The Admiral Benbow pub in Penzance advertises that it has been serving ‘pirates, smugglers and rum since 1695’!
The ‘man on the roof’ of the pub is Octavious Lanyon reputedly the head of the Benbow Brandy Men.
Octavious Lanyon
The government levied duties on a whole range of goods: tea, salt, muslin, silk and brandy. Salt was especially important for the Cornish fishing industry so the taxes were unpopular and many Cornish people had no qualms about smuggling in order to survive. The locals called it ‘Cornish Free Trade’!
Smuggling routes ran from France through the Channel Islands and on to Cornwall. Smugglers often met in local pubs to plan their activities. The Admiral Benbow was the meeting place of the Benbow Brandy Men.
There is a tunnel under the pub (only discovered a few years ago) which led down to the harbour and allowed the smugglers to move their goods out of sight of the revenue men.
Octavious Lanyon was the head of the smugglers and he climbed onto the roof to create a diversion during a raid by the revenue men. He is thought to have been shot and seriously injured.
Some of the gang were captured. John Martin alias Shelly, Walter Cross, John Williams, William Stone alias Quinn, James Bell, William Bell and Benjamin Savory were found guilty of ‘being persons of malicious minds and dispositions’ and of being on the vessel Happy Go Lucky which had fired on the revenue ship.
The Admiral Benbow pub was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’ and it features in the first chapter of the book as the inn owned by Jack Hawkin’s parents.
So who was Octavious Lanyon?
There aren’t any records of a baptism, marriage or burial of anyone called Octavious Lanyon in Cornwall. If he existed it must be an alias. There are plenty of Lanyons in the Penzance area at that time but identifying who Octavious might have been is impossible without more information.
Francis was the son of Francis and Rosamon Lanyon of Penzance, he was born about 1653. When his grandmother died in 1655 she left him a ewe in her will.
Francis’ branch of the tree
We don’t know the name of Francis’ wife, their marriage wasn’t recorded but he did have a son also called Francis in 1680.
Like his father, Francis was a cordwainer in Penzance. In 1695 he is mentioned as the principal creditor of Edmund Lanyon who died whilst aboard HMS Weymouth.
Edmund Lanyon’s administration AP/L/969 signed by Francis and William Landry
We don’t know where Edmund fits on the Lanyon tree as there are many gaps in the records.
Francis Lanyon abt. 1680-1757
Francis was the only son of Francis Lanyon. His baptism was not recorded but he was probably born about 1680. He married Elizabeth Thomas at Madron in 1708. They had seven children:
Francis 1713-1758 married Anne Lutey
Ann 1716-1757 married Richard Lembry – one daughter
Hugh 1719- aft.1759
Charles 1721-1757 bachelor, no children
John 1723-1727 died in infancy
Elizabeth 1726-aft. 1759 no further trace
John 1729-aft. 1759 living abroad- no further trace
So many in this family died in such a short time period that there was probably some sort of epidemic in Penzance. Francis senior died in April 1757, in November Ann & Charles both died. Jan 1758 Elizabeth senior died and in June 1758 Francis junior died. In 1757 there was a smallpox outbreak which may have reached Cornwall and also epidemics of measles and scarlatina and in 1758 an influenza epidemic. Perhaps one or a combination of illnesses affected this family. Daughter Elizabeth had to administer her father’s estate as the widow and heir had both died.
Source AP/L/1652
In 1754 Vesuvius erupted and that caused poor weather and sickness in subsequent years. The 1750s seems to have been a time of natural disasters and disease. Gangrenous sore throat and Angina Maligna (an obsolete term for: Acute necrotising ulcerative gingivitis; Diphtheria; Pseudomembranous pharyngitis) are described as being ‘very fatal’.
Francis married Anne Lutey in 1734 at Madron. They had six children.
Francis & Anne’s tree
Robert 1735-
Sarah 1736- in 1767 she married Thomas Shepherd, a hatter, they had three children.
Peter 1741-1771
Henry 1743-1747 died in infancy
David 1746-1768 unmarried
Anne 1748- married Richard White no children traced
Hugh Lanyon 1719- aft.1759
Hugh was baptised at Madron in 1719 and he married Christian Williams at Madron in 1740. There are no children from this marriage and she must have died before 1747 as Hugh married for a second time to Sarah Row at Charles the Martyr, Plymouth, Devon.
Plymouth – Charles the Martyr – bombed during the blitz
From Francis’ will of 1759 he mentions son Hugh and children now living at Plymouth Dock. There are three children traced.
Mary 1749-
Sarah 1752-59
Hugh 1757-1760
There are later marriages and burials of Lanyons at Plymouth but we can’t say if they are related to Hugh & Sarah.
Marriage register Plymouth Charles the Martyr 1747
Hugh was buried at Stoke Damerel on 17 Dec 1760.
Robert Lanyon 1735-
Francis and Anne Lutey’s son Robert was baptised at Madron in 1735 and in 1759 he married Martha Dyer at Plymouth St Andrew. Perhaps after his father’s death he went to join Uncle Hugh in Plymouth?
Robert & Martha’s tree
They had two documented children:
Sarah 1764- who married William Gains at Plymouth in 1784.
