Local History PHILIP RICHARDS


WHO DIED JANUARY 2ND 1862 AGED 44 YEARS


ALSO ANN WIFE OF THE ABOVE


WHO DIED AT MORWELLHAM JANUARY 20TH 1898 AGED 78 YEARS


ALSO BARTON B.S. RICHARDS SON OF THE ABOVE WHO DIED JULY 7TH 1912 AGED 66 YEARS


Philip Richards, born 1818 in Tavistock, was a mine captain at the Devon Great Consols mine. In 1844 he married Ann Symons, who came from a well-known Cornish family of publicans and farmers at Trevena, near Tintagel, In 1847 they took on the tenancy of the Ship Inn. At this time Morwellham Quay on the River Tamar was a very busy small port with copper ore being sent to South Wales for smelting, and a variety of goods such as timber, building materials, coal and limestone (for agricultural purposes) being offloaded. Its only hostelry, the Ship Inn, was a popular meeting point for the port community, traders and visiting sailors. The Bedford Estate rentals show that an annual rent of £75 was paid for the inn which was comparable to some of the town hostelries. In the 1851 census the occupants of the inn were listed as Philip Richards aged 32 innkeeper and copper mine agent, his wife Ann aged 30 innkeeper and their children Baldwin B. S. aged 5, Mary R. aged 4, Laura S. aged 3 and Bessie Ann aged 1. There were several servants including the cook/maid, two children’s maids, waitress and ostler. The 1861 census indicates no


28


further additions to the family but it is known from the family headstone that there had been a fifth child, Amelia W. Richards, who died aged 5 in 1859. On the 2nd January 1862 Philip Richards died leaving Ann to carry on alone, running the inn and bringing up their family.


By the 1870s with the decline of the local copper mining industry Morwellham Quay was less busy and closure of the Tavistock Canal was imminent. In the 1871 census the occupants of the Ship Inn were the widow Ann Richards aged 52 innkeeper, her son Barton B.S. Richards aged 25 mine surveyor, her daughters Laura S. aged 22 innkeeper’s assistant, and Bessie A. aged 21 innkeeper’s assistant, and two female servants. The 1876-1877 Bedford Estate rental records show Ann Richards paid a reduced annual rent of £30, reflecting a less profitable time for the inn. In 1876 Ann Richards diversified into farming by renting the nearby Morwellham Farm from the Bedford Estate for an annual rent of £160. The 1881 census lists the occupants as the widow Ann Richards aged 62 innkeeper and farmer of 150 acres employing three men and two boys, her son Baldwin B.S. aged 35 mine agent-copper mine, her daughter Bessie Ann Richards aged 31, Amelia Richards Bowhay aged 5 grandchild (daughter of Laura Symons Richards married to John Bowhay, miller, Tamar Mills), a farm servant, and two female domestic servants. In 1891 the occupants


By Roderick Martin The Ship Inn at Morwellham


The resting place for two generations of publicans from the Ship Inn, Morwellham is marked by a weathered slate headstone in the Dolvin Road cemetery at Tavistock. It reads as follows:


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32