The Major Family from Cornwall

St Ives has a mild climate.  Because of the Gulf Stream, the warm current that flows in the Atlantic, it seldom freezes there.  The Major family probably fished and boated.  From inventories made at their deaths, we know that they grew hay, wheat, and barley and owned milk cows.  Bullocks, calves, and pigs were used for meat.  Sheep produced wool for clothes. Horses were raised for transportation.  They owned tenements and received rents from their property. Their main prosperity, however, was chiefly due to their ownership of tin mines. Ancient Artifacts found in St. Ives testify that the tin industry was actively pursued long before recorded history. 

The Major�s were called �Tinners� in will records that date from 1771, although there is little doubt that they owned these mines long before, because they owned the same properties for two hundred years. 

            Apparently, the Major�s were also heavily involved in local government. The name �Major� is the Latin equivalent of mayor, meaning a magistrate of a town.   In the small community of St. Ives borough, the name of Timothye Maior  (c1510-1656) first appears.  �Maior� also means �mayor� since the �y� and  �i� were often interchangeable in Sixteenth Century documents.  Early records note the doings of the �maior� or �mayor� of the boroughs or towns.  Timothye Maior was born during the waning years of the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), the red headed daughter of Henry VIII.  Our ancestor�s first mention in history is for paying taxes on �The Lande� of St. Ives in 1619.

(Matthews, John Hobson, �A History of  the Parishes of St. Ives, Lelant, Towdenack, and Zennor in the County of Cornwall), 180) This was a significant time in world history.  The year after, in 1620, the first Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts and disembarked from the "Mayflower."   

            The name of Tymothe�s wife is not recorded in any records, yet it is easy to imagine this first generation with husband, wife and children chatting in the Cornish tongue, still spoken in West Cornwall until almost 1700.  However, this early family also spoke the language of the King James Bible, heavily sprinkled with �thou�s� and �thee�s.� The family worked, laughed and played during the reign of King James I (1566-1625) who commissioned the translation of the Bible.  This Scottish royal, made King of England, believed he had the �Divine Right� to make rules as he pleased; the English Parliament disagreed.  This contention led to Civil War in 1642, during the rule of James�s son, Charles I.   The civil war disrupted the probate process that lawfully distributes the goods of a dead person, because parliament abolished the ecclesiastical courts in 1653.  Timothye Maior, called �the Elder� died in 1656; his will was filed at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in London.  

            The last dying wish of our ancestor would bring a smile to every doting grandparent.  Tymothye left one shilling to three younger sons.  Oldest son, Timothy Jr., received a three year old �baye mare colt.�  All the rest of his goods, chattels and estate, including his land called  �Treloyhan�, Timothye Maior, Sr. bequeathed to his four-year-old granddaughter, Jane!   Treloyhan (meaning 'the habitation in the grove' in the Welsh tongue) continued to be owned by the Major family for many generations.   

            It was the children of Timothye Maior, the Elder who began spelling the family name, �Major.� During the reign of Charles II (1660-85 AD)   �Timothy Major� Jr. was paid from the borough accounts in 1669  

�by order of the Aldermen for money hee pd Mr Prigg for wine about the Sacrament �1 18s. 3d.   

 for fixing the Towne Armes against the Coronation day 4s. 6d  --  

pd for bringing the Great Guns from the Iland  to the castle the Coronation day with damages of ropes and expenses to ringers and musketeers with expenses the next day putting the Guns into the castle  �2  10s  0d�. (Matthews, John Hobson, �A History of  the Parishes of St. Ives, Lelant, Towdenack, and Zennor in the County of Cornwall), 180) (I haven�t been able to discover what Coronation they are talking about.) 

Obviously, the Major family was busy and involved in the workings of the community.  Timothy owned land called Helles-veans. ( In Welsh this means 'the little slope'). This land was also passed down from generation to generation. Matthew Major, a farmer, was still living on Helles-veans when the 1841 census of St. Ives was taken.  

