Benjamin Pender himself. The tenement at Bar was still in the name of "Emanuel Olds that was", and continued as such until 1759. From 1760-62 the tenement is described as "Budock Vean. B. Pender, esq., his other part there". I will refer later to the Penders in connection with a Coroner's Order in 1845 and it will then be remembered that they were the Landlords and Oulds the tenants.

The earliest reference I could find to the name was in the Constantine Marriage Register for 1684 when "Emanuel Old" married "Oner Newey." The next was in 1720 when "Emanuel Old" married "Margery Bodilly." He would seem to be the one who had died by 1729. From the Parish Book one would gather that the Parish Rates continued to be paid in his name by his widow or family, but in 1759, the year that the description changed, another "Emanuel Old" married "Jane Toy." These two are the parents of the Emanuel (1) from whom there is clear descent to the present day. It is worth noting that of their children, he was born in 1760, because it is known that he died at Bar in 1836. Also worth noting is "Richard Treleggan" who married "Priscilla Thomas" in 1761, because their daughter "Priscilla Treleggan" married "Emanuel Old" in 1787 and it is their (Priscilla and Emanuel) four surviving sons who have so many descendents living today. (See Table 1.) Priscilla also died at Bar, in 1841 at the age of 77, so that her date of birth is known to be 1764. In the same way that "Emanuel" has come down through the generations as a family name, "Priscilla" has occurred in most generations and "Priscilla Stephens" is a descendent living in Mawnan today.

Emanuel (1) and Priscilla had eleven children altogether, but only four are known to have survived. I will give a copy of the entries of their births so that it can be seen how the spelling of the surname varied in those days:

In every case the parents are given as Emanuel and Priscilla. There is also there is a child of 1 month, Priscilla Ould, who died in 1787, the year of their marriage but her parentage is not recorded, nor was she baptized in Constantine.

Of these four brothers, I have only proved present day descendents from two; Emanuel (2) and Thomas. The youngest brother, Francis, I think I shall be able to complete in due course. Richard Treleggan Ould, the eldest married Jane Ould, who I believe to be a cousin, in 1812, and they had seven children. The eldest, another Richard, married Ann Toy from Trebah (also in Constantine but very near Mawnan) in 1845 and of their four children, Richard, the eldest married Argent Symonds in 1876, but as a Richard Ould of the same age was buried at Constantine in 1876, he may have died without issue. At any rate I have found no baptism of children of this marriage.

Having made brief mention of Richard, I will just say that the youngest brother Francis married in Mawnan. His wife was called Mary Long and she came from Philleigh. They were married in 1823 and a number of their children were baptized at Mawnan. They apparently lived at Lower Penpol and Francis died there in 1872 and was buried at Mawnan. Lower Penpol was at one time part of Budock Vean and it is possible that he too was a tenant of the Penders, although it is actually in the Parish of Mawnan.

Of the two middle brothers I have found out a great deal. Emanuel (2) was buried under the Coroner's Order before referred to, in 1845. His burial is the only entry I have found in any of the Church Registers that mentions Bar specifically as being part of Budock Vean. The reason for this may be that the Town Clerk of Falmouth at that time was Francis Pender, grandson of Benjamin Pender who held Budock Vean in 1751. At the time of the Coroner's Order, the Mayor of Falmouth was also the Coroner and that may account for the fact that the Order for Burial gave Budock Vean as the place of residence of the dead man, who would have been a of the Town Clerk himself. Hence the reason for the description "Bar Budock Vean." I have been unable to find the actual cause of his death, but have a very strong reason for drowning. This reason comes from a legend, the basis of which may be true. I was told this when I went to take some photopraphs of the ruins at Bar, very kindly permitted by the present owner. She told me that a previous owner had said she had seen a little old lady in a rocking chair in the ruined cottage, "weeping because her husband had been drowned." I also found reference among some old notes given to me in another connection, to "little old lady on Bar Beach. Lucky if seen." This "little old lady" was Jane, wife of Emanuel (2). He married her at Constantine in 1821 and she was Jane Long and also came from Philleigh. It seems possible that Emanuel (2) and his brother, Francis, married two sisters from Philleigh which is on the Roseland Peninsula. I have seen the name Long in the Phillimore & Taulor copy marriage registers for that Parish and was told in Philleigh Village that "there used to be a family of that name at Treworthal," a hamlet attached to Philleigh. "William Long" who married "Mary Dixon" in 1775, may have been the father of Jane and Mary. Jane was born in 1787 according to her death in 1852 at the age of 65. At any rate we know that Emanuel (2) was buried under the Corner's Order in 1845 and that his wife, according to the 1851 census, was "A widow and fisherwoman" living at Bar in 1851 and that she had been born in Philleigh.

