Rame History Group 2011
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KINGSAND HOUSE AND THE GRAY FAMILY Page 32 In the 1950‟s the inconvenient character of the old vicarage at Maker, it‟s remoteness, size and damp, led to the preparation of plans for a new benefice house. The Mt Edgcumbe Estate was prepared to offer a site at the south end of the Minadhu. The papers are in the parish documents. At this point, the Rev T V Hordern found that Mr Norman Trethowan, a grocer and property owner of Kingsand, was willing to sell Kingsand House in Fore Street for £5,000 and on his instigation the Church Commissioners acquired it in about 1955. The old vicarage remained unsold for about eighteen months when it was bought by Mr and Mrs Fryer with two acres of land for £1,700. Kingsand House appears to date from about 1800. The land attached included the fields as far as the New Road and in the tithe award of 1840 is all the property of Mr France Gray; the earliest deed is an abstract of the will of France Gray dated 11 July 1842. The land must have been purchased from Mr Edgcumbe and there may be evidence of date and purchaser among the Edgcumbe papers at CRO Truro. It is reasonable to suppose that the house was built by France Gray‟s father, Thomas Gray, but there is no evidence. Thomas Gray‟s will has not been found. The house and the Gray family are both illustrative of Kingsand and Cawsand‟s greatest period of growth, during the time of the Napoleonic War. Sources of Information a. The family vault – a tomb-chest monument to the east of the main southward path at Maker. Much affected by lichen etc (M) b. Entries in Parish registers (R) c. Recollections of old inhabitants, notably Mrs Lee of Hillside House, Lower Row, born about 1875 (T) Tombstone Inscriptions Top To the memory of Mr Thomas Gray Surgeon RAME HISTORYOf Kingsand in this Paris GROUPh 2011 He departed this life 16 May 1821 Aged 62 year (there follow several illegible lines of tribute) Page 32 Also of his wife Mrs Jenny Hamline Gray Daughter of Mr Nathaniel France Surgeon RN Who died on 1 April 1801 Aged 4(3?) years (there follow several illegible lines of tribute) Also of (John? and ?) William Gray (sons?) ….. Thomas Gray ….. 10 April (179(0?) Also in memory of William France Gray (several illegible lines) France Hartly Gray Surgeon Son of the above Thomas and Jenny Gray Died of cholera in Kingsand in the ….. his professional duties On the North Side On the South Side Also FranceRAME Gray HISTORY Elizabeth FrancGROUPe 2011 Son of Harriet Gray Sister of Mrs Jenny Gray Died 25 March 1901 Died October 1846 Aged 75 Aged 7(6?) In memory of Harriet Gray On the West Side Widow of France Hartley Gray In Memory of Henrietta Who died 27 March 1891 Daughter of France Hartly Gray Aged 88 Born 13 June 1832 Died August 19 1910 Also of Mary Gray Daughter of the above On a stone close to the Vault Died 30 June 1872 on it‟s North Side Aged 28 Margaret Ann Lucy Ann Daughter of the late Born 18(56?) Died 1908 Mr Thomas Gray Surgeon Kingsand Who died 9 May 1851 Aged 64 Page 33 (ii) Thomas Gray and Family Thomas GrayRAME‟s family did not originateHISTORY in this parish. He was GROUP born sometime before 162011 May 1759. His wife Jenny Hamline France, also born outside the parish earlier than 1 April 1758, was the daughter of Nathaniel France, a Naval surgeon. She had at least one sister, Elizabeth, born about 1769 (T). After their marriage (not in the parish), and before taking up residence here, they had at least one child William, who is probably the William Gray buried 14 April 1790 (R). Their daughter Jenny was baptised at Rame on 10 September 1783 which suggests that they then lived in Cawsand. She married one Samuel Woolmer, Minister of the Gospel, by license on 4 August 1801, apparently without her father‟s consent. Page 34 Margaretta Ann, baptised 22 January 1787 at Maker. This suggests a move to Kingsand and Kingsand House could have been built at any time from this onwards. She died unmarried 9 May 1851. Thomas Hope, baptised 29 August 1788. Buried 31 March 1791. William France, baptised privately 21 July 1790. Burial not recorded but his name appears on the stone. Rosetta Hamline, baptised 29 November 1792. Married Joseph Soady, Lieut RN 29 August 1822. Thomas Nathaniel, born 27 December 1793, baptised 5 July 1803. Not otherwise recorded. Charlotte Wilson, born 20 March 1796, baptised 5 July 1803, presumably with Thomas Nathaniel. Married Thomas Skardon, gentleman, of