            The  two Tymothe�s were followed by son and grandson, Henry Major I (1664-1749). He was a Yeoman or property owner and gentleman farmer.  As a small boy, Henry would have received the news that the House of Hanover was installed on the British throne.  The first German ruler of England, King George I, did not speak a word of English and he was highly unpopular.   

            Henry Major I married Elizabeth Rosewall on 11 June 1706.  The Rosewall family claims ancient origins.  �Few Cornish families can vie with this one in point of antiquity,� explains John Matthews, a St Ives�s historian. 

 �Though apparently never entitled to bear arms, the Rosewalls for countless generations occupied an ancient homestead called �Rosewall,� on the eastern slope of Rosewall Hill, in the parish of Towednack (the town adjoining St. Ives).  The Subsidy Roll of 1327 AD shows the name of John de Ryswal and Noal de Ryswall of Towednack, who paid 2s. each towards the royal aid.�  

 This same author explains that there was a Rosewall from Cornwall who served in the Second Crusade (a holy war to liberate Jerusalem from those who did not believe in Jesus Christ).  This war was fought from 1147-1148 A.D.  Since the Rosewalls originate from Towednack and St. Ives, this 10^th century Rosewall from the crusades is part of our family tree. 

            The next known generational head of our Major family line is Henry Major II (1707-1771).  He married Jane Nicholas in St. Ives, 2 Feb 1735.  The Nicholas family was also quite well-to-do.  Upon Jane�s father�s death, his estate was bequeathed to the Major family. Thus the land called �Polmanter� (anciently Pellamounter and Pellamountayne; a stream and a hamlet on the boundary between Saint Ives and Towednack)  was added to the Major�s wealth. 

            When Henry Major II was 53 years old, King George III (1738-1820) stepped up to the throne in 1760 and began a reign that would last 50 years. Four generations of Major�s would pledge their allegiance to George the III, King of Great Britain and Ireland.  Grandson and son of German parents, King George was loved greatly because he was the first King born in beloved England for 50 years.  He was forced to deal with terrible problems caused by his rebellious American colonies. Beginning in 1764, the British Parliament   began passing laws that infuriated the colonists in America.  The Sugar Act imposed charges on foreign wines, coffee, textiles and indigo imported to the colonies.  The next year, the Stamp tax was passed to help pay the cost of stationing British troops in America.  1767 brought the passing of the Townsend Acts and Boston Merchants agreed not to import those items taxed, rather than pay the duties. 

            Probably quite unconcerned about the historic stir happening in the American colonies, Henry Major II, was involved in his own governmental meddling in the Saint Ives election of 1768.  That year two men would be sent to Parliament to represent the borough of Saint Ives.  There were four candidates, but Henry Major was particularly opposed to John Stevens.   Apparently, the only people allowed to vote were those in the town who paid for the relief of the poor.  Court documents reveal that "At Easter 1767 Thomas Rosewall (Our ancestor and Henry�s father-in-law), Henry Major, and others were chosen Church Wardens and Overseers of the poor of the Borough of St. Ives. 

 In June 1767 they went about in a "private manner without such publick notice as is usually given on those occasions" and "made a rate or Assessment for the relief of the poor of the said Borough, from which they wilfully and unjustly omitted and left out the names of near 60 of the legal Inhabitants" of St. Ives.   "And when the sd (said) parish Officers were asked what motive did Induce them to make such unjust illegal Rates, Henry Major & Arnold Walters, two of the Overseers of the poor, answered, to the astonishment of all the Inhabits of the sd Borough, that they wod (would) omit or leave out of all the Rates they shod (should) make the Names of all such persons as they thought wod vote for or favour the interest of the sd Stevens & his Friends who shd be proposed by him to be candidates for the said Borough at the then next ensuing general Election for Members to serve in parliament for the sd Burough." 

            During the trial that ensued, Richard Major testified that he had conversed with Henry Major about the coming election giving his opinion that John Stevens would win.  "Henry Major replyed: 

'Thou ffool!  don't you know better?--the Rate we have made already is of no signifcation, but we intend to make a Rate just before the next Election, and so poll by that Rate in definace of Doctor Stevens." 

