Stratton/ Kilkhampton to Prince Edward Island - the descendants of James & Honor Cornish

		James Yeo, born around 1705 in Stratton, Cornwall, was the son of Robert Yeo and Rose Cory. The Yeo and Cory families had well established roots in Devon and Cornwall. Their ancestors had been wealthy business men, who had married into the well seated families of Ashe, Pyne, Jeue, Grenville and Monk. Some of the earlier Yeos in Stratton had been educated at Oxford University and become lawyers or wealthy merchants, involved in the early exploration of New England and trade with Spain. Stratton was then a wealthy market town, where many prominent families had property. Robert's great grandfather, John Yeo, had been known as the Great John Yeo of Stratton. He was a wealthy merchant with leases on property in Stratton and a feoffment, shared with another seven great men of Stratton, inherited from his father John Yeo, on properties in Hele Pont. This feoffment involved the partitioning of Treburtell, a large estate in Tresmeer, which had belonged to the priory in St Stephen at Launceston, but when King Henry V111 ordered the abolition of the monastries it was sold off. The Cory family were also part of this feoffment and it is these deeds that have enabled us to track the family through the 1600's, the period for which unfortunately parish registers were lost, thanks to the Blanchminster papers. A feoffment meant that as each heir died, his next heir inherited the share of the interest in the property. This went on for over a hundred years. i.e. John, the Great John Yeo, who died in 1616 and left a will, Bernard Yeo, son of the Great John Yeo, Bernard his son, his son John who married Martha Hambly and their son was Robert who married Rose Cory.

Kilkhampton in the Twentieth Century

James moved to Kilkhampton, a village near to Stratton and married Honor Cornish. There were Cornish's residing at Stibb, a little hamlet on the outskirts of Kilkhampton,at that time, so this could have been the reason they moved there. The Cornish's were also a long standing Cornwall family, who had a descent from John Chammond of Launcells and were still using the name Chammon as a Christian name, part of a request in the last John Chammond's will.  The Chammond's were a wealthy family who had lived in Launcells. John Cornish was the Vicar of Poughill in the mid 1600's and was probably an ancestor of Honor's. . James & Honour had five children, William, Rose, Honour, James and Grace, before Honour died in 1741.  James remained a widow for some thirty years and then married a young girl, named Martha Robbins and had three more children, John, Thomas and Phillip.  In fact he was baptizing his younger children at the same time as his sons were baptizing theirs.  When his son John died in 1792 aged only 20, James signed a renunciation form for John's goods to be passed to his other son Philip and and although he was an old man then, his signature was very fluent so he must have been quite literate.

His son James married Elizabeth Vincent, on the 25^th September, 1759 and shortly afterwards their first child, Ann was baptized, this was followed by a daughter Honour in 1762  However, after this date James & Elizabeth moved out of Kilkhampton, probably to find employment and the birth of James in 1765 has never been found.  When they returned to Kilkhampton, Honour married Thomas Burnard and James married Ann Osbourne. late in 1788. There were three other children of the marriage, John, Elizabeth and Mary. Then Ann Yeo died and in 1807 James Yeo senior was married again to Grace Francis. Five years later, when his stepmother had one child, Samuel, James Yeo junior married her eighteen-year-old sister Mary with the interesting result that when his second half-brother Thomas and his own first son William were born in 1813 it was possible for his stepmother to have uncle and nephew, who were also cousins, one at each breast, very much a family tradition.

When the French war broke out in 1793, later to be known as the Napoleonic Wars, there was no conscription and parishes were required to produce men to serve in the navy. The men would be paid bounties from the parish funds. As the war developed there came an increasing scarcity of foods, Harvests were often bad. Not only that, but the great demands of the armed forces for foodstuffs further increased prices. There were times when prices reached famine level in the Cornish towns, and even in the villages it was difficult for the poor to feed themselves properly. The extension of the war on the continent of Europe was closing one by one all the markets for Cornish cloth. The weaving by the women in their oil lit cottages had for hundreds of years been a way of supplementing the men's wages.Day labourers employed on farms were lucky if they made 7s a week. People in the small Cornish villages had to make money whichever way they could.

