A HISTORY OF CORNWALL erroneous l statement that veins of copper and lead were to be seen on the rocky cliffs of Land's End at low water, 2 and later, we learn from a document among Elizabeth's state papers, 3 that several copper mines were operated in the St. Just district. These may have been the same works mentioned a year or two earlier by Ulricke Frosse, a German metallurgist, who had been connected with the mines at Keswick, and who was, in 1585, overseer of the mineral works at Perranzabuloe. He is represented at the latter place as smelting twenty-four hundredweight of copper ore per day in each furnace, with the assistance of skilled German workmen from Cumberland. 4 In one of his letters, Frosse refers to a copper mine in Cornwall from seventeen to twenty fathoms in depth. 8 From what evidence is available it seems that the copper lodes were regarded by the crown as in the nature of mines royal, as we find occasional references to the appointment of a royal surveyor to overlook operations, 6 while James I included the Cornish mines in a grant of a fifteenth of all copper works in a considerable array of counties. 7 In spite of the evidence that Cornwall's copper deposits shared the general movement toward industrial exploitation in the sixteenth century, it may be stated as almost certain that the mines referred to did not continue long in operation. In no part of the county has copper ever been found at the surface ; in fact, the lodes, as a general rule, lie deeper even than those of tin, 8 and at a time when the difficulties of drainage, as shown by the history of tin mining, were at a maximum, it is not easy to see how much copper could have been raised. 9 This is probably the reason why so little is said upon the subject in most of the early local histories. Next in point of time after Camden's account, comes that of Norden, who states that at the time of his writing, copper abounded in the Duchy in great quantities, 10 and in an address to James I at the end of the book, he informs the king that ' it is a metall whose qualitie and quantitie would so farre exceede the former (tin) as, were the workes assumed into Your Majestie's own handes, duly searched, trulie managed, and effectually followed, would rayse a greater yearlie profile than the value of Your Majestie's land revenues, so riche are the workes, especially some 1 ' Copper Mining in Cornwall,' by Jos. Carne, Trans. Ray. Geo/. Soc. Cormv. iii, 41. 2 William Camden, Britannia (Cough's ed. of 1789), i, 3- 3 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cxcv, 39. 4 Documents printed in Grant Francis, The Smelting of Copper in the Swansea District, 5, 23, 24. 6 Ibid. 10. 8 S. P. Dom. Jas. I, Ixvi, 47. 7 Ibid, xxii, 51. 8 Pryce, Minera/sgia Cornubiensis, Introd. p. viii. 9 S. P. Dom. Chas. I, clxxiv, I. 10 Norden, SpecuR Britanniae Pars. (ed. 1728), p. 17. lately founde, as by the opinion of the skilful in that misterie the like have not been elsewhere founde.' In almost all of his particulars, how- ever, Norden is incorrect. In the first place, he says that there is much copper about Morvale, ' Sener,' and ' Lalante,' n and, in another part, says that Sener is a parish upon the North Sea, where there are rich copper mines. 12 Of Lalante, he says, there are there great stores of tin and copper. 13 These statements could not possibly have been true. In Morvale, copper is hardly known, and no veins there have yielded metal in any former period. 14 In Zennor, copper has never been discovered save in slight amounts, and it is almost equally rare in Lelant. Furthermore, in neither parish is there any trace of old works save for tin. 16 Menege in Kerrier, says Norden, is a fruitful place for tin and copper. 16 Yet tin has never been found there, and there are no remains to be seen of ancient tin works. Some small bunches of copper exist, but no ordinary metallic veins. 16 Carew's information is brief. ' Copper,' he says, ' is found in sundry places, but with what gain to the searcher I have not been curious to enquire, nor they hasty to reveal, for at one mine (of which I took a view), the ore was shipped to be refined in Wales.' 17 These accounts show that copper ore was pro- duced in Cornwall at that period, and that a few individuals (probably foreigners) were acquainted with its value, and profited by their knowledge. But it cannot be doubted that at a much later time the Cornish miners in general knew little of the nature and value of copper ore, as it is well known that in the latter part of the seven- teenth century it was in several cases sold, under the name of ' poder,' for small sums, 18 while most of the tin used in Britain came from Sweden, Germany, Spain, and the Barbary States. 19 Upon the whole, it is probable that before, approxi- mately, the year 1700, the copper ores of Corn- wall were chiefly, or wholly from tin mines, or, at least, from mines originally wrought for tin, and, although it is not true that it was not until the close of the seventeenth century that copper ore was first discovered in Cornwall, as was stated to a committee of the House of Commons in I799, 20 yet that seems to have been the period when mines were first set to work purposely for 11 Ibid. 40. 12 Ibid. 41. Ibid. 42. 14 ' Copper Mining in Cornwall,' by Jos. Carne, Trans. Roy. Geo/. Soc. Cornto. iii, 42. 15 Norden, Speculi Britanniae Pars. (ed. 1 72 8), p. 49. 16 ' Copper Mining in Cornwall,' by Jos. Carne, Trans. Roy. Geo/. Soc. Cornto. iii, 43. 17 Carew, Survey of Cornwall (ed. 1 8 1 1), 21. 18 Borlase, Natural Hist, of Cornwall, 205. 19 Houghton, Collection for the Improvement of Hus- bandry and Trade, 1 8 June, 1697. 20 'Testimony of Thomas Williams, M.P.,' printed in Robert Hunt, British Mining, 106. 564
