St Columb Major

The Cornwall Family History Society have published on-line Monumental Inscriptions for the Parish Church - 350 entries.

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 St Columb Major (HO107/149), Enumeration Districts 2 to 6 [and Workhouse], is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
• 1851.
  • The 1851 Census of St Columb Major (HO107/1905) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
    • Enumeration Districts 2a and 2b [including Workhouses].
    • Enumeration District 2c, 2d and 2e.
• 1861. The 1861 Census of St Columb Major (RG9/1542) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • Enumeration Districts 1 and 2.
  • Enumeration Districts 3 [including Workhouse] and 4.
• 1871. The 1871 Census of St Columb Major is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • RG10/2255. Enumeration Districts 1k, 2c, 3d [including Workhouses], and 4c.
  • RG10/2256. Merchant Shipping at St Columb.
• 1881. The 1881 Census of St Columb Major (RG11/2296) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • Enumeration Districts 1 [including Workhouse] to 4.
  • Enumeration District 5.
• 1891. The 1891 Census of St Columb Major (RG12/1819) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • Enumeration Districts 1 to 3 (including Workhouse).
  • Enumeration Districts 4 to 6 (including schools).

• Anglican. The parish church is located in OS Grid Square SW9163 and is supposed to be dedicated to St Columba the Virgin, but there is no written record of this; adjacent to the parish is the smaller parish of St Columb Minor. It is not known whom St Columba was, but some historians believe she may have been a French saint. Like the majority of Cornish Churches, the Parish Church of St Columb is dedicated in the name of a Celtic Saint-Columba. She was a holy woman who probably came from Ireland to preach the Gospel to fellow Celts here and in Brittany. According to tradition Columba was pursued up the river by a heathen tyrant who wished her to marry his son, and was martyred at Ruthvoes, about 2 1/2 miles from St Columb Town. (Columba in Latin means a Dove- the emblem of tenderness and purity).
  The church occupies a splendid position at the head of the Vale of Lanherne. The site was quite possibly a large tumulus or burying place in pre-Christian times. but we know that a church has occupied it for at least 1000 years.
  The church building has a cathedral-like appearance; it was erected in about the 12th century. It comprises a chancel, north and south chancel aisles, north and south transepts, nave, and north and south aisles. The chancel arcades are of two arches each, and the nave arcades each of three lofty pointed arches. The material is chiefly Pentewan stone, but occasionally Caen stone is used. The aisles are separated from the transepts by transverse arches. The south chancel aisle was formerly a peculiar chapel for the Arundell family, and thereunder several of them are buried. In 1676 some youths set fire to a store of gunpowder which was kept in the church for defence which resulted in their death and great damage to the church. Money was raised locally and the church was rebuilt. In the course of further repairs in 1846, much medieval frescos (wall paintings) were discovered.
  The tower stands about 80 feet in height and is unusually built with a passage beneath, wide enough to admit carts; it formed a right of way to parishioners to the college. It is of three stages; the first stage is open - having north and south arches. It is buttressed on the square, has battlements and pinnacles and contains eight bells. The tower was damaged by lightning in 1690.
  
  A chapel in this parish, dedicated to St Thomas, was licensed on 21st December 1374. The Arundell chapel, attached to the church, is said to have been built by Refry Arundell, who died in 1310, and for whom there was formerly a memorial in the church.
• Non-Conformist. There were several non-conformist chapels in the parish.

