Falmouth, Cornwall : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Falmouth. You may be able to find further references to Falmouth in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Falmouth seaport, municipal borough, market town, parish, and township Bartholomew
FALMOUTH a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district Imperial

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Falmouth within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Daniel Defoe Letter 3, Part 3: From Exeter to Land's End 25
William Camden Cornwall and Devon 2
Charles Wesley May 2 - Aug. 31, 1744: Cornwall 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 1, Part 2: Harwich and Suffolk 1
Daniel Defoe Appendix to letter 3 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 4, Part 1: North Cornwall and Devon 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 5 (London), Part 2: The City 1
Celia Fiennes 1698 Tour: Plymouth to Penzance 1
Celia Fiennes 1698 Tour: Lands End to Winchester 1
John Wesley 1744-5: First Methodist Conference; Pressgangs and Mobs 1
John Wesley 1754-6: Retirement in Paddington; Wesley Slandered; Premonitions 1
John Wesley 1785-90: Collects Money for the Poor; Visits House of Lords; Reasons for his Long Life 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Budock 0 2
Penwerris 0 2
Flushing 0 2
Pendennis 6 1
Penryn 8 3
Mylor 0 2
St Mawes 5 2
Mawnan 0 2
Mabe 0 2
St Gluvias 0 2
St Anthony in Roseland 0 2
St Just in Roseland 0 2
Devoran 0 2
Ponsanooth 0 2
Feock 0 3
Gerrans 0 2
Constantine 0 2
Helford 3 2
Perranarworthal 1 3
St Anthony in Meneage 0 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Falmouth. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
FALEMOUTH William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
FALMOUTH John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
FFALLMOUTH Celia Fiennes Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 1888).
VALEMOUTH William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.