Category: Trewartha
As we’re starting to get global Trewartha’s coming to this little site, I thought I might gather together some basic links about the origin of the surname in a quick post. I’m not going to shy from the obvious, so forgive me.
The Trewartha surname began in Cornwall, the most south-western county of England, at a time when mining, specifically tin mining, dominated that area’s economy. Here are the distributions of the name in the UK according to the electoral registers of 1881 and 1998 (click for larger images)
(‘Trewartha’ clearly is not unique in spreading like this — it is a common feature of the 20th century that names and genes have spread far and wide as we as a species roam more widely, more quickly than ever before, for obvious technological reasons.)
So specifically it started around the (now) city of Truro, where Tin was being produced as early as the 1200s. The city’s Coinage Hall was originally built in the 1300s, and then rebuilt in the 1800s. It now houses a tea room and pizza restaurant. The Hall was where tin was stamped and sold around the world.
If you travel around these places you’ll find plenty of places, and even some people still, called Trevarth, Trevarthen, Trethowan, and of course Trewartha. Going back 4 generations takes my family to Chapel Porth (public photos on flickr.com of Chapel Porth) — 2 miles from St Agnes. Here’s a
long article on the history of mining around St Agnes. [dead link, sorry]
Including this information on migration:
The Coinage Laws were finally abolished in 1838, resulting in considerable effects on the Smelters who sought to maintain their control by any means against depression in the Cornish mining industry, plus increasing competition from abroad. The late 1830s into the 1840s was the key period of migration of Cornish mining families, not just to other mining centres in the UK but to Cuba, Australia and Tasmania. Advertisements were everywhere in Cornish newspapers by 1839 advertising mining positions in the New World. Emigrant ships rapidly started to sail from Cornish ports such as Penzance, St Ives, Hayle, Padstow and Fowey, many of which were head to Quebec and New York in North America
Shorter BBC article about the history of tin mining
Cornish Mines and Mining History in Cornwall @ cornwall-calling.co.uk
Harry Wyn Trewartha with his Mother and Father about 4pm on July 21st 2007
Harry Trewartha was born in Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea hospital on Saturday, 21st July 2007 around 3 p.m. and weighing 5.6lbs.
Mother, Emma, had a short wait with Harry arriving rather earlier than expected. Mother and child are doing well and she is expected home on Sunday, 22nd July.
Further pictures will appear here
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn0EBCaVrTg]
Alan Trewartha and Emma Hamilton get married in Richmond Park in September 2006.
Des Clark, Robin Trewartha’s late stepfather, much missed by my mother, Mary Clark.
Jane Trewartha, daughter of Robin Trewartha, in contemplative mood at a family ‘do’
My Mum, Mary Clark, formerly Trewartha and nee Coleman,
with Des Clark, my late step-father, and my son, Alan Trewartha.
A word in April 2004 from Mike Trewartha pointing out the link to his own growing family on www.miketree.co.uk.
In September 2003, John Smith found my link to his Aussie Web Site and he tells me that he is more than happy to field any questions as to the Trewartha family history and the ancestry of those with a Trewartha in it. John tells me his wife, also an Australian, is the one with a TREWARTHA in her ancestry. He says this goes back to a Philip and John Trewartha in the late 1500s and early 1600s, but no location identified.
In March 2003, Jim and Karen Trewartha made contact. This line live in Columbus Ohio, USA and Jim told me his father, Dan Trewartha, is from Madison Wisconsin, USA, but now lives in Sacramento, California, with his second wife, Nancy. Jim’s grandfather was the well-known Geography professor, Glenn Trewartha who worked at the University of Wisconsin in Madison..
Dan Trewartha has 2 sisters and a brother, as well as four children. Jim tells me he has a cousin named Robin who lives in the Chicago area. Jim and Karen Trewartha can be contacted at Bigtre6@compuserve.com
In September 2002, I had a quick word from Nigel Trewartha, living in Rietberg, Germany. I trust Nigel’s freelance initiative went well.
Earlier this year I had an invaluable letter from a Trewartha connection in South Africa. As it refers directly to my own paternal grandmother, I am including the letter in the next post…
Edited elements of a letter about the Lawrence family into which my father’s family married
Great Great Grandfather Mark Lawrence: Carpenter and Builder. Whom he married I do not know but he had three sons:
Mark Lawrence — remained with father in business.
