William was posted to the Penberth coastguard station around the late 1820s following his hurried marriage to Mary Sampson of Perranuthnoe. It seems that he was posted to the Penberth station to remove him from the Perranuthnoe community that he had married into. See The Coastguard Years.
In the 1840s when William and the family returned to the cove, Penberth had a thriving pilchard fishing industry. There was a large cellar at the back of the cove where the pilchards were pressed for their oil. The fishermen held shares in the seine net and appeared to work almost as a cooperative.
The 1841 census records WILLIAM and Mary living in a cottage with their six children; Matthew, John, Robert, Mary, Thomas and William.
10 years later, the 1851 census records the three older boys, now young men, as fishermen. Elizabeth (9) Margaret (7) and her sister Jane (5) have been added to the family.
By 1861 the next census records Thomas and Robert married with children of their own.
My great great grandfather Thomas (32) marries Ann Legg (34), widowed from her first marriage to John Legg, on September 21, 1856.
Ann (born Chapel in Madron) appears in the 1841 census as a 19 year old bonnet maker living with her family in Quay St. Penzance. She appears to marry John Legg, a mariner, in 1845. John Legg is born on the Scillies in 1818 and dies in 1852. Ann then marries Thomas is 1856. John T, my great grandfather, is born in 1860. John is possibly their only child, which is unusual for the time.
Robert (27) marries Mary (Chenalls) (25). Mary is born in Mawgan-in-Pydar, near Newquay, but appears to be living with her parents at Rospletha in the 1841 census. Robert and Mary are living on the St. Levan side of the river with their 3 children, John (4), James (3) and Robert (8 months).
The others still living at home with are William (34) John (23), Matthew (21), Elizabeth (19) and Jane (15). Elizabeth and Jane are recorded as ‘engaged in domestic duties. The men of the are recorded as fishermen. A granddaughter Ellen is staying in the same household. She is probably another of Robert’s children, Mary Ellen born in 1855.
Elizabeth marries Moses Dunn from Mevagissey in 1868. Moses was a mariner and spent most of his working life as a Trinity Pilot at Fowey. They produced 7 children.
Jane marries Ambrose Jeffery in September 1876. Ambrose is recorded in the 1881 census as a fish merchant although 10 years later, still in Penberth, he is recorded as a farmer. They have no children.
1871 Census.
Coastguard William is now 65 and recorded as blind. His wife Mary dies in 1865 aged 60.
Matthew and Jane still live with him.
John marries Anna Maria (Trudgeon), born in Tresidder in 1868 and they now live in Sparnon. Their first child John Ernest is born in 1869.
His son William marries Grace (Prowse) in 1861. Grace appears to have been living in Sparnon as a dressmaker before they married. Their first child William was born in 1862 and Mary Julyan was born in 1869.
Robert‘s family has now grown to include 6 children. Mary Ellen, John, James, Robert Walter, Alfred and Nanny Chenalls. It appears that he has moved back to the St. Buryan side of the river, perhaps in a bigger cottage!
The Jacksons Of Porthgwarra 