Person:Jacob Coren (1)

1 JACOB COREN (1714-1785), born in 1714. The name Jacob was not a common one: in Madron the only Jacobs recorded were a Jacob Boase baptized in 1695, a Jacob Lobb in 1712, and a Jacob Stephens baptized in the same year that our Jacob was born, and it is interesting to speculate how the name came into the family. Jacob, like his father, worked as a cordwainer. On 21 July 1749, perhaps in connection with his father's illness (William's will is dated nine days later), he purchased leases on three properties in the barton of Tolver at Gulval. These leases are preserved in the Lemon family papers.

The first of these, the bigger tenement, consisted of "Higher Gweleandown, Gweleandrea, Tinners Field, Sheep Close, Long Close, Higher Croft adjoining Common Downs, Western Croft, Great Orchard which joins to Gweleandrea, Mowhay Barn, Stable and Oxen House, and a convenient proportion of the Town place as the same is now apportioned and marked out likewise", as well as parts of the Mansion House, namely the Hall and its entrance from the front of the house, the parlour and dairy with the chambers over them; together with common of pasture and turbary on High Downs. Jacob was 34, and the others lives on the lease were William aged 9, son of William, and William aged 13 (a draughtsman's error for 15?), son of Ralph. William senior and Ralph senior were Jacob's cousins. The consideration for this lease was £582, and the annual rent was £2/5/-, with a heriot of £3.

The lives for the second lease were Jacob, and Ralph Corin, aged 14, another son of Ralph senior, in this lease described as a carrier, and Haniball Thomas, aged 12, son of Haniball Thomas of Zennor. This lease was of the lesser tenement, consisting of Lower Gwelandown, Park Shoata, Lower Park Chambers, Dorzea Close, Dorzea Croft, Kings Croft Reens; of the Mansion House the kitchen and buttery, with the chambers over them, the back court with the Hog Styes, two orchards, one behind the mowhay and outhouses, the other adjoining Reens, part of the town plot, and pasture and turbary on High Downs. The consideration paid was £384, the annual rent £1/15/3 and the heriot £2/10/-.

The third lease was over the tenement at Long Rock. The lives were Jacob, and Henry aged 11 and Samuel aged 8, both sons of Samuel Phillips, a yeoman of Gulval. The consideration was £28. The rent was 10/- and the heriot 30/-.

Jacob still described himself as a cordwainer in 1768 when he took a further 99-year lease of Tolver in Gulval from William Veale (the lease was on the lives of his nephews and nieces Jacob, Jane, Susanna and Ann). For the latter part of his life he lived at Tolver, which was a substantial farmhouse: in 1777 it was assessed for 11 windows. He also held land at Bosullow, Long Rock, Boswarthen and Lescudjack.

He and William James were Overseers of the Poor for the parish of Madron in 1756, although by the following year he had certainly ceased living in his father's old house at Chyandour. (His status as a Madron resident was assured by his holding Great Bosullow, which appears on a 1768 list of holdings valued at over £10 per annum.)

Jacob never married, and when he died, on 23 May 1785 at Tolver, he left the residue of his considerable property to his nephew, Jacob, who also shares a headstone with him in Gulval churchyard. His will is dated eight days before his death, and he was buried on 27 May 1785.

Jacob's will provides a key to sorting out the various branches of the Corin family at this time, and its fifteen bequests are abstracted below. It was proved at Gulval on 24 June 1785.

to my brother William Corin...one annuity...of ten pounds and eight shillings per annum...out of my freehold estate in or called Boswarthen in the parish of Madron...

to my nephew William Corin, son of the before-named William Corin...an annuity of ten pounds per annum...out of that part of my estate in Tolver in Gulval...which he is a life on...

to Jacob Corin son of my nephew Jacob Corin and grandson to my said brother William Corin all my fields...in or near Lescudjack in the town of Penzance...

to my nephew Joseph Corin son of my said brother William Corin the sum of five pounds...within three months next after my decease.

to my nephew Philip Corin son of...William...ten pounds.

to my nephew Richard Corin son of...William...all those fields in Gulval...now in the possession of myself and William Bennetts which I hold under a lease from William Veale Esquire...and also ...such two of my milch cows as he shall chuse.

to my sister Mary Noy wife of George Noy of Penzance...carpenter ...an annuity of three pounds per annum...out of my freehold estate in or called Long Rock in the parish of Gulval.

to my nephew George Noy the sum of fifty pounds, and to my nieces and nephew Sarah Noy, Martha Noy, Mary wife of Nicholas Basset, Julian Noy, Grace Noy and Henry Noy two guineas apiece.

to my nephew Jacob Corin son of my brother John Corin, all those messuages, lands...in...Boswarthen in the parish of Madron...

to my nephew Charles Corin son of...John Corin...Long Rock.

give and forgive Matthew Read the younger of the town of Penzance all moneys due.

to my niece Elizabeth Read wife of the said Matthew Read the sum of one hundred pounds...within nine months next after my decease.

to my neices (sic) Jane Corin, Susanna Corin and Caroline Corin daughters of my said brother John Corin the sum of fifty pounds apiece...within twelve months next after my decease.

to my brother John Corin...one annuity...of fifty pounds per annum...out of...Bosullon in the parish of Madron and Tolver and Pound-sand-Dean (mod. Ponsandane) Fields or Moors in the... parish of Gulval...and a power to enter or distrain for the same.

all the rest...unto my said nephew Jacob Corin son of my said brother William Corin...and I appoint...the said last-named Jacob Corin whole and sole executor...

The witnesses were the attorney James Pascoe, William Philips and Henry Nicholls.