Bodbrane is an ancient farmstead hamlet in central Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. It is situated about three miles (5 km) south of Liskeard

Liskeard

Liskeard is an ancient stannary and market town and civil parish in south east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.Liskeard is situated approximately 20 miles west of Plymouth, west of the River Tamar and the border with Devon, and 12 miles east of Bodmin...

 in the civil parish of Duloe

Duloe, Cornwall

Duloe is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately four miles south of Liskeard at .-Parish church:...

.

Bodbrane is mentioned in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 (with the placename Bodbran) and two dozen people are named including Godric the Priest.

The Cornwall County Council

Cornwall County Council

Cornwall Council is the unitary authority for Cornwall, in England, United Kingdom. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition of large groups of independents, having been controlled by independents in the 1970s and 1980s...

 list of manors which had land in the ancient parishes includes the manor of Bodbrane in Bodmin

Bodmin

Bodmin is a civil parish and major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the centre of the county southwest of Bodmin Moor.The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character...

 parish

A typescript of the Court Rolls of the manor of Bodbrane from 1406-1583 (translated and edited by Oswald J Reichel and dated 1906) is held in the collection of the Devon and Cornwall Record Society http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/DCRS/.

Documents held by the Cornwall Record Office

Cornwall Record Office

Cornwall Record Office , part of Cornwall Council, is situated at Old County Hall in Truro and is the main repository for the historical archives of Cornwall....

 (CRO) dated 1558 show the manor of Bodbrane being held by John Arundell. However in 1814, it was recorded that:

The manor of Bodbrane, which belonged to the Arundells of Lanherne, is now the property, by a late purchase, of Mr. Joseph Grigg.

Forty years later, heir John Grigg

John Grigg (politician)

John Grigg was a 19th century Member of Parliament in Canterbury, New Zealand.He briefly represented the Wakanui electorate from 23 July 1884 to 4 June 1885, when he resigned.-References:...

 became a notable emigre from Bodbrane. According to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography contains biographies for over 3,000 New Zealanders. It is available in both English and Maori. All volumes of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography are available online....

http://www.mch.govt.nz/projects/web/dnzb.html:

His father died when John was about 16 or 17, and on inheriting the property, Bodbrane, he became responsible for providing for his stepmother and siblings. He had met and fallen in love with Martha Maria Vercoe; when she emigrated to New Zealand with her family, John Grigg decided to follow. After two years of negotiations he sold Bodbrane, and left for Australia on the Blackwall in 1854, arriving in New Zealand before the end of the year.

Grigg began farming in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 at Longbeach

Longbeach, New Zealand

Longbeach is a lowly populated locality in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island. It is located in a rural area of the Canterbury Plains on the shore of the Pacific Ocean on the northern side of the Hinds River's mouth....

 (south of Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

) and his family farm the same estate to this day. In 1882, Longbeach farm supplied some of first shipment of frozen meat to England

See also

• List of places in Cornwall
• History of New Zealand
• Cornish emigration