            Dr. Stevens would have won the election had 60 pro-Stevens people been allowed to vote, but since Henry Major and friends made a new poor rate list just before the election, and excluded them, they could not vote.  Dr. Stevens lost the election.  Lest you think our ancestor was corrupt, it must be understood that the court ruled Major�s actions as completely legal, because the laws had not yet been written otherwise (Mathews, John Hobson, A History of the Parishes of Saint Ives, Lelant, Towednack and Zennor, in the County of Cornwall, 507-515). 

            As the events, which led to the Revolutionary War, continued to escalate, the Major family mourned the death of Henry Major II.   In 1771, an inventory was taken of all his goods and estates. The Administration accounts give us a peek into his simple, yet comfortable country life: 

House Hold Goods 

ten Brass  Pans 
nine pewter platters
one Dozen of pewter plates
one pair of Brass candel Sticks
too iron Kettels
three brass Crokes    (Crocks)
One quart copper and coffee pot
one half dozen of Glasses
one clock
two cupboards
One Dresser
two Tables and Form
one half dozen of Chairs
one half dozen of wooden plates
one round table
Bellows Spitt and Racks
Three beds and four Steads
One hanging press
One Chest and Drawers
Two China Basons   (basins)
One tea Kettle and two Brandis's     

  The Estates

The tenement called the Drysack
The Tenement called Trelyon
The Wheat and Barley
The Hay
To eight Mich Cows
To four young Bullocks and four calves
To three horses and one Colt
To fourteen Sheep and fourteen lambs
To three Pigs
Weal Wens tin Bounds (used for processing tin)
His bandry? Impliments
Wearing Apparell                                       

  The family assets were valued over 500 English pounds:  Although a small sum in comparison with the wealth of the royalty of England, it was nevertheless a highly comfortable living in the 18^th Century.   This could account for the tradition passed down in our family that the Major family was quite wealthy. 

The next generation, another Henry Major (1739-1821), carried the label �Gentleman� because of the property holdings of his family. He found a bride, Elizabeth Coniam, in the parish of Newton, St. Cyres, in the neighboring county of Devon in 1770. The Coniam family also held title to land in Devon.  All their children, except two daughters, died young.   It looks as though Henry Major made the match because of the promise of inherited property.  It was a common in England�s history to discuss inheritances and dowries between families before the parents granted a formal engagement. 

The next generation, Richard Major (1771-1821) was the oldest son.  He was born in Newton St. Cyres, Devon.  He chose to delay his marriage until he was 30 years old.  Obviously, he was searching for a bride that could bring a suitable income to the son of a gentleman.  Richard decided to turn his back on the family inheritance.  Apparently well educated and musically talented, he married in Bristol, England in 1801 to Frances Constantia Warner. Given the marriage customs of the times, this marriage was more than likely arranged to create an economic union of these two families. Richard Major was a Music printer and the Warners were booksellers. The marriage created a natural and economically advantageous alliance between these two families.

The Warner family was quite well-to-do. William Warner purchased a License from the Archbishop of Canterbury to remarry after his wife died, which cost a whopping great sum at that time, and required connections. We can only assume that Richard�s family was in a similar financial stratum. 

A few years after the marriage, the Major family moved to London, England.  By this time at least five children had been born. William Warner Major, was born in Bristol in 1805 and baptized there in St. James Parish. (St. James Parish, Bristol, England, Baptism Records) 

