Morwenstow, Cornwall Genealogy

England   Cornwall  Cornwall Parishes



Parish History
MOORWINSTOW (Morwenstow) (St. Morvenna), a parish, in the union and hundred of Stratton, E. division of Cornwall, 7¼ miles (S. E. by S.) from Stratton. Here is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

Morwenstow is an Ancient Parish in the county of Cornwall. Other places in the parish include: Coombe, Crosstown, Eastcot, Eastcott, Gooseham, Goosham, Woodford, and Woolley.

Morwenstow is the one-time home of the eccentric vicar and poet Robert Stephen Hawker (1803–1875), the writer of Cornwall's anthem Trelawney. Hawker is also credited with reviving the custom of Harvest Festival. There is an article on Robert Stephen Hawker with civil certificates in the publication of Family History The Bi Monthly Journal of The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies August 1970 Vol 5 Nos. 32/33 New Series Nos. 8/9 Publications through familysearch

The Church of St Morwenna and St John the Baptist, Morwenstow is dedicated to Saints John the Baptist and Morwenna and is of the Norman period. The Vicarage was built for Hawker and has chimneys in the form of the towers of various churches associated with him.

The nearby coast is hazardous to shipping and the corpses of drowned sailors were laid out in the churchyard and then buried. Hawker buried over forty who were washed up within the parish boundaries.

One of the memorials in the churchyard was the white figurehead of the "Caledonia", a 200 ton ship from Scotland which sank on the perilous rocks of Higher Sharpnose in 1842. The captain and crew are buried in the churchyard. In 2004 the figurehead was removed for conservation, with the intention of placing a replica in the churchyard and the conserved original inside the church.

Civil Registration
Births, marriages and deaths were kept by the government from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is Free BMD.

Church records
parish registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Overview, Include information for parish registers and Bishop's Transcripts, Contact information for the office holding the original records, Links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection.

The parish registers for Morwinstow were filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah Cornwall Record Office: P/158/1/5. in different filmings 1960-2005

Parish registers for Morwinstow, 1558-1960

There are at present no online images for the parish registers in FamilySearch Historical Records

Bishop's transcripts

Bishop's transcripts for Morwinstow, 1676-1772, 1805 Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1952 Microfilm of original records at the District Probate Court, Bodmin, Cornwall.

Cornwall Online Parish Clerks
An extremely useful resource is the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks page for the parish http://www.cornwall-opc.org/Par_new/l_m/morwenstow.php

The history, registers and much more have been contributed by the Online Parish clerk for Morwenstow.

Census records
Overview, Include any unique information such as, the census for X year was destroyed, Collection in FHL and link to catalog, Online sites.

Cornwall Online Census Project

Poor Law Unions
Stratton Poor Law Union

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to [county] Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
There are many maps and gazetteers showing English places. Valuable web sites are:


 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain