Cornwall

Devon

Nearby places

Maker

"MAKER parish, which occupies a great part of the bold promontory and peninsula, which juts out into the English Channel on the west side of Plymouth Sound, and the south side of the harbour of Hamoaze, opposite Stonehouse and Devonport, is partly in Cornwall, and contains 2725 inhabitants and 2260 acres of land, of which 1156 souls and about 1320 acres are in VAULTERSHOME tithing, which is in Devonshire, and includes the beautiful seat of Mount Edgcumbe, the parish church, the village of Kingsand, and part of Millbrook. The whole parish was in the Archdeaconry of Cornwall and Deanery of East, and the Union of St Germans...
The Parish church of Maker is dedicated to St. Macra, and the living is a discharged vicarage, valued at £2333, in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and the incumbency of the Rev. Edward Trelawney, M.A." [From: White's History, Gazetteer and Directory of Devonshire, 1850]

The name of the parish, (Cornish: Magor), is said to have been derived from either St Macarius, a native of Egypt, who flourished in the 14th century, or from St Macra, the virgin daughter of a Scottish King, who was martyred at Rheims in AF 304. It is bounded on the north by St John's Lake, on the east by Plymouth Sound and on the south by the parish of Rame and the sea. Peskett: "The tithing of Vaulterhome was in the county of Devon until it was transferred to Cornwall in 1844. Millbrook and West Stonehouse (distinguish East Stonehouse) are in this parish." Millbrook was created from part of Maker in 1867.

The parish, which in 1943 was united with that of Rame, is in the extreme south-east of Cornwall separated from Plymouth by the stretch of water known as 'Plymouth Sound'. The two villages in Maker and Rame are Kingsand and Cawsand.

A few fisherman were settled here in 1483 when Henry Tudor, later Henry VII, landed here briefly as part of an abortive attempt to overthrow Richard III. The real influx of people began when Plymouth merchants built pilchard cellars along the beach (still here) in Elizabeth I's reign and in the next two centuries smuggling flourished, the goods obtained both from cross-Channel trips and incoming merchantmen. The villages were the headquarters of West Country free trade, finally suppressed by 1850. Kingsand was still in Devon until 1844 and the boundary stone between the two counties is still opposite the Halfway Hotel, separating Turk Town (Cawsand) and the North Rockers (Kingsand). Intense rivalry between the two villages continued well into the 20th century.

Maker was united with Rame parish in 1943 to form Maker-with-Rame parish. For civilMaker-with-Rame is now part of the Caradon District Council.

Further information on Maker is available.

Bibliography

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).

Return to top of page

Cemeteries

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

Return to top of page

Census

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. The Cornwall Family History Society have also published on-line census detail by surname on the FamilyHistoryonLine site.

Specific census information for this parish is available as follows:

• 1841.
  • The 1841 Census of Maker (HO107/135), Enumeration Districts 5 and 6, is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
  • The 1841 census for this parish has been filmed by the LDS church - film No. 241259.
• 1851.
  • The 1851 Census of Maker (HO107/1900), Enumeration Districts 1a, 1b, and 2 (Barracks) 2a, 2b (all Tything of Vaultershome), 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; Maker 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.
• 1861. The 1861 Census of Maker (RG9/1522) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • Enumeration Districts 1e, and 2e.
  • Enumeration Districts 3b, and 4 [Barracks].
• 1871. The 1871 Census of Maker is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • RG10/2228. Enumeration Districts 3 and 4 [including Barracks].
  • RG10/2229. Barracks.
• 1881. The 1881 Census of Maker (RG11/2279), Enumeration Districts 3 [including Barracks] and 4 [including Barracks], is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project.
• 1891. The 1891 Census of Maker (RG12/1806) is available on-line from the Cornwall Online Census project as follows:
  • Enumeration Districts 3, 3 [including Barracks], and 4,.
  • Enumeration District 10 [including Barracks].

