you've been to Liskeard a auditing of accounts, and took an extra
glass? 'Twill be overlooked for once, sure enough, up there."
A day or so after Hicks met the sober man, and asked how Nathaniel had
got on that night.
The answer was: "He's a terrible affectionate man to his family, and
when we got home he took the babby out o' the cradle for to kiss 'un,
and valled vore with 'un over a vaggot of vurze. Jane, her got into a
passion and laid onto 'un with the broomstick, while he kep' tumblin'
over the babby. When I comed away her'd 'a thrashed 'un sober; and
they'd 'a got the babby on the dresser, naked, and was a-picking out
the prickles."
Hicks knew a man who was of a morose, fanatical humour; and this man
had married a widow with a brisk, merry wench for a daughter. Once he
reproved the girl for singing secular songs in this vale of woe, and
said to her: "Suppose you was took sudden, and called to your last
account with the _Soldier's Tear_ in your mouth?"
Another of his stories was of a chapel where they sang a Cornish
anthem; the females began--
Oh for a man! oh for a man! oh for a mansion in the sky!
To which the men, basses and tenors, responded--
Send down sal! send down sal! send down salvation from on high!
A boy at church--another of Hicks's anecdotes; he knew the boy
well--heard the parson give out the banns of "John So-and-so and Betsy
So-and-so, both of this parish. This is the third and last time of
asking."
"Mother," said the lad after service; "I shouldn't like it to be
proclaimed in church that sister Jane had been askin' for a husband
dree times afore her got one."
Again, another story told by Hicks:--
"Where be you a-bound to this afternoon?"
"Gwain to see the football match."
"Aw! Like to be a good un?"
"Yes, I reckon. There be a lot o' bitter feelin' betwixt the two teams."
But, indeed, the stories told by William Robert Hicks were many, and
for those who would desire more, let them get Mr. W. F. Collier's
_Tales and Sayings of W. R. Hicks_, Plymouth, Brendon and Son, 1893;
and look at "An Illustrious Obscure," by Abraham Hayward, Q.C., in the
_Morning Post_, 8th September, 1868; and J. C. Young's _Memoirs of C.
M. Young_, 1871, Vol. II, pp. 301-8.
Hicks died at Bodmin 5th September, 1868, at the age of sixty.
CAPTAIN TOBIAS MARTIN
Tobias Martin, better known as Cap'n Toby, was born in the parish of
Wendron on January 5th, 1747, and was the son of a father of the same
name, who was a common working miner, but afterwards was advanced to
be a mine agent, or captain of a mine, which situation he retained
during the remainder of his life.
The elder Cap'n Toby was passionately fond of reading, and read
promiscuously whatever came into his hand. But his main literary
passion was for poetry, and he speedily conceived that he possessed
the poetic _afflatus_, because he could string lines together that
rhymed more or less well. He went to a mine near Helston, but was
never in sufficiently good circumstances to be able to give his
children a moderate, let alone a superior education.
Tobias, his second son, inherited the father's love of reading and
liking for the Muse, and as a boy he bitterly lamented that he was not
sent to school.
Deprived through his father's poverty or negligence of the means of
education enjoyed by others, he resolved on supplying the deficiencies
of such instruction by self-application.
From an early age he was employed at the tin-stamping mills near
Helston and Redruth. After he became a man he worked underground on
his own account, i.e. in working setts that he had taken, and at other
times on what is termed among miners "tutwork and tribute."
He had a great ambition to learn French, and studied diligently a
French grammar that he found among his father's books; but, of course,
remained perfectly ignorant of the pronunciation, though able to write
a few sentences and read a book in that language.
Proud of the former capability, he composed some lines in French, or
what he supposed to be French, and wrote them on the belfry door. A Mr.
William Sandys, an attorney at Helston, happening to see these lines,
inquired who had written them, and when he learned that they were by
Toby Martin, he gave him a letter to a Mrs. Brown, who had resided some
time in France, and was believed to have the language at her tongue's
end, to this effect: "The Bearer, Tobias Martin, wishes to learn French,
but his pockets are low." From her Toby did receive some lessons.
Mr. Sandys occasionally employed him, as he could write well, to
assist in his office; he also appointed him toller of the dues
arriving from tin-bounds in Breage, belonging to the Praed family,
which appointment he held to the time of his death.
