Who didn't move the cheese? (John Baragwanath 1762)

I'm not sure how we are connected to this John Baragwanath - we are related to virtually every Baragwanath in Cornwall but I haven't made the connection to this particular John. This John lived in Zennor Parish, Cornwall, England. As Church Warden it became his problem to remove some stinky cheese from the Church!

A history of  the parishes of St. Ives, Lelant, Towednack and Zennor in the County of Cornwall by John Hobson Matthews, published 1892, London.

p. 268-269

"The following entry, found on a flyleaf of one of the register-books of Zennor parish, shows that the payment of tithe in kind was for long afterwards the subject of disputes between the clergy and their parishioners:

    'Be it remembered, That on Sunday the 27th of June 1762, Thomas Osborn of Trewey, Robert Michell of Tregarthen, Matthew Thomas of Treen, and Elizabeth Phillips of the Church town, brought Butter and Cheese into the Chancel in the Time of Divine Service, imagining, I suppose, it would be accepted instead of their Tithes for Cows and Calves; but not being taken away either by them or any one else before it grew offensive, I ordered the Church Wardens, under pain of being cited to the Spiritual Court, to remove the same as an Indecency and a Nusance to the congregation. I here insert this lest my Successor should be imposed upon by being told that I accepted of that or any other Butter and Cheese instead of Tithes of Cows and Calves, which I assure him I did not, nor of any other sort of Tithe according to the Tenor of the Terrier, dated 1727, and held in the Register of the Consistory Court of Exeter; as Witness my hand this 21st day of July, 1762.

    Jacob Bullock, Vicar.

    N. B. Samuel Michell, Brother of the said Robert, and John Baragwanath, were church Wardens, and removed the said Butter and Cheese as a Nusance, at my Command.

    J. B. Vr.'  "

SO FAR AWAY

We’ve talked about our Baragwanaths in Cornwall, England, but what about the branch that traveled "so far away" - to South Africa?

  We aren’t closely related to Orlando Baragwanath, the subject of the book “Trail of the Copper King” by T. V. Bulpin – he’s my second cousin 7 times removed! Our common ancestors are Richard Baragwanath (born 1699) and Zenobia Stevens (born 1705), of Cornwall, England. 

Jump forward 5 generations and we encounter John Albert Baragwanath who took his family on the trip of a lifetime – from Cornwall, England to Durban, South Africa, in 1850. John Albert had been a Cornish sea captain.

  His first wife, Elizabeth Jane Trise, mother of Elizabeth Grace, Orlando, John Albert Jr., and Emily E., passed away the year before the voyage. He quickly married Wilmot Baragwanath (a cousin) later the same year. 

The family set sail in February 1850 on the “Lady Bruce.” They joined 150 other settlers intent on a new life in a new land, with the promise of land at the end of the journey.

Lady Bruce

“Each adult will be provided with an intermediate passage, including provisions on a liberal dietary scale, for the sum of 19 pounds, or a steerage passage for 10 pounds, and on arrival in Natal [Durban] have secured to him twenty acres of freehold land.”

The passage monies had to be paid in advance and each passenger needed their own knife, fork, tablespoon, teaspoon, metal plate, a hook-pot, a mug and bedding. Each ship was required to carry a doctor. John and Wilmot’s first child together, Charles, was born on the ship, but died a few weeks after arriving at their destination, aged 8 weeks. They arrived in Durban on 9 May 1850. John, Wilmot and the 4 living children settled on a farm called “Isipingo” just south of Durban. Son John Albert was later apprenticed to a saddle maker. He opened his own trading store, ran the Concordia hotel, and had some prospecting operations. He was very successful and prosperous. He married Elizabeth Adelaide Trennery and together they had ten children. But oldest son Orlando (Orrie), born in 1872, was the stuff legends were made of!

Orlando on his 100th birthday

Orlando lived to be 100 years old, and on the occasion of that milestone, an article was written about him in the “Rhodesiana” publication. “In the autumn of 1894 a solitary passenger climbed off ...[an] ox-drawn Cape cart in Fort Victoria. . . He was Orlando Baragwanath, a young man of 22 years with some mining experience, a prospector’s zest for the unknown and an explorer’s nature.” For the next few years he worked at different mines, learning and yearning for adventure.

In May 1899, Orrie and his partner Frank Lewis, set out, their supplies packed in 50 lb. loads packed on two wagons and a four-ply canoe. They had six pack donkeys and ten armed natives. They had no need of money so they took white calico called “limbo” for currency.

They had contracted for a 3-year stint with the Tanganyika Concessions Company, earning £25/month.
The surface copper had been known, worked and traded long before. But these men were the first to use dynamite to find more beneath the surface in Northern Rhodesia! They pegged and named many copper mines on their travels, and in 1901 discovered the vast copper field on the Wusikili river, which later became the great Nkana Mine and the heart of the fabulous Copperbelt. At the spot where John Albert had his farm and hotel now stands Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, which holds the Guinness World Record for the largest hospital on earth with almost 3300 beds! Some of this material was found in an article from: http://www.rhodesia.nl/rhodesiana/volume28.pdf “Orlando Baragwanath: A Centenarian Pioneer of Rhodesia” by Roger Howman. “Rhodesiana” Publication No. 28, July 1973, The Rhodesiana Society Salisbury, Rhodesia.
- "Trail of the Copper King" by T. V. Bulpin, illustrations used above by A. A. Telford, published November 1959 by Bailey Bros & Swinfen Ltd., London W.C.