WILLIAM Hoar was born in Liskeard in 1846 and grew up in Barras Street when it was known as Barrel Street; his father was a ‘Master Mason’ and his two older brothers were ‘Masons’. William had four brothers and five sisters in total and, at the age 15, he was learning the trade with his father, as a ‘Journeyman Mason’.

William married Emma Prynn in his late teens and set up home in Church Street, where his three children were born: Frederick in 1866, Henry in 1867, and Mary Ellen in 1869. But all was not well, as the West Briton newspaper reported on November 26, 1874, that ‘A Wife Beater Liskeard; on Monday, before the mayor and Mr J C Isaac, William Hoar, a mason, was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment for deserting his wife and family. The prisoner left them three or four months since, and went to Bridgend, in Glamorganshire. He sent money to his wife for a month or two, but then ceased to do so, and about the beginning of the present month a warrant for his apprehension was issued. The police authorities in Bridgend were communicated with, and the prisoner was taken into custody. On Thursday last P C Spry went to Bridgend and returned with the prisoner on Saturday.’

On his release from Bodmin Gaol, William returned to family life in Church Street. In 1881 both his sons, aged 14 and 15, were working as Labourers and his daughter, aged 12, was in full-time education. But three years later he was in the newspapers again, this time in The Cornishman on January 3, 1884; ‘At the Liskeard police-court William Hoar, a mason, has been fined 5s. and costs for being drunk, £2 and costs for assaulting the police, and 5s and costs for assaulting his wife. The fines were paid.’

After his second court appearance, I’ve not been able to find any further trace of William Hoar but his wife Emma, at the age of 43 gave birth to a son who she named John Phillips Hoar, the record states ‘father unknown’. In 1891 mother and son were living in Castle Lane, when Emma was forced to take in other people’s washing as a ‘Charwoman’, known to be just one step above being classed as a pauper.

Corporal John Phillips Hoare of the 5th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, was a married man with two young sons when he died in France of influenza, on October 30, 1918 aged 30. He had received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, his headstone can be seen in the Rouen War Cemetery, Haute-Normandie, France.

By Brian Oldham, Liskeard Museum volunteer and Bard of the Gorsedh Kernow

• The town’s museum has a wealth of local knowledge and history on display. On May 2, 2002, the museum was unofficially opened by the town mayor and on June 6, 2002, it was officially opened by HRH Prince Charles, Duke of Cornwall. To learn more about what is on display visit liskeardmuseum.com