Ephraim Rajap

Tregartha, Liskeard, Cornwall

1875–1918

Ephraim Rajap is recorded in the 1881 census, aged 28, as a butler for the Kelly family at Penmorvah in Budock, on the outskirts of the port of Falmouth, Cornwall. The census records that Rajap was born in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), as were several members of the Kelly family, which was headed by 38-year-old Lillie Henry Richard Kelly, a Justice of the Peace. The Kelly family appear to have moved to Cornwall in the mid or late 1870s, first living at Place House, before purchasing Penmorvah in 1878. Penmorvah was a large house that included a manservants’ room and sea views. Today it operates as a hotel.

The Kellys – and Rajap – did not settle at Penmorvah for long. In 1882 it was reported that the house was for sale as Kelly was leaving the country. However, Rajap did not move with him. It is not clear whether this was out of choice, but he had a new opportunity in Britain, working for Michael Williams at Gnaton Hall in west Devon. Williams had inherited Gnaton Hall estate, east of Plymouth, along with £100,000 (over £6.5 million in 2024) in 1880, upon the death of his father, John Michael Williams, who was described in newspaper reports as the richest man in Cornwall.

In September 1885 Rajap married Catherine Knight Best in Little Petherick near Cornwall’s north coast. They may have originally intended to marry in Devon, as his name is recorded in the banns register in Newton Ferrers the previous year. At their marriage, Rajap was described as a butler, and his father was given as Ephraim Rajap, a gardener. Catherine’s father’s occupation was also given as gardener. When their only son, William Herman Rajap, was baptized three years later, on 27 November 1888, the service took place at Newton Ferrers church, and his birth location was recorded as Gnaton Hall.

In the 1891 census the family is recorded as living in Gnaton Cottages, on the estate, rather than inside the Hall. In 1888 Rajap was recorded in the electoral register, qualifying due to ‘house and land’. A decade later, in October 1899, he attended the ‘fashionable’ wedding of Michael Williams’ sister-in-law, and gifted her a gilt-framed oil painting of the north coast of Cornwall.

Williams’s ‘sudden death’ from a heart attack aged 42 in 1899 may have left Rajap requiring a career change as, by 1901, he was living in Newquay. The census records him as a hotel waiter and head of the household at 17 Edgecumbe Avenue, a terrace of large period townhouses, although Kate and ‘Willie’ were staying with her brother in St Issey at the time. Rajap seems to have earned enough money to purchase his own house, but he rented out rooms to boost his income. He is listed in various local directories from 1900 as letting rooms in houses along the Avenue. By 1911 Rajap was the manager of Newquay Liberal Club. This connection may have been a nod to his previous employment with Michael Williams, who was a ‘strong Liberal-Unionist’.

Rajap was living in Newquay upon his death in 1918, aged 60, although he died at a house in Liskeard, after a short illness. His newspaper obituary recorded him as ‘a well-known resident of Newquay’ and ‘beloved husband’, and noted his long service to Michael Williams and his role as a boarding-house keeper. His funeral was held at Newquay Cemetery. At the time, his son, William, was a private serving in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry in the First World War.

Rajap’s wife Kate and son William remained in Newquay. Kate continued as a lodging-house keeper, according to the 1921 census, and died in 1938 aged 84. William worked as a barman and clerk, was involved with Newquay British Legion, and his billiard scores were frequently reported in the local newspapers. He does not appear to have married and died around 1965, aged 77.