James Yeo senior was literate and his eldest son learned to write an excellent hand and to express himself very well, if colloquially, on paper. James junior (1789 -1868) was a small man with short powerful arms and stubby fingers to his small hands. At some stage he suffered an injury or disease, most likely ankylosing spondylitis, poker spine, which tends to strike in youth. In consequence his back was held rigid and he could flex his body only from the hips. Despite this disability he had immense powers of physical endurance. He also had mental gifts which would have marked him out as an altogether exceptional man had he been born into a more prosperous social stratum. In 1814 or 1815 James Yeo obtained the capital to make a first attempt to break out from this level of existence. There were many ships wrecked off of the terrible coastline around Hartland Point, north of Kilkhampton In fact,. `God bless Vaather `n` Mawther, `n` zend a ship t`shore vore morning`.` The Cornish child's prayer may be a joke today but it was certainly no joke in the 1800's, nor for centuries before that. Most of the men and women living around the coast of North Cornwall & Devon were so poor and had so few chances of advancement that the piteous flotsam and jetsam of wrecks provided almost the only opportunity of a little luxury, or in many cases of lifting a family briefly above the poverty line. Men and women of the coastal villages naturally gravitated towards the beach at the slightest rumour of a ship in distress. and there were a lot of wrecks.

		James Yeo, saw a business opportunity and acquired a horse and a carrier's van and set up once-weekly service from Kilkhampton and nearby Stratton over the awful roads to Bideford and back enabling him to sell on what he had found. It was a way of life which made him well known over a wide stretch of countryside.  Early in 1818 his wife died. James took to drinking heavily and soon the horse died and the van had to be sold. He slipped back into poverty, but his carrier business had brought him into contact with men in Bideford. He appealed to Thomas Burnard, and the great merchant, who was a good judge of men, performed one of his acts of far-sighted charity and paid James Yeo's debts and took him on a contract to go to Prince Edward Island as a progresser and go-getter in collecting lumber. James Yeo had been married again to Damaris Sargent, a supposedly cross-eyed girl from Kilkhampton. She was a born shopkeeper and housekeeper. Just when they emigrated to P.E.Island is not certain, but it was certainly before 1820.  James was clever, tirelessly energetic, and a very able business man, what he himself called `an active man`.  He soon became a leading figure in Prince County and in 1835 set up his own stores and business headquarters at Port Hill crossroads.