 Other children were Henry born in 1807, Richard Jr. in 1809, Elizabeth in 1812 and Mary Jane in 1818.The six  year gap between Elizabeth in 1812 and Mary Jane in 1818 suggests that there were perhaps two additional children we have not documented. All the children except William were baptized in the Parish of St. Pancras Old Church, London in 1821.The family lived about a block from where the British Museum is now located at 43 Bedford St. on the Strand in the famous West End district. Covent Garden was only a block away from the Major family business.  During the Regency and the Victorian Era the West End served as a place that the very wealthy shopped. Richard Sr. owned a "Cheap Music Warehouse" and was one of just a few music engravers in the city.  They were middle class people, very cultured and well educated. They attended the famous West End theaters and concerts, where Richard Sr. often copied music to sell to enthusiastic theatre audiences.
(Frank Kidson, British Music Publishers, Printers, and Engravers; London, Provincial, Scottish, and Irish from Queen Elizabeth�s Reign to George the Fourth�s� New York, Benjamin Blom 1900,1967) p 76; Bristol England Directories (1806,1807,1811) Catalogue of Printed Music, British Library. There are 13 pieces of music published by �R. Major� in this collection. 

St. Pancras was still a mostly rural area, north of London city.  The rich visited this area for day outings to the country.  It was not unusual for the more wealthy tradesmen to keep a home outside of the noise and pollution of the city, and walk to work every day.  The Richard Major family was not rich, compared to the fabulous wealth of the royal families, but they were financially stable in a time where the poverty, described in The Christmas Carol, dogged the greatest majority of London.  Likely they employed a housekeeper and cook. 

Living conditions in London were average for the times but not what we would tolerate today.  It was the largest city in the world with a population of almost a million people in 1811. 

The massive buildings, the smoke pouring out of the chimneys from wood and coal burning stoves, the crush of people buying goods, unpaved streets, and the lack of sanitation all contributed to the squalid conditions of the day. Those people who were not fortunate enough to have indoor privies were forced to dump their night waste into the muddy streets in front of their homes often on the heads of unwary passers by. Homes that did have privies usually had them built into an overhang on the water so that when people relieved themselves the waste dropped directly into the water or splashed down the walls of the building. The Thames River had become an open sewer and smelled as badly. London was sometimes so smoggy, that people would lose their way and fall into the Thames. 

When plagues and disease swept the city, thousands died. In the 1830s and the 1840s there were three massive waves of contagious disease: the first, from 1831 to 1833, included two influenza epidemics and the initial appearance of cholera; the second, from 1836 to 1842, encompassed major epidemics of influenza, typhus, typhoid, and cholera. The cholera subsided as enigmatically as it had flourished, but in the meantime another sort of devastation had taken hold.  

The previous June in 1832, following a particularly rainy spring, Britain was visited by the first of eight serious influenza epidemics in the space of sixteen years. In those days the disease was often fatal, and even when it did not kill, it left its victims weakened in their defenses against other diseases. Burials in London doubled during the first week of the 1833 outbreak; in one two-week period they quadrupled. Whereas cholera, spread by contaminated water, affected mainly the poorer neighborhoods, influenza was limited by no economic or geographic boundaries. Large numbers of public officials, especially in the Bank of England, died from it, as did many theater people. 

At that time the term "fever" encompassed a number of different diseases, among them cholera and influenza. In the 1830s the "new fever," typhus, was isolated. During its worst outbreak, in 1837-38, most of the deaths from fever in London were attributed to typhus, and new cases averaged about sixteen thousand in England in each of the next four years. This happened to coincide with one of the worst smallpox contagions, which killed tens of thousands, mainly infants and children. Scarlet fever, or Scarlatina as it was then called, was responsible for nearly twenty thousand deaths in 1840 alone. Henry Coles Major, and Sarah Coles's 5 year-old son, died in such a plague of measles in 1842. William Warner Major died a few years later before he could return to America.
(The Healthy Body and Victorian Culture, Bruce Haley, Harvard University Press, 1978) 

These outbreaks must have terrified the family. William Warner Major, his brother Richard, his sister Elizabeth and their spouses and children joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in London in 1842. (Theobald Road Branch Records, FHL; Marlebone Branch Records,FHL)  After a successful mission to Newbury in which William Major baptized 33 people, he was made the London Conference President. 