While I am dealing with Emanuel (2), I will go straight on with the eldest son of this marriage, Emanuel (3). He was born, or rather baptized (because we do not know his date, and age at time of death) in 1823. In 1850 he married, in Mawnan, a girl from St. Keverne, Elizabeth Uren. These two emigrated to South Africa some time later the same year, because their first child was born in Cape Town in February 1851. This was a girl, Mary Jane, followed by Thomas in 1854, Susan in 1857 and a baby Elisa, she died in 1858. In 1860 Elizabeth left her husband and taking the three children with her, went off to America. She was to become one of the handcart pioneers who trekked across the Untied States with the Mormon followers to Salt Lake City. Once there she remarried, although there is no record of any divorce and the fact that she was said to have felt guilty in her latter years because she "had been living in sin" points to this conclusion. There are now several hundred American descendents of the three children of this 1850 marriage in Mawnan and one of them, a great-granddaughter with whom I have been in correspondence, herself a Mormon, has been instrumental in causing this whole research to be done. Her grandfather, Thomas, the boy born in Capetown and taken with his mother to Salt Lake City, had grieved when he grew up, because of his father who had been left behind, and he tried to find Emanuel, but without success. One of his twelve children, Levi Emanuel Olds had carried on the search, still without success, and one of his twelve children, my American correspondent today, Elaine Olds Hagelberg, has spent thirty years trying to trace Emanuel (3). I am still hoping to do this, and am at present (Feb. 1969) following up a line that has taken me from Cornwall by letter via Capetown, to Southampton, my own home town, where I am in correspondence with a lady who maiden name was Ould and who has a grandfather reputed to have been drowned, a father whose name was Thomas and who was born in 1870. I am wondering if it is possible that Emanuel (3), left in Capetown in 1860, and said to have returned to this country, could have come back to Southampton, settled there and himself remarried and had another son - another Thomas.

Mrs. Elaine Olds Hagelberg has sent me a great deal of information to help in my search. She has sent me full details of the descendants of Emanuel and Elizabeth's son, Thomas, her own grandfather, and copies from the micro-films of church registers which they have at the world-famous genealogical library at Salt Lake City. These are available to people of any religion or nationality. She has also sent me copy extracts from 1851 Constantine Census Returns, which I should have been unable to obtain myself without great expense. These were obtained by her through a professional researcher which the family at one time employed in an effort to find their missing Emanuel.

Emanuel (3) had a brother, John Long Ould, and two sisters, Jane and Mary Ann. Jane married Richard Peters in 1852. Both their addresses on the marriage register, were "of Bar". John married Richard Peters' sister, Mary, in 1853. The younger sister, Mary Ann married Thomas Lanyon of Falmouth in 1866, but nothing further is known of her.

Jane who married Richard Peters in 1852, was the grandmother of Mrs. Christina Bray. Jane and Richard Peters had six children, and their third child, Richard, married Christina Moyle, and in turn had nine children; Christina Jane, born in 1886 and named after her mother and grandmother (Jane Ould of Bar), married Mr. Thomas by whom she had three children. He was killed in the Great War and then she married Mr. Bray and had two more children. Her daughter of this marriage, Alice Bray, now 83, has two sisters and a brother, Albert Peters, still living. Albert married at third cousin, Jane Christophers, a descendant of Thomas Ould whose family I will touch on later. To return to Joan and Fred Pitts. Their two children are of the same generation as Elaine (Olds) Hagelberg's two children. Elizabeth Pitts and Jerolyn Hagelberg were both born in 1949. Elaine has a son, Gregory, born in 1950 and Joan a son, Gerald, born in 1959. Their children are 7th cousins.

