The Case of a Founding
‘Cornishman’
By Stephen Dray
(2005)
‘You will find’, so they
used to say, ‘a
Cornishman at the bottom of a
mine anywhere in the world.’ Indeed, communities worldwide,
lay
claim to having
been founded by engineers and miners plying their trade far from the
Duchy
itself. But there are places closer to hand, that have little to do
with such
trades, localities that good Cornish folk like to claim are
‘theirs. Prominent
among them is Bournemouth
but, like
all good
myths, there appears both truth and error in this claim.
The
story starts well. A gentleman with the most
Cornish-sounding of
names, Lewis Tregonwell, is often seen as having inaugurated the
community that
burgeoned into modern Bournemouth.
Such is
certainly the claim on his tombstone in St. Peter’s
churchyard in
the town and
it does appear that he built the first residence in the area.
The
‘received’ story includes a strong
dose of
pathos and romance. Thus,
shortly after the tragic death of their son, Grosvenor Portman (on the
day of
his baptism) Lewis and his second wife, Henrietta, then on holiday in
nearby
Mudeford, drove out to the little glen that marked the mouth of the
little Bourne
River.
Struck by its beauty and peacefulness, and possibly seeing it as a
place that
would help lift the shadows of the recent past, they purchased the land
to
build a summer residence. Completed in the year of Napoleon’s
retreat from Moscow
it soon became a
watering place for Tregonwell’s friends. With an eye for the
opportunity, a
number of smaller cottages were built for sale or let and advertised by
word of
mouth or through the press. It was not long before Tregonwell expanded
his
landholding to include much that now constitutes central Bournemouth:
his fortune assured and the foundations for the settlement’s
rapid growth
established.
But who was Lewis Tregonwell and does this idyllic picture of
a bereaved
father ‘striking it rich’ by a chance encounter
with the
beauties of Bourne
Mouth really ‘ring true’? And what exactly do we
know of
Lewis’ links with Cornwall?
Here, one might
say, ‘the plot thickens’.
First of all, the Tregonwell family had, for a number of
centuries,
established themselves as Dorset
gentry.
Indeed, the Tregonwell family tree reveals Lewis to have been a member
of the
junior branch of Tregonwells whose ‘trunk’ extends
back to
Sir John Tregonwell
of Milton Abbas who lived from approximately 1503 to 1565. It is only
when we
reach Sir John that we are told his father was ‘of Cornwall’.
The link with Cornwall,
while it exists, appears tenuous,
to say the least: seven generations intervene!
Secondly,
evidence points to
the
fact that Lewis was something of a ‘wide boy’. Most
recently he had retired as
captain of the Dorset Volunteer Rangers: a troop given responsibility
to secure
the shoreline from neighbouring Poole to Christchurch
against the threat of a Napoleonic invasion. He must have become
intimately
acquainted with the neighbourhood. His ‘chance’
encounter
of the idyllic Bourne
Mouth with his grieving wife may be afforded a different
‘spin’ in the light of
this and will be further explored below. Further, there is little doubt
that
Lewis was a man with a shrewd eye for the ‘main
chance’.
His first marriage is,
perhaps, instructive.
Lewis was born in 1758, probably (one might almost say
prophetically) on
St. Valentine’s Day. At 23 he courted and won the hand of
Catherine Sydenham.
Their first child, St. Barbe, was born barely eight months after the
wedding.
Rather that suggest a highly successful honeymoon and a
premature birth,
it is not impossible to rule out seduction since the choice of
Catherine was a
good one: she was the sole heiress of St. Barbe Sydenham of Combe, Somerset
and Priory, Devon.
Indeed, of interest at this point are the records of the Sydenham
family.
Several things are evident. Catherine’s father was inadequate
and
control of
the family affairs lay in the hands of her mother. Catherine, herself,
was
dominated by her mother and under her ‘apron
strings’. At
23 she was still
naïve and impressionable and we are told Lewis ‘soon
got his
ends’. Almost to
the script, he had presented himself as having a ‘pretty good
estate’ but
‘money was short’.
Thus, Lewis reads like a typical unscrupulous but winsome
adventurer.
