My husband’s fourth great grandfather John Gilbart, born about 1760, was a Cornish Copper Company (CCC) employee, promoted from Copperhouse near Hayle in West Cornwall to manager at the Rolling Mills at St Erth.
Cornish copper mining was at its most productive in the nineteenth century, declining as copper prices fell, from the mid-nineteenth century on. The Cornish Copper Company commenced smelting at Camborne in 1754. From 1758 it was located on the Hayle estuary, ten miles to the southwest. The mills at St Erth used water power to roll copper into thin sheets.
These sheets were used mainly to plate the bottoms of wooden ships. Coppering helped to prevent barnacles growing. This increased a ship’s speed and its lifespan. It also prevented worms from burrowing into the wood and weakening it. Sheathing with copper significantly increased the time a ship could remain in service between overhauls. It was held copper sheathing could double the number of ships at sea at any time”. In 1779 each ship on average required 15 tonnes of copper applied on average as 300 plates. The 14 tons of metal required to copper a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line still cost £1500, compared to £262 for wood. The benefits of increased speed and time at sea were deemed to justify the costs involved.
The Battery Mill ceased in 1809 when the Cornish Copper Company closed.
John Gilbart married Elizabeth Huthnance on 3 January 1798 at Gwinear. They had 13 children.
John Gilbart was a member of the first Copperhouse Methodist Society and the founder in 1783 of the St Erth Methodist Class. The first Methodist chapel was built in St Erth in 1796 and the present chapel was built in 1827.
The chapel includes a monument to Francis Tuckfield (1808-1865), who was one of the first of the few missionaries who attempted to convert Australian Aboriginals to Christian belief.
In 1837 Francis Tuckfield married Sarah Gilbart of Battery Mill, the daughter of John Gilbart. They departed for Australia less than a month later.
The chapel also includes a monument to James Gilbart (1825 – 1923), grandson of John Gilbart. The plaque mentions John Gilbart “who built the first chapel at St Erth in 1783”.
John Gilbart died in 1837.
In 1841 my husband Greg’s fourth great grandmother Elizabeth Gilbart nee Huthnance (1774-1847) was living in Battery Mill, St Erth. Her age was stated to be 65. Her occupation was given as ‘independent means’. In the same household were six of her 13 children, at the time all six unmarried:
- John Gilbart aged 40.
- Thomasine Gilbart aged 30.
- Margerey Gilbart aged 25.
- William Gilbart aged 25, iron factor.
- Thomas Gilbart aged 25, farmer.
- Jane Gilbart aged 20.
In the same household was Elizabeth Gilbart’s grand-daughter, Elizabeth Edwards, aged 9. Elizabeth Edwards was the daughter of Mary Edwards nee Gilbart, Greg’s 3rd great grandmother. The Edwards family which included five other children lived in Bridge Terrace St Erth. Perhaps Elizabeth was just visiting her grandmother overnight.
The household also included a female servant, Elizabeth Davey, aged 15.
James Gilbart, an iron factor, the son of Elizabeth Gilbart, lived in the adjacent cottage with his wife Ann Gilbart nee Ellis, aged 50, and two daughters, Ann Gilbart aged 14 and Maria Gilbart aged 10.
(These ages may not be strictly correct. In the 1841 census the census takers were instructed to give the exact ages of children but to round the ages of those older than 15 down to a lower multiple of 5. For example, a 59-year-old person would be listed as 55.)
Elizabeth Gilbart died on 1 July 1847, leaving a will that was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 18 December 1847. Her will mentioned annuities to be provided for various children, specific books and furniture
Sources
- Pascoe, W. H CCC, the history of the Cornish Copper Company. Truran, Redruth, Cornwall, 1982.
- The history of St. Erth Methodist Church: https://www.sterthmethodists.co.uk/aboutus.htm
- 1841 census viewed through ancestry.com: Elizabeth Gilbart: Class: HO107; Piece: 144; Book: 1; Civil Parish: St Erth; County: Cornwall; Enumeration District: 5; Folio: 72; Page: 19; Line: 12; GSU roll: 241266 ; Mary Edwards Class: HO107; Piece: 144; Book: 1; Civil Parish: St Erth; County: Cornwall; Enumeration District: 5; Folio: 69; Page: 13; Line: 1; GSU roll: 241266
- Will of Elizabeth Gilbart proved 18 December 1847 viewed through ancestry.com The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 2066
shirleyjdietz said:
A is for how amazed I am at all your research. B is for bet you’ve spent a lot of time doing your A to Z posts. C is for congratulations so far, hope you enjoy the rest of the month! Visiting from A to Z.
