THE BERRYMANS IN CORNWALL 1500 –1820
A search of old subsidy and military rolls of the 1500s held by the CRO, Truro,
showed only 8 Berriman males registered in Cornwall in the 1569 Muster Roll.
Amongst those listed was a Nicholas Berriman of Euny, Redruth (1545-1616).
Another Nicholas is shown on the Military Survey of 1522 as possessing a bow and
6 arrows. He is also on the roll of 1545. He was a prosperous farmer by 1597,
when he was taxed for £3 in Senner (Zennor). Only eight others were mentioned
in the parish.
Our Berryman roots can be traced back to William Beryman of the parish of Zennor
in the early 16th Century. His will, and that of his son Nicholas, show that the
family at that time were farmers, but many Cornish wills were destroyed in
bombing raids during the last war, so the occupations of later generations
remain largely unknown. It is likely that many were farmers or fishermen.
However, with more than 20 tin and copper mines within the parish of Towednack
alone, many, such as James Berriman (b.1759), would have been "tinners".
A farming family - not ours
A tine mine on the Cornish coast
William Beryman, lived during the reign of Elizabeth I – as did his son,
Nicholas (I) and wife Joan (Barnes). From then until the Commonwealth period
(John and Elizabeth (Veale)), the Berrymans were probably far too busy farming
and rearing large families to become involved in the religious squabbling which
so badly affected Cornwall at that time, and there is nothing to indicate that
they were anything but compliant members of the Church of England.
Nor is there any evidence that Nicholas (III) and Margery
(Hiddons) were directly involved in the English Civil War. However, as Penwith
provided the setting for several important episodes in this turbulent period, it
is unlikely that their lives would have remained untouched by it.
Richard
and his wife, Margaret (Thomas), were living during the Restoration, a time of
great political and religious upheaval. It was he that appears to have changed
the spelling of Berryman to Berriman when he moved to Churchtown, Zennor. His
son, Mark (I) and wife, Elenor (Eade), were the first of this Berriman line to
live in the neighbouring parish of Towednack. The picture at left is of the
Berriman family at Treveglos (Church Farm), Zennor.
Mark (II) and Elizabeth (Donithorne); James and Christian
(Sampson); and Mark (III) and Mary (Broad), were products of the Hanover
dynasty, and it was in the reign of George III, during the early years of the
Napoleonic Wars, that the latter Mark migrated to Wales.