What is inside?

Published at Bodmin in 1847 and compiled by the Vicar of Bodmin, John Wallis, the full title of this publication provides a clear insight into its contents: The Cornwall Register; containing Collections Relative to the Past and Present State of the 209 Parishes, forming the County, Archdeaconry, Parliamentary Divisions and Poor Law Unions of Cornwall. To this was added brief information on some of the adjoining towns situated in Devon from Hartland to Plymouth. The Cornwall Register is much more than an ecclesiastical register, although it also serves this purpose. The Cornwall Register for 1847 is a continuation of the Bodmin Register, first published in 1838, and the successor retained a particular interest, descriptive and statistical, in the parishes within the Bodmin area. Containing over 470 printed pages and a full index, the Cornwall Register is prefaced by an alphabetical list of the 209 parishes extant in Cornwall in 1847, their location on a map and population as per the 1841 Census of Population, the largest being Madron with 11, 144 and the smallest, Temple with a mere 37 souls. The Register continues with a description of the soon to be created Bishopric of Cornwall and the Tithe Apportionments returned to the 209 parishes in 1846, an alphabetical list of the clergy, their parish and benefice, followed by a chronological list of the same incumbents. Apart from ecclesiastical data and statistics, the Cornwall Register also contains a miscellany of historical information such as the assemblage of three rebel armies at Bodmin between 1497 and 1549, namely Flammock's, Perkins; and Arundel's and a description of each of these rebellions is given by the author in some detail, together with the names and heights of the mountains and hills, the rivers and streams, where they rise and empty and overall length of each. There follows a description of the 209 parishes of Cornwall arranged under their various deaneries, together with the statute area of each, the value of the benefice, accommodation of the incumbent, together with the amounts of 'collections for the Irish', for each. The remainder of the Cornwall Register, more than 200 pages, is dedicated a descriptions topographical, historical and statistical for each of the 209 and this perhaps presents the most interesting and substantial portion of the Register. These descriptions include an historical account of each parish from its inception, descriptions of the churches, history of the parishes' patrons, genealogy and any other outstanding feature both physical and historical, hence providing a detailed account of the of the county of Cornwall between the enumeration of the 1841 and 1851 Population Censuses. Republished here on fully searchable CD-Rom format, the Cornwall Register should appeal to anyone with an interest in the county in general, it parishes, but perhaps more especially the Bodmin area of the county.

• Church Records / Directories
• Great Britain

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