Truro has long claimed to be the first town in Cornwall; and the
station has generally been allowed, although several others exceed it
in beauty of situation. Penzance in that respect, as well as in
foreign trade and the magnitude of its internal commerce; and Falmouth
in the number of inhabitants.
Truro, situated adjacent to the largest mining district, at the head
of a navigable river, and nearly in the centre of population, has
acquired the lead in all county concerns, and has the good fortune to
possess many large handsome houses, and breadth of streets unknown in
the other towns. Here, too, for a long series of years, was situated
the chief place of education for the heirs of Cornish families, at a
time when the state of communication between places two or three
hundred miles apart, rendered it a matter of serious importance to
think of sending a lad to either of the public schools. Two very
eminent masters of the school at Truro are still remembered, Mr.
Conor, a layman, from the north of England, or Scotland, by the
tradition of our fathers; and the Rev. Dr. Cardew, by some among the
best classical scholars in both Universities. There is a monument to
Dr. Cardew in St. Erme Church. It is also understood, that their
predecessor, Mr. Jane, either established or maintained the reputation
of this school. Mr. Jane is understood to have been a native of
Leskeard, and a nephew of Doctor William Jane, Regius Professor of
Divinity at Oxford and Dean of Gloucester, who drew up the strong
Declaration adopted by the University in favour of the principles
which would have retained King James on the throne of England, and
when the Revolution was effected, supported the opposite side, which
gave occasion to the following epigrams:
Decretum figis solenne, Decanus ut esses;
Ut fieres Præsul, Jane! refigis idem.
Decretum statuit spe――spe meliore revellit;
Quàm rectâ Janus pingitur arte bifrons!
The Rev. J. Jane, son of the gentleman who kept the school at Truro,
became a student and tutor at Christ Church, from whenee he retired to
the college living of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire.
Truro has produced its fair proportion of men distinguished by their
proficiencies in literature, arts, sciences, and arms. Of persons
living, I would select the Rev. Richard Polwhele, as an eminent
historian, poet, and divine; and the Right Honourable General Sir
Hussey Vivian, companion in arms of the Duke of Wellington, an active
partaker in the glories of Waterloo, since commander-in-chief of
Ireland, and now (1836) occupying, perhaps, the highest office of the
government not included in the cabinet.
An individual, little if at all remembered, emanated from Truro in the
sixteenth century, if he was not born there. Wood says, in the Athenæ
Oxonienses:
“Thomas Farnabie, the most noted schoolmaster of his time, son of
Thomas Farnabie, of London, carpenter, son of ―――― Farnabie, sometime
Mayor of Truro in Cornwall, was born in London about 1575, and became
a Student of Merton College in 1590; but being wild he made no long
stay there, but left the college very abruptly, and went into Spain,
and was for some time educated in a college belonging to the Jesuits.
He left them, however, and being minded to take a ramble, went with
Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkyns in their last voyage;
afterwards, it is said, he was a soldier in the Low Countries. Having
suffered great distress after his return, he at last succeeded in
establishing a school in Goldsmiths’ Rents, near Red Cross Street in
London, where at one time he made up a number exceeding three hundred
generous youths. At length, upon occasion of some sickness, he removed
about 1636 to Sevenoaks in Kent, in the neighbourhood of which place
(at Oxford) he had purchased an estate, and taught there the sons of
several neighbouring gentlemen, by which he acquired considerable
wealth, and purchased another estate near Horsham in Sussex. He
suffered some loss and imprisonment in the Civil War on account of his
taking the Royalty side, and died at Sevenoaks, where he is buried, in
the chancel of the church, with the following inscription:
“P. M. Viri ornatissimi Thomæ Farnabii Armigeri, causæ olim Regiæ,
reique publicæ, sed literariæ vindicis acerrimi, obiit 12 Junii 1647.
“Vatibus hic sacris qui lux Farnabius olim,
Vate carens saxo nunc sine luce jacet.”
His principal works are,
Notes on the Satyrs of Juvenal and Persius.
Notes on the Tragedies of Seneca.
Notes on Martial’s Epigrams.