John Long Ould who married Mary Peters in 1853, had three children and the oldest was Emanuel (4) (Table 1). He was a great uncle of Stephen Emanuel and according to an old man of 99 still living at Port Navas, he went to work at Trefusis at Flushing. There may be a connection here. Elizabeth Uren's address at the time of her marriage in 1850 was given as Trerose, Mawnan. Trerose at that time was farmed by a family named Laity, who subsequently farmed at Trefusis. It may be that Emanuel (4) went to Trefusis because of this connection. Stephen Ould says that his great uncle was at one time Coachman-Gardner at Arwenack Manor in Falmouth and also had a small grocers shop at Minnie Place. Emanuel (4) had a daughter Edith, who lived at home and a son who later became Head-Groom in the Royal Stables at Buckingham Palace. I know nothing further at the moment of the son.

Emanuel (4) sister, Mary Ann (Table 1) married her third cousin, Henry James Ould (Table 2B) of High Cross, a farm that once was part of Trevaney Farm at Constantine, Henry James was a grandson of Thomas and the relationship will be seen from Table 2.

Susan, the younger sister, was born in 1858. I can't help wondering, here, if the family at Bar was still in correspondence with the family who had emigrated to Cape Town. Just as in the instance I have mentioned of the present day Hagelbergs in America and the Pitts in Mawnan, with children of similar ages, Emanuel (3) in Capetown had children in 1851, 1854, and 1857, and John at Bar had children in 1854, 1856, and 1858, and each of them had a "Susan" and a "Mary".

It is difficult to condense all the information I have gathered together into a few pages. All the way through I am tempted to break away from the various descendents to tell interesting side-lines. One such case arose when I went to the offices of the West Briton in Truro to see the files of the paper from 1840-50. What I was searching for was a report of a drowning in 1845. What I found were advertisements for emigration to South Africa. The following may have led to Emanuel (3) and Elizabeth decided to try their luck in one of the newly formed Colonies, Natal, although in the event they do not appear to have traveled further than Cape Town. Perhaps Elizabeth's baby was due to be born and they left the ship because of that. The voyage would not have been a pleasant one for her in her condition. Perhaps they already knew people in Cape Town. At any rate, this advertisement appeared in the West Briton of June 21, 1850. A month after their marriage.

The earliest advertisement occurs in 1849 - Australia, Canada, California etc.

The baby was born at Deep River, Cape of Good Hope. I wonder it they found the climate as similar to Cornwall as my own son, now Living in Cape Town, finds it.

Elizabeth must have had another spell of 'roughing it' when she crossed to America ten years later. The recognized route that the Mormons took from South Africa, would have landed her at Boston. From there she would have been able to go part of the way by train, but the 1860 pioneers would have had to push their handcarts across three states to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, over 1,300 miles. They averaged 85 days for the entire journey&ldots;."to each hundred were allotted five tents, twenty handcarts and one wagon drawn by three yoke of oxen. Tents and general supplies were stowed in the wagons, but each family carried its own rations and its quota of the sick and helpless in the handcart, while the women and children, from the toddlers to the aged, walked the weary trail from Winter Quarters on the Missouri River to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake&ldots;." [The Mormon Story] Elizabeth would have had a 8, a 5 and a 3 year old to cope with and one can only hope she had her future husband with her to help. He also was an Englishman, from Freshwater in the Isle of Wight. To learn more about these Mormon Pioneers and their journey and the names of the places en route; wild west names like "Fort Laramie, Fort Bridger, Scotts Bluff, Kanesville and Iowa City." I used "The Mormon Story, a pictorial account of Mormonism" by Rulon S. Howells. Elizabeth must have been tough. She came from a poor family in St. Keverne. Her father had died when she was 8 and a sister had died the year Elizabeth was born, followed by two brothers; and her mother in the 1851 Census Returns for St. Keverne was described as "Pauper". I have a picture of Elizabeth when she was very old and even in that she looks determined. Her son Thomas, looks a kindly man.

