A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



erroneous l statement that veins of copper and 

 lead were to be seen on the rocky cliffs of Land's 

 End at low water, 2 and later, we learn from a 

 document among Elizabeth's state papers, 3 that 

 several copper mines were operated in the St. 

 Just district. These may have been the same 

 works mentioned a year or two earlier by Ulricke 

 Frosse, a German metallurgist, who had been 

 connected with the mines at Keswick, and who 

 was, in 1585, overseer of the mineral works at 

 Perranzabuloe. He is represented at the latter 

 place as smelting twenty-four hundredweight of 

 copper ore per day in each furnace, with the 

 assistance of skilled German workmen from 

 Cumberland. 4 In one of his letters, Frosse refers 

 to a copper mine in Cornwall from seventeen to 

 twenty fathoms in depth. 8 From what evidence 

 is available it seems that the copper lodes were 

 regarded by the crown as in the nature of mines 

 royal, as we find occasional references to the 

 appointment of a royal surveyor to overlook 

 operations, 6 while James I included the Cornish 

 mines in a grant of a fifteenth of all copper works 

 in a considerable array of counties. 7 



In spite of the evidence that Cornwall's copper 

 deposits shared the general movement toward 

 industrial exploitation in the sixteenth century, 

 it may be stated as almost certain that the mines 

 referred to did not continue long in operation. 

 In no part of the county has copper ever been 

 found at the surface ; in fact, the lodes, as a 

 general rule, lie deeper even than those of tin, 8 

 and at a time when the difficulties of drainage, 

 as shown by the history of tin mining, were at 

 a maximum, it is not easy to see how much 

 copper could have been raised. 9 



This is probably the reason why so little is 

 said upon the subject in most of the early local 

 histories. Next in point of time after Camden's 

 account, comes that of Norden, who states that 

 at the time of his writing, copper abounded in 

 the Duchy in great quantities, 10 and in an address 

 to James I at the end of the book, he informs 

 the king that ' it is a metall whose qualitie and 

 quantitie would so farre exceede the former (tin) 

 as, were the workes assumed into Your Majestie's 

 own handes, duly searched, trulie managed, and 

 effectually followed, would rayse a greater yearlie 

 profile than the value of Your Majestie's land 

 revenues, so riche are the workes, especially some 



1 ' Copper Mining in Cornwall,' by Jos. Carne, 

 Trans. Ray. Geo/. Soc. Cormv. iii, 41. 



2 William Camden, Britannia (Cough's ed. of 1789), 



i, 3- 



3 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cxcv, 39. 



4 Documents printed in Grant Francis, The Smelting 

 of Copper in the Swansea District, 5, 23, 24. 



6 Ibid. 10. 



8 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, Ixvi, 47. 



7 Ibid, xxii, 51. 



8 Pryce, Minera/sgia Cornubiensis, Introd. p. viii. 



9 S. P. Dom. Chas. I, clxxiv, I. 



10 Norden, SpecuR Britanniae Pars. (ed. 1728), p. 17. 



lately founde, as by the opinion of the skilful in 

 that misterie the like have not been elsewhere 

 founde.' In almost all of his particulars, how- 

 ever, Norden is incorrect. In the first place, he 

 says that there is much copper about Morvale, 

 ' Sener,' and ' Lalante,' n and, in another part, 

 says that Sener is a parish upon the North Sea, 

 where there are rich copper mines. 12 Of Lalante, 

 he says, there are there great stores of tin and 

 copper. 13 These statements could not possibly 

 have been true. In Morvale, copper is hardly 

 known, and no veins there have yielded metal in 

 any former period. 14 In Zennor, copper has 

 never been discovered save in slight amounts, and 

 it is almost equally rare in Lelant. Furthermore, 

 in neither parish is there any trace of old works 

 save for tin. 16 Menege in Kerrier, says Norden, 

 is a fruitful place for tin and copper. 16 Yet tin 

 has never been found there, and there are no 

 remains to be seen of ancient tin works. Some 

 small bunches of copper exist, but no ordinary 

 metallic veins. 16 



Carew's information is brief. ' Copper,' he 

 says, ' is found in sundry places, but with what 

 gain to the searcher I have not been curious to 

 enquire, nor they hasty to reveal, for at one mine 

 (of which I took a view), the ore was shipped to 

 be refined in Wales.' 17 



These accounts show that copper ore was pro- 

 duced in Cornwall at that period, and that a few 

 individuals (probably foreigners) were acquainted 

 with its value, and profited by their knowledge. 

 But it cannot be doubted that at a much later 

 time the Cornish miners in general knew little 

 of the nature and value of copper ore, as it is 

 well known that in the latter part of the seven- 

 teenth century it was in several cases sold, under 

 the name of ' poder,' for small sums, 18 while most 

 of the tin used in Britain came from Sweden, 

 Germany, Spain, and the Barbary States. 19 Upon 

 the whole, it is probable that before, approxi- 

 mately, the year 1700, the copper ores of Corn- 

 wall were chiefly, or wholly from tin mines, or, 

 at least, from mines originally wrought for tin, 

 and, although it is not true that it was not until 

 the close of the seventeenth century that copper 

 ore was first discovered in Cornwall, as was stated 

 to a committee of the House of Commons in 

 I799, 20 yet that seems to have been the period 

 when mines were first set to work purposely for 



11 Ibid. 40. 



12 Ibid. 41. Ibid. 42. 



14 ' Copper Mining in Cornwall,' by Jos. Carne, 

 Trans. Roy. Geo/. Soc. Cornto. iii, 42. 



15 Norden, Speculi Britanniae Pars. (ed. 1 72 8), p. 49. 



16 ' Copper Mining in Cornwall,' by Jos. Carne, 

 Trans. Roy. Geo/. Soc. Cornto. iii, 43. 



17 Carew, Survey of Cornwall (ed. 1 8 1 1), 21. 



18 Borlase, Natural Hist, of Cornwall, 205. 



19 Houghton, Collection for the Improvement of Hus- 

 bandry and Trade, 1 8 June, 1697. 



20 'Testimony of Thomas Williams, M.P.,' printed 

 in Robert Hunt, British Mining, 106. 



564 



