Scottish Miners in Cornwall

[Forfarian]

Interesting. The Newcastle may be Newcastleton, a tiny village near Canonbie in Scotland.

That thought crossed my mind too, but it's not exactly a hotbed of mining activity.

In 1841 John Marks says he was born in Cornwall
in 1851 he says Scotland
in 1861 he says Scotland, Newcastle

[hdw]

Someone may come forward with a ref to an article or thesis on the subject. Many years ago I obtained some info re Jacobite prisoners who dug the Fenland drainage system in East Anglia. From memory, some stayed on following their release. It's amazing how often someone has written up a subject, however obscure!

Talking of which, in 1988 I wrote an article for the journal of the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society entitled "Newcastle Keelmen in the Eighteenth Century: the Scottish connection". The keelmen loaded coal at the colliery and took it downriver to the ships that were waiting to transport it to its final destination. The Tyne & Wear archives have lists of the keelmen, their names and parishes of origin, and in the mid-18th century 55% of them were Scots.

Harry

[castlebob]

Quote from Forfarian:  "That thought crossed my mind too, but Newcastleton is not exactly a hotbed of mining activity."


Not a hot-bed, Forfarian, but the Duke of Buccleuch opened mines in the Canonbie area in the 1770s. Archerbeck, Byreburnfoot and Canonbie Colliery itself were some.

[Forfarian]

Quote from Forfarian:  "That thought crossed my mind too, but Newcastleton is not exactly a hotbed of mining activity."

Not a hot-bed, Forfarian, but the Duke of Buccleuch opened mines in the Canonbie area in the 1770s. Archerbeck, Byreburnfoot and Canonbie Colliery itself were some.

All on this map https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=15&lat=55.09042&lon=-2.93328&layers=5&b=1 which, geologically, is on the Pennine Upper Coal Measures

Newcastleton is on older, non-coal-bearing sandstones and volcanic rocks. It would be quite possible to walk from Newcastleton to Canonbie, which is only 10 miles, but you wouldn't want to do that twice a day at all times of year, so if John Marks was born in Newcastleton he might have moved to the Canonbie area to work there, and from there to Cornwall.

Would a coal miner be able to transfer his skills easily from mining coal to mining tin and other metals?

[castlebob]

As you probably know, Buccleuch cleared old Castleton & built Newcastleton for his workers. Folk who would normally have had children born & raised in Canonbie may well have been 'persuaded' to relocate.
I imagine mining skills would be fairly easy to transfer from one to the other, but I'm no expert. My wife watched 'Poldark' so might know more than me!!!

[MonicaL]

Bob, re the 18th C, I saw on another RootsChat thread:

.....NB. Until late 18thC Scottish miners were bonded labour. Only after the law on bonded labour was abolished was there free movement of labour for Scottish miners....

Monica

[castlebob]

Many thanks for that link. Very interesting.
Cheers,
Bob

[Chezhank]

Hello,
I'm new to this group, but just had to sign up to chat, as The John Marks you are discussing was my 3rd great-grandfather. My mum was Cornish and comes from many generations of miners in Camborne and surrounding areas.

Regarding John Marks. The census info may seem inconsistent, but it is not really.

1841 was the first ever UK census and asked only "Born in same county?" with a Yes/No answer and the census taker seems to have merrily put 'Y' next to every entry.

In 1851 it asks "Where born?" and for John Marks it says Scotland.

In 1861 more detail is given, this time "Scotland, Newcastle".

We all thought this very odd, but can clear it up.
No one who was born in a small village in Cornwall will say they are from Scotland! He must be from Scotland!

I have since discovered that there is a place called Newcastle in Glenrothes, Fife and that it was a coal mining community.

I don't have much more to tell, but I think we can say that YES, Scottish miners did go to work in Cornwall.

Regards,
  Katie.

[Forfarian]

There are two places called Newcastle in Fife according to www.scotlandsplaces - one in the parish of Dunfermline and one in the parish of Kinglassie.