The parish of
BODMIN
Bodmin, © Simon Lewis, 2003
The parish includes the municipal borough
and is situated in the deanery of Trigg Minor and the
Hundred of Trigg. It was probably named after the Old
Cornish for 'Dwelling near the Church', is mentioned in the
Domesday Book of 1086 as Bodmine, and is situated in a small
valley in roughly the centre of Cornwall. In 2001, Bodmin
was enumerated under two civil parishes: St Mary and St
Petroc.
The town of Bodmin is the County Town of Cornwall, although
the City of Truro has taken over administrative duties in
the 20th century. Bodmin was at the centre of the road
system in 19th century Cornwall, as it was at the centre of
governmental and judicial business. It formerly housed a
Jail (built in 1779), and the County Assizes were held here,
greatly increasing the population at particular times, and
enabling a healthy hospitality industry to flourish. It is a
designated market town.
Bodmin-Wenford Railway
© 2001, Chas. Winpenny
The town has a small railway which is
now privately run, although in the 19th century rail
was a vital commercial link.
The County Lunatic Asylum, built in 1820
and now St. Lawrence's Hospital, is located within the
parish about a mile from the church, to the west of the
town.
A Municipal Cemetery, situated at the top of Rhind Street,
belongs to the town; there are no Mortuary chapels. St.
Leonard's chapel-of-ease and burial ground, situated at the
western end of the town, had been in ruins for more than two
hundred years. It was rebuilt and reopened in 1871; it is a
small rectangular building of stone. At the south-east
extremity of the town was the chapel and burial ground of St
Nicholas.
Church of St. Petroc, © Simon Lewis, 2003
The Anglican parish church was dedicated to St Petroc prior
to the Norman Conquest in 1066. There was a chapel of St
Thomas in Bodmin - now in ruins - and a church of St
Leonard. The parish church is situated at the east end of
the town, and was comparatively isolated. The material used
for the pillars and arches, and all interior dressings is St
Stephens porcelain stone.
Attached to the church was the chapel of St Mary, in which
was St Petroc's shrine. There is a website for St Petroc's
church.
The Roman Catholic church, banned in
1539, returned to Bodmin in 1881. The present Church, built
of local stone, was blessed and opened on 24th June, 1965.
Lanhydrock House, Bodmin - a National Trust Property
© 2004, Simon Lewis
The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion in Honey Street built
a chapel in 1804; it was rebuilt in Fore Street in 1870 as a
plain stone building. The Bible Christian chapel in Fore
Street was built in 1851, and the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel
in Fore Street was built in 1834. The Wesleyan Methodist
Association chapel in Poole Street was built in 1842.
Lanhydrock House is a Victorian country house, but with some
features dating from the 1600s.
The parish is hilly, with wooded valleys around the town and
a number of small villages and hamlets. Farming and tourism
are the main industries.
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The volunteer as OPC for Bodmin is Lynda Pearl,
who is temporarily unavailable.
Please see below for the resources available online.
PARISH INFORMATION
CENSUS:
Information can be found at
COCP - the Cornwall Online Census Project - which is complete
for 1841 to 1891 and has been verified,
FreeCens at Rootsweb, which has a very good search engine and
information from COCP, as well as
GenUKI, which has more reference information and alternate resources.
REGISTERS:
Our searchable database (C-PROP) is
updated frequently and contains full transcriptions.
The LDS Church batch numbers for Bodmin are:
E002751, P002751/2, M002751/2, Wesleyan C065001, Providence Chapel, Lady
Huntingdon's C065011. These are searchable by surname at FamilySearch.
The IGI coverage for this parish is 1558 - 1876.
The Cornwall Record Office holdings: Baptisms 1588 - 1963, Burials 1558
- 1983, Marriages 1559 - 1983, Boyd's Marriage Index 1559 - 1812,
Pallot's Marriage Index 1790 - 1812, Non-Conformist records 1804 - 1837.
Bible Christian Circuit areas include: Bodmin, Lanivet, Roche, Luxulyan,
Withiel, and St Breock.
