Where were the Carter Brothers Born?

If you look a the photo below the whole process was started out with signals and they  used a signal lamp as shown in the photo below,  or they flew a flag a certain way,  on shore people used to leave a specific predetermined window patten of curtains opened or closed in the daytime and lights on in certain rooms at night.  Or even certain colours or items of washing out on a certain day, meant "The coast is clear".   Below are the signal lamps used by Smugglers to emit a thin beam of light to the ship.  The ships would "Hover" before unloading on to the sea bed and the shore based smugglers would go "Creeping " to recover the cargo. 

Here above is an 18th Century, hand-coloured engraving of the East view of Pengersick Castle in Cornwall,by Samuel & Nathaniel Buck (c.1740) from their survey of English Castles.

The easist way to work out where Smugglers Barn lies is face the tall oval door on the Castle Currently as you can see on Google earth. Then walk down the drive to the road,  (as in the engraving) then look slightly left and you will see Smugglers Barn just in front of you, and you can see it has an upstairs like Smugglers Barn.  (As in the engraving. )  Theres no other dwellings to be seen  in the engraving,  Pengersick was very remote.

If you read the passage from Harry Carters Autobiography  below it will give you an idea of how remote Pengersick was and a feeling of how it was situated in the 18th Century. 

The part of Cornwall to which the autobiography chiefly relates is the district lying between the two small towns of Marazion and Helston, a distance of about ten miles on the north-eastern shores of Mounts Bay, comprising the parishes of Breage, Germoe, St. Hilary, and Perranuthnoe. The bay is practically divided into two parts by Cuddan Point, a sharp small headland about two miles east from St. Michael’s Mount. The western part runs into the land in a roughly semicircular shape, and is so well sheltered that it has almost the appearance of a lake, in fact, the extreme north-western corner is called Gwavas Lake. From the hills which surround it the land everywhere slopes gently to the sea, and is thickly inhabited. The towns of Penzance and Marazion and the important fishing village of Newlyn occupy a large portion of the shore, and around them are woody valleys and well cultivated fields. To the eastward of Cuddan is a marked contrast. There, steep and rocky cliffs are only broken by two long stretches of beach, Pra Sand and the Looe Bar, on which the great seas which come always from the Atlantic make landing impossible except on a few rare summer days. With the exception of the little fishing station of Porthleven there is not a place all along the coast from Cuddan Point to the Lizard large enough to be called a village. Inland the country is in keeping with the character of the coast. Trees are very scarce, and the stone hedges, so characteristic of all the wild parts of West Cornwall, the patches of moorland, and the scattered cottages, make the whole appearance bare and exposed. 

Porth Leah, or the King’s Cove, now more usually known as Prussia Cove,[1] around which so much of the interest of the narrative centres, lies a little to the eastward of Cuddan Point. There are really two coves divided from one another by a point and a small island called the “Enez.” The western cove, generally called “Bessie’s Cove,” is a most sheltered and secluded place. It is so well hidden from the land that it is impossible to see what boats are lying in the little harbour until one comes down to the very edge of the cliff. The eastern side of the point, where there is another small harbour called the “King’s Cove,” is more open, but the whole place is thoroughly out of the world even now.

The high road from Helston through Marazion to Penzance now passes about a mile from the sea, but at the time of which Harry Carter was writing this district must have been unknown and almost inaccessible. From all accounts West Cornwall at that time was very little more than half civilised.

The mother of Sir Humphry Davy (born at Penzance, 1778) has left us a record that when she was a girl “West Cornwall was without roads, there was only one cart in the town of Penzance, and packhorses were in use in all the country districts” (Bottrell, iii. 150). This is confirmed by a writer in the “Gentleman’s Magazine,” who says that in 1754 there were no roads in this district, the ways that served the purpose were merely bridle paths “remaining as the deluge left them and dangerous to travel over” (“Gentleman’s Magazine,” October, 1754); and by the official records of the town of Penzance, which show that in 1760 the Corporation went to some expense in opposing the extension of the turnpike beyond Marazion, to which place it was then first carried from Penryn (Millett’s “Penzance, Past and Present”).

The places of which the names are mentioned in the autobiography, but which are not shown in the map, such as Rudgeon, Trevean, Caerlean, Pengersick, Kenneggey, and Rinsey, are all in the immediate neighbour-hood of Prussia Cove. They are merely little hamlets of four or five cottages each, and there is no reason to suppose that they were any larger one hundred years ago. Helston, the market town of the district, is about six miles off, and had then a population of some two thousand people.

