PRELUDE

To get a proper persective on the migration of the Smith family from Cornwall through Guernsey to British Columbia, your historians believe that it would be helpful for the reader to have some insight into the geographical, economic and historical setting for the roughly 200 years that our story covers.

Geographically, Cornwall lies at the far southwestern corner of England, and is separated from the rest of the country by rivers, deep canyons and forbidding high mesas which are characterized as being "moors". It is essentially a series of interconnected peninsulas including "Lands End", the farthest west piece of England and the only true cape in the British Isles. The west coast opens to the Atlantic, and the southern and eastern portions onto the English Channel as it begins to narrow into the Straits of Dover. The coast line is steep as it rises from the sea, and is characterized by steep walled coves and inlets which historically have been ideal for smuggling, which the Cornish developed into an art form! Although there are areas with fine beaches, most of the shore is rocky and subject to violent battering by waves. Now popular as a summer resort area, the English refer to the southeast coastal area as the "Cornish Riviera"

There have been five economic major factors in Cornwall over time: tin mining, fishing and agriculture have been the traditional "legal" enterprises, and smuggling and piracy have been equally lucrative fields of enterprise. The protected coves and inlets are ideally suited to "sub rosa" coastal shipping, and Cornwall's location has given it a straight shipping lane to France passing through and around the Channel Islands. Beginning in the 19th century, vast depostis of china clay have been discovered and exploited in eastern Cornwall, and this has become a major economic factor with shipments to Europe providing income and employment. Portions of this area, where the waste rock is piled, look like a white moonscape. At the present time, a major customer is the Limoges operation in France. There is no evidence that the Smiths were involved in mining, agriculture or fishing (except in the shipping aspects, perhaps).

Tin mining began as surface stream mining, similar to panning in the Mother Lode, but rapidly advanced to deep mining along the west coast. Evidence of this activity, which played out in the late 19th century, can be seen everywhere in the form of abandoned shafts, hoisting works and processing plants Some of thesee have been turned into interesting museums for the blossoming tourist trade. The deep mining techniques were imported from Germany and Austria, and were later adapted for mining in the California and Nevada mines.

The moors of Cornwall have been used for crop and livestock farming, but the think soil makes the yield more or less self-sustaining rather than an important sale source. Commercial fishing has been a major industry, although in decline now, and the Cornish pilchards were a mainstay of European diets at the time we will be looking at the area. These little fish were shipped dried, salted or packed in oil, depending on the countries buying them, and in later years a major canning industry also developed. These days, some commercial fishing still survives, but the emphasis is now on sport fishing for the holiday trade.

Historically, Cornall's geographical separation from England, and its different ethnicity, has led to a fierce spirit of independence. The original population stock is Celtic, having settled during the pre-historical migration which also settled Wales and Ireland. The Cornish language, which is undergoing a revival, is closely akin to Welsh, and early trade between the two societies as of major proportions. The geographical separation from the balance of England kept the Cornish from mingling for centuries, and when the mingling occured it was in the form of the English migrating in and gradually taking control, and not peacefully. To this day, the Cornish view themselves as a captive colony. Travel to England was difficult until the building of the railroad bridge over the River Tamar at Plymouth in the late 19th century. At The time our family was there, a trip to London by stage took three days in good weather, and was as dangerous as the stage coach trips in the western USA a century later. Highwaymen were common and armed guards rode with the coaches.

Culturally, Cornwall is Celtic Catholic and they have their own saints which exist nowhere else (as do the Welsh and Irish). The Anglican Church was forced upon them and only grudgingly accepted, and the wave of Methodism which hit England in the late 1700s had only a limited (but rabid) following. This is King Arthur country and that saga is very real to the Cornish. Camelford is believed to be Camelot, and nearby Slaugherbridge and an adjourning pond are believed to the sites of Arthur's wounding and death.

As the reader follows the family history, it will become obvious that life was harsh: looking at the survival rate for children gives a clue as to the state of medical knowledge at that time. It is not rare to find half or more of the children dying at an early age, and mothers frequently dying in child birth. Epidemics were common (small pox, diptheria, pneumonia and tuberculosis). In poring over available parish records, your researchers found numerous examples of whole families being wiped out, of a father and three children being buried the same day and of years in which tree generdations of a family would die in the same year. Couple that with the perils of a society largely dependent upon ocean-going shipping, and it is amazing to find so many people rather than the other way around.