William Warner Major � 1804-1854 

            William Warner Major was born January 27, 1804 in St. James Parish, Bristol, England. (St. James Parish, Bristol England, Baptism Records)  His mother's  family, the Warners, were established booksellers.  His father, Richard Major, came from a family of booksellers, printers, circulating library owners, musicians, music engravers, music publishers, and music sellers.
(Frank Kidson, British Music Publishers, Printers, and Engravers; London, Provincial, Scottish, and Irish from Queen Elizabeth�s Reign to George the Fourth�s� New York, Benjamin Blom 1900,1967) p 76; Bristol England Directories (1806,1807,1811) Catalogue of Printed Music, British Library. There are 13 pieces of music published by �R. Major� in this collection. 

  The Majors and the Warners combined their enterprises and conducted successful business dealings in Bristol and London. From 1811 to 1818 Richard Major owned a cheap music warehouse at 43 Bedford Street on the Strand.
(Charles Humphries and William C. Smith, Music Publishing in theBritish Isles; London: Cassell and Company, Ltd. 1954 pp 224-25) 

        This business was within walking distance of the art treasures in London's wealthy West End.  According to an 1819 travel book, exhibitions of  London art are uncommonly numerous;  the mention of each is almost impossible. (Samuel Lee, Leigh�s New Picture of London; London: Samuel Lee, 1819 p 381)  Many passionate American artists traveled to London to copy and learn from the Old Masters, because there were few such paintings available in America. 
(Oliver W. Larkin, Art and Life in America; New York, Rinehart, V. Company, Inc. 1949 pp 80,81)
        This opportunity was available to Major from his early youth and he took advantage of it to develop his skills as an artist.  His favorite artists were the British born portrait painters Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) and Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). 
(Bathsheba W. Smith, The Autobiography of Bathsheba W. Smith, ed. Alice Merrill Horne, 20. Copy in possession of Harriet H. Arrington, Salt Lake City, Utah.) 

But his talents were needed in Nauvoo Illinois where the Mormons went after Joseph Smith was expelled from Missouri.  Upon arrival in this Western America city, Major immediately became acquainted with the leadership of the Church. (William H. Kimball, James Marsden, Death of William Warner Major Millenial Star, November 4, 1854 16:700) 

         Because the Mormons were consciously seeking anything virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, (The Articles of Faith #13; History of the Church Vol. 4  pp535-541)  Major was able to add significantly to Mormon education and culture.  Not only was he widely sought out to create likenesses but he also became a teacher and speaker.  For example, during the cold, wet winter of 1847 at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, Major presented a lecture in his polished London accent telling the young sisters to keep themselves clean and their clothes clean and their houses clean, and when they make bread, make bread, and when they serve up butter, butter on one plate, and wings, hair, etc (probably chicken and rabbits or beef) on another plate. It must have been very startling to be taught the proper use of serving dishes, when people were worried about the cold and lack of food.   Major also gave instructions on shaking hands and told the men that they must be kind to their wives... (Willard Richard�s Journal, Holograph, February 16, 1847 LDSCA) 

 The Mormons were living in sod roof huts that often dripped muddy water on their beds during the storms, yet in the middle of the Nebraska wilderness Robert Campbell reported viewing some beautiful landscapes, also several profiles in the Major's home! 
(Robert Lang Campbell Journal March 21, 1847, Special Collections and Manuscripts, Harold B. Lee library, Brigham Young University)
 
          William Warner Major later moved to Utah with the rest of the Mormon community. He returned to England on a mission for the Church in 1848 and died before returning. The body was to be shipped back to Utah for burial but never arrived. His body can be traced to St. Louis, Missouri. Family researchers think that his brother Richard and his sister Elizabeth Major Terry stopped the body there and had it buried but definite proof is lacking. Many of his direct descendants still live in Utah and other western states and still follow the Mormon faith. 

