From Victoria, Australia
A couple of months ago we were privileged to receive from across the Atlantic the wonderful, adventurous story of Herbert Douglas Langston. We can now add to our international connections following a contact from Sandra Fuller of Victoria, Australia who was searching for the family grave of Ann and Philip Steer who were buried in section C, together with two of their children Thomas and Agnes.
Sandra explained the link:
“Ann Steer’s maiden name was Barkell and she was born in 1819 in Mary Tavy where her father was a miner. In 1857, one of her brothers and his wife and 3 sons migrated to South Australia. One of my maternal great grandfathers was Samuel, the youngest of those sons. Eventually, Samuel and his family moved to Victoria, where I live.
Regarding the Steer family, Philip was born in 1817 in Ashburton and joined the navy when he was 19. An ancestor of his lives in Tasmania and we found each other via Ancestry.
Thank you again so much. You’ve really made my day! It took me a long time to find where Ann went after she left her family in the Tavistock area, so I’m particularly pleased that you’ve gone to the trouble to locate the grave for me.”
We were not hopeful of finding the grave because it was in a section which had not yet been cleared and in one of the oldest parts of the cemetery where there are few standing headstones and, we presume, a lot of unmarked graves. So it was a wonderful surprise to actually find the headstone, partially covered by ivy, standing in isolation in this area.
Sandra further explained:
“The Barkell and Steer families have been researched from Australia where there are still family connections. Two of Ann Barkell’s brothers, Edward and Richard, migrated to Australia in the 1850s. Both were miners, like their father, and spent time in Victoria, most likely looking for gold in the Ballarat area, before settling in South Australia. One of Philip Steer’s grandsons, William Thomas Steer, son of Edward Philip, absconded from the Royal Navy ship ‘Royal Arthur’ in Sydney, New South Wales in 1899 and eventually settled in Tasmania.“
Sandra has kindly put together a potted history of Ann and Philip which we reproduce verbatim below with some images and notes added for historical context.
First though, a brief description of the family roots in Mary Tavy.
An Upbringing in Mary Tavy
Ann’s father Thomas was a miner which was not surprising given that Mary Tavy, where he was born and raised, was a significant mining community on the edge of Dartmoor whose mining activities continued through to well into the 20th century. The attached image from an Ordnance Survey map of 1883 gives the impression of mine after mine with village houses in the centre of this industrialisation.
There is an excellent historical summary by Mary Warne on the Mary Tavy Parish Council website. Here is an extract:
“Years ago mining was the main industry and the whole area around the Coronation Hall and much further afield was a hive of activity, with many deep shafts and seventeen huge water wheels working the heavy machinery to process the ore and to pump the water from underground. Many hundreds of men and women were employed. The women were called Bal Maidens and their job was to break up the mundic with hammers for which they were paid one shillling a day. (Mundic is also known as pyrite or iron pyrites and was sometimes found in tin and copper mines. A waste product used as aggregate in concrete, when the desired mineral was tin, copper, silver or lead but once mined out of the more valuable ores, mundic, also known as arsenical pyrites, was the source of another valuable mineral. – ed.) Bal is the old word for mine and we still have a Bal Lane in Mary Tavy.
The Largest Mine in the World. Wheal Friendship was at one time the largest copper mine in the world. Later on arsenic was processed and you can still see the flues and calciners on the hillside to the East outside the Coronation Hall.
There was a huge market for the arsenic in the Southern States of America to kill the Bol Weavil in the cotton fields. They say that there is enough arsenic clinging to the inside of the flues to kill millions of people. (A recent report tells that the crops being grown on these fields in the USA now contain traces of that arsenic, a progressive poison that once ingested does not get removed as waste matter. The build up over years of eating contaminated food has been sited a possible cause for many illnesses – Ed)
In earlier times the copper and tin ore was taken by pack horse through Peter Tavy and out on the old road to Tavistock that comes out by Mount Tavy on the Princetown Road. Then on through tracks to Morwellham where it was shipped to all parts of the world. John Taylor, when he was manager of Wheal Friendship, built the Tavistock canal to make transport easier. That was completed in 1817.”
Where did Thomas Barkell work? The likelihood is that it would have been in the Wheal Friendship which was transformed by John Taylor who modernised the techniques for extracting and transporting ore from the mine. An alternative would have been Wheal Betsy which had been in decline until also taken on by John Taylor who brought it back into profitable operation. Was Ann Steer a “Bal Maiden”, or would that have been her destiny if she hadn’t married and moved away from Mary Tavy?
The Family’s History
Ann did marry, though, and move away, which brings us back to Sandra’s research:
“Ann Steer (née Barkell) was born in Creason and baptised Nancy Bartle on July 25th, 1819 at St Mary’s parish church, Mary Tavy. Her parents were Thomas, a miner from Mary Tavy, and Agnes (née Alford) from nearby Sourton.
When Ann was a child, her family, including three brothers, moved to the mining area of Mold in Wales and two more siblings were born there in Gwernaffield.
By 1841, when Ann was about twenty-two, she was back in Tavistock with her widowed mother and three of her brothers. Her eldest brother had married and was living nearby with Ann’s paternal grandparents.
On September 7th, 1843, Ann Barkell married Philip Steer at the parish church in East Stonehouse. Ann was 24 and Philip was 26. Philip, a private in the Royal Marines (1), was born in Ashburton and baptised in Buckland in the Moor on June 22nd, 1817. His parents were William and Maria (née Tothill) from Ashcombe. Philip had joined the Royal Navy in 1836, aged 19.
Ann and Philip’s first child, Emma Jane, was born at East Stonehouse in July 1844, but died in 1849, aged 5, just months before the birth of a son called Charles, born in Woolwich, who would later follow in his father’s footsteps and become a seaman in the Royal Navy.
