The St. Austell Town And Bay, Cornwall, England

Who were the Austills? We are told that for the past two hundred years and more there have been no people of that surname living in Cornwall. However, there still exists a town named St. Austell, located on a small bay of the same name. This beautiful area was once home to a thriving pottery-making industry.

An old book "Parochial History of Cornwall" tells us that from this place came an old family of gentlemen surnamed DeAustell one of whom was William. DeAustell, a sheriff of Cornwall in the reign of Henry VI.

The parish church of St. Austell is considered to be a noteworthy building. Much of the exterior surface is decorated by figures and scrolls worked on the stone; and over the south porch is an ancient inscription KYCH INRI, which according to the book has never been explained. There is a challenge for some scholarly Austill to undertake!

The above mentioned "parochial History" and an old "Gazetteer of The British Isles'! between them give a detailed and even somewhat humorous picture of the area. A panel of supposedly great antiquity remains in the church, of a fox in a surplice preaching from the pulpit to a credulous woman on her knees below!

Another little story tells about someone making a deposition that "On Shrove Tuesday last" he "came through St. Austell churchyard and saw Joan Suer sitting in the church porch and said the vicar would not hear her confession, and had taken her sister into the church and locked the door. There-fore he smote the church door and asked the vicar whether he used to shrive women and the church door locked upon them!"

Several sources mention an English sea captain, G. W. Austill, who came to America early in the 18th Century and who supposedly was descended from William DeAustell (see above), sheriff of Cornwall. Several of the Austells believe that William Austell junior born 1777 in South Carolina, was a son of the sea captain, who died in 1781. (See further information in the Tennessee chapter).

Derivation of the name: Sir Bernard Burk: "General Armory of England, Scotland Ireland and Wales" states" Austell: 1. Personal, 2. The little one from the East,
3. English: Diminutive of Ost, Host, East
English: Ost, Host, Owst, Yost, East, Easty, Easto
Modern German, Ost; Old German: Oste; Diminutives: Aostilo; 8th Century: Ostell, Austell.
Coat of Arms: Austell (Sheriff of Cornwall, Edward III and Henry IV) -
Argent, a Saltire Reguly gules. Argent - Silver, gules - Red; Saguly - a partion line;
satire - Cross of St. Andrew. Helmet and Mantle could be added.