Richard Major Jr. � 1809-1889

            Richard Major, Jr. was a house painter. I've wondered, given the cultured family, if Richard Major was not a decorative house painter. Those were quite in vogue during the Victorian era, where color and detail was everything. His brother William wrote to Brigham Young in 1854. �My brother Richard is on his way and has a small package for you.� Richard left from Liverpool on April 4, 1854 aboard the ship Germanicus. The ship's roster read:

Richard Major  44  House painter
Martha A.  49
Richard     16
William     13
Martha A.  11
Caroline M  8 
Mary Agnes infant

Their trip was not to be smooth or pleasant. The ship "struck bottom" near Tortugas ( not far from Cuba) on May 30 and was delayed a day.  Their infant daughter Mary Agnes died on May 31, 1854 and was buried at sea.   They arrived in New Orleans June 12, 1854 and then boarded the steamer "Uncle Sam" for St. Louis.  The trip took 14 days. Once again tragedy struck.  From the diary of Thomas Sleight, who was on the Germanicus, "We were detained at the quarantine island below St. Louis where many died.  Our detention at quarantine was not necessary as we had obtained a clean bill of health from the doctor."

      There was a Quarantine Island that was just south of Duncan's Island in the Mississippi river.  Duncan's was also used for quarantine but not until the 1849 cholera epidemic. But the name of this southern island on this map was literally "Quarantine Island". It was previously known as Arsenal Island. Duncan�s Island eventually washed away   as a result of the construction of a flood control dike in 1837 by then lieutenant Robert E. Lee. Another nearby island known as Bloody Island became part of East St. Louis from the same cause. "The Ordinance moving the quarantine station to Arsenal Island went into effect May 4, 1850." 

            One of those who died here was apparently Richard�s wife Martha as there is no mention of her after the steamer trip up the Mississippi. Imagine the thoughts of William, Richard, and Elizabeth when they landed in St. Louis, a small western town on the edge of civilized America. Likely they had never fired a gun, or ridden a horse as carriages were employed for travel and only the very rich owned stables in the city.

The next record we have for Richard is the 1870 Census for Jacksonville in Morgan County Illinois. From this and other research data we can say that Richard  remarried about 1855 to Susan Eaton, another Mormon convert, whom his family had known in England. By 1870 Richard and Susan had at least four children together.  A later census reports that Susan had seven children though we have no verification of this so far. The four oldest were living with him along with his daughter Caroline (Carrie), the youngest surviving child from his previous marriage. Nothing is known about why he did not continue on to Utah. We can only conjecture that perhaps he became settled in his new life in Illinois and felt that the hardship of the additional travel to the west was not worth the effort if his brother were not there to welcome him. In addition, his sister, her husband Robert Terry and their family had settled in St. Louis, and his 21 year-old son William was living with them and learning a trade as a carpet layer and upholsterer.

           In 1866 William married Matilda Bradley, daughter of Henry Bradley and Mary West. The Bradleys were another Mormon family who had come to America and who had known the Majors in England. When they arrived a year after Richard, they came to St. Louis. William�s family remained permanently in the St. Louis area and remain there today. Caroline and the children from Richard�s second marriage remained in Illinois for the remainder of their lives. They are buried in Morgan and Sangamon counties east of St. Louis. 

Elizabeth Major Terry 1812 - 1884

  On February 28, 1853 John Robert Terry, and his wife, Elizabeth Major Terry, boarded the sailing ship, International in Liverpool, England.  John Terry, an upholsterer and his wife were both 36 years old. Their  children were Angelina, age 9, Robert, age 7, Charles, age 3, Elizabeth Frances (named for William and Elizabeth's mother Frances Constantia) age two, and John, age 6 months.   During the crossing there were 7 deaths, 7 births and 5 marriages... Except for minor bouts of seasickness, the emigrants were remarkably free from illness.  For five weeks the ship encountered head winds and some heavy gales.  In one storm the vessel nearly capsized. Yet at times she sailed about two hundred twenty miles a day. 
(Sonne, Ships, saints, and Mariners: A Maritime Encyclopedia of Mormon Migration 1830 � 1890, p 105) 

The Elizabeth Major Terry family stayed in the St. Louis, Missouri area where the family continued in the upholstery business.

Home