Sham mines in Perranporth, Bristol men with more cash than sense, acts of vengeance, court hearings, valueless shares, forgery, suspect bank accounts, mountains of dirty money and, in the midst of it all, Cornwall’s most infamous con artist!
Author Archives: TheCornishHistorian
The Two Paul Rabeys: They Died With Their Shoes On, Part Three
Even criminals and rogues have families to turn to…continuing the career of Paul Rabey the Younger, Victorian Cornwall’s most notorious con man…
Paul Rabey and the False Imprisonment: They Died With Their Shoes On, Part Two
What happens when you cross Victorian Cornwall’s most notorious con man?
They Died With Their Shoes On: The Career of Paul Rabey the Younger, Part One
The first in a five-part series. Paul Rabey was a cunning and malevolent Victorian con-man who made, and lost, a fortune selling fraudulent mining shares to unsuspecting businessmen. In his day, he was notorious…
Trouble in Clay Country: The Food Riots of 1847, Part Five
The rioters finally meet their match in St Austell. Bayonets at the ready…
The Fugitive: James Jewell: A Prologue to Part Five of the Food Riots of 1847
A rioter on the run…who did he see? Who did he speak to? Did he escape?
Hellfire Corner: Redruth: The Cornish Food Riots, Part Four
Violence, looting, and arrests in Redruth as the miners and militia face off…continuing The Cornish Food Riots of 1847…
Commotion Time: Pool, June 4, 1847: The Cornish Food Riots, Part Three
No relief in Helston. Little in Penzance. Matters get ugly when 3,000 starving people arrive in Pool. Part three of The Cornish Food Riots of 1847…
Rise of the Miners: The Food Riots of 1847, Part Two
Things are getting worse. The miners get organised. The miners march for food – and the authorities react…
The Cornish Food Riots of 1847: Background and Context
The people are hungry! The miners are rising! A series of five posts on the food riots that erupted in Cornwall throughout the spring and summer of 1847. No town was safe from the starving thousands, and violence regularly broke out…