The parish of

ST COLUMB MAJOR

The ancient town of St Columb Major has a wonderful Church at its heart. The tower is 15th century and 80 feet high with a passage from south to north through it that is as wide as a hand cart. This was a right of way to the College founded by Sir John Arundel in 1427 as the Church did not own the land on three sides of the tower until 1820.

The parish is bounded by St Ervan, Little Petherick, St Issey, St Wenn, Roche, St Dennis, St Enoder, Colan, St Columb Minor and St Mawgan in Pydar. Edward III granted a market in St Columb Major to Sir John Arundell in 1333. It is still a busy market town and the largest settlement in the parish. The Union Workhouse for the parishes of St Breock, St Columb Major, St Columb Minor, Colan, Crantock, Cubert, St Ervan, St Eval, St Enoder, St Issey, Little Petherick, St Merryn, Mawgan-in-Pydar, Newlyn East, Padstow and St Wenn was built in St Columb Major town in about 1840. This means that a large number of "strays" from other parishes are recorded here in the censuses and baptismal registers.

As well as farming, there was mining in this parish.

The Online Parish Clerk (Genealogy) for St Columb Major is Susan Old, who can be contacted by Email.

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

A Message from the OPC:

I have been an OPC since the scheme began and have transcribed parish registers, and census returns - see below.

I keep my records in a unique form all stored in Family Treemaker 2005 and thus joined to all possible relations as far as they are known to me at this point in time. This data is not confined to my OPC parishes, which include St Eval, St Ervan, St Mawgan and St Merryn, but also covers other Parishes which may, or may not, have their own OPCs. - Susan

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. Census records are included in my database.

REGISTERS:

Church records are extensive and are: Baptisms 1540-1964, Marriages 1544-1970 and Burials 1539-1965 all held at CRO. I am indebted to Moira Tangye for her wonderful register transcripts (up to January 1862 for baptisms and also marriages to 1875). There are selected burials too. These transcripts have all been incorporated into my database with her permission.

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

DIRECTORIES:

Please contact me for information or 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: - many also name local J.P.s, Churchwardens and / or Overseers of the Poor, as well as the couple concerned

1. a Bond, dated 24 Sep 1812, naming William and James FLAMANK of this parish.
2. an Order, dated 30 Sep 1828, naming John LANYON, labourer of this parish.
3. a Petty Session Order, dated 9 September 1840, naming William POLKINGHORN of this parish.

Settlement Papers:

1. dated 10 May 1833, between Padstow and St Columb Major, naming Samuel BREWER and his wife, Joan

Voters Lists:

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

Wills:

1. dated 1 Nov 1653, Edward HOBLYN
2. dated 1 Jun 1682, Robert HOBLYN
3. dated 18 Sep 1693, Grace HOBLYN
4. dated 19 Nov 1742, John METHERELL
5. dated 28 Mar 1747, Walter HARRIS
6. dated 24 Sep 1880, Henry BRENTON

Indentures and Other Documents:

1. dated 21 March 1818, naming the Rev. Francis COLE of this parish
2. dated 2 Apr 1898, a bankruptcy indenture, involving Thomas HICKS of St Columb Major

I have other publications in my collection which I'll be glad to check, if you would please contact me at the address shown above.

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 Columb Major 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:

Colan, St Columb Minor, Mawgan in Pydar, St Ervan, Little Petherick, St Issey, St Wenn, Roche, St Dennis and St Enoder.

ONLINE BOOKS:

1. St Columb Major 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 n252). Also downloadable as a pdf.
2. The Registers of the Parish of St Columb Major (1539 - 1780), Edited by Arthur J Jewers F.S.A.
3. The Cornwall Register by John Wallis, A.M. F.S.S., then Vicar of Bodmin, printed 1847. If the in-built search produces no results, use the index pages (474-476) to find your parish of interest. Tables of statistics and other data can be found at the beginning of the book, starting at page n9.

PHOTOGRAPHS:

The Board of Guardians of St Columb Major Workhouse c 1900
© Malcolm McCarthy

More photographs are available here