The parish of

ST KEVERNE

St Keverne is situated in the deanery and Hundred of Kerrier and is on the extreme southern coast of Cornwall on the Lizard Peninsula. Surrounding parishes are Manaccan, St Anthony Meneage, Grade, Ruan Major, Ruan Minor, St Martins in Meneage and close to the Helford river.
 
The parish is a coastal one, mainly agricultural and small amounts of quarrying activity. There are three inhabited fishing coves in the parish: Porthallow, Porthoustock and Coverack with several hamlets including Traboe, Rosenithon, Laddenvean, Tregowris and Ponsongath.

The church spire has been a landmark for shipping for much of its existence. The parish includes the notorious Manacle Rocks (deriving its name from the old Cornish "Maen Eglos" - or Church Rocks) which has claimed many a ship because the rocks are submerged at high tide. The most famous ship lost was the SS Mohegan which was wrecked on the Manacles in 1898 with the loss of 106 lives, and also the Barque John.
 
The parish is mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086 and in 1497 the Cornish rebellion, led by Michael Joseph An-Gof and Thomas Flamank, started their march on London from St Keverne. The event is marked by an inscription on the Church wall and a statue of the pair in the village.
 
For a Special Notice regarding the Centenary of the Methodist Church, and a new family history publication, please click HERE.

There is a dedicated website for the parish which contains more in depth information on the history of the parish, transcriptions of parish registers, some family trees, information on the SS Mohegan and links to information on Barque John.

The Online Parish Clerks for St Keverne are Diane Donohue and Terry Moyle, who may be reached via Email. Contact Diane, contact Terry.

Visit our website for more information, and please click here for a Special Message regarding a publication about Family History and the Methodist church, which will greatly benefit St. Keverne researchers.
Terry & Diane

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, FreeCen 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:

For Parish Register information and other resources, please see our searchable database (C-PROP) which is updated regularly and GenUKI (link below).

DIRECTORIES:

For information, see GenUKI. Link below.

OTHER:

Wills:

1. Richard RESKELLY, dated 30 Jan 1700
2. Richard PEARCE, dated 7 May 1743
3. Samuel HALLIGEY, dated 17 Sep 1743
4. Allice POTTER, dated 24 Jan 1744
5. Mary COURTIS, dated 8 Oct 1746

For more information regarding History, Population, etc. visit GenUKI.

MAPS:

For a Parish Locator map, please click here. St Keverne can be located at coordinates E - 1.

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:

Grade, Ruan Major, St Martin in Meneage, Manaccan and St Anthony in Meneage.

SUGGESTED READING:

Cornish Oasis - biographical chronicle of Coverack - Cyril Hart
Ever Westward the Land - the story of Samual James of Trelan, St Keverne, after emigrating to USA - AC Todd with David James
Down to the Sea in Ships - the Memoirs of James Henry Treloar Cliff as told to PW Birkbeck
St Keverne Male Voice Choir 1944-1994
St Keverne Silver Band 1896-1996
Schools Roundabout - memories of St Keverne, Traboe and Porthallow Schools 1877-1977
An Autobiography of Sorts by ES France - postmaster and bandmaster at St Keverne
The Mohegan 1898-1998 - Terry Moyle
St Keverne Parish Remembered - Terry Moyle 1990
St Keverne Methodist Church 1907-2007  - Terry Moyle
St Keverne Book of Memories 1970
Leaning on a Gate - the memories of Clifford N Lugg 1989
Our School Days by the Sea - Coverack Village Memories 1876-1976
St Keverne Parish Council 1894-1994
Words from a Cornish Village - the parish of St Keverne - Jill Newton 1981
Look Towards the Sea - Frank Baines 1958
Around the Manacles (Cornish Magazine 1898)
Diary of a Cornish Holiday - Manchester and District Bankers Magazine Sept 1932

ONLINE BOOKS:

St Keverne is included in The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume II by Davies Gilbert, William Hals, Thomas Tonkin, Henry Samuel Boase, originally published in 1838 (page 318). Also downloadable as a pdf.