another medical family. He died at Millbrook and his son has a monument in Maker Church France Hartly, born 29 January 1798, baptised 5 July 1803. Quite a christening. Thomas‟ wife Jenny died 1 April 1801 and was buried as “Jane”. Her last three children were not baptised until two years after her death. Thomas does not seem to have remarried and died 16 May 1821. The family line continues in the only surviving son of the marriage, France Hartly. Page 34 (ii) France Hartly Gray was born 29 January 1798 and baptised 5 July 1803 with an elder brother and sister (R). The first record which concerns him is that in the “Accounts of the Poor of the Parish of Rame”: Mr Gray, first six months to Michaelmas 1819 £3 23RAME March 1821, Mr Gray‟sHISTORY bill for care of the poor GROUP £6 2011 Received of Mr Badcock the amount of Poor bill for medicine, 25 March 1820 – 25 March 1821, France Gray £6 He continues to receive the same amount, sometimes annually or quarterly or half-yearly, up to the end of the account book, where we find: 25 March 1834, Mr Gray‟s salary £3 On 16 December 1824, he married Harriet Vallack by license. Both parties “of this parish”. Page 35 Harriet was a daughter of John Vallack, a purser in HM Navy, and Elizabeth Sargent who were married 26 July 1803. She was baptised 26 July 1804. There are at least two John Vallacks of suitable age, each the son of James and Sara Vallack, born respectively in 1776, and 1774. There are two possible marriages of a James Vallack and a Sara. Vallacks appear at Maker in the last years of the 17th century. The name occurs earlier in Plymouth. There is a Tevallack in Cornwall. Elizabeth Sargent seems to be the daughter of Isaac and Mary Sargent. The marriage of these two was on 24 November 1769 as “Isaac Sargent of this parish, gentleman, and Mary Sargent of Lezant, spinster”. France Gray went through the serious cholera outbreak of 1832. There was a more serious outbreak in 1849. The first death was that of Elizabeth Ford at Millbrook on 11 July. By August, deaths had multiplied and the situation cannot have been eased by the death of Alfred Henry Vallack MD on 16 June at the age of 31. Gray took a room in the house opposite his own in Fore Street, Kingsand in order to reduce the risk of infection to his own family (M). The peak of the epidemic was reached in early September and on the fourth of that month, sixteen people, including seven children, were buried in the two churchyards of Maker and Rame. Page 35 (ii) Gray contracted the disease carrying out his professional duties (T M) and was buried, aged 51, the 111th victim in the two parishes. In all, 116 persons were buried at Maker and 36 at Rame. Thirty were from Millbrook, ninety-three from Kingsand and twenty-one from Cawsand. The last burial was on 12 October. In his will dated 11 July 1842 he left to his widow and eleven surviving children, one twelfth part each of two-thirds of the house which he owned, the other third belonging to his wife. Harriet Gray died 27 March 1892RAME (T) aged 87 (R). HISTORY GROUP 2011 Children of France Hartly and Harriet Gray France, baptised 26 January 1826. Became a doctor and practised at Kingsand House. In old age he was a cripple and walked on two sticks (M). He did not marry; he died aged 75 in 1901. Note Emma Vallack, baptised 29 December 1826. Married Henry Cornelius Pierson, aged 33, clerk in the Board of Control, 15 September 1853. John, baptised 14 December 1828. Buried at Maker 6 October 1831. Harriet Charlotte Soady, baptised 30 May 1830. Buried at Maker 8 August 1849. Death not recorded as cholera. Page 36 Henrietta, baptised 15 July 1832. Did not marry. Buried 23 August 1910. Jane, baptised 14 October 1834. Watson, born 17 May, baptised 18 September 1836. Lucy Ann, baptised 12 May 1837. Did not marry. Was „fair‟ (M). Buried Maker 30 November 1908 aged 72. Mary Skardon, baptised 28 July 1839. Did not marry. Buried Maker 30 June 1874, aged 34. Elizabeth (Bessie), baptised 1 October 1843. Did not marry. Buried 8 February 1934, aged 90. Rosetta (Rosie), Elizabeth‟s twin, baptised the same day. Did not marry. Buried 27 April 1931, age incorrectly given as 93. These twins were „dark‟. They belonged to St Paul‟s Church and taught in the Sunday School, where they were “very strict”. Page 36 (ii) The children had to learn each Sunday‟s Collect and a part of the Gospel for the day and were rewarded with marks which went towards a book prize at the end of the year.