Dictionary of Canadian Biography YEO, JAMES, shipbuilder and owner, merchant, landowner, and farmer; b. 1789 (baptized 13 Feb. 1790) at Kilkhampton, Cornwall, England, eldest son of James Yeo and Ann Orsborn; m. first in 1812 Mary Francis, by whom he had three children, and secondly in 1819, Damaris Sargent of Kilkhampton, by whom he had five daughters and two sons; d. 25 Aug. 1868 at Port Hill, P.E.I. James Yeo, the son of a shoemaker, was a labourer until 1814 or 1815 when he set up as a carter between Kilkhampton and Bideford, Devon. After his first wife's death in 1818 this business failed, partly as a result of Yeo's drunkenness. In May 1819 he married again and the couple probably immigrated the same year to Port Hill, Prince County, Prince Edward Island. There Yeo worked as superintendent of the lumbering gangs and helped with the management of the stores in the lumbering, shipbuilding, and mercantile business established by Thomas Burnard in 1818 and at that time managed by Thomas Burnard Chanter*. In 1826, after Burnard's death, Chanter disposed of the business at Port Hill to William Ellis*, a master shipbuilder who had also emigrated from the Bideford district. The business had a large number of outstanding accounts, many of which Yeo collected in the name of the Burnard family, with whom he was known to be associated; he then retained the proceeds, though they were in fact the legal property of Ellis. In this way Yeo acquired capital to set up on a small scale as a lumber dealer, storekeeper, and owner and master of the 35-foot merchant schooner Mary Ann, which he sailed from 1829 to 1832. Possessed of enormous physical and mental energy and business acumen, Yeo greatly prospered. By the mid 1830s he already exercised considerable influence in Prince County, having bought the original business at Port Hill from Ellis in circumstances which generated legends of an Esau-like misappropriation of Ellis' inheritance persisting on the Island to this day. In 1840 Yeo began shipbuilding on a large scale and soon became the greatest of the Island's shipbuilders. As such he played a vital part in the colony's economic development in the middle years of the century, when new ships built for sale in Britain were by far the most important Prince Edward Island export. He was responsible for the construction of at least 155 ships, from the Marina (1833) to the Magdala (completed three days before his death in 1868). Of these, several, especially James Yeo, Palmyra, and William Yeo, were among the largest ships ever built in Prince Edward Island. Yeo's youngest sons, James and John*, and his sons-in-law and their associates built at least another 200 vessels. Many of these ships, launched from sites all around the shores of the Island, were sailed unfinished to Britain for completion at a shipyard established in Appledore near Bideford by James Yeo's eldest son, William, who returned to Britain in 1843 to act as his father's principal agent. William Yeo's position in England was of great importance to his father's success in shipbuilding; both were also at any one time usually the owners of up to 20 ships sailing with cargoes bound for ports all over the world. James Yeo had many other business interests, through which his wife and children and brothers and sisters were incorporated into the management of his affairs. He took advantage of the uncertainty of many of the settlers' titles to send his men to cut timber as long as it lasted; in this way he built up a sizeable export business. Moreover, his stores at Port Hill, ably managed by his wife Damaris, were the largest in the western part of the Island and were operated on a credit basis. Many settlers became indebted to him and through the resulting "power of the Ledger" he was able to exploit their labour and timber. He was also de facto land agent for Sir George Seymour's holdings in Lot 13, a position that was formalized in 1846, and in 1857 he purchased Seymour's 16,000 acres, which together with extensive properties already acquired elsewhere in the Island he held for many years. Yeo also became a large-scale exporter of agricultural products, including oats, potatoes, and livestock, and by the late 1840s was loading ten ships a year for Britain as well as 40 schooners for the neighbouring provinces. A decade later, 11 of his ships, laden with cargoes of lumber and agricultural produce, arrived in British ports within one month. In the 1830s and 1840s relatively little money was in circulation in the colony and it was said that in this period Yeo was the only man in Prince County from whom settlers could obtain cash. He built up a role as financier until by the 1860s he was making large loans to the government. At that time the Islander claimed that his wage bill to his numerous employees alone exceeded the total government revenue. For the last ten years of his life he was frequently referred to in the Island newspapers as the richest man in the colony. Yeo's great success was achieved by unflagging energy and ability. He could total figures quickly, and was able to make rapid assessments of the value of timber stands, crops, ships and their cargoes, and business enterprises. He personally supervised his operations, riding on horseback all over the Island and often sleeping in the saddle. A contemporary American visitor once said that "for six months he's never go to bed." He was spoken of, even by his admirers, however, as a hard man who retained the rough manners of his youth to the end of his life. Yeo was first elected to the Island assembly in 1839 as a Conservative member for the first electoral district of Prince County. He remained a member until 1846 when he stood aside to allow the election of James Warburton*, later one of his bitterest opponents. About this time he was appointed a justice of the peace. In 1848 he was elected again and sat until he was defeated by 50 votes in 1863. After the election of 1859, when the Conservatives held power by a majority of four, Yeo held a position of particular advantage in the assembly, with control over the votes of his son John and of David Ramsay, a close associate. He undoubtedly used his position to his direct advantage in such matters as the appointment of relatives and associates to offices of influence in local administration. A month after his defeat he was elected to the Legislative Council on which he served until 1867. He was also a member of the Executive Council from 1859 to 1867. During much of his time as a member of the assembly Yeo wielded great influence in Island politics because of his wealth and the power this brought him with his numerous debtors. Contemporaries consequently nicknamed him the "Ledger Baron of Port Hill" and the "Driver of the Government." Throughout his long political career, Yeo was concerned principally with practical issues of local administration. In the 1830s he confined himself to such questions as road-building, the issuing of treasury warrants, ferry service, and a custom house at Cascumpec. Lieutenant Governor Charles Augustus FitzRoy* noted that Yeo tended to follow Joseph Pope*'s lead in politics. He could operate his business best under the existing proprietorial system of land ownership, and it is no surprise that his politics were conservative; he was bitterly opposed to the land reforms espoused by William Cooper and the Escheat party, whom Yeo branded "Malignants," and to the granting of responsible government, as advocated by George Coles* and the Liberals. James Yeo's part in the development of shipbuilding, shipping, and the export business in Prince Edward Island in the mid 19th century was unique both in scale and in the breadth and complexity of his operations. For all his ruthlessness he made a material contribution to the economic development of the province and indeed to the merchant shipping industry both in British North America and in Britain at the same period. After his death in 1868 Yeo's fortune was split between a number of descendants. His eldest son, William, probably the largest single beneficiary, died four years later without a male heir, and his assets passed into other hands. John Yeo continued his father's business in P.E.I. with considerable success and enjoyed a long career in the provincial and federal governments, dying a senator in 1924. Basil Greenhill [Kilkhampton, Cornwall, Eng., Parish registers, 1790-1819, contain unusually complete records of the births, marriages, and deaths in James Yeo's complex family. His early career in Prince Edward Island is traceable through PAPEI, P.E.I., Supreme Court records, 1770-1900, and to a small extent through PAPEI, Port Hill papers. His career as shipbuilder and shipowner can be followed in great detail through PAC, RG 42, I, 150-69, 391-93, and National Maritime Museum (London), Reports of Lloyds surveyors of the port of Bideford (mfm. at PAC). His career as a landed proprietor can be followed in PAPEI, P.E.I., Land Registry Office, Land conveyance registers, and there are a number of references to him in Warwick County Record Office (Warwick, Eng.), CR 114A (Seymour of Ragley papers). The activities of his son and agent in Britain, William Yeo, are the subject of numerous references in the North Devon press, notably the North Devon Journal (Barnstable, Eng.), 1840-72. There are also some useful references in Devon County Record Office (Exeter, Eng.), Northam parish registers, 1792-1820. James Yeo's political life was reported in the Prince Edward Island press, notably the Islander, 1830-68, especially September 1868. Greenhill and Giffard, Westcountrymen in P.E.I., gives a detailed account of Yeo's career. b.g.] © 2000 University of Toronto/Université Laval