DIRECTORIES:
Trade
Directories for Cornwall can be searched online
here. For
other information, see GenUKI (link below).
OTHER:
1. Bastardy Bonds:
- dated 3
Oct 1741, naming William NORTHY and William NORTHY the Younger, of the
Borough of Bodmin.
- dated 13 Sep
1778, naming John and William WHITEFIELD of the Borough of Bodmin.
2. For details of the allotting (29 Apr 1818) and
transfer (22 Jun 1822 and 20 Sep 1842) of a pew in the Parish Church,
click here.
3.
A permit to view the
Cornwall Asylum, from the 1800s
4. Voters Lists:
5.
Indentures: mainly involving land and buildings, often
naming owners and tenants
- an agreement,
dated 1685,
concerning the Manor of Lancarfe and naming Richard Bullocke and Dorothy his
wife and Thomas Bullocke and Jane his wife.
- a memorandum,
dated 13 Dec 1756,
naming Ursula ARNOLD, William ARNOLD, Thomas & Catherine POOR, Sarah ARNOLD
and Richard BLIGH.
- dated 29 Sep
1789, naming Robert FLAMANK, Samuel FLAMANK and Nicholas PHILLIPPS.
- dated 11 Oct 1810, involving Charles RASHLEIGH,
Sarah HAMLEY, John POMEROY, Catherine PENNINGTON, George HUNT, Hender
MOUNTSTEVEN, John MOUNTSTEVEN, John BELLING the Younger, Samuel STONE
and George John BLEWETT.
- dated 12 Oct 1810, naming Charles RASHLEIGH,
Sarah HAMLEY, William HAMLEY, John POMEROY, Elizabeth CORY, John and Frances
KEMPE, John and Elizabeth TREFUSES, Bridget and Catherine CORY, Hoblyn
PETER, John MOLESWORTH and George John BREWER.
- dated 27 Dec 1813,
naming Elizabeth PETER of Padstow and Joseph HAMLEY of Bodmin, plus several
of the others mentioned above.
- dated 28 Dec 1813,
naming the same as (c).
- dated 4 Jun 1816,
naming Thomas COMMINS and William STEPHENS, James RUNNALLLS and John
MARSHALL amongst others.
- documents, dated 29 Sep 1824 and 29 Sep 1828,
naming Robert Bradlick EDYVEAN of the Borough of Bodmin and
William
KENT and
William
VARCOE of the parish of St Dennis.
- dated 20 Dec 1824,
involving Lewis & Elizabeth RESCORLA, John WALLIS, Richard COOMB and several
other Parish residents.
- dated 7 Feb 1827,
involving Joseph HAMLEY of the Borough of Bodmin.
- dated 28 Jun 1827,
mentioning several members of the COMMINS family, Thomas and Catherine
(formerly HOCKEN) WEST and several tenants.
- dated 12 Jun 1829, naming Edward PEARCE, John Martyn
BLIGH and members of the COMMINS family.
- dated 13 Jun 1829, mentioning Edward PEARCE,
John Martyn BLIGH, members of the COMMINS family, Richard MARSHALL, John
MARSHALL, James RUNNALLS, Charles COODE, Edward COODE and James SEARLE.
- dated 12 Mar 1835,
naming Joseph HAMLEY, Samuel WRIFORD, John and Elizabeth POMEROY, Catherine
PENNINGTON, George John BLEWETT and William HAMLEY.
- dated 15 Apr 1843,
involving Thomas COMMINS the Elder & Younger, Richard BURROW the Younger and
some other Parish residents.
- dated 17 Jun
1843, naming Richard HOCKING, grocer, of this parish and Thomas PEARCE,
the younger, of Helland.
- dated 26 Aug 1854, relating to a. to d. above,
additionally mentioning Francis Gilbert HAMLEY, Edmund Gilbert HAMLEY,
Joseph Osbertus HAMLEY, Peter Edward SCOBELL, Christopher SLOGGATS, Nicholas
SIBLEY, Richard COOM and William COURTENAY.
- dated 25 Mar 1855, relating to k. above, naming
similar persons as in m. above, by which time Joseph Osbertus HAMLEY was
living in Wellington, New Zealand.