In 1772 he married Mary Peters, of Helston, and by her had ten children,
four sons and six daughters. In the same year, and, indeed, at the very
same time, Mr. Sandys offered him a situation as escort to his eldest
son, Mr. William Sandys, into France, where the latter was to remain so
as to acquire proficiency in the French language. And--what was somewhat
rough on Toby--he had to leave with his charge the day after his
marriage. The place chosen for William Sandys to acquire French was
singularly badly chosen: it was Painpol, in Brittany, where the natives
talk Breton, and what French they do speak is of an inferior quality and
very unlike that spoken in Paris or Touraine.
After having seen his charge safe to Painpol, Toby returned to Helston
and to his wife.
Next year (1773) in August Toby was despatched again to Painpol, this
time to bring young William home. On his return he set to work to
acquire the Dutch language and learn Latin; but, indeed, there was
scarcely a subject that did not attract him, and that he did not
strive to acquire some knowledge of. It was unfortunate for him that
his studies were so desultory, that he was "Jack of many trades and
master of none."
Some years after his return from France he was appointed captain at
Camborne Vean Mine. He also held the situation of managing agent of
Wheal Heriot's Foot, commonly called Herod's Foot, near Liskeard.
A story is told of him which Mr. Tregellas gives in his _Cornish
Character and Characteristics_ under a fictitious name. Captain Toby
was having his pint of ale at a tavern, when in comes a miner who was
wont to be called "Old Blowhard," and was not esteemed trusty or
diligent as a workman.
"How are 'ee, Capp'n?" says Bill.
"Clever. How art thee?"
"Purty well as for health," says Bill, "but I want a job. Can 'ee give
us waun ovver to your new bal?"
"No, we're full," replied the Captain.
"How many men have 'ee goat ovver theere?" asked Old Blowhard.
"How many? Why we've two sinking a air-shaft through the flockan, and
two to taakle, and that's fower; and theere's two men in the oddit,
and a booay to car tools and that, and that makes three moore, and
that oaltogether es seben."
"And how many cappuns have 'ee goat?" said Bill.
"How many? Why ten."
"What! ten cappuns to watch over seben men? I doan't b'lieve you can
maake that out, for the 'venturers would'n stand it."
"'Tes zackly so then, and I'll maak it out to 'ee in a moment. Waun
cappun es 'nough we oal knaw, but at the laast mittin, the 'venturers
purposed to have waun of the 'venturers' sons maade a cappun, and to
larn, they said; and so a draaper's son, called Sems, was put weth me
from school, at six pound a month, and a shaare of what we had in the
'count-house."
"Well, but how can you maake ten of you and he?"
"Why, I'll tell 'ee how, and you mind 'nother time, Bill, for theere's
somethin' of scholarin' in ut. Now see this: I myself am waun, baent I?"
"Iss, sure," said Bill.
"Well, and theest oft to knaw that young Sems es nawthin'; well, when
theest ben to school so long as I have, theest knaw that waun with a
nought attached to un do maake 10, and so 'tes zackly like that."
In the year 1790 Toby's wife died, and he was left with all his ten
children on his hands. One of these soon died, and he sent for the
sexton, who, after having been regaled with liquor, declared with
gushing emotion, "Lor' bless ee, Cap'n Toby, I'd as soon deg a grave
for 'ee as for any man with whom I be acquainted." In 1792 he married
Ann James, a widow, who kept a small public-house at Porthleven, and
by her had four children, two sons and two daughters.
A short time after his marriage he took the Horse and Jockey Tavern in
Helston, which he kept for four years, and then the "Helston Arms," of
which he was host for five more. He still retained his situation of
mine-agent in Wheal Ann tin mine in Wendron, about two and a half miles
from Helston, where, on quitting the last-mentioned inn, and after the
mine had failed, he lived for some years as captain of Wheal Trevenen,
which was run by a company, but the smelting was consigned to a
speculator of Truro named Daubuz,[34] who had with him one Coad as a
clerk. After a while Martin supposed that Daubuz was swindling the
company, and about the same time Coad quarrelled with Daubuz, and
pretended to reveal how he had been cheating; thereupon the Adventurers
set up their own smelting works. Martin's account of Daubuz must not be
accepted as true. He wrote full of vindictive hate. Anyhow, a
misunderstanding arose between him and the company respecting his
accounts. The Adventurers debited him with a large sum, which ought to
have been and was afterwards charged to the purser. In September, 1811,
at a general meeting of the Adventurers, a Mr. Wyatt, auditor of the
accounts, accused Captain Toby of having falsified his books. This he
stoutly denied, and insisted that his accounts were correct. In
November, 1811, he received his dismissal, not as having acted
fraudulently, but on the plea that he was too old and past work. He was
discharged accordingly in his sixty-second year, and he applied for and
got work at other mines. A year passed before Captain Toby could have
his accounts investigated, and then he received from the purser a copy
of an account, wherein a balance of £109 6s. 6d. appeared against him.