While on the subject of Elizabeth Ould and photographs, I have a number that show definite family resemblance. It has been noticed by members of the family over here, in the case of Elizabeth's son, Thomas. His own son, Levi Emanuel who was Elaine Hagelberg's father, bears a definite resemblance to Stephen Ould, and photographs I have taken myself, one of Mrs. Bray and one of Mrs. Rosina Wicks whose relationship (Table 2B) I shall show when dealing with the third of the four brothers, Thomas, also resemble each other.

Now I must return to that Thomas and his wife, Mary. She was born in Mawnan and was the daughter of George and Mary (Rowe) Jordan. At the time of her marriage she was living in Mabe, but one supposes that having lived and been baptized at Mawnan, she chose to be married there. They were married in 1821, and once more the name is mis-spelt "Owl". They were living in Constantine at Trenarth for most of the time - their children, thirteen of them, were baptized at Constantine. Most of these children, thirteen of them, were baptized at Contstantine. Most of these thirteen children appear to have grown up and married but the last two, Edwin and Angelina were baptized and died as infants on the same day in 1840. Here again, I believe they were twins. There seems quite good reason for supposing that twins occurred several times in this family. Of Thomas and Mary's children, only Thomas, the eldest, John and George need concern us. Thomas and John both came to Mawnan and George is the great-grandfather of Stephen Ould on his father's side, as will be seen on Table 2B. Thomas and Mary are both buried at Constantine. Mary, died, still at Trenarth, in 1862, aged 67 and Thomas, who must have been living with one of his children, died at The Level, Constantine, in 1869 aged 70.

Their eldest son, Thomas, married Argent, daughter of Melchisedek Tremayne. She also had a brother, possibly a twin named Melchisedek. Thomas, Argent and brother Melchisedek and his wife Jane are all buried at Mawnan and their tombstones with that of Thomas and Argent's son William and his first wife, are in a little group behind Mawnan Church. Thomas and Argent (Table 1) were married at Constantine in 1844. Their first eight children were born at Port Navas Cove. Thomas is described as a "labourer" on his children's baptismal entries until 1859, when he is described as a "Miner." They must have moved to Mawnan soon after this because the remaining four children were baptized at Mawnan and they lived at Carlidnack. Thomas was again a "labourer". Where they actually lived at Carlidnack, I am not sure. I do know that Melchisedek Tremayne also came to live at Carlidnack and that he lived in a cottage now called "Carlinick Cottage" and owned by Mrs. Nalder. The old pump is still to be seen outside the cottage. Melchisedek is still remembered as being something of a character. He is remembered by Mr. Leonard Courage who lives in Carlidnack Road and is in his eighties. He tells me that Melchisedek was a traveler and had been abroad in his youth prospecting for gold and had also farmed quite a few places around Mawnan, including Penwarne. In an article in the 1951 Womens Institute Scrapbook about Carlidnack he is remembered as having gone off up to London to see the sights "arrayed in his tail coat and high silk hat, with his lunch tied in a red handkerchief.&ldots;" He was called "Capt'm" locally and one of his favourite sayings was "Dear me fie, things will wear out." Each week he would attend Chapel in the morning and Church in the evening. At one time the end fell out of his house and he quickly prepared some clob and built it up again. In 1951 when this was written the wall was still said to be standing, with its rounded corner. He was also reputed to be very hospitable and kept a bottle of wine in the same cupboard as he kept the cows drench and once when the bottles got mixed, all he said was, "Dear me Fie, however did that happen. Never mind, what's good for beasts is sure to be good for man." This was remembered by Mrs. Cheffers who used to live at Carlidnack and whose family had lived there for several generations. Perhaps she would remember where Thomas and Argent lived. Perhaps they lived with Melchisedek and his wife, Jane. Thomas and Argent named one of their sons after him. He was Thomas Melchisedek, the eldest son born in 1849. Their first child was a girl, Grace, who died when she was 28.

