Birth
William Roberts was born in Italy. His father, James Roberts, was working in the Italian Alps as general manager of the Pestarena Gold Mine, Piedmont. Having taken place outside the UK, this event was not subject to the Civil Registration procedures of England and Wales. It is doubtful that there ever was any church record in Italy. Parts of the family were Methodists, and there will have been no chapel in Pestarena. The 1939 Register for England and Wales supplies a DoB of 11th March 1862. There is also a baptism record for the church of St Piran: 11th March 1866. Whether William really was baptised on his birthday, or whether 11th March was assumed for convenience is unclear.William's mother, Jane, was the eldest child of William Jewell and his wife Jane, née May.
Marriage
Residence
Towards the end of the 19th century William Roberts made a property investment in the form of two villas which he had built near the top of Perranporth in Tywarnhayle Road. These possessed extensive views over both the town and the sands; hence his name for the one in which he chose to live himself: 'Bella Vista'.
Children of William Roberts
Children.
- Norma Roberts
- b. Piedmont, Italy, -
- Margarita Teresa Roberts
- b. Piedmont, Italy, -
- Thomasine Roberts[1]
- b. Perranporth, -
- Thomas Stephens Roberts
- b. Perranporth, -
Margarita died, unmarried, in Bodmin mental hostpital.
Thomasine married Alexander South Clarke (1886 - 1974, Clapham, London) and had one son and one daughter. She died in a Surrey mental hospital.
Thomas was killed at the Battle of Ctesiphon, and left no issue.
Career
William Roberts, like his father and grandfather, became a manager of mines producing various metalliferous ores. As with all contemporary such managers (or 'mine agents' as they were termed) he was accorded the honorific of 'Captain'. The working depth of mines were measured in fathoms , and a few mines literally extended out from the shoreline and underneath the sea. The accessibility of the ore (and thus the economics of a mine as a whole) was often a function of the rate at which water penetrated the workings. The nautical allusions were understood within the industry.William worked both in Cornwall and overseas, taking a part in the management of the mines Wheal Agar, North Basset, West Basset and South Dolcoath in the
Illogan area. In about 1930 he was at the Avino silver mine near Durango in Mexico.Literature
Let me draw attention to that area of moorland lying between Perranporth and the village of Bolingey. It is scarcely conceivable from its present aspect that in former days it was a large sheet of water with certain high tidal seas flowing into it and that boats plied between the two places. In the winter seasons it was resorted to by wild fowl which bred there very largely amongst the flourishing 'goss' and rushes.There are four or five houses at Hendrawna in the vicinity of the present Great Western Railway station just below the site of which used to be a favourite well of water supplying the few houses; this was also the landing spot for passengers by boat. When my late father[2] was paying his attentions to a young woman of that place (who afterwards became my mother) he was returning home to Perranporth one moonlight night when he observed what was apparently a flock of wild duck alight at the well site. Early the following morning he took boat and gun and by good luck managed to bag six of the ducks. When he went to see his lady love that evening his prospective father-in-law remarked that his ducks had not come home as usual and my father gathered that he had bagged the old gentleman's domestic ducks. Whether he confessed to this, or not, I do not know but the incident was related to me by my maternal grandfather himself.
Included also are several 'nuggets' of family historical detail, such as a photograph of William's paternal grandmother, Elizabeth, born around the year 1800. Her husband, John, appears to have participated in the smuggling of contraband. So widespread was this practice that the parson was literally in receipt of brandy.
Naturally, the bulk of the work concerns the final years of the mining industry around Perranporth. The Roberts family pursued tin, copper, gold and silver. William's sadness at what he terms the 'decadence' of mining, and the hardy employees of it, comes through in his text. Beginning in the 1870s, Perranporth's transition to a leisure and tourism economy receives almost as much coverage - at least three of his close relatives owned or ran hotels or inns.
The sea at Perranporth attracts many today who use it for recreation: bathing, fishing and the sport of surfing. William writes of early adopters of these pastimes, but issues warnings about the risk to life possed by strong undercurrents during ebb tides. What William does not write about is any casualty of mining operations, though. There were many such, but he is silent on the subject of safety underground. He makes brief mention of the war (WW1, that is) on p191, and that he donates profits from the book to Toc H. This is despite the loss of his only son, Thomas at the Battle of Ctesiphon,
A partial transcription of the book is now underway.
Death of William Roberts.
Uncorroborated family legend claims the train taken by Thomasine to her father's funeral was derailed.