CONTENTS

 

 

Nucleated Settlements of Sennen

The parish of Sennen is like others in Penwith made up of several nucleated settlements. If you study the Explorer edition of the Ordnance Survey map for the area you will see these settlements as a group of buildings surrounded by fields. Some such as Trevescan, Mayon and Treeve now have roads running through them but others such as Trevilley and Escalls still retain the look and feel of the isolated settlement of a hundred and fifty years ago.

A study of the 1841 Census tells us that each of these settlements was made up as follows:

   -        Treeve:       14 dwellings,
   -        Trevescan: 18 dwellings
   -        Escalls:     25 dwellings
   -        Mayon        5 dwellings
   -        Trevilley     4 dwellings

To this list could be added the settlement within Sennen Cove with its total of 28 dwellings, which includes housing that has been created for the lighthouse keepers and the coastguard. However, before the 1800s, very little housing would have been situated in the cove itself because of the fear of attack from pirates and the press-gang so the above list is probably the places where the population settled at quite an early date.  

As a result of the destruction of the Sennen church records during the civil war by Captain Ceely of the Parliamentary Army Just who lived in these settlements is hardly known.  One record did survive, a Muster Roll from the 14th century. This was compiled in 1569 when Queen Elizabeth gave orders that a muster of all males over the age of sixteen and under sixty in each Parish should take place with their names and weapons being recorded. Names on this list can still be found in Sennen today and I have found it interesting to make a note of just when names first appeared in the Parish records.

I decided to look in greater detail at Escalls which lies close to the northern parish border with St Just.

 

 

Copy of the Tithe map 1838.

 

Today Escalls is very much a holiday centre with most of the dwellings being either holiday homes or let during the summer to visitors.  When you visit Escalls for a holiday, it is hard to realise that at the time of the English Civil war in the sixteen hundreds Sennen was home to some families who were members of the Society of Friends or Quakers as well as others who opposed them. The Quakers kept very good records, which included not only the names of their members but also those who persecuted them. Names mentioned in the records which later turn up in Escalls The Quaker families were led by John Ellis who lived just over the border in St Just Parish. He was a wealthy farmer and landowner and made the land available for the Quaker burial ground on the St Just turn. There was also a meeting house the site of which is not known, however, talking to residents I believe that it may well have been situated in Escalls. One family that was active within the Society of Friends were the Vingoe family, listed on the Muster Roll as Vyngow. The descendants of the family hold evidence that Digory Vingoe, a  prominent Quaker bought land at Escalls in 1655 from Sir John Arundel; this was added to his other holdings in Sennen Parish. 

The Parish Records began at the beginning of the 1700s and do not show where the people lived in the parish so we have to wait until the census of 1841 to see who lived where in the settlement. We do however have the Tithe Survey and map of 1838, and by using this we can draw up a list of who owned and leased property in Escalls.

 

The number on Map.

Owner

Occupier 

50

Thomas Trudgeon

Self

51

John Vingoe

Self

52

John Vingoe

StephenVingoe

53

John Jenkin

Self

54

Thomas Trudgeon

 

55

Nicholas Tremewan

 

56

John Vingoe

 

57

William Vingoe

Self

58

William Nicholas

 

59

John Vingoe

 

63

John Saundry

 

67 Dionysus Williams James Richards

79 

Johnathan Humphreys

 

Over the next 60 years thanks to the census we have good records and if you visit Escalls today you may find it hard to believe that in the past it was once home to over a hundred people. 

The table below gives a breakdown of the population and names in occupation at Escalls between 1841 - 1911. For greater detail visit the census records on this web site.

KEY:
cen = Census, bap Baptism, mar = Marriage, mus =Muster Roll, qua = Quaker records
   
5 (1)
5 = number of people
 (1 ) =  number of households.  
 
 
Name 1st Date

Tithe

1838

1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901 1911

Axford

1871 Cen                  

Badcock

1782 Mar.   5 [1] 5[1] 1[1] 1 [1] 1 [1]      

Barnes

1831   1 [1]   6 [1] 8 [1]        

Ball

1800               4 [1]  

Boase

1745   3 [2]              

Bone

1744     4 [1] 3 [1] 5 [1] 7 [1]      

Bond

1820 Bur           4 [1]     2 (1)

Botheras

1823   3 [1] 2 [1] 1 [1] 1 [1]  1 [1]  1 [1]    

Bottrell

1707 Mar             1 [1]    

Bruce

                  4 (1)

Chapel

1761   3 [1]              

Chappell

1817 Bur               4 (1) 4 (1)

Chellew

1861       8 [1] 7 [1] 6 [1] 6 [2] 5 [2] 4  (1)

Clemmens

1821                  

Daniel

1708 Mar   1 [1]              

Davy

1509 Mus   7 [1]              

Ellis

1669 Qua   4 [2] 2 [2] 3 [1] 2 [1 ] 2 [1] 5 [2] 4 [1] 2  (1)
Farquharson                   2 (1)

George

1708     2 [1]     6 [1]   1 [1] 4  (2)

Guy

1761   1 [1]              

Hall

1792   4 [1] 8 [2]            

Harris

1708             1 [1] 1 [1]  

Harry

1821 Bur   1 [1]              

Hicks

1701 Mar         1 [1] 1 [1]      

Hoskin

1569 Mus   1 [1]              

Humphrys

1723     4 [2]   1 [1] 1 [1]      

Humphrey

1736   1 [1]              

Humphreys

1736   7 [2]   1 [1]           
                     

Jenkin

1708 Mar   2 [1]              

Lug

1881 Cen

          3 [1] 6 [1] 7 [1] 6 (1)

Madern

1730 Mar         7 [1]        

Marks

1901 Cen                  

Mitchel

1745 Mar     1 [1]            

Mitchell

1704 Mar   3 [1]              

Murley

1785 Mar     2 [1]            

Nicholas

1569 Mus (3) 17 [ 5] 38 [8]  20 [6] 9 [4] 3 [2] 5 [4]  3 [2] 3 (1)

Oats

1765 Mar     6 [2] 17 [2]         2 (1)
Osborne                   7 (1)

Pascoe

1717           1 [1]      

Penrose

1569 Mus           3 [1]     7 (1)

Prowse

1891 Cen             1 [1]    

Roberts

1569 Mus       3 [1]   1 [1] 4 [1]    

Taskes

1811 Mar               2 [1]  

Taskis

1881 Cen                  

Thomas

1569 Mus       9 [3] 6 [3] 11 [3]      

Tonkin

1569 Mus   7 [2] 7 [1]  6 [1]          

Treneary

1871 Cen         4 [1]        

Trewern

1833             6 [1] 8 [1]  

Trudgen

1739   3 [1] 3 [1] 1[1] 1 [1] 1 [1]      

Vingoe

1569 Mus   13 [3] 8 [2] 5 [1] 6 [2] 2 [1] 2 [1] 2[1] 1 (1)

White

1778 Mar   8 [2] 7 [3] 5 [1] 2 [2] 2 [2]      
Total Population     107 108 98 68 51 46 41 48
Occupies Houses     22 23 15 14 13 11 10 10
Unoccupied Houses     3 2 ? ? ? ? ? ?
 
 
Sandra and George Pritchard are the authors of original work on this site. 

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Revised: August 08, 2013.