DEACON

Alias Mary Ann SNELL (16 Aug 1851)
Christened 4 Dec 1831, Landulph, Cornwall
Died 11 Jan 1922, Landulph, Cornwall
Mary Ann Deacon was the daughter of the publican at the Royal Oak, in the village of Cargreen, situated on the Cornish bank of the River Tamar. Reputedly, she was wooed by George Snell of Park, who decided to take a wife in his mid 30's. He became attached to the publican's 18 year old daughter after making her a acquaintance on his daily rides of inspection around his estate. However, he decided that she should be 'educated' before the marriage, and sent her away for one year's tuition on how the wife of a country farmer should behave. By all accounts the subsequent marriage was very succesful.

This story appears to be corroborated by an entry in the 1851 Census. Mary Ann Deacon is listed as resident at 104 Union Street, East Stonehouse. She was listed as age 19, scholar, and niece of the head of household, who was Ann Deacon. Ann Deacon was aged 59, domestically employed and living with one daughter and 3 sons, as well as her niece.
Photograph of a sampler worked by Mary Ann. It records the following:
Mary Ann Deacon is My Name I with
My Needle I work the Same
By my Performance you my see
What care my Parents take of me
Finished September the 28th 1843
In the 12th Year of her Age

Born 18 Nov 1816, Wayton House, Landulph
Christened 31 Jan 1817, Landulph
Died 5 May 1905, Park, Landulph
Buried 10 May 1905, Landulph Parish Church
Recorded in the 1871 Census as a Farmer of 500 acres. Farms were rented in the Parish of Landulph, Cornwall, and the holdings comprised the farms of Park, Clifton, Salter Mill and Tinnel
1851 Census
Folio 491 Page 3
In the 1851 census, George Snell is recorded as a landed proprietor, the head of a household living at Wayton. The household includes his widowed mother, Mary aged 76, and his nephew Joseph, aged 8 born at St Dominick. The houshold also includes a house servant Hannah Short.



George Snell of Landulph applied for a game license and obtained certificate 16 September 1836
A lease is held in the CRO, Ref AD430/21 concerning the Park, and Waddevers tenements from the Duchy of Cornwall to George Snell of Park, dated 11 Mar 1868. The extent of the holdings are set at twenty-five acres, one rodd and six perches. The document is witnessed by B Snell, Wayton, Landulph. It makes several conditions and descrbes the way in which the land is to be managed, as follows:
-Timbers, minerals, stone, slate, chalk, excepted
-£5 extra rent for every £100 spent by the duchy on draining, fencing or inclosing.
-Additional rent of £50 for every acre broken up for tillage without license.
-£10 additional rent for every acre of arable, meadow or pasture not cultivated according to course of husbandry prescribed.
-Ditches to be scoured yearly, hedges dressed and cleaned, drains made and maintained. Buildings to be insured against fire.
-Cropping: one-quarter to be sown grass only to be cut for hay once or for green or cattle food.
-Not more than one-quarter turnips or other green crop not pulse.
-Not more than one-quarter arable to be in wheat.
-Two crops of corn or anything else not to be taken in succession.
-Pasture to be mowed once a year only, then well manured.
-Orchards especially young trees to be protected.
-In spring of last year on every acre to be sown with summer corn (e.g. barley or oats) one bushel or perennial rye seed, ten pounds af good red clover seed, five pounds of good white clover and trefoil seed (incoming tenant to pay for seed).
-After corn crop of last year no stock except sheep in the previous spring.
-Dung to be given to incoming tenant and hay left to be paid for at valuation.
-George Snell is to keep field book(s) showing yearly cropping.




People entitled to vote

All the Voters Lists included so far are for elections after The Representation of the People Act 1832, The Act redrew constituency boundaries, giving seats to the growing industrial towns and cities, and removing them from some of the previous so-called Rotten Boroughs and Pocket Boroughs. It also increased the numbers entitled to vote by reducing the value of the qualifying land and adding categories such as copyright holders, long-term lease holders and some tenants. It's been estimated that the reforms increased the electorate to roughly 1 in 6 of the total male population of England and Wales, (Different qualifications existed for both Scotland and Ireland.)

George Snell appears on lists for 1852/53 and 1864/65, qualifying with freehold land known as Wadevers