To this he objected, and a dispute arose that lasted some time.
On February 1st, 1812, he was arrested for debt, and confined in the
sheriff's ward at Bodmin for over two months before an accommodation
was arrived at, and he was discharged.
As he could not get Mr. Wyatt to have the accounts inspected, for he
proved shifty, Captain Toby was obliged to appeal to the Vice-Warden
of the Stannaries to issue an order for the investigation of the
accounts. This alarmed Wyatt, and it was mutually agreed that they
should be gone through by Mr. Richard Tyacke, of Godolphin. Mr. Tyacke
in a very short time found that the balance against Martin was only
£29 18s. 4d., and that then there was owing to him from the company
nearly a twelvemonth's wage. He accordingly in February, 1813,
published the following notice:--
"_To the Public._
"Having been requested to examine some disputed accounts between
Trevenen Adventurers and Captain Tobias Martin, I find from
investigation that the errors in dispute were _not_ contained in
his account, but in those prepared against him.
"RICHARD TYACKE."
After this he received from the company the balance of his salary, and
that put an end to the business. His connection with Wheal Trevenen
having ceased, he worked at Wheal Vorah as captain to 1817, when he
was in his sixty-ninth year. Then he was appointed storekeeper to the
mine and to keep the stock accounts at six guineas per month; and this
situation he filled till March, 1817, when in his seventy-ninth year
he was superannuated at three and a half guineas per month.
On June 4th, 1825, his wife died, and not long after he received the
news of the death of his eldest son, Tobias, under tragical
circumstances, at Washington, U.S.A. The younger Tobias and his wife
had a daughter, a child who went gathering fruit in the hedges of some
land belonging to a rough fellow, who finding her there, carried away
her basket and took as well some of her wearing apparel. When Tobias
Martin the younger heard of this he and his wife went to remonstrate
and ask for the return of the basket and the garments. An altercation
ensued, and the man of whom they complained with his revolver shot
Tobias Martin dead.
This shock broke down the old captain. He had always loved his glass,
but now he took to it more freely than ever, and was often intoxicated.
He died on April 9th, 1828, in the eighty-first year of his age, and
he was buried in Breage churchyard.
Captain Tobias Martin's poems were published at Helston in 1831, and a
second edition in 1856. They are absolutely worthless as poetry, and one
may look in vain through them to find an original or a poetic idea. But
as we have given this man's life, a specimen of the stuff he wrote must
also be given, and one of his shortest compositions will suffice.
Come, sweet content! best gift of bounteous heav'n,
Correct my mind and bend my stubborn ways;
'Tis thou alone canst make life's journey even,
And crown with happiness my future days.
Why should I grieve or murmur at my lot?
Why disobedient to the heav'nly will?
I cannot turn my thoughts where God is not,
He is my comfort and my refuge still.
Blest with content, I will observe His ways;
On earth I can no greater blessing find.
Serene and calm, thus let me spend my days,
And banish discontentment from my mind.
In his religious views Toby Martin was a Deist or Unitarian. In
personal appearance he was inclined to corpulency. His countenance was
large and open, and he stood five feet nine inches high.
FOOTNOTE:
[34] He calls Daubuz a Jew. The first Daubuz to settle at Truro was a
Moses. But the family claims Huguenot extraction.
THE MAYOR OF BODMIN
When Henry VIII died, Edward VI was aged but ten, and the unprincipled
Protector Somerset took the reins of power into his own hands; and as
he was a strong partisan of the reformers, and enriched himself on the
plunder of the Church, he carried out what he considered to be reforms
with a high hand, with the assistance of the Council, which was filled
with creatures equally rapacious and equally devoid of principle. As
the monasteries had all been suppressed, and the monks and nuns turned
adrift, these poor homeless wretches wandered over the country
entreating alms. In November, 1548, an Act was passed ordering all
such to be branded on the hand, and on repetition of the offence to be
adjudged to slavery.
