CONTENTS

Sennen’s Nucleated Settlements

  The parish of Sennen is like others in Penwith made up of a number of 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 settlement 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, prior to the 1800’s 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.  

Just who lived in these settlements is hardly known as a result of the destruction of the Sennen church records during the civil war by Captain Ceely of the Parliamentary Army.  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.

Escalls 1888. Click on map to see aerial photo of Escalls today.

 

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 a number of 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 local residents I believe that it may well have been situated in Escalls. One family that was active within the Society of Friends were the Vingoes. This family is 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 Arundell this was to add to his other holdings in Sennen Parish. 

The Parish Records began at the beginning of the 1700's. These do not show where the people lived in the parish so we have to wait until the census of 1841 to see who lived 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.

Number on Map.

Owner

Occupier 

50

Thomas Trudgeon

 

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

 

 

59

 

 

63

John Saundry

 

79 

Johnathan Humphreys

 

over the next 60 years we have a good record thanks to the census 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 - 1901. 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 1841 1851 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901

Axford

1871 Cen              

Badcock

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

Barnes

1831     6 [1]        

Ball

1800             4 [1]

Boase

1745 3 [2]            

Bone

1744   4 [1] 3 [1] 5 [1] 7 [1]    

Bond

1820 Bur         4 [1]    

Botheras

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

Bottrell

1707 Mar           1 [1]  

Barnes

1831 1 [1]     8 [1]      

Chapel

1761 3 [1]            

Chappell

1817 Bur              

Chellew

1861     8 [1] 7 [1] 6 [1] 6 [2] 5 [2]

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]

George

1708   2 [1]     6 [1]   1 [1]

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]

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 17 [ 5] 38 [8]  20 [6] 9 [4] 3 [2] 5 [4]  3 [2]

Oats

1765 Mar   6 [2] 17 [2]        

Pascoe

1717         1 [1]    

Penrose

1569 Mus         3 [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]

White

1778 Mar 8 [2] 7 [3] 5 [1] 2 [2] 2 [2]    
Total Population   107 108 98 68 51 46 44
Occupies Houses   22 23 15 14 13 11 10
Unoccupied Houses   3 2 ? ? ? ? ?
 
Sandra and George Pritchard are the authors of original work on this site.  They give permission to copy and use this information on the following conditions.
 1 It will not be used for profit.
 2. The source will be credited.

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Revised: July 23, 2007 .