Cornwall OPC Database
Cornwall OPC
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An Introduction to the 1569 Muster for Cornwall

The 1569 Muster was to include all able men between the ages of 16 and 60 however only the hundreds of Powder, Pydar , West and East limited themselves to able men. The other hundreds included unable men.

For wages over £5 a certain amount of weaponry/armour had to be provided. For goods over £10 the same applied bow arrows and bill being the lowest contribution rising to furnishing horses at the higher end with goods over £400 or an income of over 100 marks anyone with a park was expected to supply horse

Abilties
a or ar = archer, b = billman, h (or g) = harquebusier p = pikeman additional “a” such as “a ar” is better than able

Armour
Common abbreviations include: harq = harquebut, pr = pair, sh.arr = sheaf of arrows, alm.rivet = almayne armour, fur = furnished

Additionally there are 4 missing parishes thought to be combined as follows:
Temple with Blisland, Tremaine with Egloskerry, Trewen with South Petherwin and Callington with South Hill.

When searching do not search surnames too tightly as spellings are very varied and there are omissions. I would suggest searching by Parishes and when a likely candidate is found always check the additional notes. Also surnames still seem to be in their formative years especially in some areas.


Carew had this to say on the matter:

"So the Westerne Cornish, by alike, but more compendious maner, intitle one another with his owne & his fathers christen name, and conclude with the place of his dwelling; as Iohn, the sonne of Thomas, dwelling at Pendaruis, is called Iohn Thomas Pendaruis. Rich. his yonger brother is named, Richard Thomas Pendaruis, &c. Through which meanes, diuers Gent. and others haue changed their names, by remoouing their dwellings, as Trengoue to Nance, Bonithon, to Carclew, two brethren of the Thomasses, the one to Carnsew, the other to Rescrowe, and many other."

For more in depth background info on the Muster see http://www.opc-cornwall.org/Records/parishes/L-P/poughill_muster.php

The Tinners' Muster c. 1535 was similar to the above, but was of tinners and tinwork owners.

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Want to help? Have look at our Contributions page. The database is maintained by Gill Hart and Bill O’Reilly but for specific queries relating to
individuals or parishes please contact the appropriate parish OPC.

All the records on this website are placed there with the permission of their transcribers, to whom the copyright belongs. They are only to be used for personal research, and are not to be copied in any way without prior written consent (see full copyright notice here for the principles).

We make no warranty whatsoever as to the accuracy and completeness of the data

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