I've written about two grandchildren of Roger CANDY before - my own ancestor Elizabeth (http://thehistoryofmatt.blogspot.com/2008/03/elizabeth-candy-and-thomas-trevithick.html) and her brother John (http://thehistoryofmatt.blogspot.com/2008/04/john-candy-1846-1875.html) who both emigrated to and died in Australia.
I have not posted anything on Roger himself. He was baptised in Penzance, Cornwall in 1781, to father Roger and his mother Ann nee TRENWITH (and spelling variations). I have only uncovered one brother for him, Samuel (1782-1860). Roger married Susanna CARBIS/CARVIS/CARBUS on 26 Feb 1799 at nearby Bodmin, Cornwall. Both were listed as 'of the parish' at the time.
While Roger's occupation was not listed in the parish register, it is likely he had just joined the Cornwall and Devon Royal Miners Militia (it was embodied at Bodmin in 1798, the year before his marriage). His brother was in the same regiment.
A daughter Ann (abt 1801-1816) was probably baptized in the military town of Christchurch, Hampshire and then two sons named John were baptised in 1805 and 1807 at St Mary’s Church, Dover, Kent (the first died the same year he was baptised). There is then a window between 1806 and 1815 when other unidentified children may have been baptised before his daughter Harriet Carvis CANDY was baptised in the Cornish town of Truro where the family had now settled - the unit had been disbanded the prior year, only to be re-formed on the outbreak of the hostilities in Europe. Roger was listed as a soldier. The following year, 1816, William Edward CANDY was baptised in Truro, and daughters Ann and Harriet died a day apart and were buried together. I do wonder whether other as-yet unidentified children were born, particularly as Roger was the third generation to carry this forename - perhaps he passed it on to a son also?
The movements of the family described above seem to mirror that of the regiment, as attested in this book review of "The Royal Miners", a history of that regiment, published in 1914:
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Royal Miners
A Regiment History
"...This is a history of the Stannaries Regiment of Miners, late Cornwall and Devon Miners, Royal Garrison Artillery Militia, , commonly called "The Royal Miners". ...from the time of its first embodiment in 1798. The tin mines of Cornwall and Devon existed from prehistoric times, and the miners long possessed certain privileges in connection with their liability for service in defense of the nation. They paid taxes not as Englishmen, but as miners. Their law was not the law of the realm, but that of their mines. They obeyed the King only when his orders were communicated through the warden of the mines and even then only so long as he respected the mining law. His courts were the mine courts, his Parliament the mine Parliament. They owned no lord, lived on no manor, paid no dues, were subject to no feudal levy, and might be called out by the King only under important restrictions. In 1305 a charter was granted by which the Cornish Stannaries were partly separated in administration from those of Devon. This charter, which defined the jurisdiction of the warden and his deputies, remained until less than a century ago the constitution of the tinners. The Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall since 1337, is Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and a vice-warden, usually a barrister, presides over the courts still held at Truro, where the last Stannaries Parliament was held in 1752. The tin miners could not legally be called out for service except by the Warden of the Stannaries. "The Royal Miners" was definitely organised as a regiment for continuous service in 1798.... It was not until the French Revolution and the continual fear of a Napoleonic invasion, however, that the Cornwall and Devon Miners' Regiment was raised.
"The Royal Miners" was embodied ad Bodmin on October 24, 1798... the strength in 1800 was 28 officers, 33 sergeants, 28 corporals, 20 drummers and 406 men, a total of 513. At the Peace of Amiens in 1802 the force was disembodied, but in the same year, when hostilities broke out again, was re-established under Colonel Lemon. In 1809 it was reported that "the men were all of a good size, remarkably clean, steady, and attentive under arms".... {in 1814} the regiment was again disembodied at Truro, only to be called together again when Napoleon, escaping from Elba, set Europe once more in the flame which was quenched at Waterloo..."
The British 'Access to Archives' index reveals a series of leases on two plots in Lemon Row, Truro, from Sir William Lemon to Roger Candy, scrivener. The family seem to have lived there. The Lieut-Col of the Militia that Roger served in was John Lemon - so there was possibly a militia connection for Roger and his lease on these properties.
Roger died in 1839, and a fellow CANDY researcher Daphne Oosthuizen has provided me with a copy of his death certificate:
Certified copy of an entry of death
Given at the General Register Office
Registration District Truro
1839 Death in the Sub-district of Kenwyn in the County of Cornwall
No. 286
No. 286
When and where died: Eighteenth of April 1839 at Lemon Row Kenwyn
Name and surname: Roger Candy
Sex: Male
Age: 60 years
Occupation: Sergeant Major of the Cornwall and Devon Royal Miners
Cause of death: Dropsy
Signature, description and residence of informant: The mark of Susanna X Candy present at the death, Kenwyn
When registered: Nineteenth of April 1839
Roger's death was posted in the local newspaper:
Thursday 18 April 1839
Died. At his house in Lemon-row, Truro, yesterday, Mr. Roger Candy, aged 60 years, Sergeant-Major of the Cornwall and Devon Royal Miners Militia, having served in that corps 40 years. He was 35 years Master and Royal Arch-Mason, and was a bright ornament to the craft.
Roger was survived by his wife, Susanna. She was present in the English 1841 and 1851 censuses, living on Lemon Row in Kenwyn. She died in May 1851 (after the census):
Royal Cornwall Gazette
30 May 1851
At Truro, on Tuesday. Susan, widow of the late Sergeant-major Candy, of the
Royal Cornwall and Devon Miners Militia, aged 78 years.
Two of their children are know to have lived to adulthood - William Edward (1816-1886) who moved to Victoria (Aus), and John Candy (1807-1883) who stayed in Kenwyn.
Roger's brother Samuel (1782-1860) appears to have never married, though as he served also in the Devon and Cornwall Miners so may have done so elsewhere. In 1841 and 1851 he was in Kenwyn living in Calenick St, alone. In 1841 his occupation was a shoemaker, in 1851 a Chelsea Pensioner and cordwainer, born in Penzance. His death in 1860 was listed in the same paper as his brother:
Royal Cornwall Gazette
26 Jane 1860
At Truro, on Thursday last, Mr. Samuel Candy, late of the Devon and Cornwall Militia, aged 80 years.
Daphne Oosthuizen had also visited the Kenwyn Cemetery to look for CANDY headstones. Apparently the cemetery of St Mary's Truro was cleared to make way for Truro Cathedral (construction started in 1880 with the demolition of St Mary's). Headstones were removed to Kenwyn cemetery. There, Daphne found the headstone of Samuel CANDY, and kindly shared a photograph of it. Others may exist there for the CANDY family also.
Headstone of Samuel Candy (1782-1860)
Kenwyn Cemetery (originally at St Mary's Truro)
In memory of
SAMUEL CANDY
who for 30 years was a
Corporal in the
Royal Cornwall and Devon Miners' Militia
Died January 19th 1860
Aged 81 years
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