St Ives, Cornwall

 

St Ives from the harbour in 2010

This is a view of St Ives, taken by me in 2010. It's the harbour at low tide with the parish church in the centre background. From the viewer's point of view, the road to the right of the slipway is The Wharf. I'm hoping that if you select the photo it will come up bigger.

Sophia Baker 1810-1868 and Thomas Pearman 1810-1873.

Sophia Baker was born in St Ives in about 1810, two hundred years before the photo of St Ives was taken. Twenty one years later, she married Thomas Pearman on the 7th of August 1831 at St Mark's Church, Kennington, South London. She was Sophie Newland's grandmother and Stanley Newland's great-grandmother. Thomas Pearman was a carpenter and builder. He was born in Camberwell and doesn't seem to have had any connection with St Ives. I have no idea how Sophia came to be living in Kennington, some 300 miles from St Ives.

Thomas and Sophia went on to have twelve children, at least three of whom died in infancy. William, born 1839, was our ancestor and the father of Sophie Newland (nee Pearman). The family remained living in the Brixton / Camberwell area of South London, but did return to St Ives for a visit at least once. Two of Thomas and Sophia's children, Thomas and John, were baptised at the Primitive Methodist Church in St Ives (built 1831) on the 13th of November 1836. 

John Baker 1786-1860 and Hannah Major Grenfell 1786-1862.

Sophia Baker's parents were John Baker and Hannah Major Grenfell, who were married on the 20th of March 1808 in St Ives. Hannah was born in St Ives, her middle name, Major, was her mother's maiden name. The Grenfell and Major ancestors go back for several generations in the St Ives area and I'll write about them in another story. 

John Baker was born in Stutton, Suffolk, a small village not far from Ipswich. His move to St Ives is probably explained by the fact that he was a merchant seaman and probably washed up at St Ives at some point (hopefully not literally!). So far, I haven't been able to go any further back with his family tree.

John and Hannah had at least nine children, several of whom died at a young age. The only two children who moved away from St Ives seem to have been our ancestor, Sophia, and her younger brother William. In the 1841 census Hannah was living at Back Road, St Ives with two of her younger daughters and also her grandson, John Pearman. Hannah's brother, John Grenfell, was next door. Back Road was a couple of streets back from the harbour in the narrow part of town between the harbour and Porthmeor beach. The area is a maze of cobbled streets and fishermen's cottages. Apart from the traffic it's probably not that different nowadays to how it was in 1841. 

Hannah's husband, John, and son, William, are recorded as being in Ipswich at the time of the 1841 census. They were staying at an inn there. John's occupation was mariner and William's was sailor. A Google search suggests that there was a trading route between Ipswich and St Ives, starting out from the River Orwell, heading south and navigating round the Thames estuary, then along the south coast to Falmouth and finally round Lands End and up towards St Ives. There were lots of tricky rocky outcrops to negotiate! William was only twenty one at the time of the 1841 census. In 1857 he was awarded his Master Mariner's certificate of competency, enabling him to captain merchant vessels. He was married and living in Bristol. 

St Ives in the 19th century was not only a port for the fishing industry. It also served as a port for the export of tin and the import of coal. Some merchant shipping records from 1835-1837 have been indexed. From reference BT112/2 we can see that John Baker undertook various voyages from St Ives. He travelled to Shields at the mouth of the River Tyne aboard the Superior in December 1836. John and his son, William, were both on board the Maria for two voyages to Irvine, Scotland in December 1835 and June 1836. In January and December 1837 John set out for Lyme aboard the Integrity. There were three shorter trips up the coast to Padstow in December 1837 and June and December 1838, I can't decipher the name of the ship. From the records available, it seems that John was in the coastal trade rather than the foreign trade and he was probably put in charge of small trading vessels. He would have had to have a detailed knowledge of the British coastline, tides, rocks and so on. 

By the time of the 1851 census John and Hannah were living on the Wharf at St Ives. There were no children living with them and John's occupation had changed to fisherman. By this time, presumably, the coastal trade was decreasing with the arrival of the railways and John may have decided that fishing was a better option for him. In December 1854 he was awarded a pension of £3-8s by the Royal Hospital, Chelsea as a Greenwich pensioner. I haven't seen a mariner's pension before. After his death in 1860 a pension of £2-4s was awarded to his widow, Hannah Major Baker. She died in 1862, twelve years before her granddaughter, Sophia Pearman was born. 

Nowadays, Aspects Holidays have an office on the Wharf. They have a webcam which live streams a view of the harbour. You can see the view here. It's best viewed during the daytime and you have to watch a very short advert for St Ives first. It's the view from John and Hannah's window but nearly two hundred years later!

More interesting websites.

Old phots of St Ives - The Francis Frith Collection

St Ives Primitive Methodist Chapel Click here

Visit St Ives Click here

St Ives Museum A good place to visit in a downpour!