During the period of our family history, it is also well to remember that England was at that time slmost constantly involved in a war with someone: France, Spain or the newly emerging United States. She was laso heavily involved in expanding the British Empire in Canada, the West Indies, the East Indies and Africa. The ongoing involvement in wars led to an interesting version of Piracy known as "Privateering". Under this scheme, the Crown licensed private ship owners to raid and capture foreign shipping, sharing in a percentage of the spoils. The usual arrangement was 1/3 for the crown, 1/3 for the owners and captain, and the remaining 1/3 divided among the crew. The seas between Cornwall and France, with the Channel Islands right in the middle, became a fertile hunting area for the privateers and the business was so lucrative that widows were known to invest their savings in "shares" of a privateering ship as the best investment they could make. How much of a role our family played may never be known, but there are indicators that at least two of those in the direct line of descent were involved.

Let us now take a brief look at Devon, th county which lies between Cornwall and the rest of England. It stretches from the English Channel on the south to the Bristol Channel on the north. The economic base has been agriculture, fishing, and , on the high moors, quarrying. Shipping was and remains a major industry from Plymouth and, formerly, Exeter, the "County Town". Exeter was home to Sir Walter Raleigh (later to be Governor of Jersey, Guernsey's neighbor) and Plymouth is famous as the site of Drake's famous "game of bowls" at the time of the Spanish Armada, and the final departure point for the Mayflower.

Away from the coast, Devon can be a forboding place: Dartmoor in the south is "Hound of the Baskervilles" country, and Exmoor in the north is the site for "Lorna Doone". The families that joined the Smiths via marriage (Stanbury and Smerdon) have been traced back into the 1600s. The Stanburys were originally from North Devon, coming to Dartmoor about 1700, but the Smerdons have been in Dartmoor as far back as the records will allow us to track them. The assumption is that both families were involved in agriculture and/or quarrying, with a strong indication that the Stanburys moved into the commercial and shipping aspects in the mid 1700s.

Devon was, when our family was there, a major smuggling center, which much of the traffic coming in from the Channel Islands. Major goods included French wine and brandy, leather and tobacco. There were obvious shipping lanes between both Devon and Cornwall to Guernsey, and migration between those sites are frequent.

Guernsey, second largest of the Channel Islands, lies about 50 miles south of England, and only 20 miles from the French coast of Normandy and Brittany. The island is geograhically and culturally an extension of France but has been ruled by England for almost all of the past 1,000 years. It has always been a political anomoly for England, in that it owes its allegiance to the Crown, but not to Parliament. Even today, Guernseyites refer to the monarch as "Our Duke of Normandy". Like the Isle of Man, Guernsey is not part of the United Kingdom, and has almost total political independence.

Due to it's proximity to France, the culture and language have been French and, up to the end of WWII, about 80% of the residents spoke a "patois" version of Norman French. Although English is now the predominate language (only about 15% can still speak patois), the laws and legislative proceedings are bi-lingual. The architecture is continental, and almost all street names (if you can find them) are in French. Guernsey has its own currency and coinage, but accepts English pounds at par.

Originally, Guernsey thrived as a seaport due to it's location, and the Romans passed through briefly on their way to England. Over time, commercial fishing became a major industry, briefly on their way to England. Over time, commercial fishing became a major industry, Guernsey fleets going out as far as Newfoundland. Knitting of socks and sweaters was a major cottage industry, and "Guernseys" are famous around the world even today. In more recent times, agricultrue, including the famous Guernsey cattle, became the dominant economic force, and greenhouse growing of fruits and tomatoes became the predominant industy. By 1890 85% of Guernsey's employment and income came from hothouse tomatoes.

Since WWII, both Guernsey and Jersey have become international finance centers due tho their unique political structure and liberal tax laws. Tourism has also grown rapidly.

During the time the Smiths were on the island, the emphasis was on shipping, both legitimate and "informal". Privateering became especially lucrative: a reference source we have states that in 1778, for example. local Guernsey privateers brought in the equivalent of nearly $2 million - how much that would be, tax free, these days is hard to imagine!