Rame

Rev. Geoffrey Blanchard White - Maker with Rame (notes towards a Parish History). (Typescripts in Plymouth Local Studies Library 972R 374 - probably copies also in Truro). (Full of really good information with trancripts of property deeds etc. which would be useful to family historians).

The Cornwall Family History Society have not yet published Monumental Inscriptions for this Parish.

Census information for this parish (1841 - 1901) is held in the Cornwall Record Office. The Cornwall Family History Society offers a census search service for its members.
Specific census information for this parish is available as follows:

• 1841.
  • The 1841 Census of Rame (HO107/135), Enumeration District 9, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
  • The 1841 census for this parish has also been filmed by the LDS church - film No. 241259.
• 1851.
  • The 1851 Census of Rame (HO107/1900), Enumeration District 3, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
  • The New Zealand Society of Genealogists have compiled separate surname indexes of the 1851 Census for each Cornish registration district; Rame is listed in Volume 8. The booklets are available in Cornwall at the Cornwall Centre, (formerly known as the Cornish Studies Library), and is also available in the Cornwall FHS Library from which it can be purchased.
• 1861. The 1861 Census of Rame (RG9/1522), Enumeration District 5e, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
• 1871.
  • The 1871 Census of Rame is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
    • RG10/2228. Enumeration District 5.
    • RG10/2229. Barracks.
• 1881. The 1881 Census of Rame (RG11/2279), Enumeration District 5, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
• 1891. The 1891 Census of Rame (RG12/1806), Enumeration Districts 5 and 5 (Barracks), is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.

• Anglican. The parish church is located in OS Grid Square SX4249 and it is dedicated to St Germanus.
  The little chapel of St. Michael (now in ruins) on the summit of Rame Head, was licensed for Mass in 1397, and is probably on the site of a much earlier, Celtic, hermitage. Earl Ordulf, owner of vast estates in the West Country and uncle of King Ethelred, gave Rame to Tavistock Abbey (which he had founded) in AD 981. The church was dedicated to St. Germanus on 15th October 1259 and, again on 10th October 1321. St Germanus was the fighting German bishop who is supposed to have landed in the neighbourhood when he came to England to suppress the Pelagian heresy in about AD 400.
  The church is all built of rough slate. The first stone building was that consecrated in 1259. It comprises a chancel, nave, south aisle, north transept and vestry. The arcade consists of five low fourch-centred arches supported on monolith granite pillars. The slender, unbuttressed tower with its broached spire (an unusual feature in a Cornish church), the north wall, north aisle and the chancel are all probably of this date, when the church was cruciform in shape. The south transept went in a 15th century extension with a south aisle and arcade added and some new windows. The south aisle wagon roof is original, and some pews survive from the 16th century, with Devon-style tracery on the bends-ends. There were restorations in 1848 and 1886, when slates replaced the stone-shingled roof. The church still has no electricity, and is lit by candles.
  Cawsand was in Rame parish (while Kingsand was in Maker) and the moves to establish a church nearer the people eventually led to the building in Rame village of St. Andrew's Church in 1878. Since the two parishes were united in 1943, St. Andrew's has continued to serve as the church in the village.
• Non-Conformist. The united villages of Cawsand (which is in Cornwall) and Kingsand (which is in Devon) contained a Wesleyan chapel and an Independant chapel.

Indices and transcripts of the Baptism, Marriage and Burial registers of the Parish of Rame, 1653 - 1812 compiled by Rev. Geoffrey Blanchard White , MA. in Harris, G & F.L. (eds) Essays and Notes on the Rame Peninsula 1963. [This is a typescript of which bound copies were deposited in various local libraries including Plymouth, Truro etc but most have vanished. One survives in Torpoint Library. It includes essays on the Vallack family and other wider material. It is a Carbon copy and needs copying onto disc etc].
Indexes and Transcripts of the Baptisms and Deaths for the parishes of Maker and Rame, 1813 -1843. Typed copies held in Mount Edgcumbe House History Files. [Anon. but almost certainly by the Rev. White]. NB: there are no marriage records included here.

Specific information on extant Church Records for this parish is available as follows:

• LDS Church Records.
  • The LDS Church batch numbers for Rame are: C053031, P022661. These are searchable by surname.
  • The IGI coverage of this parish is 1653 - 1812.
• The Cornwall Record Office holdings: Baptisms 1653 - 1812, Burials 1653 - 1812, Marriages 1653 - 1837, Boyd's Marriage Index 1619 - 1673, BTs 1619 - 1673, Non-Conformist records 1810 - 1837.
• Baptisms.
  • Baptisms 1675 to 1772 (Bishop's transcripts) for this parish are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • The Cornish Forefathers' Society have published on CD baptisms 1714 to 1841 for this parish which can be purchased on Parish Chest.
• Marriages.
  • Marriages 1675 to 1796 (Bishop's transcripts) for this parish are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • The Cornwall Family History Society have published transcripts of: Parish Marriages 1619 to 1837, which is available in Book, CD or downloadable .pdf file formats.
• Burials.
  • Burials 1675 to 1772 (Bishop's transcripts) for this parish are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • The Cornwall Family History Society have published transcripts of: Parish Burials 1813 to 1837, which is available in Book format.

The parish of Rame is in the St Germans Registration District, and has been since 1st July 1837; there were sub-districts at Antony, St Germans and Saltash but they have now been abolished. Parishes within the district were: Antony, Botusfleming, Landrake, Landulph, Maker, Millbrook, Pillaton, Quethiock, Rame, St. Erney, St. Germans, St. John's, St. Mellion, St. Stephen's, Saltash, Sheviock, Torpoint.

The Superintendant Registrar of St Germans can be contacted at: Ploughastel Drive, Saltash, Cornwall, PL12 6DL. Tel: 01752 842624.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Rame to another place.

OPC Assistance.

• The On-line Parish Clerk (OPC) scheme operates a service to help family historians; the OPC page for this parish is available on-line, from where the OPC can be contacted by email.

The Domesday Settlements of Cornwall, a study undertaken by the Cornwall Branch of the Historical Association, has identified and located settlements listed in the Exeter and Exchequer Domesday Survey of AD 1086. The following places have been identified in Rame ecclesiastical parish:

• Rame (Rame), Grid Reference 426492.

• Map of the St Germans Registration District in which the parish lies.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SX426498 (Lat/Lon: 50.327235, -4.2122), Rame which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

Apprenticeship Indentures for Rame (1812 - 1836) can be found in the Cornwall Record Office.

• Rame parish was part of the St Germans Union for Poor Law administration and parish relief.
• Overseers' Accounts (1819 to 1835) are available in the Cornwall Record Office.

The population figures given below are mostly of Maker and Rame together unless stated separately.

The Rame History Group aims to research, record and promote interest in the heritage of the Rame Peninsula. The group meets every month in the Congregational Hall.

The parish comprises 1272 acres of land and 112 acres of foreshore.