I have recently become interested in my Cornish/Devon ancestors; a group I’d largely neglected as they have the surname Brown. There is now a page for them on my website and over time I intend to write blog posts about various members of the family. This post is about George, my 3^rd great grandfather, who was born in Cornwall to parents Ambrose Brown (1787-1862) and Thomasin Friendship. He was baptised on 24 February 1811 in Maker, Cornwall. The following OS map (OS sheet 348 Plymouth d ca. 1892) has been annotated with a number of locations where he lived with his family in the 19^th century.

George married Elizabeth Small Burt (1812-1894) on 21 March 1832 in Stoke Damerel, Devon. George and Elizabeth had at least six children although not all of them reached their teens. A combination of baptism, birth, census and death records revealed a number of locations where the family lived, as well as George’s occupation:

• 25 July 1833 – daughter Thomasin Elizabeth Brown baptised in the Wesleyan chapel, Morice St, Devonport. George and Elizabeth were both named on the record; George was a ropemaker from Millbrook, Cornwall.
• 5 April 1835 – daughter Eliza Jane Brown baptised in Millbrook, Cornwall. George and Elizabeth were from Maker, Cornwall.
• 2 April 1838 – son George William Burt Brown born at 12 Portland Place in the parish of Stoke Damerel; father George a ropemaker. Son George died on 6 June 1839 of disease of the brain. The family were living at 26 Garden St in the parish of Stoke Damerel. Father George was described as a ropemaker in Her Majesty’s dockyard.
• October 1840 – son George William Brown born at 26 Garden St in the parish of Stoke Damerel. Father George a ropemaker.
• 6 June 1841 census – George, a ropemaker, Elizabeth and three children living in Garden St, Devonport.
• 6 March 1842 marks the death of son George William Brown of inflammation. The family were living at 32 Navy Row, Morice Town and father George was described as a ropemaker.
• 30 October 1842 – son John Edwin Small Brown born at 32 Navy Row, Morice Town. Father George a ropemaker.
• 30 December 1844 – daughter Elizabeth Small Brown born at 7 York Place, Stoke Damerel. Father George a ropemaker in the Devonport dockyard.
• 30 March 1851 census – George, Elizabeth and four children living in Harvey St, Antony, Cornwall with George described as a ropemaker.

Until at least 1851 George worked in the Devonport dockyard, probably in the East Rope house. It was completely open plan and comprised 57 bays with cellars and three stories. Ropemaking involved taking hemp fibres and twisting them into strands and then twisting the strands into ropes. This was achieved by using a machine to rotate the hemp fibres as the men walked backwards along a ropewalk while releasing their supply of hemp. (The following OS map Devonshire sheet CXXXIII date 1867 shows the location of the dockyard as well as other places linked to the Brown family).

By the 1861 census George, Elizabeth, daughter Elizabeth and grandson William Turner (1854-1922) were living at 39 Princes St, Portsea, Hampshire, where George was described as a sawyer. This is no doubt where Elizabeth met and married my 2^nd great grandfather Francis Ellis (1839-1925).

In the 1871 census George and Elizabeth had moved back to Cornwall. They were living in St Andrew St or Back St in Maker and George was a ropemaker pensioner. George died on 14 August 1879 at St Andrews St, Millbrook Maker. He had been suffering from Phthisis Pulmonalis (tuberculosis) for four years and exhaustion for six months. It is possible that the 1861 census record of George’s occupation is incorrect as, when his death was registered by his daughter Elizabeth, he was described as formerly a ropemaker at HM Dockyard Portsmouth.

Do let me know if you have any stories about them which you are willing to share with me.

Note: the maps used in this blog has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the following creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and sourced from the NLS maps site https://maps.nls.uk/.

Bibliography:

Bennett, George. (2017) Dockyard, Naval Base and Town: The Social and Political Dynamics of Plymouth 1800-1950. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/10135 : accessed June 2023.

Births, marriages and deaths. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed June 2023.

Census records. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed June 2023.

Cornwall On-line Parish Clerks. https://www.opc-cornwall.org/ : accessed June 2023.

Devonport naval dockyard. https://navaldockyards.org/devonport-dockyard/ : accessed June 2023.

East Rope House, Devonport. http://www.olddevonport.uk/Royal%20Dockyard-South%20Yard-East%20Rope%20House%20S%20132.htm : accessed June 2023.

England and Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed June 2023.

Lewis, Samuel ed. (1848) A Topological Directory of England. London: Lewis. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england : accessed June 2023.

Maker. https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CON/Maker : accessed June 2023.

OS Maps. https://maps.nls.uk/ : accessed June 2023.

Probate records. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed June 2023.

Rame. https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CON/Rame : accessed June 2023.

Stoke Damerel. https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/StokeDamerel : accessed June 2023.