mine owners?or not

[dwalin]

 ;Dhi can any one point me in the right direction .i have  recently  found out that my ggggrandads possibly owened a mine in poldice cornwall.there names were.


james brown 1767 and philip harris 1770.james son married philips daughter.

james brown 1809 and elizabeth harris 1809 .
im wondering if they owned toghether or seperatly and which mine was it they owned.i know that by 1871 they had lost the mine as james 1809 was a drunk .any help or advice would be great.
thank you

[jorose]

Have you found them in earlier censuses?  Presumably from 1871 you have James and Elizabeth's birthplaces, and you probably have some idea of birthdates/birthplaces for their child/children, so you should be able to find them (have you tried freecen for the 1841?).  Maybe 1841/1851 would give you a better idea of what James' main occupation was.

What was the source that suggested to you that they owned a mine?  There was(is) a mine called Poldice, it is in the Redruth/Gwennap area. 

http://www.mindat.org/sitepicshow.php?id=597 - nice photo of the area.
http://www.trevithick-society.org.uk/industry/poldicearsenic.htm - some history of Poldice mine.  There were lots of mines in the area, of course.

[dwalin]

hi thank you for your reply i have indeed found them in the census .i am struggling to find them owning a mine though.it was someone who has been researching the name also that told me they owned a mine.(i have to admit i was quite surprised asmost of my ancesters worked down the mine)this is why i posted on rootschat as your answers are so down to earth.thanks.this is my lot if any one has any info on the sopposed mine.

JAMES BROWN  & ELIZABETH
had the following children baptised in Redruth

JANE BROWN -  20 MAY 1804 Redruth
ANN BROWN -  Christening: 01 FEB 1807 Redruth
JAMES BROWN -  26 MAR 1809 Redruth
   m  ELIZABETH HARRIS: 21 NOV 1831  Redruth (these are mine)
STEPHEN BROWN - 28 JAN 1812 Redruth


1841 Census

Piece: HO107/137/12 Place: Kerrier-Cornwall
Enumeration District: 23
Civil Parish: Gwennap Ecclesiastical Parish: -
Folio: 24 Page: 4
Address: Vogue

    BROWN   James      M   33    Cornwall    Copper Miner
    BROWN   Elizabeth   F   34     Cornwall
    BROWN   Jn            M   10      Cornwall
    BROWN   Elizabeth   F   6       Cornwall
    BROWN   Carle        F   3       Cornwall
    BROWN   James      M   1       Cornwall
    POOLE   James        M   45     Cornwall

1861
Carnmarth
James Brown        Head  M  50 Miner Gwennap [c1811]
Elizabeth Brown    Wife   M  57     -    Gwennap [c1804]
John Henry Brown Son    -     5      -    Gwennap [c 1856]
Mary Ann Brown   Dau    -   15     -     Gwennap [c1846]

[jorose]

The address in 1841 is interesting! There was a Vogue Mine in Gwennap - in the 1700s a family named Gregor owned it as shown here:

http://freespace.virgin.net/paul.mansfield1/sher74gm.txt

I would find it unlikely that the family had owned a mine in about the time of James Brown and Elizabeth Harris.  Especially if James was the eldest son and should have been first in line to inherit.  Unless somebody went bankrupt, that was!

From the Quarter Sessions, (www.a2a.org.uk), the owners in the 1820s were 'John Williams and Partners'

   FILE - Quarter Sessions Order Book - ref.  QS/1/11  - date: April 1825-Jan 1831
      item: Sessions held at Lostwithiel - ref.  QS/1/11/31-65  - date: 12 July 1825
         hit[from Scope and Content] Elizabeth Waters, Jane Waters, and Ann Waters all of Kenwyn, singlewomen, indicted for taking various items including two pieces of an iron sledge, property of John Williams and his partners in Poldice Mine, Kenwyn: All received three months' hard labour in Bodmin gaol.
      item: Sessions held at Lostwithiel - ref.  QS/1/11/137-167  - date: 11 July 1826
         hit[from Scope and Content] Gooden Tuffery of Falmouth, lab. indicted for taking a brass valve, value 6d., property of John Williams and his partners in Poldice Mine, Gwennap: four months' hard labour in Bodmin gaol.
      item: Sessions held at Bodmin - ref.  QS/1/11/168-191  - date: 17 October 1826
         hit[from Scope and Content] William Waters of Kenwyn, lab., indicted for stealing a brass pivot, value 6d., property of John Williams and his partners in Poldice mine in Gwennap and Kenwyn: three months' hard labour in Bodmin gaol.

There are also some notes, though, on a2a of people owning shares in Poldice - 1/30 share, 1/62 share.  Also a William Harris was the owner, along with 'others' (in 1790), of 50lbs of copper and 50lbs of other ore, which was stolen by Christopher Harris of Kenwyn and Samuel Stodden of St. Agnes - they were whipped at Poldice mine for the crime.

Easy to mix up different lines of people called Brown and Harris, but it's quite possible that there was a family of Harris who had some share in Poldice at one point - who Elizabeth and Phillip might link back into.  Can't find any link to Browns.