Perranuthnoe branch

The Perranuthnoe branch of the family are descended from John Goninan who married Thomasin Williams at Breage Parish Church on the 1st August 1699. They had five children baptised at Breage Church:-
Thomasin 19th Sept 1700; Richard 14th April 1703; John 18th Feb 1706; Henry 13th Sept 1711 (buried 14th Sept) and Henry 25th April 1717
Their son Henry died in 1750 and there is a probate document relating to him at the Records Office in Truro. He must have been reasonably prosperous as the list of his assets comes to £73, quite a large sum in those days - it makes interesting reading. His possessions included:-
            six pewter platters and one and a half dozen pewter plates
            one table and seven timber chairs
            six timber plates
            two brass candlesticks
            one bellows
            a silver watch
            a one eighth share in a boat (did he do a bit of smuggling which was rife on the coast near Breage ?)
            a twelfth share in Wheal Reeve Bounds (this is interesting as it refers to tin mining rights and shows that the Goninans were involved in mining as early as the 1750's). Wheal is one of the cornish words for mine.

The line is through Richard and Thomasin's son, Richard. He Richard married Jane Ripper at Breage Church on the 28^th Nov. 1730 and the following children were all baptised at Breage:-
Thomasin    1^st Jan 1732
Richard    28^th Dec 1734
Jane    16^th July 1738
Mary   9^th Aug 1741
Prudence   27^th Dec 1748

Their son Richard married Grace Rodda at Perranuthnoe on the 2^nd Feb 1763. Only two children have been traced:-
Richard baptised at Perranuthnoe on the 11^th Sept 1763 and Henry baptised at Perranuthnoe on the 16^th July 1769 (Henry married Jane Waters in 1803 and they had two daughters, Grace and Mary. Both married and migrated to the US, settling in Wisconsin)
Richard married Ann Walters at Breage Church on the 13^th December 1783. He was a blacksmith. They had six children baptised at Perranuthnoe Church:-
Richard    14^th Nov 1784
Elizabeth   4^th Nov 1787
Grace    29^th Oct 1788
John    7^th March 1790
Grace    18^th Aug 1793
Ann    5^th March 1797

Richard married Ann Vine at St Erth Church on the 2^nd Nov 1807 and the baptisms of five children have been traced:-
Ann        4^th Sept 1808      St Erth
Ann      18^th Aug 1811         Phillack
Richard    30^th Oct 1814    Phillack
Ann       20^th April 1817 Phillack
Elizabeth   3^rd April 1831     Gwithian
There was another child, Eliza. She must have been born about 1820. She married John Cotton Rowe on the 29th Sept 1840 at Sithney Parish Church. At the time of the 1841 census she was living with her parents, Richard and Ann

Richard married Letitia Curtis on the 5^th June 1837 and by the 1841 census they have two children Eliza Ann and John William
The family then migrated, initially to New Zealand before settling finally in New South Wales in Australia.They sailed from Plymouth on July 2^nd 1842 in a ship called the Blenheim which had a total of 159 passengers. The captain was a John Grey and the ship was sailing to New Plymouth in New Zealand. The Blenheim stopped briefly at Wellington before going on to New Plymouth where it arrived on the 19^th November. The Blenheim was only the fifth ship to sail from the UK with colonists for the settlement of New Plymouth.
Richard and Letitia had a daughter, Ann, in New Plymouth but she died. Another Ann (known as Nancy) was born in New Zealand in 1846. At some point they left New Zealand for Australia living first atChippendale, Sydney and then Peel near Bathurst. They later lived at Grenfell, Lambing Flat and Cookies Flat on the Macquarie River.
In Australia, Richard and Letitia had four more children, Richard Vine, Elizabeth Palmeta, Letitia and Caroline.
St Just branch
Helston branch
family history