He was a patriarchal man who kept all his sons and daughters around him at his home at Port Hill Crossroads, at least until they were married. The menfolk went about their business while the women, except Damaris, worked in the three stores which served the expanding population. Each Sunday midday everybody, including Thomas Adams, was assembled for dinnerand in the afternoon there were Bible reading and prayers in the drawing-room. William Richards and James Yeo junior, with their wives and children, each had their rooms. He was also extremely ruthless about who his children married, when his youngest daughter Caroline Alice wanted to marry Daniel Hawkins, he didn't agree with the marriage so she eloped, but was when James died he tied up her inheritance money into an annuity for her sole use, so her husband couldn't use any of it. Gradually they left home. John was sent to England to school and spent his holidays at Appledore with his half-brother WilIiam, whom he greatly admired.  John became a merchant, a farmer, and a shipowner, but also had an admirable record as a politician.  He entered the Prince Edward Island Legislative Assembly in 1858 and was elected to the Federal House of Commons in 1891 and was appointed Senator in 1898.  He had a remarkable sixty-six years as a representative of the people. James set up his own shipyard at the head of Campbell Creek.

Green Park Shipbuilding Museum traces the history of the once mighty shipbuilding industry and offers visitors a glimpse of a by-gone era through the restored Victorian rooms of the Historic Yeo House. Located in Port Hill, (near Tyne Valley in Prince County), Green Park was the home and site of a shipyard owned and operated by James Yeo who was considered to be the richest and most influential man in the colony. He was a merchant, landowner and politician, but his wealth was founded on shipbuilding. Green Park invites you to explore the Island's shipbuilding industry during its Golden Age.

