Gwinear, Gwithian and Phillack. These are three adjacent parishes lying between Hayle and Camborne in Cornwall.

Before John Fleming Richards (1782 - ?) left Phillack to spend his working life in Redruth and then Falmouth, my Richards ancestors lived in the region of these three parishes from at least the middle of the 17th century. The earliest I have traced is Nicholas Richards who probably died in 1699.

Nicholas described himself in his will as a tinner but they were probably also farmers or farmworkers. The mining boom of the later 18th century is unlikely to have passed them by and some at least probably became miners. John Fleming Richards was a clerk/accountant in Falmouth and was manager of the Western District Bank in Falmouth before a business in which he was a partner became insolvent. He spent a month in debtors prison before he was discharged. Shortly afterwards he retired back to Phillack. His children, however, spread out across the world.

family_history_notebook/family_pages/richards/John Fleming Richards.pdf (requires major revision - in progress)