Notes on Lucan’s Pharsalia.
Notes on Virgil.
Notes on Terence.
Notes on Ovid.
A System of Grammar.
Index Rhetoricus and Oratorius.
Phrasiologia, Latin and English.
Anthology of Greek Epigrams, with a Latin Translation.
Tables of the Greek Language.
Various Letters to Learned Persons.
Boyle says of him in his Dictionary, that Farnaby was a learned
classic, and that his notes on the greater part of the ancient Latin
Poets have been of much use to young persons; that he dedicated his
Horace to Prince Henry, the eldest son of King James the First, and
that he was most favourably received by the Prince when he presented
his work; and that he received an order, or a request, to make similar
commentaries on all the Latin Poets, in anticipation, in some degree,
of the great work afterwards executed for the King’s son in France.
* * * * *
But the most remarkable and striking feature in the history of Truro
consists of the great wealth acquired there by various families in
succession during a long series of years.
The first on record is the family of Roberts, or Robartes, who are
said to have began their career by retail trade in a house remaining
at the commencement of this century, near the north-western extremity
of what has been made the great street, by the improvement of taking
down the middle row of houses, noticed by Mr. Whitaker, and completed
by a new street leading from it southward towards Penryn and Falmouth.
It is possible that the very humble commencement of the Roberts’s
fortunes may have been invented since their splendid elevation, to
augment the wonder; but certain it is, that they resided for several
generations in Truro, conducting extensive mercantile concerns, and
accumulating capital, rather than obtaining it by any sudden effort;
and employing their savings in the acquirement of land by great or
small purchases, or more frequently, perhaps, through the medium of
advancing money on mortgage, till they acquired the most scattered
estate of any in the county. About the reign of James the First, this
family rose into high consideration; they acquired an hereditary seat
in Parliament, in a manner not very honourable at least to the Duke of
Buckingham, and afterwards became decorated with the nominal office of
Earl of Radnor: held the Lord Lieutenancy of Cornwall, with the Lord
Wardenship of the Stannaries; and, lastly, the office of highest
dignity in the gift of the Crown, the Vice-Royalty of Ireland.
The next considerable family emerging from Truro was the Vincents; in
their case the practice of law was added to trade; they repeatedly
represented Truro in Parliament, and were among the first people of
the county. One of their seats was Tresimple in St. Clement’s, now the
property of Mr. Vivian, of Penkalenick in the same parish; but the
family of Vincent has disappeared, and their very memory is almost
extinguished.
After the Vincents will come the Gregors, who have now been for a long
period country gentlemen. The late Mr. Francis Gregor represented the
county in three successive Parliaments, from 1790 to 1806, when he
retired on account of ill health.
The next large fortune acquired at Truro was by Mr. Lemon. A short
account of this very extraordinary person has been given under Germoe
parish. His very splendid career, not merely of acquiring wealth, but
of high reputation for himself and of benefit to his country, began in
the neighbourhood of Penzance; and his removal to Truro is understood
to have been occasioned by the discernment of Mr. Coster, a gentleman
concerned in copper smelting works at Bristol, and a representative in
Parliament for that city.
Mr. Coster greatly augmented his fortune by purchasing the copper ores
of Cornwall, for some time without a competitor; and undertaking to
work some of the Gwennap mines in depth for copper, which had
previously been productive of tin, he selected Mr. Lemon for one of
his partners, with unlimited confidence in managing the whole concern.
Mr. Lemon was succeeded by Mr. Daniell, who took the whole of his
great mercantile concerns off the hands of Mr. Lemon’s executors in
1760, having acquired the command of capital by his marriage with Miss
Elliot, niece of Mr. Allen, of Bath. The late Mr. John Vivian acquired
also a large fortune residing in Truro; and of persons now living,
several might be added to the list.
Mr. Richard Hussey has been noticed in the parish of Feock as an
eminent lawyer, and likely to have attained some of the highest
honours of the profession; he died unmarried in 1770. His father, who
practised in Truro as an attorney, was the son of the Reverend John
Hussey, vicar of Okehampton in Devonshire.
