And here they are in the 1861 Census:-
Phillack - St John's Street
Francis Pearce, head, mar, 35, boiler maker, Gwithian
Jane do., wife, mar, 30, St Buryan
William J do., son, 7, Phillack
Honor S do., daur, 3, Phillack
John F do., son, 8mths, Phillack
Phillack - Bodriggy Row
Hannah Gundry, head, wid., 45, house keeper, Gwithian
Mary H do., daur, 17, house keeper, Phillack
Richd. Hy do., son, 15, engineer's labourer, Phillack
Emily do., daur, 10, scholar, Phillack
William do., son, 3, Phillack
Richard Gundry is obviously deceased by this time.
So we need to find a John Pearce with children Francis and Hannah and then see where it leads us.
In 1841 there is a Francis Pearce, age 14, working as a Male Servant to the family of John Eustis at Trevarnon, Gwithian.
This appears to be your Francis as the only other one of the right age was the son of Francis and Grace at Redruth.
Richard GUNDRY married Hannah PEARCE 14th September 1840 at Gwithian.
Baptisms at Gwithian:-
Ann bp. 15th July 1816 (I suspect this is actually Hannah)
Henry bp. 31st January 1819
Eliza bp. 8th July 1821
James bp. 7th December 1823
Francis bp. 25th December 1825
John bp. 19th June 1831
And here is what I believe to be the correct marriage for John and Mary:-
John PEARCE, of Phillack, miner
Married 9th April 1815 at Camborne
Mary TREVILLIAN, jnr.
Witnesses:- John TREVILLIAN, Mary RICHARDS
And some more baptisms:-
William PEARCE bp. 11th February 1815 at Camborne s/o John (miner) and Mary of Gwithian
It would appear that both John and Mary may have been deceased prior to the 1841 Census.
At Connor Downs, Gwithian we have:-
John Pearce, 30, wheal wright
Mary do., 30
Thomas do., 4
Next lodging is:-
John Roberts, 15, male servant
And then we have:-
Henry Pearce, 20, copper miner
Eliza do., 20
James do., 15
Mary do., 13
John do., 10
Hannah Gundry, 20, female servant
It looks like Henry is now head of the household and recently married sister Hannah Gundry is employed there as a servant.
I now need to try and find a baptism for Mary and here are the possibles"-
Mary Ann PEARCE bp. 6th June 1826 at Helston (born 27th March 1825) d/o John (miner) and Mary of Breage
(From Helston Baptisms Transcript)
Mary Ann PEARCE bp. 21st September 1828 at Gwinear d/o John and Mary
(From IGI)
No guarantee on either of these but .....
The only thing I cannot help with at the moment is Gwithian Burials.
At the moment this is probably as far as we can get without running into difficulties.
If burials can be found for John and Mary then we 'might' be lucky enough to have their age recorded and that would be of enormous help.
Right now we don't know where or when John would have been born and he has an extremely common name.
We don't know for certain that Mary was born at Camborne but that is something I can look at.
Here are some possibilities for Mary.
As her last known child was baptised in 1831 I will search only from 1780-1798 allowing for her to have been no younger than 16 for her first child and no older than 50 for her last.
Mary TREVILIAN bp. 17th April 1797 at Camborne d/o Francis & Elizabeth
Mary TREVILLIAN bp. 21st October 1792 at Camborne d/o Thomas & Honour
Mary TREVILLIAN 11th November 1792 at Camborne d/o John and Julian
That now is the best I can do until some further clues turn up.
Hope it is of help.
CT
