GRENFELL, Pascoe was baptised 27 April 1729, at St Hilary, Cornwall the second son of Pascoe Grenfell and his wife Mary Maugham the daughter of John Maugham of Penzance, Cornwall [see below]. In both his will and in the diary of his youngest daughter Lydia Grenfell, there is a suggestion of estrangement in the relationship between him and his wife and children.

In his will dated 1802, he bequeathed the sum of 1/- to his wife and each of his children “while under trouble & sorrow of mind occasioned by the ill treatment of my wife, for which may God forgive my wife, as I do, and my children….”; while in an entry of her diary dated February 3, 1804, Lydia describes a visit to Penzance for the first time in 3 years to see her father (the family home was in Marazion). His eldest son was Pascoe Grenfell MP (1761-1838).

In his Parochial History of Cornwall (1838) Davies Gilbert writes: “Mr Pascoe Grenfell, Commissary to the States of Holland, resided here [Marazion] during a long life, although he was originally of Penzance.” Davies Gilbert while still calling himself Davies Giddy (he later took his wife’s maiden name on their marriage for inheritance purposes) was one of his executors.

Pascoe Grenfell had married Mary Tremenheere (1734-1826), a solicitor’s daughter and niece of the Cornish antiquarian William Borlase (1696-1772) at Madron Church 13 December 1758. He is described as of St Hilary which is the mother church of Marazion, Madron being the mother church of Penzance where Mary was brought up. Pascoe’s own father [another Pascoe Grenfell (1692-1752)], who is referred to as “of Penzance” had married secondly Mary Maugham of Marazion in 1727, and the Maugham connection is likely to have been the main factor for Grenfell settling there. That he was already living there at the time of his marriage is borne out by the fact of his being described as “of St Hilary” at the time.

The deeds to his lease of the family home in Chapel Street, Marazion, of 1765 include mention of a Maugham cousin as one of the three lives on which it is drawn up. While Chapel Street still exists, it is unlikely that the house in question is one of those still extant.

Pascoe Grenfell served several terms as Mayor of Marazion – in 1763, 1770 (jointly), 1777 & 1782 and is named on Marazion Borough Council regalia.

He died 28 May 1810 aged 82 and was buried on 2 June in St Mary’s Chapel Yard, Penzance. His tombstone is now incorporated into a wall in the later St Mary’s Church.

[Compiled by Penny Watts-Russell].

[The portrait is reproduced by courtesy of the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead]