CORNISH-L Archives

Archiver > CORNISH > 1998-01 > 0884329706


From: "John Coles" <>
Subject: Re: Surname GITSHAM
Date: Thu, 08 Jan 98 23:08:26 PST


----------
>
> Do any of you have the GITSHAM family in your line?
> I have a James Dale (or Sale) GItsham who married Amelia ELLIOTT of Saltash
> about 1875. He managed to get himself enumerated twice in the 1881 census,
> once living with his wife Amelia and a second time as a schoolmaster aboard
> some kind of a vessel, "The Mt. Edgecom..." (the LDS fiche doesn't show the
> full name, but the 'students' were all young teens and were referred to as
> 'inmates.' Wonder if this was some kind of a floating orphange. Most of the
> youngsters were not from Cornwall.)

Hi Rick,

The name of the ? vessel is almost certainly MOUNT EDGCUMBE, which is a wonderful old estate on the hillside facing Plymouth, across Plymouth Sound.
Mount Edgcumbe is... of course... on the best side, the Cornish side! (Although, curiously, the Tamar was not always the boundary, and the park was in Devon, and the name comes from a Devon hamlet!)

It had a Tudor house which was built from about 1547 by Sir Richard Edgcumbe, burnt down in the air raids during the second World War, when Plymouth area suffered intense bombing and destruction because of the naval dockyard. The house was rebuilt after the war, however.

The park is very lovely, and one of the ferries from Plymouth lands near one of it's gates.

Now, what this has to do with your story I really can't imagine! I wonder if this was some kind of orphanage endowed / built as a philanthropic work by the Edgcumbe family, and I wonder if it was a boat, or you are being misled by the MT bit??? Happy hunting!
Can anyone add to this puzzle?

John
John & Anna at Kernow Sound magazine
"The Sounds of Cornwall"

This thread: