(Including the modern parish of Pendeen)

• Statistics
• “Online Parish Clerk”
• Links
• The Domesday Book (1086)
• Glebe terriers 1679 & 1728
• Hals’ History of Cornwall (c1730)
• Lysons’ History & Topography (1814)
• The Topographical Dictionary of England (1831)
• Kelly’s Directory (1856)
• Blight’s Churches of West Cornwall (1864)
• Lake’s Parochial History (1868)
• Kelly’s Directory (1873)
• Kelly’s Directory (1883)
• Kelly’s Directory (1893) also Pendeen
• The flooding of Wheal Owles (1893)
• Detailed map of the parish (90K)
• The Parish in Context (44K)
• Gazetteer
• Picture Gallery, In and around the Parish Church
• Baptism Registers (Transcript Pendeen 1849–1903)
• Marriage Registers (Transcript 1599–1900, alternative Transcript 1854–72 also Pendeen 1854–1901)
• Burial Registers (Transcript 1837–49)
• Monumental Inscriptions
• The Diary of the Sexton, 1893–1902
• The Clergy, 1333—
• Methodist Chapels

Some records of the manors and mines shown on the detailed map are available for study.

Not to be confused with the parish of St. Just in Roseland, also in Cornwall.

When talking about some clergy problems had by Bishop de Grandisson in about 1335, [Gethyn-Jones 1978] says “one of whom he banished to the parish of St. Just in Penwith, near Lands End—literally to the ends of the ends of the earth!”

Statistics

With the current boundaries the area is now 7,622 acres plus 12 acres of water and 117 of foreshore including the ecclesiastical parish of Pendeen that was separated off in 1849 [GENUKI 1997]. In 1868, Polsue had very similar figures and stated that 7, 391 acres. In 1817 there were 606 houses. All these figures include the modern parish of Pendeen. The population of St. Just has varied much over the years with the rise and decline of the mining.

The later figures were obtained from from the County Socio-Economic Statistics of St. Just civil parish.

Online Parish Clerk

A new (Jan 2001) initiative that has started in Cornwall is the Online Parish Clerk. One person is encouraged from the CORNISH-L or CORNISH-GEN-L mailing list to be the custodian of historical records, including transcripts of registers, for each parish and will supply extracts to researchers as they need them. This person may be geographically distant from the parish, but their heart will be there. Parish information, Pendeen

Links

There are a number of personal web sites dedicated to the beauties of St. Just

Norton Mede is sponsored and designed by a guest house proprieter.

The St. Just Town Council site.

Alan Bain has a personal view (Link broken Sep 2005) of the town with a lot of pictures.

Another view is offered by Pete Joseph on his St. Just Online (Link broken Sep 2005) site which has some good stuff on mining, a page for the St. Just and Pendeen Old Cornwall Society, the "Outreach" Pendeen Parish Magazine, the "Compas" Coast Watch magazine and some transcribed census, lookups available by email. Ever industrious, he also has a site about The Mining district of St. Just (Link broken Sep 2005).

The Cornish Mining World Heritage Site has some superb pictures of the St. Just district by Adam Sharpe and some interesting pages supporting this bid.

The independent web site for Levant Mine by Peter Savage, one of the volunteers hasn't been updated since 2001 and is expected to be relocated at a new address soon. Owned by the National Trust, the working steam beam engine is run and the site managed by local volunteers.

The Trevithick Trust has a page devoted to Geevor Mine, but it is now managed by Pendeen Community Heritage. .

SOSKernow (friends of Cornwall) have a detailed history of St. Just church and a page about Levant mine.

www.TinMining.co.uk has sections on the Submarine Mines of the St. Just District, the St. Just Mines Research Group, Geevor etc. A “Mine” of information.

The Lafrowda Festival happens every year in July.

St. Just History is a fee charging research service which specialises in the district. Helen Davies, who runs it, is also secretary of the…

…St. Just and District Trust which now has it's own web site.

See also the general West Penwith Links.

There is also a St. Just in Roseland also in Cornwall (not to be confused with this one) and a Sant Just in Barcelona, Spain.

Domesday & other notes

Domesday Book, folio 122d, chapter 5, part 3, paragraph 28 [James 1861].

Translation — He (Richard son of Thorolf) also holds CHELENOCH (Kelynack, from the Count of Mortain). Godric held it in the time of King Edward (before 1066), and paid tax for ½ hide; 1 hide (120 acres) there, however. Land for 8 ploughs; 5 ploughs there (with, perhaps, 8 oxen each); 5 slaves; 10 smallholders and 6 villagers. Pasture, 100 acres. Formerly 30s; value now 20s. Exon Domesday adds that 1 virgate (30 acres) and 1 plough were worked by the lord, the remainder by the villagers and that there were “2 unbroken mares; 6 cattle; 1 pig; 25 sheep”. [Thorn 1979].

Domesday Book, folio 124a, chapter 5, part 12, paragraph 3 [James 1861].

Translation — He (Erchenbald) also holds BREA (from the Count of Mortain). Doda held it in the time of King Edward (before 1066), and paid tax for 1 furlong; ½ hide (60 acres) there, however. Land for 3 ploughs (requiring, perhaps, 8 oxen each); 1½ ploughs there; 3 slaves, with 1 villager and 5 smallholders. Pasture, 40 acres. Formerly 20s; value now 12s 6d. Exon Domesday adds that 1 plough was held by the lord, the remainder by the villagers and that there were “4 cattle; 4 pig; 25 sheep”. [Thorn 1979].

Lysons’ History & Topography—1814

The following description is lifted directly from [Lysons 1814]. It must be read in the context of that date.

St. Just, in the deanery and in the west division of the hundred of Penwith, is situated eleven miles nearly south-west of St. Ives, and about seven nearly west of Penzance, which is the post-office town. The principal villages in this parish, exclusively of the church-town, which is called St. Just, otherwise La Frowda, are Betallack, Bosavern, Brea, Kelinack, Pendeen, and Trewellard.

The manor of Kelinack, of Killenick, belonged successively to the families of Longeland^b and Hankford; from the latter, it passed by a female heir to the Bourchiers, Lords Fitzwarren and Earls of Bath. This manor has been dismembered: it was sold piecemeal under a decree of the Court of Chancery about the year 1720.

Pendeen, a seat of the Borlases, and the birth-place of Dr. Borlase the Cornish historian, is now a farm-house, the property of his grandson John Borlase, Esq. Botallack, some time a seat of the Usticks, is now a farm-house, belonging to Lord Falmouth. Bosvargus, the seat of a family of that name, was inherited by the learned Jonathan Toup, rector of St. Martin’s, near Looe: it is now a farm-house, belonging to Mr. Nicholls of Looe, who married one of his nieces. Brea, supposed to have been the original seat of the family of Brea or Bray, is now a farm-house, belonging to William Ellis, Esq.

The great tythes of St. Just, which were appropriated to Glaseney-College, are now vested in John Borlase, Esq. The vicarage is in the gift of the crown. In this parish are the ruins of Chapel-Carne-Brê, built on a singularly large cairn. On the plain above Cape-Cornwall, which is in this parish, are the remains of an ancient chapel called Parken chapel, forty-five feet by twelve, with a chapel-yard^d. Dr. Borlase speaks of a third at Breh, which had been converted into a dwelling house.

b John Longeland died 3 Ric. II., seised (jointly with Isabella his wife) of the manor of Keleynek, held of Robert Chambron. Esch.

d Dr. Borlase’s MS. Collections.

Additions and Corrections

The proprietors of Bosvargus are, Nicholas Harris Nicholas, Esq., and Mrs. Ann Nicholas, widow. Pendeen and the great tithes are now the property of Samuel Borlase, a minor, son of the late John Borlase, Esq. On the Botallack estate is a celebrated tin and copper mine, extending to a considerable distance under the sea.

Topographical Dictionary of England—1831

The following is from [Lewis 1831] and must be read in the context of that date.

JUST (ST.), a parish in the hundred of Penwith county of Cornwall, 7 miles (W. by N.) from Penzance, containing 3666 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Cornwall, and diocese of Exeter, rated in the king’s books at £11. 11. 0½., and in the patronage of the Crown. There is a school with a small endowment. Mines were worked here at a very early period; and near the spot about one hundred copper coins were found, in the early part of the last century. On the Botallock estate is a famous tin and copper mine, which extends a considerable distance under the sea. Here are the ruins of Chapel Carne Bré, built on a very large cairn, or tumulus; and on the plain above Cape Cornwall, which is the extreme western point, are those of an ancient chapel, called Parken chapel, with a cemetery. The parish is bounded on the west by the Western ocean. Dr. William Borlase, the Cornish antiquary and naturalist, was a native of Pendeen, in this parish, where his family resided.