William was born in about 1813 into a farming family in Egloshayle in the north of Cornwall. Rebecca was born in St Dominick in Cornwall near Plymouth in about 1820. Her parents had both grown up in the town and by 1841, her father Stephen was the Innkeeper at the Malsters Arms.
Egloshayle and St Dominick are over 50ks apart – a fair way for those days. As William later became a Maltster in Egloshayle, he may have been living in St Dominick for a time to learn the trade from Rebecca’s father.
William and Rebecca married in Stoke Damerel - in Devon in the last quarter of 1840 – not far from her family home. Afterwards, they appear to have both returned to their own families where they were listed in the 1841 census. He with his farming family in Egloshayle and she at the Malsters Arms in St Dominick (with a child aged 5 months listed as “NK” (not known) - likely Joseph Martin Arthur. Their 2nd child Jane, was also born in St Dominick.
By 1851 the family were living in Sladesbridge (up the road from Egloshayle) William was a Maltster and they had five children listed and a servant living with them.
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| The pub at Sladesbridge |
In 1861, more younger children are listed - they had nine altogether. By 1871, William and Rebecca had moved a mile or so from Sladesbridge to Bozion. William was a farmer of 18 acres. Their oldest girls Jane and Charlotte are not found (lots with similar names). The 3 youngest children – teenagers – were living with them as well as William’s widowed mother Jane. Four of their older children – Joseph, Eliza, James and William - moved together to work a farm of 102 acres in St Kew called Tregilders. The Lukies family were also farming in St Kew at the time which is probably how Eliza met William Lukies.
In 1881, then in their 60’s, William is an “annuitant” and they lived in Penquite Village with their widowed daughter, Rebecca (Warne), and her 3 yo son William Warne. Rebecca remarried soon after and moved to America.
Most of their adult children moved far from home – Two to Australia, two to the US and one to London. William and Rebecca both died in 1886 and are buried in Egloshale cemetery.
The Arthur family were Methodists which was then a breakaway Christian group. It was hugely successful in Cornwall from the mid 1800s. Their gravestones read:
In loving remembrance of REBECCA the dearly beloved wife of William Henry Arthur of Sladesbridge who departed this life April 21st 1886 aged 65 years. “I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept [the faith]”
ALSO OF William Henry Arthur husband of the above who departed this life August 9th 1886 aged 73 years. “Be of sin the double cure Save from wrath and make me pure”
The first quote is from the Bible (2 Timothy 4:7). The second from the hymn “Rock of Ages”.
The “Double cure” refers to a sinner being saved by the atonement of Jesus, and cleansed from inbred sin by the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
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