Penzance, Cornwall : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Penzance municipal borough Bartholomew
PENZANCE a town, a chapelry, 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 Penzance 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.
Celia Fiennes 1698 Tour: Lands End to Winchester 6
Daniel Defoe Letter 3, Part 3: From Exeter to Land's End 4
Charles Wesley May 2 - Aug. 31, 1744: Cornwall 3
John Wesley 1785-90: Collects Money for the Poor; Visits House of Lords; Reasons for his Long Life 3
Daniel Defoe Letter 4, Part 1: North Cornwall and Devon 2
Celia Fiennes 1698 Tour: Plymouth to Penzance 2
John Wesley 1744-5: First Methodist Conference; Pressgangs and Mobs 2
John Wesley 1760-2: Letter to an Editor; Impositions and Declarations; Speaking Statue; Pentecost 2
William Camden Cornwall and Devon 1
John Wesley 1754-6: Retirement in Paddington; Wesley Slandered; Premonitions 1
John Wesley 1765-8: Justice for Methodists; Methodist Character; Instructions to Parents 1
John Wesley 1777-80: On the Isle of Man; City Road Chapel; Wesley Visits Lord George Gordon 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
Newlyn By Penzance 5 2
Chyandour 0 2
Penwith 4 2
Paul 0 2
Mousehole 6 2
Madron 0 2
Gulval 1 2
St Michaels Mount 7 2
Sancreed 1 2
Mulfra 0 2
Marazion 3 2
Ludgvan 2 2
St Buryan 3 2
Goldsithney 0 2
Perranuthnoe 0 2
Morvah 12 2
Zennor 8 2
Towednack 2 2
St Hilary 3 2
St Just 26 2

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
PANZANTS Celia Fiennes Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 1888).
PENANCE Charles Wesley The Journal of the Rev. Charles Wesley (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1849).
PENSANCE Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
PENSANDS Celia Fiennes Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 1888).
PEN SANS William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
PENZANCE 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).

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.