Purser

The accountant of a Cornish or Devon mine run on the cost book system: the officer who kept the cost book, set the calls on the adventurers when the working had spent more than it earned, and laid the accounts before them at their meetings.

Historical usage

Under the cost book system a mine had no bank borrowing and no cash reserve; the adventurers met the running costs out of their own pockets and took the profits the same way. That made the accounts the mine's central institution, and the purser the man who kept them. He was often one of the adventurers himself, and he presented the accounts at the shareholders' meetings — held every two months, before the count house dinner — where the adventurers either divided a profit or met a call. A man who did not pay his call had his name entered in the cost book until he did. A directory of Devon and Cornwall mines published in 1856 shows what the office looked like in practice. Nearly every entry names a purser alongside the captain, and the two jobs are quite distinct: the captain was on the mine and the purser was usually not. Pursers sat in Camborne, Penzance, Hayle, Plymouth and Tavistock, and several held the office at more than one mine at once — William Browne is purser of at least three in the same list, all of them registered at 58 Old Broad Street in London, and R. H. Pike of Camborne of several more. Some mines dispensed with the individual altogether: at one, 'a committee of management acts as purser'. At another the two roles were combined, Nicholas Vivian of Camborne being 'purser and manager'.

How it worked

The purser kept the cost book, in which every adventurer's holding and every shilling of cost and return was entered. At each account meeting he set out what the mine had spent and taken since the last; the balance either produced a dividend to be divided by the share or a call to be paid by it, and the meeting resolved on the figure. He handled the money that came in against calls and went out in tribute, wages and materials, and in the 1856 directory it is his name and address, not the captain's, that a would-be investor is given.

Why it was used

A cost book mine is an unlimited partnership with no reserves, in which every shareholder is liable for the next month's costs. Such a thing cannot run without somebody trusted to keep the reckoning and to say, at fixed intervals and in public, what it is.

Risks & limitations

The purser's authority was clerical, not executive: he did not direct the mining, which was the captain's, and he could not soften what the accounts said. The system he served had no cushion, so a run of bad months turned directly into calls on the adventurers and, often enough, into shares 'voluntarily relinquished or allowed to be forfeited for non-registration' — the 1856 directory's own phrase. Where one man held the pursership of several mines from a single London address, the independence of the office from the promoters of the company is not obvious.

Regional variation

A Cornish and Devon office, belonging to the cost book system rather than to British mining generally; the coalfields had no equivalent, their accounts being company business.

Mines associated with this term

5 examples chosen from 12 linked records — the term page is not an index.

• Wheal Mary Ann — Cornwall (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…adventurers understood, on their behalf: Peter Clymo (Trelawney's purser), James Clymo and the company's solicitor Edward Lyne. The three…”
• Boscean Mine — Cornwall (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…with £20 10s paid on each, representing £4,920 of capital, its purser Samuel York of Penzance and its captains John Carthew, Richard…”
• East Boscaswell Mine — Cornwall (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…a few thousands.' Organised in 3,648 shares, with Thomas Hollow as purser and J. S. Phillips as manager, the mine's landowners included…”
• East Wheal Lovell — Cornwall (well documented example)
  Named twice in this record, first in the history: “…an 18-inch whim and 24 heads of stamps; Henry Rogers of Helston was purser, Roger Quentrall manager and Nicholas Peters resident agent. Clement…”
• Medlyn Moor Mine — Cornwall (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s history: “…engine with a 16-inch cylinder drove five heads of stamps. The purser was Oliver Matthews of St Day, the manager James Rowe of Camborne…”

Disasters associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis, with the nature of the relationship stated — not every disaster where this term might plausibly apply.

• Drakewalls Mine Entombment and Rescue, 1889 (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…made verbal contact. Renewed efforts were led by Moses Bawden, the purser, Captain Richards, the agent, and the inspector; at 9 p.m. a small…”

Sources

1. (secondary) 1856 Mines in Devon and Cornwall — Grace's Guide
2. (secondary) Mining Bosses and Businesses — Cornish Mining World Heritage Site

Record created: 24 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026