The chief interest in the autobiography is probably that which it attracts as the most authentic account of the smuggling which was carried on in the neighbourhood in the latter portion of the last century. Cornwall has long enjoyed a certain reputation for pre-eminence in this particular form of trade, and apparently not without some reason. A series of letters of the years 1750-1753 were published some years ago in the journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (vol. vi. pt. xxii. p. 374, “The Lanisley Letters”) to a Lieutenant - General Onslow, from George Borlase, his agent at Penzance, asking that soldiers might be stationed in the district, because “the coasts here swarm with smugglers,” and mentioning that a detachment ought to be stationed at Helston.

Source THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CORNISH SMUGGLER (CAPTAIN HARRY CARTER, OF PRUSSIA COVE) 1749-1809 first published in 1809.  (2nd edition Introduction by John B Cornish written in 1900)

Harry Carter the Methodist.

Take a look at Smugglers Barn in the photo above marked with the green arrow)and then look at its angle on Cornwall Councils Interactive map and then take a look at the property adjoined to it. The 2 joined up cottages would have been built originally in line with the cart track going between the castle.  These are the 2 Cottages in the rent book previously mentioned and then look at the angle of the Chapel or “Meeting House” at  the end.  It's absolutely exactly East to West slightly a different angle to the 2 joined up Cottages.  This would have been built later  when John Wesley first came to Cornwall in 1743. He visited the region over 30 times throughout his life, with his final visit being in 1789.

Also meeting houses and churches were generally laid east to west.  Also, we note that if you look at the 2 left hand windows to our property, the size of the lintels are very thick this would indicate that the building that was attached was much higher these would be the 2 cottages and the building on the end at a slightly different angle would be the Meeting house or chapel.  

And looking at various postcards from the 1930’s there was still no other remains of dwellings around the area.  Please click here to see

If you look closer into the photo above at the end of the meeting house you can see someone in a black robe.

Below you can see the sort of attire a methodist preacher would wear at that time.

No Swearing

I allwayse had a dislike to swearing, and made a law on board, if any of the sailors should swear, was poneshed. Nevertheless my intention was not pure; I had sume byends in it, the bottom of it was only pride, etc. I wanted to be noted to be sumething out of the common way of others, still I allwayse had a dislike to hear others swearing. Well, then, I think I was counted what the world cales a good sort of man, good humoured,not proude,

Source THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CORNISH SMUGGLER (CAPTAIN HARRY CARTER, OF PRUSSIA COVE) 1749-1809 

We also know that John Carter was a methodist preacher and that in the book   “The Story of an Ancient Parish Breage with Germoe”  By H R Coulthard  (Published 1913)

It mentions this ; “His youth coincided with the strange stirrings in the religious life of the people brought about by the not infrequent peregrinations of John Wesley through the district.  When Harry was eight years of age the soul of his brother Francis was touched.”         We can only suggest that he saw the poverty and need of the ordinary Cornish folk, deprived from everyday live basic essentials by people making decisions that seriously affected the hard working fishermen, miners  and farmers of Cornwall who were sitting in the City of London nearly 3 to 5 days away by horse & carriage.

Look above at the entire map of Pengersick.  Make a note of the Compass Cardinal east to west point and see the building 15 shown on the map is lying east to west as were the meeting houses or chapels of the Methodist religion.  (noting the teaching of the methodist religion.) 

 Also please note that there are no other properties on Pengersick map with enough land for a small holding and certainly not any farms.  

The road separates the cottages and meeting house from the castle, and that is why Charles Carter and the history books describe “born on a farm in Pengersick”, not born at the castle of Pengersick.  

Remember the buildings opposite us,   over the other side of the stream, shown on various maps.  These were in ruins at the time of Carters reign and are shown here with a red arrow in a national trust photo.  

1850 - 1875

Source National Trust

https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1520795

Here is the building today our property called “Smugglers Barn” which is a grade II listed property.  The aerial view shows that the barn is not on the footprint of the Tower which stands on the site of  Pengersick castle and if you look at the old maps and Listed buildings in Pengersick, our property is the only one outside the Tower ‘castle’ footprint as also confirmed from the Historic England Castle Footprint Map below. From the aerial view you can see the outline of the original castle courtyard by the position of the buildings and the road dividing it.

From the early indigenous tribes that roamed the land to the arrival of European settlers, the history of Praa Sands Historical Society is full of fascinating stories and events. Our society is committed to researching and documenting this rich history, and sharing it with our members and visitors. Explore our archives, exhibits, and events to learn more about the people, places, and events that have shaped Praa Sands Historical Society.