Introduction

Blisland, Cornwall, England

1842 Dec 14 Benjamin John Lean Ben & Eliz Trehudreth F(armer)

The above is a transcript of Benjamin John Lean’s baptism record as recorded in the Blisland Church baptisms, marriages and burials registers. The Church is dedicated to Saint Protus and Saint Hyacinthus (whoever they might have been) and known locally as Saint Pratts. Further details of Ben junior’s parents, ‘Ben & Eliz’, are set out in the next section.

Blisland Parish, at the time of young Ben’s birth, was relatively small, roughly “five miles in length and two and a-half in breadth, and is in the form of a parallelogram” (1).

Trehudreth was the name of the Lean farm. There were other farms operated by my Lean family – and other Lean families – in Blisland and other Parishes, but Trehudreth, Blisland was the main farm of my Lean ancestors.

The small Parish of Blisland was separated from an adjoining small Parish, Saint Breward, by the Delank River. The Blisland Parish “church town”, also known as Blisland, is about 5 miles from Bodmin, a major town in Cornwall.

In the 1841 census Blisland Parish contained 140 inhabited houses and had a population of 618 persons. John Maclean (later Sir John) – Benjamin senior’s brother – records (1) that the Parish contained 6,338 statute acres, upwards of one-third being moor. It was primarily an agricultural area.

Sir John also quotes an earlier writer (Norden 1584):

“Blisland or Bliston is a parishe standing nere the moares and craggie hills, yet there are pastures within the parishe that will kepe fatt oxen all the winter, and in as good case as in some places they can be kepte with haye, and the soyle beareth as good corne.”

The Lithograph drawing of St Prats which is reproduced a few pages later came from the 1868 edition of the “Parish of Blisland” history.

(1) Parish of Blisland in Sir John Maclean’s “Deanery of Trigg Minor in the County of Cornwall” Vol 1, Nichols and Sons, London 1873. Manor of Trehudreth pps 43-44. I believe this book is now on-line with free access.

Title page of first edition of “History of Blisland” (before the knighthood):