He built a fine house and stores and called the place Green Park. (This is now a museum) Here between 1856 and 1886 he launched at least twenty-three ships, including some of the largest and finest the family ever built. When he died he was described as a whole-souled, upright man who rose above entertaining harsh feelings towards his political opponents and his friendly greeting and open-hearted manner always made it a pleasure to form and retain his acquaintance.  Nancy, who had been born of the first marriage near Kilkhampton, married a settler called Thomas Broad, from her birthplace and henceforth called herself Ann. Mary Jane married John Ings, a banker ,broker and prominent citizen of Charlottestown, P.E.I.,and their son, George Arthur Ings was to become a successful surgeon, physician and leader in political circles.Susannah married the Hon. William Richards, a wealthy shipbuilder, Caroline AIice, the youngest child, married secondly, another local settler and cousin, John Maynard of Port Hill. Isabella went to England to stay with brother William and there became engaged to J. R. Saunders, a Gloucester timber merchant who had dealings with her father.

James's son William became master of the schooner Plowboy, trading between Prince Edward Island and the West Indies. At the beginning of the 1840's he was master of his father's very successful brig British Lady. He returned to England to settle in Appledore near Bideford, England, and act as his father's British agent. Soon he was acting for his two brothers as well. From the other side of the Atlantic he played a great part in the development of this part of Prince Edward Island. William married Elizabeth Allen in 1843 and had a house built on the hill overlooking Appledore

This he called Richmond House, after the Dry Dock he had had built in Appledore. The great house of the Yeos provided the back­ground for the social activities of the new squire. When IsabeIla was wed the whole town of Appledore was decked out with flags, the guns roared and the bride wore a dress of rich, white moire antique, on her head was a wreath of white roses from which hung a superb veil of Brussels lace. The bridesmaids of whom there were eight, were attired in white muslin, double skirts, four trimmed with pink and four with blue, with wreaths and tulle veils to correspond. The avenue leading to the church was carpeted for the occasion. A few years later the banners were out again, the church bells rang all day and in the evening the streets were lit by the smoky flare of burning tar barrels. William Yeo had a son and heir named William after fathering six daughters...

William did not forget his mother and returned to Kilkhampton to have this stone erected Sacred to Mary, wife of James Yeo, junior, formerly of this parish who died 19th May, 1818, aged 24 ___________ This stone erected by her son, William Yeo mariner of P.E.I.

His daughters could act their part as ladies bountiful when the occasion arose. In a hard winter they would walk around the town distributing cash or tickets with which the poor couldcollect free coal. They dressed appropriately for these public parades and any girl of the drangs who took pride in her appearance was liable to be dubbed 'Mfiss Yeo' by the lads of the village. They were particularly adept at launching ships. They had plenty of practice. Fanny launched two in one day in 1863. When she was married in 1870 the celebrations completely eclipsed those provided for her aunt fourteen years before. Triumphal arches of flowers were put up all over the town, the streets and shipping were literally covered with bunting and the flags of all nations. So many guns were fired that a rumour began to spread in Barnstaple that the French and the Prussians, who were then at war, had had a naval engagement in Bideford Bay. Nearly five thousand people swarmed into the churchyard. In the summer of 1864 thirteen hundred people were fed at one garden party at RichmondHouse and the toasts were to Her Majesty Queen Victoria and to the Yeo family. But four years later Appledore was in mourning, William's only son had died in childhood and although some of his great-great grandchildren live in England today, James Yeo's family in Britain was doomed to 'daughter out'. When William Yeo died in 1872 he was only fifty-nine years old. His wife, Elizabeth Yeo, died just six months later, leaving six orphaned daughters, Mary Williams aged 24 married to Charles Fussell, Fanny Louisa aged 22, married Nynian Lower, Elizabeth Ann aged 20, Isabella Susannah aged 19, Emma Jane aged 17 and Amelia Augusta just 13 years old, two married but four still single..

