John Charles Lanyon was the eldest son and heir of John Charles Lanyon and Mary Mead of Redruth.
By the age of 22 he was a partner in the British Arsenic Company and and in 1849 he set sail for Adelaide, Australia on the ship ‘Candahar’ to establish a hardware and ironmongery business. On the journey he met George Peter Harris and they were founding partners of a very successful business which became Harris Scarfe, a major supplier of a range of household, agricultural and industrial items in Australia.
In 1855 John Charles left the partnership and returned to London where he opened a buying house for Harris Scarfe and other businesses in Australia. the London end of the business was JC Lanyon & Sons. There were several subsidiary companies: Australasian China & Glass Co, Australasian Implement & House Furnishing Co, The Adelaide Rope, Nail and Barb Wire Manufacturing Co.
In the 1860s with the decline in the copper industry he purchased £12,000 worth of equipment from Poldice Mine and JC. Lanyon & sons became a major dealer and exporter of mining equipment. In 1873 he bought £7,750 worth of equipment from Wheal Busy.
By 1887 he and his brother Alfred had set up the Cornish Tin Smelting with John Branwell and John Jose, they were also major shareholders in the lucrative East Pool mine where most of the ore for their new works came from. (Source: Barton 1967)
In 1857 he married Jane Stacy Bennett, the daughter of Charles Bennett and Jane Stacy.
Jane Stacy Bennett
Jane was born in 1837 in Redruth. Jane’s family lived at 15 Fore Street next door to the Lanyons at number 16. Charles Bennett was a merchant and draper.
After marriage they moved to Croydon in Surrey as John was working in London. John and Jane had eight children:
Alice Mary 1859-1942 married Walter Paton Hindley – four children
Jane Stacey 1861-1949 spinster
John Charles 1862-1862 died in infancy
Sydney Howard 1864-1914 bachelor, rejected by the army and committed suicide in front of his nephew by jumping off Westminster Bridge on 24 Oct 1914. His body was found at Rotherhithe on 4 Nov.
Arthur Herbert 1866-1947 married Catherine Septima Lamotte
Vivian 1868-1941 married Esther Eliza Crowe, his nurse. He went to Jesus College, Cambridge and worked as a colonial agent. No children.
Mabel 1870 married James Charles Buckley, a doctor, they had four children
Alfred Leonard 1871-1871 died in infancy
In 1878 they purchased Birdhurst in Croydon.
Birdhurst became a school after the Lanyons left in 1908.
A description of the residence.
“an agreeable and retired residence delightfully situated with gardens and plantations in a beautiful valley leading from the town of Croydon to Croham House”
Mabel (May) Lanyon’s diary.
John Charles Lanyon died in 1903 and was buried in Queen’s Road cemetery, Croydon. He left an estate valued at £199,134.
Grave site of John Charles Lanyon Queen’s Road Cemetery in Croydon, Greater London, England, United Kingdom from BillionGraves
John Charles Lanyon was the son of John Lanyon and Grace Halls, he was born in Helston in 1800 but later moved to Redruth and in 1824 he opened an ironmongers in Fore Street. In 1840 by mutual consent the business ‘JC Lanyon & Thomas Lanyon Ironmongers, Curriers & Saddlers’ in Helston was dissolved and John Charles concentrated on his business interests in Redruth. He went on to become a partner in the gas works and other industrial concerns in the town.
In 1845 he was described as an ‘adventurer’ and was involved with Wheal Tehidy, Illogan & Redruth mine. By 1851 he was described on the census as a ‘merchant tanner, merchant shipowner and ironmonger’. In 1861, the census described him as a ‘merchant tanner’ who lived at Sparnon House. He retired on 31 Dec 1861.
On 21 Jun 1825 he married Mary Mead, the daughter of Simon Mead and Mary Andrew. Simon was a Redruth shopkeeper.
They had ten children of which seven survived to adulthood.
Mary Mead 1826-1903 married Francis Truscott who was a classics tutor from Trinity College Dublin. They had six daughters and one son.
John Charles 1828-1903 (see separate post)
Elizabeth 1830-1904 married Edward Broadlake Dingley who was a draper with 8 assistants, there were no children
Selina 1832-1916 married Thomas Cooper, a merchant, no children
George 1833-1921 married Susan Ida Crisp
Alfred 1835-1915 married Elizabeth Victoria Teague
William 1840-1853 died young
Sarah 1844-1844 died in infancy
James 1845-1913 married Mary Anne Sargent
Harold 1850- died in infancy
John Charles was interested in all sorts of things and the Science Museum has a letter from him dated 1860 sent to Francis Trevithick (son of Richard) stating that he’d ‘been making enquiries respecting Murdoch’s little engine…’ and giving Francis the information he obtained as a result of these enquiries. (Source: Science Museum TREVF/4/66).