Return to top of page

Church History

• Anglican. The parish church is located in OS Grid Square SX4452; it is dedicated to St Mary and St Julian. It comprises a chancel, nave, north and south aisles, north and south transepts and three western galleries. The arcades consist of five four-centred arches each supported on monlith granite pillars. On the front of the galleries, one of which was appropriated to the Mount Edgecumbe family, are painted shields bearing the Edgcumbe arms with those of Furnesse, Walpole amd Rolle. There is a south porch; the north door and priest's door are blocked. The Tower, which has three stages, is 65 feet in height. It is buttressed, the buttresses terminating in pinnacles, and is finished with battlements and crocketted pinnacles. The present church is a typical 15th Century Cornish Church; in 1874 the Edgcumbe chapel was added.
  Details about the plans of the modern church are available on-line.
  The following books about the church are available:
  • Two towers: a short history of the churches and parish of Maker with Rame. [Maker?] : [Maker Church?] [1990] [Westcountry Studies Library - pC/MAK/0001/TWO].
  • The parish of Maker with Rame and its parish churches (Rev ed.) Guildford: Home Words Ltd (1966 )
  There was a chapel-of-ease to Maker at Egloshele in the village of Kingsand. It was built in 1882 and has two stained windows and sitting for 300 people.
• Non-Conformist. The Wesleyans had a chapel and Sunday School in Kingsand.

Return to top of page

Church Records

• 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].
• Indices 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.
• LDS Church Records.
  • The LDS Church batch numbers for Maker are: C052871/2, C026431, E052871, M052871, Cawsand Independent chapel C065071. These are searchable by surname.
  • The IGI coverage of this parish is 1630 - 1837.
• Parish Registers. The parish registers, going back to 1630, are held in the Cornwall Record Office. The Devon Record Office has copies of the Bishops' Transcripts - for details see Parish Registers in the Devon Record Office.
• The Cornwall Record Office holdings are: Baptisms 1630 - 1843, Burials 1630 - 1849, Marriages 1630 - 1837, Boyd's Marriage Index 1637 - 1673, BTs 1607 - 1673.
• The Cornwall Family History Society have published on-line transcripts of:
  • 1813-37 Marriages
  • 1813-37 Burials.
• Baptisms.
  • The Cornish Forefathers' Society have published on CD, baptisms 1744 to 1841 for this parish.
  • The Plymouth Record Office holdings of records in this parish: Kingsand Wesleyan Methodist Baptisms 1842-1967.
  • Baptisms of Maker (1744 to 1841) are available on fiche from the Cornish Forefathers' Society.
• Marriages. The Cornwall Family History Society have published transcripts of: Parish Marriages 1607 to 1837, which is available in CD or downloadable .pdf file formats.
• Burials. The Cornwall Family History Society have published transcripts of: Parish Marriages 1813 to 1837, which is available in Book format.

Return to top of page

Civil Registration

The parish of Maker 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, St Germans, Cornwall. Tel: 01752 842624.

Return to top of page

Description & Travel

• ePodunk's Cornwall page - providing general, plus some historical and genealogical information, about Cornwall and its parishes, together with links (mainly relating to general sites and services, rather than ones that are specific to Cornwall or particular parishes).
• Campbell-Culver, Margaret. Mount Edgcumbe. Maker: Mount Edgcumbe House (1993) 35p: col ill, maps [ISBN 0952188007] [Westcountry Studies Library - px728.8/MAK/MOU].
• Crossing, William. Mount Edgcumbe Park: historical - descriptive - pictorial. Plymouth: Hoyten & Cole [1900?] 17p. [Westcountry Studies Library - 712.5/PLY/CRO].
• Manpower Services Commission. Survey of Mount Edgcumbe, Cornwall. Truro: Cornwall County Council (1984) v, 63p: maps [Plymouth Library - 72].
• A walk round Mount Edgecumbe (2nd ed). Plymouth Dock: L.Congdon (1805) 36p. [Westcountry Studies Library - sB/PLY 1/1805/PLY].
• History and guide to Mount Edgecumbe House & Country Park. Cornwall County Council (19--) 15p: ill [Plymouth Library - 728.8MOU].

Return to top of page

Directories

• An extract about the parish from White's Devonshire Directory of 1850 is available on-line.

Return to top of page

Genealogy

• 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 OPC has produced a genealogical website for the parish.

Return to top of page

Historical Geography

• Maker (Macretona, Macretone), Grid Reference 446520.

Return to top of page

History

The first Lord Mount Edgcumbe built Mount Edgcumbe House at Cremyll in 1552, but unfortunately it was bombed in the Second World War. The house was restored in 1960, but it is the magnificent gardens overlooking Plymouth Sound which are the main attraction for visitors. The Edgcumbe family have been major employers and benefactors of the parish since that early time, to the present day. The house and gardens are now jointly owned by Plymouth City and Cornwall County Councils.