Two years later, according to the 1851 Census, the family lived at the Royal Marine Infirmary in Woolwich (3) where Philip was a hospital sergeant.
Four more children were born to Ann and Philip in Woolwich – Edward Philip, Thomas Arthur (named after Ann’s father and known as Arthur), William Frederick, who died in infancy aged 2 years and 7 months and Agnes Emma (named after Ann’s mother and known as Emma).
After 21 years of service, Philip Steer, Colour Sergeant (2), was discharged from the Royal Marines in 1857 and, by 1861, the family had moved to West Teignmouth where two more children, Annie and Ernest Richard, were born.
By 1871, their son Edward Philip was a shipwright, eventually working at H.M. Dockyard in Portsmouth, and Thomas Arthur worked as a butcher.
Sadly, Thomas Arthur died in West Teignmouth in late 1871, aged 17, and was buried in a family plot in Old Teignmouth Cemetery. Another child, Agnes Emma, died six years later in 1877, aged 19, and was buried in the same grave. Ann and Philip, now a Royal Marine pensioner, had lost 4 of their 8 children!
In March,1880, just three years later, Ann Steer died, aged 61, and was buried with Thomas and Agnes.
Philip Steer continued to live in West Teignmouth and eventually married Mary Ann Bice in July 1884, but tragically, another of his children, Ernest Richard, a pupil teacher according to the 1881 census, died in the Barnstaple area later that year, aged 21. Five of Philip Steer’s eight children had now predeceased him!
Philip and his new wife Mary Ann had a daughter, Margaret Emma, in Newton Abbot in April 1885.
Philip Steer lived in Newton Abbot until his death on May 25th, 1898, aged 81. He was buried with his first wife Ann and two of his children, Thomas and Agnes, in Old Teignmouth Cemetery.”
Some Additional Notes
Philip Steer’s death was marked by a short local obituary as reported in the East and South Devon Advertiser of May 28th 1898:
“Mr Philip Steer, who died at Manor Cottages on Wednesday at the advanced age of 80, was an old Crimean veteran and retired Colour-Sergeant of the Royal Marines. Deceased was an ardent politician and could recite off-hand the members of the Cabinet and the posts they held. For some years he acted as gate-keeper to South Devon Cricket Club. The funeral takes place at Teignmouth this afternoon.”
The family seems to have moved several times in Teignmouth. The 1881 census shows them living at 66 Bitton Street whilst in 1871 they are simply shown as being in “Coombe” and the 1861 census gives an illegible address – can anyone decipher?
Historical Notes
1 – The Royal Marine Light Infantry (RMLI).
For most of their history, British Marines had been organised as fusiliers and had served in many landings especially in the First and Second Opium Wars (1839–1842 and 1856–1860) against the Chinese.
The marine Infantry forces of the Royal Navy were renamed the Royal Marines Light Infantry (RMLI) in 1855 which was probably a more fitting title given that the Royal Navy only saw limited active service at sea after 1850 until the start of the first world war. The concept of ‘Naval Brigades’ was developed in which the Royal Marines would land first and act as skirmishers ahead of sailors trained as conventional infantry and artillery. This skirmishing was the traditional function of light infantry. During the Crimean War in 1854 and 1855, three Royal Marines earned the Victoria Cross.
2 – Colour Sergeant.
Colour sergeant (CSgt or C/Sgt) is a non-commissioned title in the Royal Marines and infantry regiments of the British Army, ranking above sergeant and below warrant officer class 2. It is equivalent to the rank of staff sergeant in other branches of the Army.
The rank was introduced into British Army infantry regiments in 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars to reward long-serving sergeants; a single colour sergeant was appointed to each company as the senior NCO.
Historically, colour sergeants of British line regiments protected ensigns, the most junior officers who were responsible for carrying their battalions’ colours to rally troops in battles. For this reason, to reach the rank of colour sergeant was considered a prestigious attainment, granted normally to those sergeants who had displayed courage on the field of battle. This tradition continues today as colour sergeants form part of a colour party in military parades.
3 – Woolwich Barracks.
The Woolwich Division of the Royal Marines was established, as part of the response to the threat created by the Napoleonic Wars, in 1805. New barracks for marines, who provided a military presence in the Dockyard, were established east of Frances Street in 1808. These were re-built between 1842 and 1848 to a enlightened design developed by Captain William Denison which provided even the lowest-ranked inhabitants with sufficient light, space and fresh air.
Alongside the barracks stood the red-brick Royal Marine Infirmary designed by William Scamp and built between 1858 and 1860. Situated on a hill, it was ‘the most conspicuous and striking feature of the town of Woolwich’. Along with Blackburn Infirmary it was one of the first two pavilion-plan hospitals to be erected in England in the wake of the Crimean War.
Sources and References
Extracts from contemporary newspapers are referenced directly in the text and are derived from British Newspaper Archives.
Ancestry.com for genealogy
Wikipedia for general background information
Other sources, with hyperlinks as appropriate, are as follows.
Mary Tavy history – www.marytavyparishcouncil.co.uk
Royal marines militaria – www.gmic.co.uk/topic/37275-the-royal-marines/
Wheal Friendship – the Mine that made John Taylor – navsbooks.wordpress.com/2016/03/21/wheat-friendship-the-mine-that-made-john-taylor/
Wheal Friendship photos – http://www.aditnow.co.uk/Photos/Mine/Wheal-Friendship-Mary-Tavy-Copper-Mine_8582/
Wheal Betsy artwork – http://www.anitareynolds.com/wheal-betsy-tin-mines
Wheal Betsy History – https://www.solosophie.com/wheal-betsy/
Teignmouth Old Cemetery 
Fascinating research again Neil👍
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