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A HISTORY OF ST.IVES, LELANT ETC.
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AUTHOR John Hobson Matthews
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John Hobson Matthews’ book, running to 560 pages, was the first printed history of the St. Ives district. In 34 chapters he covered a wide range of historical matters including the Borough Accounts from 1570 to 1776, local families, notabilities, churches, elections, customs, place names, to mention a few of his topics – a mine of information.
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When 500 copies went on sale in 1892 in Mr. James Uren White’s shop in Fore Street for £1.12.6d (roughly equivalent to £120 today) they did not make the best-seller lists. Seven years later Mr. White was advertising copies ‘new and uncut’ for sale in his shop for under half price. The book is now a scarce volume, much sought after at home and abroad, and copies which turn up at auctions or in booksellers’ lists sell quickly at high prices. A St. Ives resident generously gave a copy to the St. Ives Trust Archive Study Centre. As the copy needed restoration the opportunity was taken to reproduce the book, as far as technically possible, in its original form as produced by the printers Elliott Stock of 62 Paternoster Road, London, in 1892. The new edition includes a ‘Foreword’ written specially for this volume by Professor Charles Thomas CBE; also corrections and additions which Matthews intended for inclusion in a second edition, contained in his personal copy of the book and kindly made available by the present owner. Reference is also made to extensive unpublished notes made by R. Morton Nance in his personal copy and transcribed by Cyril Noall, and a biography by Tom Richards, covering Matthews’ family origins, his life and his important work as a Cornish and Welsh historian and Bard of the Gorsedd of Wales, as well as a portrait of Matthews. About the author, born in Croydon in 1858 John Hobson Matthews can trace his family connection with St. Ives back to 1725 and probably through Norfolk to Pierre le Mathieu a French Huguenot who escaped via the Low Countries in 1545. In 1725 Thomas Mathews followed his employer, Sir John Hobart M.P., from his residence Blickling Hall in Norfolk to Cornwall where the family remained until the authors father, John Thomas, moved to London in 1832. John Hobson Matthews was educated at schools in Blackheath and Cambridge and was received into the Catholic Church in 1877 and showed an early interest in antiquities and church matters. He learned nine languages including Cornish. He was trained as a Solicitor but gave up this career in 1893 on being appointed Archivist for the Cardiff Corporation. Although not born in St. Ives he had a great love for the town and wrote many books about the area and his family connections.
PUBLISHED BY St. Ives Trust and St. Ives Library, 2003.
16cm. x 25cm. 575 pages Hardback
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Price incl. UK p&p £68.00
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