Three of Thomas and Argent's eleven children need special mention as regards descendents, for this is approaching the time when there were so many "Oulds" in Mawnan. A fourth child, Joseph, is also remembered by many people today, because he died in 1956 at the age of 97. He did not have any children, although he was married twice. When he died he was living in a tiny cottage in the centre of the village, adjoining Ivey Cottage, and now incorporated in Ivey Cottage itself. The stone seat that is in the wall by the signpost, is still known as "Uncle Joe's seat" and I can remember talking to him when he was sitting on it one day and he was telling me of what he had done in his life, but unfortunately I was not so interested in the family then, and did not take note of what he said. Another member of the family also used the seat quite a lot in his latter years, a second cousin of Joseph's John Henry, whose wife and daughter I have already mentioned as still living in Carlidnack Road.

William, third son of Thomas and Argent, has a great many descendents today in Mawnan. William's daughter Elizabeth married into the Hodge family, then farming at Nansidwell (then Nansudgwell) and two of their SONS, John and Thomas have descendents (see Table 2). Williams's daughter Gladys May who died in 1967 also has grandchildren living in Mawnan. Gladys May married William Thomas Pascoe and Ross and Guy Pascoe are the sons of their younger son, Eric. There are other grand-children of this family who were living in the village until quite recently, Paul, Mark and Amanda Farmer, who now live in N. Devon and another grandson, Graham Maycock, lives in Southampton.

Eliza Jane, second daughter of William, married Alfred Pascoe. Their son, Sampson, lived in a cottage that stands at the end or Carlidnack Road and he gave the name to the hill running up from Mawnan past the Memorial Hall, Sampy's Hill. His grand-daughter Margery (now Rogers) has two children, Gary and Andrea. This family still lives in Mawnan.

The only other descendents of Thomas and Argent that I know of is Walter Rail who still farms at Hard-to-come-by on the way to Falmouth via the coast road. He is the son of their daughter Margaret Jane. The Rails at one time lived at Bar and I imagine it must have been in the adjoining cottage to the Oulds.

William and his first wife Ann (I have not mentioned her before, but she was Ann Bowden, also of Mawnan, and the mother of all his children). They were married at Mawnan in 1874. He married Harriet Rashleigh in 1902, Ann having died at the age of 48, in 1898, lived in various places in Mawnan. At one time according to a Directory of the '70's, he is described as a dairyman of Bareppa. Their first two children were born at Meudon and his wife died there. He died at Carwinion Cottage in 1917 at the age of 63.

Now I will return to Thomas and Argent's brother John. He is the grandfather of John Henry Ould (Table 2A) and of Jane, Wesley and Arthur Christophers, all still living in Mawnan, who have themselves several grandchildren at the village school today. John married Johanna Jorey of Constantine, in that Parish, in 1848. They had eight children most of them baptized at Constantine, but William the fifth child was born at Budock according to the Constantine Register. They must have moved towards Mawnan by now, as John is described as a "pig dealer" in the 1852 Directory, "of Carlidnack." A lane that runs down from the bottom at Carlidnack, opposite where Melchisedek Tremayne lived, to the old Lime kiln at Maenporth, was always known as "John Ould's Lane." I am told he kept his pigs there and also that he used to go round killing pigs for other people. He lived in the cottage later occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Banfield. (Mr. Banfield will be remembered by older Mawnan residents as having run, first, a horse bus which put up at the old Royal Hotel, shortly to be turned into a super market (1969). This was about 1917 and he was soon to have an enclosed bus.) I only mention this aside in order to identify the cottage where John Ould lived. John and Johanna's elder son, Peter, moved away from Mawnan and became a park-keeper in Falmouth. I believe there are quite a number of his descendents still in Falmouth. The next son, John, married Caroline Lawry and they are the parents of John Henry, Joanna and Mary Ellen, all with quite a number of descendents in the village today.

Johanna was buried at Constantine in 1894, although her place of residence at the time of death was given as Carlidnack. She was 74. John lived on till 1919 when he died at the age of 92. He too is buried in Constantine, but in the new part of the Churchyard. Their son, John and his wife, Caroline, who lived at Bareppa, are both buried at Mawnan - John only survived his father by two years and died at the age of 65 and Caroline was 78 when she died in 1932. Their descendents are clearly seen from Table 2A.