- dated 31 Dec 1855, naming Edmund Gilbert HAMLEY,
other members of the HAMLEY family and Mary Ann PHILLPPS.
- dated 31 Oct 1856, concerning land known as Pophams and mentioning Edmund Gilbert HAMLEY, Richard HENDER, Charles PHILP
and Anne, Baroness GRENVILLE of Dropmore, Bucks.
- dated 21 Sep 1861, concerning Bassett's Tenement
in the Parish of Ladock, but naming Richard COOM and Felix Elford COOM of
Bodmin.
- dated 11 Dec 1873, involving land and buildings and mentioning members of
the MICHELL and CLARKE families, as well as their tenants.
- dated 21 Sep
1878, naming Robert EDYVEAN and Charles Fleetwood PELLOW, concerning
property in Fore Street.
- a Statutory Declaration, dated
28 Feb 1893 and
naming Richard COOM and Felix Elford COOM of Bodmin regarding Power of
Attorney for Stannaway's Tenement and Bassett's or Latcher's Tenement.
- An Indenture,
dated 13 Sep
1895, between Robert Phillipps EDYVEAN, Bernard Flamank EDYVEAN and JANE
WILLIAMS, also naming Jenny Beer PHILLIPPS and William PASCOE.
There are also indentures involving people from Bodmin amongst
those for multiple parishes linking
from here.
6. Wills:
- The
Will of Thomas BEARD, dated 30 Nov 1768.
- To view a document
relating to the proving of the
Will of Robert HOOPER,
dated 18 Aug 1800.
- The Will and Probate of John WARNE,
dated 4 Mar 1843,
naming John Basset COLLINS of this parish.
- Will and Probate (dated
15 Nov 1871) of Richard FOWLER of Nanstallon, Parish of Bodmin, naming
several residents of Bodmin and Lanivet.
7. Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway,
purchase of land,
dated 13 Nov 1834. Bodmin residents mentioned include John WALLIS and James LOBB.
8.
A voting paper,
dated 1 Nov 1854, naming Edmund Gilbert HAMBLY, James LIDDELL, John HARRIS and
Charles Pearse TONKIN.
9.
Directive from Bodmin
Union to the Overseers of the Poor, dated 9 Nov 1895. Payment to be made to
Mr Henry Durette FOSTER (Treasurer), signed by H SYMONS (Chairman), W PHILIPS
and J LEAWRNE (Guardians) and P G W (Clerk).
10.
A poem
entitled Lord Lovell, by R EDYVEAN, undated. Possibly Robert, Capt. and
Adjt. Artr. Volunteers, who lived at Windsor House in 1871.
11. Particulars of an auction of a dwellinghouse in Gaol Lane,
tenant Mrs BUSCOMBE, on behalf of the estate of Matthew BUNNY, on 8 Jan 1889.
View here.
12. Bodmin Gas Consumers' Co., Limited,
Rules
to be observed by the Company's Employees, undated.
Other documents mentioning several parishes,
including Bodmin, can be found
here.
For more information regarding history,
population, etc., visit GenUKI.
MAPS:
For a Parish Locator map, please click
here.
Bodmin is located at coordinates H - 6.
For further map information, please visit
GenUKI (Genealogy - United Kingdom
& Ireland).
To see a current, zoomable Ordnance Survey map, please visit
MultiMap, or for maps and satellite
images use
Google Maps.
ADJACENT PARISHES:
St Breock,
Egloshayle,
Helland,
Cardinham,
Lanhydrock,
Lanivet and
Withiel.
CHURCHES:
Photographs and details are available on a separate page.
ONLINE BOOKS:
- Bodmin is included in The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume I by Davies Gilbert,
William Hals, Thomas Tonkin, Henry Samuel Boase, originally published in
1838 (page n112). Also downloadable as a pdf.
-
Some early details of the Priory at Bodmin are included in
The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume IV.
-
The Parochial and Family History of the Parish and Borough of Bodmin,
by John Maclean, Esq., F.S.A., first published in 1870.
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