#515
My Pomeroy Family 

 Before the Norman Conquest St Stephens was known as Lanscauestone, and  across the valley to the south-east lay Dunhuet.
Launceston had a college of secular priests that  flourished with its own mint and market, and a community thrived around it.
Dunhuet was of great strategic importance, standing on high ground and near the main crossing point into Cornwall .
Robert de Mortain built a wooden castle where he set up his court and administrative centre. This was replaced  a stone castle in the 13th century.

The town grew in size around the castle at Launceston . First the market and then the mint operated  from its old location until the end of the 12th century,  later this transferred from Lanscauestone to Dunhuet as former settlement’s importance diminished & the latter’s increased.  
In time Dunhuet became known as Lanscauestone, while the former settlement became known as St Stephens.

This was always an agricultural area although manganese  was mined and limestone was quarried locally . In the past there were tanneries & a serge factory at Town Mills with woollen & wool combing establishments in the  nearby in the parish of St Thomas-by-Launceston. Many of the women would have been employed in the making of straw hats since there was an  abundance of straw in this farming area.

Richard's father John Pomery born 1746 maybe the John who was buried in Trewen on 8 Apr 1804. I have found no record of Richard as an apprentice or there is no indication as to when he left home but the death of his father may have been what prompted Richard to move away from the agricultural life  & the countryside.
Spain   declared War on England in December 1804 and the Napoleonic War were raging. Richard was was 23 years old. 
Where he went and what he did is still unknown but he married in 1807 in Rotherhithe so he might have been working in the docks there, possibly as a clerk.  His marriage to a girl from West Teignmouth and the  witnesses might hold clues.
The 2 years later he found work at the newly opened East India Dock Company from 1809 as an extra check clerk ( recording /checking goods entries) in the Docks.From Aug 4th he was paid £1.11.6 ( a week?) and by 1815 he had been promoted to a permanent check clerk. By June 12 1827 he had been promoted to a 3rd clerk 3rd division in the General Office and on 8 August 1828 was a 2nd clerk 2nd division in the General Office. He was obviously doing well at this point because in 1829 he became a ships ledger clerk with a wage of £140 per annum. 

He was pensioned off on 21st October 1853 when he was still a ships ledger clerk and earning £175 p.a.  After being pensioned off he was paid a pension of £60 p.a.