In 1847 he was sworn in as a special constable during the Redruth Corn Riots.
John Charles Lanyon died on 23 Nov 1868 at Redruth and left an estate worth £35,000. His wife Mary was listed on the 1871 census as an imbecile (presumably she was suffering from dementia) and died shortly afterwards.
George Lanyon 1833-1921
John Charles’ son George was born 1833 and became a tanner in Falmouth. He married Susan Ida Crisp in Hobart, Tasmania in 1861.
Susan Ida Crisp
They returned to Falmouth and had six children:
George & Susan’s tree
Katherine Rosina 1863-1928 she was an artist and spinster who lived with her parents
Theodore Tasman 1864-1949 married Bessie Michell Jose & Katherine Parry
George Edward 1867 married Polly Bullmore
Norman Crisp 1869-1917 married Dorothy Mead
Hilda Maud 1873-1922 married Edward Augustus Bullmore, two sons
Mabel 1879-1879 died in infancy
Hilda married Edward Bullmore, the brother of Polly Bullmore, who conducted a long correspondence with Jane Veale Mitchell (early 20th century Lanyon researcher) about the history of the Lanyon family.
George and Susan’s children L-R in order of age.
Alfred Lanyon 1835-1915
Alfred Lanyon was born in Redruth in 1835. He too started off as an ironmonger but his interests moved to gas and he was the proprietor of the Redruth Gas Works and he established the British and Foreign Safety Fuse Company.
Alfred married Elizabeth Victoria Teague in 1859 and they had eleven children:
Charles Alfred 1860-1890 bachelor died of kidney disease, heart disease and exhaustion
Ernest Alexander 1861-1863 died in infancy
William Herbert 1862-1936 married Lilian Priscilla Vivian
Victoria Grace 1864-1898 spinster
Sidney Howard 1865-1922 married Susan Tremayne
Elsie Mary 1867-1953 married William Thomas Lawrence – one daughter
Edward Arthur 1868-? he may have emigrated and died in Tasmania in 1950
Edgar Temple 1869-1949 married Beryl Gardner – one daughter
Annie Ethel 1871-1956 spinster
Ida Winifred 1873-1933 married William John Cropley no children
Frederick Harold 1873-1908 stock broker, bachelor
In later life he had one of the largest tin smelters in the world. The output of tin from his smelting works amounted to £1,000,000 a year. He was also an alderman and Justice of the Peace.
He and his large family lived at Tolvean House in Redruth.
Tolvean House, Redruth
Alfred died of pneumonia on 5 Mar 1915 and left an estate valued at £239,934.
James Lanyon 1845-1913
John Charles’ youngest surviving son was James born in 1845. He moved to Lancashire and became a cotton and linen merchant. He married Mary Anne Sargent in 1868 and they had two children:
Gordon Dingley 1869-1935 married Nellie Barnes
Cleeland Mead 1873-1949 married Joseph Richard Buckley – two children
Grandsons
Theodore Tasman Lanyon 1864-1949
Theodore was the eldest son of George Lanyon and Susan Ida Crisp, he was born in Falmouth. In 1897 he married Bessie Michell Jose at Perranarworthal, Cornwall. They had four children. In 1938 he married for a second time to Katharine Myvanwy Jean Macleod Parry who was 46 years younger! Theodore was Fleet Paymaster for the Royal Navy.
George Edward Lanyon 1867-1916
George was the second son of George and Susan. He was a doctor and in 1902 he married Polly Bullmore. They had six children.
Polly with a child on her knee, sitting in front of her father-in-law, George Lanyon
Norman Crisp Lanyon 1869-1917
Norman was the third son of George and Susan. He married Dorothy Mead, a cousin, and they had three children. Norman died on 16 May 1917 when he was shipwrecked in the English Channel by a torpedo.
William Herbert Lanyon 1862-1935
William Herbert (Willie) Lanyon
William was the third son of Alfred Lanyon and Elizabeth Victoria Teague. The 1901 census described him as a professor of music but earlier and later censuses describe him as having no occupation and having ‘private means’. He married in 1916 at the age of 54 to Lillian Priscilla Vivian. They had two children:
Lysbeth Mary Priscilla 1917-2008
George Peter 1918-1964 – (see post ‘Soaring Flight – The Artist Peter Lanyon’)
William’s bookplate
Sidney Howard Lanyon 1865-1922
Sidney was the fourth son of Alfred and Elizabeth. He was a gas engineer in his father’s business and in 1892 he married Susan Tremayne. They had three children.
The Lanyons 