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Anne Young said:
Thanks for visiting. Your comment mad me smile. Yes it is a lot of work but great preparation for the trip and the challenge is making me do that preparation before we go. I have already learned a lot.
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Cherdo said:
Good day, friend!
I just stopped by as part of the A-to-Z Challenge.
I love your genealogy and the pictures are just fantastic. You’re off to a great stop and I’m sure to stop by. I’m a genealogy buff myself, living in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Thanks, and best wishes!
Cherdo
Cherdo on the Flipside
Blogging from A-to-Z April Challenge
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Jim said:
“Are you copper-bottoming ’em my man?”
“No, I’m aluminiuming ’em mum.”
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Jim said:
By coincidence I had a B-post, on bricks, and T-post, on toffee, as my most recent “essays”. Finding out a little about things outside who is related to who is one of the things I enjoy about this.
When I started blogging, I decided to include ALL the positive family detail plus even a little negative reasoning, looking 30 or 50 years ahead to the next genealogist in the family, whoever they are. So my “blog” outputs are more like chapters of something. Mine are too long, in general! And it is a lot of work, isn’t it. I should be doing other things 🙂
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Anne Young said:
I don’t think your blog posts are too long 🙂
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Jim said:
Ah you made my day!
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cassmob said:
Isn’t it fantastic just how much can be found to expand our understanding of ancestors. Perhaps we should all make sure we have a grandchild, niece or cousin with us on census night! My 2great/grand aunt was with her grandparents in 1841 giving me some level of “proof” they were the right family.
Jim, I reckon what we do is so much better than being out playing bridge, for example!
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Anne Young said:
The presence of using Elizabeth Edwards really helped me when trying this family and confirming I was on the right track. Particularly because the 1841 census did not collect information about relationships and Elizabeth Gilbart nee Huthnance died before the next census.
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Keith's Ramblings said:
This is fascinating. I had no idea about the copper bottoms on ships! I’m sitting here wondering if I should start delving back into my roots.
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Jeanne Bryan Insalaco said:
Lot of great research work went into this post. Such hard work they endured back then, much tougher than we are today. Loved that photo of the river and the colored greenery underneath showing through.
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Anne Young said:
It looks an idyllic place now but I read the stamping mills were in continuous use and could be heard for miles. That would not have been so much fun. The local council has a great walking brochure https://sterth-pc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/st_erth_walk_27_6_12.pdf and I go forward to getting to know the place a little. The people certainly worked hard. The brochure mentions women and children from the age of six years were employed in the ore processing work at surface without shelter in all weathers. Life expectancy was less than 40 years.
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Jim said:
Plenty of people in the world lead those awful lives right now. I’ll refrain from posting lots of links in case it looks like I am spamming or exploiting your comment for a political point. But you can find material easily. Precious rare metals used in our mobile phones, diamonds, and other resources make some companies and individual people astonishingly rich, with many ordinary people at the other end of the scale leading just the sort of life Anne mentions below, still from age 6 to age 40.
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Deborah Weber said:
What a wealth of interesting information!
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Jim said:
Here is some news on copper copper sheets (up to 5 tonnes of them) being transported to Antwerp – and found recently – the shipwreck is the oldest yet discovered in the Netherlands (c.1540) and was owned by one of the richest families in the world. Seems the copper then was coming from Slovakia, and I guess was being used for money – there are comments on the new design of the ship but I don’t think there is copper-bottoming.
Copper was cheaper than gold, but still valuable enough for coinage.
I know you said how expensive it was, so it seems that copper-bottoming must have been like covering the bottom of a ship in pure money.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47799292
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Fran @ TravelGenee said:
Hi Anne, I came back to read this one again as I have lead miners from Cornwall and I have only skimmed the surface so any mining facts are interesting. Thanks for posting, Fran
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