The baneful effects of the dissolution of the monasteries had,
moreover, been severely felt by the people, for the monks had been
ever ready to afford shelter and relief in sickness or distress, and
the indigent were now driven to frightful extremities throughout the
land, much as would be the case nowadays were the workhouses and poor
laws to be abolished. The monks, moreover, had been most kind and
considerate landlords, and, always residing in their monasteries, what
money they drew in rents from their tenants was spent on the land. But
no sooner were the rapacious hands of the nobles laid on the property
of the Church, than these new proprietors demanded exorbitant rents,
and very generally spent the money in London. The cottagers were
reduced to misery by the enclosure of the commons on which they had
formerly fed their cattle.
Added to all this came violent changes in the services of the Church.
Candles were forbidden to be carried on Candlemas Day, ashes to be
used on Ash Wednesday, and palms on Palm Sunday; all images were to be
removed from the churches, and even the sacred form of the Redeemer on
the Cross above the rood was not respected.
Several of the bishops objected to these proceedings, but Somerset was
inexorable. Then several colleges, chantries, and free chapels, as
well as fraternities and guilds, were abolished, and their lands and
goods confiscated to the King, which, being sold at very small prices,
enriched many of the Protestant hangers-on of the Court, and
strengthened their resolution to maintain the changes.
These violent and hasty proceedings provoked widespread discontent and
even exasperation. The first disturbances arose in the county of
Cornwall, where one Body, a commissioner sent down to "purify" the
churches, was stabbed in the back whilst pulling down images in a
church.[35] Thence they quickly spread into the counties of Devon,
Wilts, Somerset, Hants, Sussex, Kent, Essex, Gloucester, Hereford,
Worcester, Leicester, Oxford, Norfolk, and York. In most parts the
rioters were quickly put down, but the disorders in Devonshire and
Norfolk threatened more dangerous consequences (1549). The commotion
first broke out at Sampford Courtenay on Whit Monday, the day after
the Act for reforming the Church Service had been put in force. The
people assembled and forced the priest to say Mass in the ancient
manner, instead of using the Book of Common Prayer. The commotion
spread through the adjoining parishes, and many came up out of
Cornwall; many of the disaffected gentry of the two counties placed
themselves at the head of the insurgents; among them were Sir Thomas
Pomeroy, Mr. Coffin, and Mr. Humphry Arundell, and the body swelled to
10,000 men. They then laid siege to Exeter, but the citizens shut
their gates against them. Some attempts were made to scale the walls,
which being repulsed, the rebels endeavoured to gain admittance by
burning the gates. The citizens, by adding more wood to the fires,
kept the enemy back till they had raised fresh defences within. After
this the insurgents sought to effect a breach by mining the walls.
Having completed their mine, laid their powder, and rammed the mouth,
before they could explode it the citizens had drenched the powder by
means of a countermine filled with water.
Lord Russell, glutted with the plunder of the Church, was sent to
relieve the city, but the rebels cut down trees and laid them in his
way, so that he could not approach, and after burning some villages he
determined on withdrawing to Honiton. He now found his retreat cut off,
and he was constrained to give battle on Clyst Heath, and defeated them
with great slaughter, killing 600 men. "Such was the valour and
stoutness of these men," says Hooker, "that the Lord Grey reported
himself that he never, in all the wars that he had been in, did know the
like." The ringleaders were taken and executed. The vicar of S. Thomas
by Exeter, who was with them, was conveyed to his church and hanged
from the tower, where his body was left to dangle for four years.
The defeat was on the 7th August, and the rebels were pursued to
Launceston, every one falling into the hands of the King's troops being
put to death. Arundell and other gentlemen were, however, taken
prisoners. The Lords of the Council wrote to Lord Russell on the 21st
August congratulating him on his success, and directing him to search
for Sir Thomas Pomeroy, and to "send up Sir Humphry Arundell, Maunder,
and the Mayor of Bodmin, and two or three of the rankest traitors." They
desired him to delay a short time the issue of a general pardon. In the
same month Lord Russell, William, Lord Grey of Wilton, and Sir William
Herbert, informed the Council that they sent up Pomeroy, Arundell, and
other prisoners; and they observed that Castle, Arundell's secretary,
went up not as a prisoner, but as an accuser of his former employer.