• LDS Church Records.
  • The LDS Church batch numbers for St Columb Major are: C031221, Bethesda Chapel Independent C065381. These are searchable by surname.
  • The IGI coverage of this parish is 1540 - 1780; it is NOT believed to be fully included in the LDS Church's International Genealogical Index (IGI).
• The Cornwall Record Office holdings: Baptisms 1540 - 1964, Burials 1539 - 1965, Marriages 1544 - 1970, Boyd's Marriage Index 1539 - 1812, Pallot's Marriage Index 1800 - 1812, Non-Conformist records 1795 - 1837.
• The Cornwall Family History Society have published on-line transcripts of:
  • 1813-37 Marriages
  • 1813-37 Burials
• Baptisms.
  • Baptisms 1683 to 1772 (Bishop's transcripts), 1813 to 1850, and 1862 to 1911, for this parish are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • St Columb Wesleyan Methodist baptisms 1839 to 1853, Wesleyan baptisms 1908 to 1912, Newquay and St Columb Wesleyan Methodist baptisms 1857 to 1902, are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • The Cornish Forefathers' Society have published on CD baptisms 1680 to 1780 for this parish which can be purchased on Parish Chest.
• Marriages.
  • Marriages 1683 to 1772 (Bishop's transcripts), Phillimore's marriages 1781 to 1812, and parish transcriptions 1650 to 1824 and 1837 to 1900, 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 1544 to 1837, which is available in CD or downloadable .pdf file formats.
  • The Cornish Forefathers' Society have published on CD marriages, 1598 to 1780, for this parish which can be purchased on Parish Chest..
• Burials.
  • Burials 1539 to 1551, 1571 to 1930, and 1683 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 CD or Book formats.
• Other Non-Conformist Records. OPC Coverage of Non-Conformist records of this parish is available.
• Mixed Records.
  • The registers of the parish of St. Columb Major, Cornwall, from the year 1539 to 1780, by Arthur A. Jewers (Published 1881), are available on-line, courtesy of the Old Cornwall Society.
  • Esther Scott has produced a list of some baptisms, marriages and burials, which are recorded in the St Columb Major parish registers.

The parish of St Columb Major was originally in the St Columb Registration District. There were sub-districts at Newlyn, Padstow and St Columb Major, but these have now been abolished. It is now in the Registration District of St Austell. Parishes within the old St Columb district were: Colan, Crantock, Cubert, Little Petherick, Mawgan-in-Pydar, Newlyn, Newquay, Padstow, St. Breock, St. Columb Major, St. Columb Minor, St. Enoder, St. Ervan, St. Eval, St. Issey, St. Merryn, St. Wenn.

The Superintendant Registrar of St Austell can be contacted at: 12 Carlyon Road, St Austell, PL25 4LD. Tel: 01726 68974. Fax: 01726 68974.

• The registers of the parish of St. Columb Major, Cornwall, from the year 1539 to 1780, by Arthur A. Jewers (Published 1881), is available on-line, courtesy of the Old Cornwall Society.
• Photographs of St Columb Major are available on-line.
• There is a website devoted to St Columb Major, which includes some items of historic interest.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from St Columb Major 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.
• British-Genealogy also have a mailing list for those wanting to discuss ancestry in St Columb Major.

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 St Columb Major ecclesiastical parish:

• Carworgie (Careuurga, Carewrge, Carevrga), Grid Reference 904602.
• Trevornick (Trefornoc, Trefoznohc), Grid Reference 927653.

Family Deeds. The Family Deeds Project provides a large amount of FREE online information to help you with your family history using information contained in our collection of old deeds and documents. These documents can contain a wealth of information for family historians and so the Family Deeds project was created with the aim of trying to preserve some of that information and make it easily available to all. The deeds relating to St Columb are on-line.

• Map of the St Austell Registration district in which the parish lies.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SW916630 (Lat/Lon: 50.429976, -4.936048), St Columb Major 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.

• St Columb Major parish was part of the St Columb Major Union for Poor Law administration and parish relief; this workhouse was located within this parish.
• The St Columb Major Union Workhouse was built in about 1840 on a site at the north of St Columb Major. It was designed by George Gilbert Scott and his partner William Bonython Moffatt who were also the architects for other Cornish workhouses. Intended to accommodate 150 inmates, the Poor Law Commissioners authorised the sum of £5,150 on its construction.
  The Union comprised the parishes of St Breock, St Columb Major, St Columb Minor, Colan, Crantock, Cubert, St Ervan, St Eval, St Enoder, St Issey, Little Petherick, St Merryn, Mawgan-in-Pydar, Newlyn East, Padstow and St Wenn.
• Overseers' Accounts (1828 to 1856) for St Columb Major parish are available in the Cornwall Record Office.

The St Columb Major Old Cornwall Society News Page is on-line.

The parish comprises 12875 acres of land and 9 acres of water.