CORNWALL ONLINE PARISH CLERKS - helping bring the past alive


The parish of

ST BREWARD

St Breward
St Breward Parish Church
© David Coppin

St. Breward lies on the northern edge of Bodmin Moor, north of the A30 and east of St. Tudy and the Atlantic Highway.
 
There are several versions of how St. Breward got its name - a not uncommon situation in Cornwall. It was not listed in the Domesday Book, at which time it was probably part of St. Tudy. It was also called Simonward. The name Breward may also come from the French for heath, bruyere.

However, there was also a Celtic saint called Branwalder or Broladre in Brittany and Jersey. The church was dedicated to St Brueredus in 1278 and is the highest church in Cornwall.

Parish registers from 1558 to 1875 are indexed in the IGI.

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks

michael.bath@sympatico.ca

There OPC (Genealogy) for this St Breward is Michael Bath who can be contacted by Email.

For information about (and contact details for) the current parish council, please see this website.

PARISH INFORMATION

CENSUS:

Please visit COCP (Cornwall Online Census Project), which is complete for 1841 to 1891 and validated, FreeCens at Rootsweb - both are free, searchable databases - or check GenUKI for other alternatives.

REGISTERS:

For Parish Register information, please see our searchable database (C-PROP) which is updated frequently, GenUKI (link above) and the LDS website (Library section).

DIRECTORIES:

For information, see GenUKI (link below)  or visit the University of Leicester's Directories website, which has many directories online to view for free.

OTHER:

Bastardy/Filiation Documents:

  1. A Bastardy Bond, dated 26 Nov 1814, naming Thomas MILLER the younger of this Parish.

Voters Lists:

  1. 1851/52
  2. 1852/53
  3. 1856/57
  4. 1864/65

Wills:

  1. dated 3 Jun 1615, Richard BATHE
  2. dated 14 Mar 1791, an Indenture/Will for Joseph POPE of Mikelstow, mentioning property in this Parish.
  3. dated 12 Jun 1804, George WILCE
  4. dated 1 Oct 1816, John RICKARD
  5. dated 24 Feb 1872, Thomas MILLER
  6. dated 12 May 1883, Loveday PETT, probate naming George Laxon PETT.

Indentures and Other Documents:

  1. For an indenture between John Price of Hundridge and Edward Chapman of the Parish of St Bruard alias Symon Ward, in the 5th year of the reign of the George II, original document dated 1719.
  2. An Indenture, dated 28 Sep 1863 but mentioning earlier agreements by John PAWLEY of this Parish.

For more information regarding history, population, etc., visit GenUKI.

MAPS:

For a zoomable and printable map of Cornwall please visit Cornwall Council’s mapping website. To see the Parish boundaries, click on the Layers Tab for Government Boundaries.

For maps and satellite images use Google Maps.

To enjoy a "walk" around this parish, search for St Breward at http://maps.google.co.uk/, then drag the person icon from above the zoom commands and place it at a specific location on the map.

 

ADJACENT PARISHES:

St Tudy, Michaelstow, Advent, Altarnun, Bolventor (post-1849)and Blisland.

ONLINE BOOKS:

  1. St Breward 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 n168). Also downloadable as a pdf.
  2. The Parochial and Family History of the deanery of Trigg Minor, Cornwall, By Sir John Maclean, first published in 1874. A very detailed history, with the parish included as St Bruered.
  3. Phillimore's Marriages Vol I transcripts including St Breward (transcribed and in our database)