Appledore Churchyard

In memory of William The beloved and only son of William and Elizabeth yeo Of Richmond house Born oct 21, 1861 died march 27, 1869 _____ Also of William yeo lower Son of Nynian and fanny lower Born July ? 1871 died dec 15, 1871 In memory of William yeo Of Richmond house Died 8 of july 1872 Aged 59 _____ Also of Elizabeth allen yeo Wife of the above died 18 of jan 1873 Aged 51 In memory of Mary williams lower Daughter of William and Elizabeth yeo And wife of Walter a h lower Died 2 of july 1885 Aged....37

His death threw Appledore into a depression which lasted for ten years. The dry docks were empty, the town starved and the people drifted away until skilled men could not be found for such little work as there was to be done. A surviving corres­pondence book of John Yeo shows that for a few years William Pickard, a carpenter from Abbotsham who turned seaman, shipmaster and eventually shipowner and merchant and who knew the Island, acted as agent for John Yeo and his brother James. But gradually the business moved to the Richards family in Swansea and for a while the connection between Northam and North America was broken. There was a slight revival of work on Island ships when the dry docks were re-opened in the 1880s, and the connection was not finally severed until the wooden sailing ship ceased to be a tool of international commerce.

In the late 1830's and early 1840's many of the rest of James's family emigrated to Prince Edward Island, encouraged by James and no doubt they helped to contribute to his business ventures. His sisters, Mary married John Hopgood and she died in P.E.I. in 1882 and Ann Maria married Samuel Rodd, a builder on the Island. His brother, John, married Caroline Taylor, and carried on the family trade as a boot and shoe maker. His step-brothers, Samuel married Nancy Prowse, Thomas married Betsey Hockridge and Lawrence married Catherine McIntosh, all were farmers. His step-sister, Barbara married William Maynard, and their son John married James's youngest daughter, Caroline (her second marriage) and Grace married Henry Adams and their son became Uncle James's clerk. James seniors, nephew Thomas also emigrated to the Island. He married Mary Ann Burrows in Morwenstowe, Cornwall, and was also a farmer on the Island.

Trees & photographs of many of these descendants can be viewed on Norma Falconer's excellent website dedicated to the Prince Edward Island Families - http://www.tribalpages.com/tribes/fyeo

A whole dynasty of descendants of James & Ann Osborne/Grace Francis evolved in Prince Edward Island and now spreads across Canada and America, although many still live on the Island.. So many successful, intelligent people who all have their roots in Devon & Cornwall and descend from James and Honor Cornish. How proud James & Honor would have been of them all and I am so fortunate to have the pleasure of being in contact with many of them.

This was the thoughts of just one of them, Ross David Yeo, great, great, great grandson of Samuel Yeo and Nancy Prowse, (son of James & Grace Francis) who went on a pilgramage to Bideford and Kilkhampton some years ago. He arrived in England from Boston, and did the whole journey on buses and foot and this was how he felt when he eventually found James's grave stone. (Ruth is his grandmother)

The path to Kilkhampton Church Kilkhampton Church

"Within a few minutes I found a William Yeo who died in 1843 in the "74 year of his age.William I would imagine could have been James's brother as their ages and date of birth were very close. Now I was really curious to keep looking and within another few moments what did I find but the main man himself. JAMES YEO. Words can't describe how I felt as I pulled out Ruth Yeo's lineage chart to check the date. Sure enough it was spot on. Here's what the stone read:" TO THE MEMORY OF JAMES YEO OF THIS PARISH WHO DIED DEC. 22ND IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1840 AGED 75 YEARS MY LIFE DECLINED, MY STRENGTH WAS GONE, MORTALITY, I FOUND, WAS FRAIL DEATH ME AL SAIL'D WHO SPARETH NONE, HIS FATAL ARROWS DID PREVAIL, MY WORN OUT BODY HERE MUST REST, TILL CALL'D BY CHRIST TO LIFE AGAIN JESUS I WANT THY LAST BEQUEST LET NOT MY TRUST IN THEE BE VAIN "This truly was the highlight of the trip for me. .."I left this timeless area with much, much more than I had bargained for and moved on with a new sense of who I am and where I came from. I can't thank you enough for all of your help and interest in our lineage and was more than happy to put together this account for you."

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