Nicholas Boyer, the Mayor of Bodmin, had escaped capture. But the King's
army pursued the dispersed Cornishmen into the duchy; and Sir Anthony
Kingston, Provost-Marshal, arrived at Bodmin, where the Mayor was snugly
ensconced in his house, and congratulating himself on his escape,
trusted that it was not known that he had taken part in the rising.
No sooner was Sir Anthony in the town than he wrote to Boyer, announcing
his intention of dining with him on a certain day. The Mayor felt highly
honoured at such a mark of confidence and condescension, and made great
preparations, brought out his best plate and linen and wine, and ordered
pasties and siskins and dainty cates of all kinds to be prepared in his
kitchen, so as to receive his guest with becoming hospitality.
A little before dinner the Provost took him aside and whispered in his
ear that execution must that day be done in the town, and nowhere so
suitably as in the street in front of Boyer's door, and he desired
that a gallows might be erected by the time the dinner was ended. The
Mayor complied with the request, and during the meal the hammering of
the carpenters could be heard. The Provost was cheery and jocose, and
if Boyer had been nervous at first, this wore off under the friendly
conversation of his guest.
When dinner was concluded, Sir Anthony asked if the little job he had
ordered had been carried out, and when Boyer assured him that it was
so, "I pray you," said the Provost, "bring me to the place." Thereupon
he took the Mayor by the hand and led him forth before his door, in
the kindliest manner imaginable.
On seeing the gallows, the Provost asked Boyer whether he thought them
strong enough to sustain the weight of a stout man. "Aye," replied the
Mayor; "doubtless they be so."
"Well, then," said the Provost, "get up speedily, for they are
prepared for you."
"I hope," exclaimed the astonished and disconcerted Mayor, "that you
mean not what you speak."
"In very faith," said Sir Anthony Kingston, "there is no remedy, for
you have been a busy rebel."
And so, without trial or defence, he was hanged before his own door by
the man who had just dined at his table.
Sir John Hayward, who relates this incident, tells also the story of a
miller who resided near Bodmin. This man had been a "busy rebel," and
fearing the wrath of the Provost-Marshal, he told a "sturdy, tall
fellow, his servant," that he had occasion to go from home, and that
if any one should inquire for the miller, the fellow should affirm
that he was the man, and that he had been so for three years. The
Provost came to the mill and inquired for the miller, and the servant
at once presented himself as such. The Provost inquired how long he
had kept the mill. "These three years," answered the servant.
"String him up on the nearest tree!" ordered Sir Anthony.
The fellow then cried out that he was not the miller, but the miller's
man. "Nay, sir," said the Provost, "I will take thee at thy word; and if
thou beest the miller, thou art a busy knave; if thou beest not, thou
art a false lying knave; whatsoever thou art, thou shalt be hanged."
When others told him that the man was in reality only the miller's
servant, the Provost replied, "Could he ever have done his master a
better service than to hang in his stead?" and so he was despatched.
Hals says: "Mayow, of Cleoyan, in S. Columb Major, was hanged at a
tavern signpost in that town, of whom tradition says his crime was not
capital; and therefore his wife was advised by her friends to hasten
to the town after the Marshal and his men, who had him in custody, and
beg for his life, which accordingly she prepared to do. And to render
herself the more amiable petitioner before the Marshal's eyes, this
dame spent so much time in attiring herself, and putting on her French
hood, then in fashion, that her husband was put to death before her
arrival. In like manner the Marshal hanged John Payne, the mayor or
portreeve of St. Ives, on a gallows erected in the middle of that
town, whose arms are still to be seen in one of the fore seats in that
church, viz. in a plain field, three pineapples."
Humphry Arundell, who had headed the rebels, was the son of Roger
Arundell, of Helland, and he had been appointed Governor of S. Michael's
Mount in 1539. He had married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Fulford.
After his capture he was taken up to London, confined in the Tower, and
hanged at Tyburn, 27th January, 1549-50. Sir Thomas Pomeroy, of Berry
Pomeroy, managed to save his life, but suffered severely in his estate.
He married Jane, daughter of Sir Piers Edgcumbe, of Cothele.