Maker

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 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].
• 1901. The 1901 Census of Maker is available on-line by courtesy of the Rame Peninsular History Group.

• 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.
  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.

• 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.
  • Baptisms 1867 to 1889 for this parish are available on-line through the OPC search Facility - (C-PROP).
  • The Parish Chest 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.
• 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.

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, Saltash, Cornwall, PL12 6DL. Tel: 01752 842624.

• 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].

• Geograph
• Flickr

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

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Maker 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 OPC has produced a genealogical website for the parish.

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 Maker ecclesiastical parish:

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

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]

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

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference SX441519 (Lat/Lon: 50.346506, -4.192497), Maker 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.

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

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

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