In March 1587 a Spanish pinnace landed a raiding Party at Cawsand which tried to burn down the village, but one man with a musket put them to flight. In the Civil War Maker Church tower was fortified by the Royalist garrison of Mount Edgcumbe and was captured by the Plymouth Parliamentary forces in May 1644. For the next two centuries the Bay was a major anchorage for the British Navy - Nelson for instance in 1801. In the 18th century Maker Church tower was an Admiralty signal station with its own crew, passing messages by semaphore to Devonport Dockyard. Massive Fortifications of many centuries still dot the peninsula.

Useful books include:

Campbell-Culver, Margaret. Mount Edgcumbe. Maker: Mount Edgcumbe House (1993) 35p : col ill ,maps [ISBN 0952188007] [Westcountry Studies Library - px728.8/MAK/MOU]

Carne, Tony. Cornwall's Forgotten Corner- including Cawsand, Kingsand, Milbrook, St John & Sheviock, Rame, Tony Carne (1985) 132 p. [ISBN: 0 946143 13 7] [Kingsand and Millbrook make up the parish of Maker (formerly Devon). Mount Edgecumbe, Cremyl, etc., figure quite highly.]

Crossing, William. Mount Edgcumbe Park: historical - descriptive - pictorial. Plymouth: Hoyten & Cole [1900?] 17p. [Westcountry Studies Library - 712.5/PLY/CRO]

Manpower Services Commission. Survey of Mount Edgcumbe, Cornwall. Truro: Cornwall County Council (1984) v,63p : maps [Plymouth Library - 72]

Warwick, Jill and Warwick, Glyn, (Ed.). As it Was, Jill Warwick, Maker with Rame Women's Inst. (Printed by Liskeard Printing Company) (2000) 204 p.

A walk round Mount Edgecumbe (2nd ed.) Plymouth Dock: L.Congdon (1805) 36p. [Westcountry Studies Library - sB/PLY 1/1805/PLY]

History and guide to Mount Edgecumbe House & Country Park. Cornwall County Council (19--) 15p : ill [Plymouth Library - 728.8MOU.

The parish of Maker with Rame and its parish churches (rev ed.) Guildford: Home Words Ltd (1966)

Two towers: a short history of the churches and parish of Maker with Rame. [Maker?]: [Maker Church?] [1990]

Return to top of page

Maps

• Map of the St Germans Registration District in which the parish lies.
• An old map of the parish of Maker in the 19th century is also available.

Return to top of page

Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

Maker parish was part of the St Germans Union for Poor Law administration and parish relief.

Return to top of page

Population

Population figures are of Maker-with-Rame; some figures relate only to Maker. Millbrook parish was created from Maker in 1867.

Return to top of page

Societies

The Rame Peninsula 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.

Return to top of page

Statistics

The parish comprises 1297 acres of land, 6 acres of tidal water and 148 acres of foreshore.

Return to top of page

Are you lost in the GENUKI hierarchy or arrived here from a Search Engine?
If so, use the up-arrow(s) at the top of the page to go up the hierarchy.

Copyright and Disclaimer The information on the GENUKI (www.genuki.org.uk) website must not be used for commercial purposes, and all specific restrictions concerning usage, copyright notices, etc., that are to be found on individual information pages within GENUKI must be strictly adhered to. Violation of these rules could gravely harm the cooperation that GENUKI is obtaining from many information providers, and hence threaten its whole future. Whilst we take every care to keep the information on our web pages accurate, we disclaim any warranty or representation, express or implied about its accuracy, completeness or appropriateness for a particular purpose. Thus, you assume full responsibility for its use, and you understand and agree that neither GENUKI as an organisation nor any of its maintainers or providers are responsible or liable for any claim, loss or damage as a consequence. GENUKI contains many hyperlinks and directives to sites developed by others. They are provided for your convenience only. We do not control nor guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of such sites, and in the event of a link to such a site being 'broken', or otherwise unavailable, our only recourse is to remove that link. Thank you for your cooperation. GENUKI is a registered trademark of the charitable trust GENUKI - see About GENUKI as an Organisation.