An Introduction to the Newland and Willis Families

 

Henry and Fanny Newland

 Henry Newland 1846 - 1930 and Frances (Fanny) Kemp 1846 - 1921

Henry and Fanny were Stanley Newland’s paternal grandparents. I’ve already written about Henry’s brush with the law when he was accused of disorderly conduct and causing a crowd to gather (he was leading a band along the road with a loud drum and a cornet!). You can read that story here.

Henry Newland was born on the 24th of July 1846 at Russell Street, Bengeo, Hertford, Hertfordshire. He was christened on the 23rd of August at St Andrew’s Church, Hertford.  Bengeo was a small village just outside Hertford. However, there is a Russell Street in Hertford itself, so I’m not quite certain about the actual location! 

Henry’s parents were Abraham Newland and Jane (maiden name Ringrose). Abraham had served in the East India Company private army with the rank of sergeant. He had returned to Hertford by 1841 and became a schoolmaster for a time. Jane’s father was John Ringrose, a tailor, originally from Huntingdon. Her mother was Caroline, maiden name Jones, who was born in Bristol. 

Henry had two brothers, William (born 1842) and Alfred (born 1852), who both became soldiers in the regular army. There was also a sister, Susan, who was born in 1848 and died in 1852. I’ll try to find out some more about Abraham’s time in the East India Company in another story. 

The disorderly conduct incident above was not the first time that Henry had appeared in a newspaper article. In 1861, several articles appeared in the Hertford Mercury Newspaper concerning a series of exams for local children. Henry Newland, aged 14, an errand boy, came second in an examination covering Arithmetic, Composition, Dictation, Geography, Grammar and Handwriting. 

Henry is not listed in the 1861 census with the rest of his family. It could be that his success in the exams earned him some sort of scholarship or apprenticeship. One entry which may fit the bill is a Henry Neyland, aged 17, occupation tailor, living on his own in Trafalgar Road, Gravesend, Kent. The age is wrong but could this be how he met Fanny Kemp?

Frances (Fanny) Kemp was born on the 9th of May 1846 in Gravesend, Kent. She was the daughter of John Kemp, a waterman, and his wife Elizabeth (maiden name Thurlow). She was the thirteenth of fourteen children and both of her parents had died before she was twenty years old. She doesn’t seem to have made an appearance in the newspapers and was living in Front Garden Row, Gravesend with her parents and some siblings in 1861. 

At the time of the 1871 census Fanny was living with her older brother, John Charles Kemp and his wife, Mary in Southwark, London. John’s occupation was tailor and Fanny’s was tailoress.  

Meanwhile, Henry Newland was listed in the 1871 census, not far away in Newington, London. He was a lodger with the Davies family, who were also tailors. Also lodging with the Davies family was George Kemp, Fanny’s youngest brother, occupation  tailor.

Henry Newland and Frances (Fanny) Kemp were married at St Saviour District Register Office on the 23rd of December 1871. Fanny’s eldest sister, Eleanor Priest, was one of the witnesses. It was quite unusual to have a registry office wedding in the 1870s. One reason might have been that a civil ceremony was cheaper and easier to arrange, but I think that Henry was probably already involved with a non-conformist church, possibly Cottage Green Baptist, which wasn’t yet licensed to perform weddings. 

Henry and Fanny went on to have five children:

• Henry (Harry) was born in 1872. He married Sophia Pearman. Harry and Sophie were Stanley Newland’s parents.

• Frances Emily was born in 1874 and died, unmarried, in 1895.

• Herbert was born in March 1878. He married Sophia Pearman’s sister, Florence. 

• Amy Mary was born in December 1878. She married William Jarvis. They emigrated to Canada in 1913.

• Camilla was born in 1886. She married Frederick Hugh. 

The children all followed into the tailoring trade and at various times there were two or three shops, the main one seems to have been at 275, Southampton Street, Camberwell. Henry and Fanny were at the 275, Southampton Street address at the time of the 1921 census, aged 74 and 73. He described himself as a Master Tailor. Living with them was Henry’s niece, May Newland, aged 29, single. She was the daughter of Henry’s brother Alfred. She was working for Henry as a costumier. Nowadays, that would mean producing outfits for tv, film or theatre, I’m not sure of the meaning in the 1920s. May was still living in Camberwell at the time of the 1939 census. She was still unmarried and her occupation was dressmaker. 

Fanny died in November 1921 and was buried in Camberwell Old Cemetery. There don’t seem to be any photos of her. 

Henry died on the 29th of December 1930. I think that it’s likely that he attended his granddaughter Connie Newland’s wedding in September 1929. In the picture below, Sophie and Harry Newland are seated at the right hand side of the front row. Standing behind them is an elderly gentleman, who I think is probably Henry Newland. To his right are Annie and Vernon Newland.