The late Mr. John Thomas may also be included among those who have
acquired fortunes and displayed ability at Truro: after retiring early
in life to Chiverton, a paternal property in Perran Zabuloe, where he
built an excellent house, Mr. Thomas was placed in the honourable
office of Vice-Warden, which he executed with great credit for more
than thirty years.
Among persons distinguished for talents, one cannot omit Mr. Samuel
Foote; he was born here about the year 1720, although the family seat
was Lambessa, in the adjoining parish of St. Clement. His mother was
the sister of Sir John Dinely Goodere and of Samuel Goodere, a Captain
in the Navy, whose history almost equals in depth of misery the
well-known tragedy of Penryn; and it is a curious circumstance that
Mr. Foote’s first publication is a complete narrative of this most
melancholy affair, in a pamphlet signed with his name, and addressed
to Henry Combe, Esq. then Mayor of Bristol, in 1741. Mr. Foote’s life
and adventures are before the public in various forms.
Recently two natives of Truro have distinguished themselves throughout
Europe by a most important geographical discovery. The Mr. Landers, as
is well known, descended a large river from the interior of Africa to
the sea, at what is called the Bite of Benin, where the river loses
itself by flowing in divided streams through a delta created by the
deposit of alluvial debris, brought down from the highlands by the
force of its own current.
A monument is now constructing on an elevated piece of ground at the
southern extremity of the town, in memory of the brother, who has most
unfortunately lost his life in a second expedition, intended for the
establishment of a friendly and commercial intercourse with the
inhabitants of countries thus brought within our reach.
An anecdote seems worth preserving relative to an invention,
completely in anticipation of the use now made of steam for propelling
vessels in all parts of the world. The mere idea of using this
gigantic power instead of the human arm for moving boats and ships
through the water, must have occurred to thousands; the mode of
effecting the application is the real invention.
About sixty years ago Mr. Charles Warrick resided at Truro, a young
man of some family and fortune, and bred to the law; a person of
singular and eccentric habits, displaying much ability and genius in
some cases, with an apparent want of both in others. Mr. Warrick
partook of a taste very common in places situated on navigable rivers,
for spending a large portion of his time on the water, or in making
contrivances relative to navigation; and he constructed a boat with
slender ribs, covered either with canvass or with paper soaked in
substances that excluded water: on each side he appended a wheel
connected together by an axis turned in the middle into the form of a
staple, or what is called a double crank. In this boat he frequently
paddled from Truro to Falmouth Harbour, moving the crank with his
hands, and out-running all other boats; but no one thought of applying
the construction to larger vessels, nor had he, in all probability,
the slightest notion, that within half a century similar wheels and
cranks, moved by steam-engines, would impel vessels of many hundred
tons burden through the most tempestuous seas, and against winds and
tides, over extensive oceans, with a safety and a precision almost
equal to land conveyance.
As illustrative of the changes in all respects, that have taken place
in the last three-quarters of a century, the following curious
relation, although trifling in itself, may be allowed to find a place.
A family about to embark at Falmouth, no longer ago than the year 1748
or 1749, hired a coach and horses in London to convey them there,
a system of travelling practised on the continent up to the present
time; the driver having delivered his charge, made known his desire
for obtaining, what he perhaps denominated a back-freight, on easy
terms, and a party of young men availed themselves of the opportunity,
stipulating, however, that in the event of their reaching a town at
any part of the day where cockfighting would take place in the
evening, the coach should lie by to afford them an opportunity of
being present at the diversion.
Truro has not been measured as a distinct parish, and is therefore
included in Kenwyn.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 6958 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 1119 4 0
Population,――{ in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 2358 | 2482 | 2712 | 2925.
giving an increase of 24 per cent. in 30 years.
It must be observed, that the amount of Real Property, the Poor Rate,
and the Population, relate only to the ward rather than the parish of
St. Mary, constituting Old Truro. In a note attached to the last
Population Abstracts, it is said that the whole town is supposed to
have contained 8,468 inhabitants in the year 1831.
The present Rector of Truro is the Rev. E. Dix, who was presented by
the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe in 1833. The net value of the living, as
returned in 1831, was 135_l._