However, mother was not entirely free from responsibility since she had
‘advertised’ Catherine as carrying a
£100,000 fortune
with her. The marriage
settlement, dated 14th
September, six weeks before the
wedding, is
generous but carefully worded and the wedding itself took place in
haste since ‘the
preceding evening knew nothing of the matter’ and the couple
left
immediately
after the wedding. All seems to point to a marriage being planned but
opposed
by Mrs. Sydenham who was trumped by Lewis when knowledge of
Catherine’s
seduction emerged. A quickly and quietly arranged ceremony followed
such
disgrace and Catherine was ‘winged’ away. Certainly
this is
one way of reading
the evidence.
Catherine, of course, may well have been a
‘giddy’ and willing
accomplice. There is no evidence that the marriage was unhappy.
However, there
is every evidence that Mrs. Sydenham loathed Lewis… and that
this was
reciprocal! Family records speak of Mrs. Sydenham’s fondness
for
daughter and
grandson but note the ‘great difference there was between the
temper of the mother-in-law
and the son’ such that it was questioned ‘how could
they
unite’.
Eventually things came to a head. Six years after the
marriage Lewis
demanded a substantial monetary gift (perhaps £5000 or
£10,000) from his
in-laws. Refusal was met by Lewis, his wife and children removing to France.
Begging letters (one suspects accompanied by threats) followed.
Meanwhile Mrs
Sydenham persuaded (or, possibly more likely, conned) her husband into
disinheriting Catherine. Lewis predictably returned to the scene on
hearing
this news and with a group of malcontents first offered menaces and
then
abducted Mr. Sydenham.
The sequel is interesting. Granted a writ against Lewis and
his
companions, they appeared together with Mr. and Mrs. Sydenham in the
Exeter
Assize. The former (either in relief at escaping a hectoring wife
and/or under
the influence of Lewis) indicated his preference to remain with his
daughter
and, in an ironic turn of events, virtually disinherited his wife!
The links that unite Tregonwell to Cornwall
are, therefore, more tenuous than the popular myth suggests and rather
than
benevolent founder, Lewis appears to be something of an adventurer.
However, one further piece of the jigsaw helps complete the
picture and
establish Lewis’ Cornish credentials. When Portman Lodge, the
cottage that
Tregonwell had built for his butler, Symes, was demolished in 1930 a
surprise
was in store. Three feet below ground level, and accessed only by a
trap door,
was a sizeable underground chamber, 3 metres by 2 and with ample
headroom.
Why should Tregonwell include such a peculiar
‘cellar’ under his
butler’s residence? Could it be that he was, in fact, a
smuggler
‘baron’.
Certainly such ‘caves’ are documented as having
existed in
the area. Further
evidence is tantalisingly elusive, but equally suggestive! It deserves
investigation.
The coast between Christchurch
and
Swanage (over which ‘Captain’ Tregonwell had
served) was a
well known haunt for
smugglers; indeed the village
of Studland
was
famous
for its ‘gang’ and its reputation for ruthlessness
on the
high seas. Smugglers
trails can be traced well inland and it is difficult to escape the
conclusion
that local gentry, including the vicar of Kinson, were involved in the
trade.
Perhaps significantly, one of the most famous of local smugglers, Isaac
Gulliver, was (at the time of Tregonwell’s move into the
area)
living in
Kinson. While the story goes that he was in retirement there are also
tales that
he had the favour of George III: having foiled an assassination plot.
Further,
the peculiar geology of Bourne Mouth, with its succession of glens (or
chines)
running down to the sea, is known to have been favoured by the
smuggling
fraternity: not least the one down which the Bourne stream flowed. In
fact,
until tax changes in the second quarter of the nineteenth century were
accompanied by more effective policing and sterner measures were
adopted by
magistrates, smugglers were still known to ply their trade in the
immediate
locality. All of which suggests that Lewis, now in his early fifties,
still had
an eye for a quick return. Knowing the area well and the possibilities
it
provided, the visit to Bourne Mouth reads more like a reconnaissance in
preparation for the establishing of a new career.
So was Bournemouth
founded
by a
Cornishman? It probably depends upon one’s definition of
Cornish.
Lewis
Tregonwell certainly had a genuine, if rather distant, ancestry that
linked him
with the Duchy. However, if one adopts the premise ‘blood
will
out’, the fact
that he was apparently and deeply implicated in that most Cornish of
trades,
smuggling, and consistently rode in the ‘fast lane’
is
probably determinative…
of course he was Cornish!
Fred Hancock is the Vice-President and
Stephen Dray the
Honorary
Chaplain of the Bournemouth
Cornish
Association.
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