John and Johanna's youngest daughter, Priscilla Ellen, also has many descendents living in Mawnan today. She married Samuel Wesley Christophers and had seven children. Three of them are still living and one died last month. This is the family that has continued the name "Priscilla" down to the present day. I will not write in detail as it can clearly be seen from the table, but the names of children in the village today who are descended from this line are the six Christopher boys, three separate families of the Eddys, descendents of Wesley Christophers' three daughters by his wife Phyllis and Arthur Christopher's three sons. (There is a twin again in this family.)

As it is so easy to see from the summing up table at the beginning of this paper, the present day relationship of all the descendents, I propose to return to George, the fourth son of Thomas and Mary Jordon who was born in 1832. In the 1851 Census Returns for Constantine he is shown as a servant and as an agricultural Labourer. He was apparently living with his brother and sister-in-law, Thomas and Argent who were then living at Port Navas. He married the daughter of Stephen Spargo, who was farming at High Cross. George did very well for himself by marrying Stephen's daughter. By the 1878 Directory he is described as a farmer at High Cross. In those days it was a tenement of Trevaney but today it is a separate farm. Stephen Spargo had two daughters of whom I have record, Priscilla and Patience. George married Patience in 1855. Priscilla was a witness of their marriage but a tombstone in Constantine old churchyard records: "Priscilla, daughter of Stephen and Elizabeth Spargo of High Cross in this Parish died Aug. 31, 1859 aged 19 years. Weep not for me." Stephen in 1869 and Elizabeth in 1870 are on the same stone. One of George and Patience's children was called Priscilla, but she too died at 1 month. They had two sons and a daughter that I must mention. Henry James, born in 1856, married his 3rd cousin, the said Mary Ann Ould of Bar and they were the grandparents of Stephen Emanuel, who tells me that his grandmother was a cook at the farmhouse at Budock Vean, then still in the ownership or the Penders, and James Henry used to walk over from High Cross once a week to court her. They were married in 1877 and had eight children (Table 2B). The younger son of George and Patience, John Richard Spargo born in 1869, married in 1896, Rosina Caroline Thomas of Budock. Their daughter born in 1905, Lucy Rosina, married James Wicks in 1928 and their family is shown on Table 2B. They live in a farm cottage at Merthen near Gweek and their eldest son, Gerald, lives in Mawnan. Mrs. Wicks helped me a very great deal over this branch of the family in the way Mrs. Bray did with the Peters family and I am greatly indebted to both of them.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

If I were to go back to the generation before Emanuel and Priscilla who married in 1787, I should be able to link up various other members of the family who have not appeared here, such as the family at Durgan at one time. There have been quite a number who have called themselves "fishermen" and those at Durgan have this description. In "Two Homes" a story of the Fox family of Glendurgan and Falmouth there is mention of a "William Owl bedridden from a wound in the Crimea, whose wife sold lollipops and stone ginger beer" at Durgan. This would be the one who was buried at Mawnan in 1875, aged 76. Hie is descended from another branch of the Ould family. A Mary Ann Ould married George Retallack in 1856. They were both from Durgan. Blind George Retallack from Durgan who is still well remembered because he used to go round Mawnan selling tea with his mother between the wars, would have been related.

To sum up, the family were labourers, farm servants, had a lot to do with horses and net fishermen. There is Edwin, another son of Thomas and Argent who was a Smith and moved to Tuckingmill, Peter the Park keeper in Falmouth, a waterman, an oysterman; others that were miners and some that worked in the quarries above Constantine such as Mrs. Bray's Uncle, John Peters, who was killed in an accident when he was 21. Some went abroad and were never heard of again, others lost their lives in two World Wars: There is Private William John Ould of the Somerset L.I. whose name is on the 1914-18 War Memorial in Constantine Churchyard while Frank Hodge and Edward Eddy, both great-great-grandsons of Thomas and Mary, lost their lives in the Second World War. There must have been others in both wars that we do not know of.

They must be a typical Cornish working-class family, at one time contained within a few square miles, with the more adventurous of them going off to seek their fortunes in all parts of the world, and it was only by coincidence that I came to hear of the American branch of this family and so traced their Cornish ancestors and linked them up with the family today.

March 2, 1969
Betty Farrell
Robin Hill
Mawnan Smith
Cornwall, England
©2000 Betty Farrell

 


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