The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 1 (of 4)
History
The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 1 (of 4)
Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Geology -- England -- Cornwall (County)
These establishments were, however, maintained for some considerable
time by the genius and the abilities of one man. Mr. John Edwards had
been taken as a clerk for general business by Mr. Hawkins, just at the
time when he and other Cornish gentlemen set on the copper-works. Mr.
Edwards soon forced himself into the chief management, became a
partner, and continued the works during the whole of his life; not
being distinguished merely as a merchant or manufacturer, but as a
scholar and a gentleman.
Gurlyn is said by Mr. Lysons to have been the residence of various
considerable families. It has, for perhaps a century, been the joint
property of Messrs. Gregor and Harris. About the year 1760, Mr. John
Millett, possessing a lease of this place for lives, built an entirely
new house there; but the lease has been bought in by the gentleman
seised of the freehold, and the house taken down.
Treloweth is a manor heretofore the property of the Tredreas. On a
part of this manor stands a tin-smelting house. Tin, by the laws of
the Stannaries, must be reduced to the metallic state in Cornwall; and
much less quantities of coal are required than in the case of copper.
Till about the commencement of the last century, all the tin ores of
Cornwall were smelted in small blast furnaces, by means of charcoal or
of peat. At that period some Germans introduced the reverberatory
furnace, and with it the use of coal. Several smelting-houses were
immediately constructed by the gentlemen of the county, and although
not among the first, that at Treloweth. I have ascertained the exact
period of its building, from this circumstance, that the workmen were
interrupted by the total eclipse of the sun, which happened about 15
minutes before nine on the 22d of April, 1715, O. S.
Mr. Henry Davies, the Editor’s great-uncle, was among those who
contributed to the building, and the crest of his arms, a lamb
carrying a flag, was adopted as a mark to distinguish the slabs of
this house; all the different smelting and blowing houses having
always used specific marks. The crest, had, I presume, been originally
taken in allusion to the Welch and Cornish sound, at least of his
name; _davas_ being Cornish for a sheep, or perhaps a shepherd. This
mark, however, conveyed to the minds of persons in Catholic countries
some idea of consecration, and procured a preference for the Lamb Tin,
although it never claimed to have the slightest superiority; and
finally, all the other houses have taken the same, or similar marks.
Among the Germans who introduced the reverberatory furnace, was the
celebrated Becker. His son became a bricklayer, and his grandson’s
widow died about twenty-five years ago in the poorhouse at St. Earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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