A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



at his death the work was carried on by Sir 

 William Pendarves and Robert Corker for some 

 years, but after their decease the business was 

 abandoned. 1 In Lenobrey, in St. Agnes, a small 

 beginning was also made, which failed for lack 

 of capital. 1 To prevent this passing of copper 

 ore out of Cornwall, a proposal was made to 

 some of the chief gentlemen of the county, to 

 petition Queen Anne to have the copper mines 

 subjected to the laws of the stannaries in all 

 respects save being under bounds, and to have 

 the copper stamped, like tin, at the proper towns 

 under payment of a duty a proceeding which 

 would have made it necessary to smelt the ores 

 in the county. 3 Fortunately for Cornwall, the 

 sudden death of the queen occurring at this 

 juncture, the insane proposal to burden the grow- 

 ing industry with trammels which the tinners 

 were trying in vain to throw off, was never 

 consummated. In 1754, one Sampson Swayne 

 and a few gentlemen of Camborne erected 

 smelting works at Entral, in Camborne parish, 

 but their situation was too far removed from the 

 coal centres, and so they removed to Hayle. 3 

 In 1770 another company erected works at 

 Redruth, but later removed to Tregew, 4 where 

 after continuing in business for some years they 

 were obliged to shut down. 6 The Hayle com- 

 pany succeeded in surviving the opposition of 

 the Welsh operators, 3 and in 1820 was smelting 

 6,000 tons of ore per annum. 6 It closed only 

 in 1832." 



Friendly relations between the smelters and 

 the mine owners have been maintained for at 

 least a century and a half 7 by the so-called 

 ticketing system of ore purchase. Mr. Pryce 

 writes : 



' When dressed and made saleable, the 

 piles of ore are either kept separate for a 

 market, if the quantities are large, or else the 

 different sorts are well mixed together in one 

 pile, very rarely exceeding 180 or zoo tons 

 in a single parcel, and from thence down to 

 100, 80, 60, 50, 40, 20, 10, 5, or even I per 

 parcel, if the seller pleases, which is seldom the 

 case, and never for his advantage. 8 A dressed 

 parcel of ore, before the day of sampling, is 

 well mixed by several men, who turn it over 

 and over again with shovels. The parcel, if 

 less than 10 tons, is divided in 3 doles or piles, 

 and if over 10 tons, 4 doles; if ever so many 

 more than 19 tons, 6 doles, and then it is at 

 last ready to be sampled. 



Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 287. 

 Ibid. 279, citing the Tonkin MS. 

 Ibid. 279. 

 Ibid. 280. 



Lysons, M agna Britannia, iii, p. ccix. Polwhele, 

 History of Cornwall, bk. 4, 137. 



6 Worth, Historical Notes on the Origin and Progress of 

 Mining Skill in Devon and Cornw. 51. 



^ Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 287. Add. MS. 

 6682, fol. 303. 



3 Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 244-245. 



' The samplers (who are agents of the smelters) 

 meet at the spot according to appointment, and 

 fix on the third, fourth, or sixth dole of a parcel, 

 according as it is great or small, to take their 

 samples from. The miners then cut or part 

 that dole athwart and across, down to the 

 ground, so that it is divided into quarters by 

 these channels. Then the sampler, with a 

 shovel, pares down a little of the ore from all 

 parts of the channels, to take as equal and regular 

 a sample throughout the whole as he can, to the 

 amount of 200 or 300 pounds. 9 This he 

 carries to a clean floor, and mixes it into a heap 

 by itself, which heap he also cuts into quarters 

 and mixes and quarters again, until he finally 

 gets a small quantity, which, when sifted through 

 a small coarse sieve, he mixes several times, and 

 so quarters and remixes as before, till it is re- 

 duced to a small heap. At last he puts a pound 

 or two in a bag,' 10 



which he carries away with him to be assayed 

 in one of several ways. 11 



On the basis of his assays, a smelter will 

 make his offer for the ores of different works. 

 The standard of copper, a phrase which one 

 invariably hears used in connexion with ticket- 

 ing, denotes the price of a ton of metal in the 

 ore, from which standard the smelter deducts 

 2 ioj. per ton, or as much as may be required, 

 according to its richness, to produce a ton of 

 copper, a sum which the smelter considers an 

 equivalent for his expenses. 12 A fortnight after 

 the assaying comes the ticketing, during which 

 interval the smelters' agents receive answers from 

 their principals as to the price they are to offer. 

 The tickets containing the offers from the different 

 companies are produced, founded upon the assays 

 they have made, and the company making the 

 highest offer receives the ore. 



The internal arrangements of the Cornish 

 copper mines have differed little, if at all, from 

 those of the tin mines. In both we find 

 examples of the familiar cost-book system, 13 and 

 in both the workmen were, and are, either 

 tribute, tut, or day men, the tributer leasing a 

 pitch, or part of a mine, with perhaps one or 

 two partners, excavating, raising, and dressing the 

 ore at his own expense, and receiving as reward 

 a certain percentage of the proceeds, 14 the tut 

 worker contracting, at a certain rate, for the 

 sinking of shafts and winzes and the driving of 

 levels, and the day labourer employed mainly above 

 ground about the engines, or else concerned with 

 the dressing of the ores. The dressers of copper 

 ore sometimes worked for a monthly wage in 

 Pryce's time, or at a fixed rate per ton of pre- 

 pared ore. But these arrangements making it 



9 Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 245. 

 10 Ibid. 246. 

 " Ibid. 264. 

 13 Watson, Compendium of British Mining, 19. 



13 Such seems to be Pryce's meaning. Mineralogia 

 Cornubiensis, 188. 



14 Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 188. 



568 