Mary Jensen 1772- no further trace
Possibly John Jenkinson Lanyon 1770-1835
Baptism register Plymouth St Andrew 1772
The researcher Jane Veale Mitchell believed that John Jenkinson Lanyon (see Irish branch) was the unrecorded son of Robert and Martha. The names Jensen and Jenkinson are both unusual and don’t appear anywhere else in the tree. John Jenkinson Lanyon used a ring with the Madron coat of arms to seal his letters so he must have had a connection to this branch of the tree somehow.
Peter Lanyon 1741-1771
In 1767 Robert’s brother Peter married Mary Carpenter at Madron. Peter was a cordwainer at Madron. They had three children
Peter & Mary’s tree
Peter 1768-1768 died in infancy
Elizabeth 1768- no further trace
Peter abt. 1769-1827
Peter senior died aged 30 and left Mary to raise the children.
Peter Lanyon abt. 1769-1827
Peter’s tree
Peter, son of Peter and Mary Carpenter had three wives. He married for the first time at Madron in 1789 to Grace Cock (1771-1793). There were two children from this marriage.
Peter 1790-1852
John 1793-1857
Grace may have died, possibly in childbirth, in 1793 as Peter remarried in 1795. His second marriage was to Mary Wall (1772-1806). This marriage produced three children.
Francis 1797-1857
Richard 1799-1973 was a grocer, he married Caroline Johns at Helston in 1822, no children
Ann 1803-1886 spinster died age 82
Mary died in 1806 and Peter married for a third time in 1807 to Ann Michell (1770-1839). They had three children.
Elizabeth 1807-1886 she married Charles Andrew at Madron in 1827 – six children
William 1810-1889
David 1813-1846 was a mason, he married Catherine Rebecca Davies in 1838 – one daughter died in infancy.
Peter was aged 58 when he was buried at Penzance in 1827. He had eight children and 26 grandchildren!
Peter Lanyon 1790-1852
Peter’s tree
Peter’s eldest son was also called Peter and like his father he too had three wives! In 1810 at the age of 20 he married Ann Barnicoat Matthews (1789-1822)
Francis 1811-1888
Peter 1813-1846 he was a mason who died in Bodmin Asylum a pauper with a ‘disease of the brain’
John Matthews 1815- John married Mary Addison Edmonds at Madron in 1836, they had one daughter Rebecca Addison 1838-1898 who married James Eva in 1855
A ‘disease of the brain’ could be anything from a disease to a head injury. Clearly it was serious as he died aged just 33.
UK Lunacy Patients Admission Registers 1846-1912
Bodmin Asylum is still a forbidding place today.
In 1817 Peter senior was convicted of larceny and sentenced to be transported for seven years. His wife and three young sons were left to fend for themselves. Peter arrived at Sydney, Australia on the ship Lady Castlereagh on 1 May 1818. He was described as 5’5″, dark complexion, dark hair and hazel eyes. He was a mason.
In 1824 he married Sarah Whittle at Parramatta NSW, Sarah must have died because in 1836 he requested and was granted permission to marry Bridget Delaney.
NSW Register of Convicts’ Applications to Marry 1826-51
Peter died in Australia in 1852, he never saw Cornwall or his Cornish children again.
John Lanyon 1793-1857
Peter’s brother John was a miner and in 1823 he married Rebecca Jane (1795-1870) at Kea in Cornwall. They had five children.
John & Rebecca’s tree
Joseph 1826-1889 he was a tin miner, he married Cecilia Rose Emidy in 1848. Cecilia had an illegitimate daughter Julia. Joseph had no children.
William 1826-1899
Emma abt. 1827-aft. 1871 was a tailoress who had two illegitimate children
James 1828-1891
Thomas 1828-1891 was a tin miner, he emigrated to Australia, no trace of any children
John died in 1857 at Chacewater. Chacewater was the centre of the mining world and there are a number of mines in the area. In the 1860s metal prices started falling and mining declined.
Peter and John’s half brother Francis was a cordwainer like his father. He married Catherine Rundle at Paul in 1822. They had five children.
Francis & Caroline’s tree
Mary Anne 1822-1880 – There is a Mary Anne Lanyon convicted of larceny which may be her
Thomas 1825- possibly married Mary Whear. Father of Milly 1860-1941 who married Edward Ladner in 1885. No further trace of Thomas.
Catherine Elizabeth 1827-1891 married Henry Barnes at Penzance in 1855 – five children
Anne Maria 1829- In 1858 she had an illegitimate son, Edwin who died in infancy. In 1859 she married Thomas Savage and they had one daughter, Mary Ann.
Francis 1831-1895
Shoemaker – Paul Renouard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
William Lanyon 1810-1889
Peter, John, and Francis’ half brother William was born in 1810. He was described as a ‘poor shoemaker’ on admission to the dispensary in 1829. In 1830 he married Ann Wills at Madron. They had six children.
William & Ann’s tree
William James 1830-1924
Mary Wills 1832-1904 married Edward Williams – no children
Louisa 1836-1904 married Richard Baxter Hocken – five children and she died in Yorkshire.
Joseph Phillips 1837-1847 died young
Frederick 1839-1869
Sarah Ann 1841-1921 married John Rose – two daughters, emigrated to New Zealand
We’ll find out what happened to Peter’s grandsons in the post ‘Peter Lanyons Grandchildren and the Great Migration’.
The Lanyons 