Author: Martin, Tobias
Biography:
MARTIN, Tobias (1747-1828: ancestry.com)
He is sometimes referred to as “Captain” Martin, but he was a miner, not a sailor. His father had passed from working in the Cornish tin mines to supervising the work as the “Captain” of a mine; had loved reading, and always regretted his lack of education. His son was self-educated and followed a similar path from working in the mines to serving as a clerk and accountant in the mine offices and, as Captain, carrying out inspections. There is a very detailed memoir in the posthumously-published collection of his poems edited by his grandson Alfred Tobias John Martin (1809-50), who worked as a clerk in Penzance, emigrated to Australia in 1849, and died at Adelaide in 1850. Thomas, son of Thomas and Jane Martin, was born in Wendron, Cornwall, on 25 Jan. 1747 but spent most of his life in or near Helston. His persistence in trying to learn French attracted the attention of a Helston attorney who employed him in his office and commissioned him to accompany his son to France in 1772-3—the pair setting out the day after Martin married his first wife, Mary Peters (1750-90), on 16 June 1772. They had ten children. After her death he married Ann James (1755-1825) on 22 May 1792 and with her had four more. He was employed at several mines and simultaneously, for nine years, was an innkeeper at Helston. His life was embittered by attempts in 1811-12 to oust him from his position which were ultimately unsuccessful: at Breage he continued as inspector until 1817 and was then made keeper of stores and stock-taker before retiring with a pension in 1827. According to his grandson, he occasionally drank to excess and lived for most of the last two years of his life on a diet of milk with rum and sugar. Most of the poems were composed in the last year of his life for his own amusement, but the collection was successful enough to warrant two further editions in the later nineteenth century. He died at Breage after six weeks’ illness and was buried at St. Stithians on 7 Mar. 1828. (A. T. J. Martin, “Memoir” in The Remains of the late Tobias Martin [1831]; ancestry.com 16 Feb. 2024; findmypast.com 16 Feb. 2024) HJ