Robert Hancock (1698-1768) and Rebecca Mufford (1703-1756): Building on Bedrock
This story is fifth story of my Hancock family line that lived in Cornwall until Samuel Hancock and Elizabeth (nee Menear) migrated to Australia in 1876.
Robert Hancock
Robert Hancock, my sixth great-grandfather, was born around 1698 in the parish of St Austell. His birth came at a time when the town was still what John Leland had called “nothing notable but the paroch chirch”—a modest church surrounded by scattered farmsteads, barely worth a mention in any traveller's itinerary. But the world Robert entered was on the cusp of transformation.
Robert was part of the third generation of Hancocks I have traced to call St Austell home. He was the son of Robert Hancock Sr. (baptised 1661) and Prudence Clements, and the grandson of Thomas Hancock and Grace (née Crapp). Through his grandmother Grace, Robert was connected to the wealth of the Crapp family—a legacy of substance that had helped secure the Hancocks' place in the community.
Robert's grandmother, Grace Hancock, had left a carefully calculated inheritance to her children—45 shillings in cash, a suit of leather work clothes, and a head of cattle as an interest-free loan for three years. This was not a random sum but a strategic investment designed to secure a "Three-Lives" lease on land under the Duchy of Cornwall system. Robert's father had benefited from this legacy, and Robert himself would have grown up knowing the value of prudent management and family support.
Marriage and Kinship
Robert married Rebecca Mufford in July 1729. The Mufford name appears frequently in St Austell records of the early eighteenth century, suggesting a family well-established in the parish. Like the Hancocks, the Muffords were working people—neither gentry nor paupers, but solid members of the community who had earned the trust of their neighbours.
In this era, most marriages occurred between people who lived within walking distance. Courtship unfolded at chapel, market days, village gatherings, and the occasional fair when neighbouring parishes converged. It is likely that the Hancock and Mufford families had longstanding ties before Robert and Rebecca's marriage, built through generations of proximity, shared labour, and mutual support.
Together, Robert and Rebecca had at least five children whom I have been able to trace:
- Robert Hancock (1729–1730) — died in infancy
- Mary Hancock (baptised 1731) — likely married Richard Teague in St Austell in 1759
- Grace Hancock (baptised 1733) — may have died young in 1741, or married either John Warne or John Bennett
- Prudence Hancock (baptised 13 March 1737) — married John Nancollas in 1767 and had one son, Robert, before her death in September 1769
- Thomas Hancock (born 23 November 1742) — my 5th great-grandfather
At age 39, Thomas's birth came late in Rebecca’s childbearing years, an age when pregnancy carried increased risk. Yet both mother and child survived. This was no small thing in an era when childbirth was one of the leading causes of death among women.
A Parish in Transition
The St Austell of Robert and Rebecca's time was a world of contrasts. William Borlase, the Cornish antiquary writing in the mid-18th century, observed that Cornwall's economy was not primarily agricultural—a truth that was becoming increasingly apparent in the early eighteenth century. While many families worked small plots of rented land, mining was reshaping the landscape.
During Robert's lifetime, the tin industry that had sustained earlier generations of Hancocks was gradually being supplemented by copper mining. The Gwennap district, just a few miles away, was becoming one of the richest copper-producing areas in the world. By the 1740s, waterwheels creaked in narrow valleys, driving pumps to keep the mines dry. The air carried the scent of woodsmoke and coal, mingled with the metallic tang of ore. Smelting houses glowed at night, their chimneys sending smoke and steam across hedged fields, visible for miles.
For families like the Hancocks, mining offered a vital supplement to agricultural income—but it also brought volatility. Mines flooded, collapsed, or played out, and families fell back on their land, trades, and kin networks to survive until the next opportunity arose. The Hancocks fit this pattern precisely: neither wealthy nor destitute, they were working people, likely holding or renting a few acres, combining agriculture with mining or trade.
"Men could earn decent money underground or in ore dressing, and families like the Hancocks could supplement agricultural income with mining work. But the industry was volatile. Mines flooded, collapsed, or played out. When that happened, families fell back on their land, trades, and kin networks to survive."
By the 1740s, when Thomas was born, St Austell was beginning its transformation from a modest village into a growing town. The discovery of china clay deposits would later drive further growth, but in Robert and Rebecca's time, the village was still centred around Holy Trinity Church. The Hancocks held their ground through this period of gradual change, maintaining their place in the community through a combination of agriculture, mining, and the skills passed down through generations.
Holy Trinity Church stood at the heart of St Austell—the place where Robert was baptised, where he married Rebecca, and where his children were christened. The church's 15th-century tower would have been a familiar landmark, visible across the fields as the Hancocks went about their daily work. It was here that the community gathered for worship, for baptisms and burials, and for the annual feast days that punctuated the agricultural year.
Legacy
Robert Hancock lived to the age of seventy, dying in 1768. Rebecca's death date is not recorded, but together they had achieved what mattered most to working families: continuity. They had raised children who could support themselves, maintained the family's presence in St Austell, and passed on the skills and values needed to endure.
Their son Thomas survived to adulthood and would become the father of Richard Hancock (my fifth great-grandfather)—the vital link through whom the Hancock line continued into future generations.
Robert and Rebecca were not famous. They left no monuments, no published works, no mark on the wider world. But they left something more valuable: a family that survived. Through their son Thomas, their legacy flowed into the future—and eventually, across oceans and centuries, to us.
In the next instalment of this story, we will follow the life of Thomas Hancock, born in 1742, and his journey through the changing world of 18th-century Cornwall.
Sources, Notes, & Further Reading
- Baptism record of Robert Hancock (1698) — Holy Trinity Church, St Austell (Cornwall Online Parish Clerk Database).
- Marriage record of Robert Hancock and Rebecca Mufford (c. 1728) — Holy Trinity Church, St Austell (Cornwall Online Parish Clerk Database).
- Baptism records of Robert and Rebecca's children: Prudence Hancock (1737), Mary Hancock (1731), Grace Hancock (1733), Thomas Hancock (1742) — Holy Trinity Church, St Austell (Cornwall Online Parish Clerk Database).
- Will and probate inventory of Grace Hancock (1679) — Kresen Kernow, AP/H/1952.
- Will and probate inventory of Sampson Crapp (1676) — Kresen Kernow.
- Borlase, William. Observations on the Ancient and Present State of the Islands of Scilly, and their Importance to the Trade of Great-Britain. Oxford, 1756.
- Leland, John. The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary. 9 vols. Oxford, 1710–1712.
- Yelland one-name study — Hancock and Hooper family connections.
- YourRoots — Richard Hancock genealogical records.
- Ancestry.com — Robert Hancock and Prudence Clements family trees.
- FreeREG — Holy Trinity, St Austell parish registers.
- Victoria County History: Cornwall (1906) — tin mining methods and coinage towns.
My ancestry family tree for genealogical sources is also available to view:
https://www.ancestry.com.au/invite-ui/accept?token=2NQi6YrG-SmftSXLJLZQV1w-gTbxWAqNrkWQa0xBCuM=
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