Edwin Lawrence — learnt the business and went to London in the building trade. Became knighted as Sir Edwin Lawrence and became M.P. for Truro, Cornwall. He hought the old site at St. Agnes where he built a house for his family. He endowed Fifty Pounds per year to house to help keep a district nurse for St. Agnes.
John Lawrence — married Joan Thomas. And had four children John, Ann, Mark, William, Jane. John and Joan were my great-grandparents and they lived at Goonvrea in a farm called Bolster Farm.
The son John, my grandfather’s brother, went to London and was Chief Engineer to the Peak Frean Biscuit manufacturers, where Arthur Gilbert [my father] worked as a clerk when he left home first.
Ann Lawrence married James Nettle, who was a farmer in a small way. She had 8 children. She kept a shop in Goonvrea after being widowed relatively young.
Mark James Lawrence married Susan Roberts were my grandparents, producing three children, William Mark and Annie. There were four other children who died as babies.
William Lawrence went to Canada and had 3 children. One girl married a doctor.
Jane Lawrence married Joseph Estlick who was a mine manager and lived with her family in Brazil for 25 years. They had 7 children; some went to America and others are scattered.
My grandmother, Susan Roberts, was one of a family of 14 with twelve growing to adulthood and getting married. They nearly all went to America, one boy married and went to New Zealand. My Great Grandfather on the Roberts’ side was an Assayer in the Tin Mines.
Webmaster, Robin, with niece Frances, brother Mark Trewartha, and nephew Russell. Val Trewartha is the one holding the glass on high!
My sister, Angela Lavers, née Trewartha, and Martin Lavers, from Norfolk
Claire Lavers and Peter Lavers, Alan Trewartha and Jane Trewartha, and me (Robin Trewartha). Alan and Jane are my children, Pete and Claire are my cousins (my sister Angela’s children). This picture taken in the late 1980s.
Val, John, Pat and Elizabeth at Des’s 90th bash in May 2002
Mary Trewartha-Clark’s brother, Peter, and cousin Elizabeth; both members of the Order of Norkin
My Mum, Mary Clark, formerly Trewartha and nee Colman, with Des Clark, my late step-father, and my son, Alan Trewartha
Alan’s first public engagement at Bolton Recreation Centre, 1970
en famille as a child
With his mother, Annie Trewartha, née Lawrence, and sister, Mildred
My name is Robin Trewartha and I work as a freelance chartered psychologist around the South-east of England and East Anglia. This Web Site is a personal resource for family and any other Trewarthas around on the ’Net who may be wondering which of us pinched this dot.com name.
Although my name labels my Cornish roots, I was born in Devon in 1947. For 18 years I lived in a small village called Ide, close to the City of Exeter, but far enough away for it to be a separate community.
I was the youngest of three, with an older brother, Mark, and a sister, Angela. My father, who died in 1981, was brought up in Newton Abbot, in Devon. My parents met in Chapel Porth, near St Agnes, as my mother, Mary Colman, lived there with her parents, Thomas and Ada Colman, close to her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Beck née Bennett from Yorkshire.
My father is connected to Chapel Porth through his mother’s family – the Lawrences. My great great grandfather, Mark Lawrence, was Captain of the Wheal Lawrence mine not far from Wheal Coates. Our Trewarthas all have Truro-based connections as well with my paternal grandfather being a local trader.
Wheal Coates: home of the ‘Norkins’, (in memory of my mother, Mary Clark (1920 – 2012).
At the age of 11 I attended Exeter School, in Heavitree, between 1958–1965 and completed undergraduate and graduate studies at Swansea University to become a probation officer (PO). I was married shortly before starting in the probation service. Our two children, Alan (1969) and Jane (1972) arrived during the time I was working as a PO. This continued for for ten years in the north of England and, in 1979, I transferred to the NSPCC to work as a child protection officer. Four years later I moved to Dundee University to teach on their Graduate Social Work programme. When that contract finished, I remained in Scotland working on a freelance basis in social work and adult education until 1996.
I married Christina (Mason), now my second wife, from our home in Longforgan, By-Dundee in August 1993
I lived and worked in London from 1996 to 2012 having retrained and qualified as a counselling supervisor and chartered psychologist, that is C Psychol with the British Psychological Society (BPS) as well as a Registered Counselling Psychologist with the Health Care Professionals Council (HCPC)..
Since 2012, I have been semi-retired working from my home in and around Attleborough until finally settling in Watton in 2017.