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Parkyn was a champion Cornish Wrestler

His head, a little bald on the crown, but otherwise well covered with fine bushy black hair, curling a little on his broad brawny shoulders, and his erect honest bold front and firm step, were worth travelling a hundred miles to behold. He stands six feet high, and weighs two hundred and thirty- two pounds, although as lean as a post-horse.

Physique
Thomas King Chambers wrote of comparing him to a bronze stutue of Hercules.. The nearest approach to it which I have heard of, as attained by muscular development without awkward and inconvenient obesity, is in the instance of Parkins, the famous Cornish wrestler, whose ordinary weight in his clothes was sixteen stone, eleven pounds, his height being six feet.

WRESTLING. Saltash diversions, Cornwall, ended on Saturday, the 27th where the amateurs of wrestling were highly gratified by seeing the two great Devonshire players, Jordan and Wadling, play against two Cornish men, Parkin and Jolly, who came fron St. Columb, purposely to play with them, in consequence of its being erroneously inserted in some of the newspapers that Jordan alone threw at Torpoint fair, fifteen of the best players in Cornwall. We understand these two great champions of Devonshire were both put on their backs in less than two minutes, by Parkyn and Jolly, who were declared, without the least dispute, to be the victors, and had the first and second prizes given them, and Cowling, another Cornish player, won the third prize. The Cornish gentlemen offered on the ground (in answer to a bet offered at Crediton,) to get ten Cornish men who should play against the same number of Devonshire men for any sum, from one hundred to a thousand pounds.

Richard PARKYN died at Parkyn Shop in this parish where the deceased and his ancestors resided during 170 years - on 28 May 1853, aged 81 years.

1841 William Parkyn (Ag Lab) married to Dorothy all born St Columb Minor. Children William, Charles, Elizabeth and Mary.

Parkins, a friend of the Cornish hero James Polkinghorne

James Warren
(died 1842.) James Warren, of St Just/Redruth, till disabled in February, 1825, by ovet exertion on board the Cambria brig, bound for Mexico—the vessel that saved the crew and passengers of the Kent East Indiaman. He has been in a very ill state of health ever since ; the East India Company and others have voted him remuneration, and many of the sufferers have acknowledged their debt of gratitude to him for saving their lives.

Abraham Cann
Abraham Cann was born at Colebrooke, near Crediton around 1794 into a wrestling family.(1) His father Robert, was a farmer, maltster and wrestler, while his four brothers, James, Robert, George and William all took part in the sport.

Cann's rise to fame as the Devon champion and, ultimately, Champion of all England was impressive. Little is known of his early career but two of his most important matches were very well recorded by widespread newspaper coverage. His fight with James Warren of Redruth took place at the Eagle Tavern, City Road, London, on 21st September 1826. It is described in some detail in the London Magazine. A month later Cann was again fighting a Cornishman, James Polkinghorne of St.Columb. The event took place at Tamar Green on October 23 1826 and resulted in Cann winning the title of Champion of the West of England. Cann's victory was still being commemorated twenty years later in popular prints. To mark the centenary of the contest in 1926 a memorial plaque was placed by the St. Columb Wrestling Committee at the Red Lion Hotel, which had been run by Polkinghorne.

Thomas Gundry (1818- Oct 23 1888), of Goldsithney, mine captain

Jack Carkeek, was a Champion wrestler (Cornish style) the champion from Rockland, Michigan, was born of Cornish parents in 1861. He met many wrestlers in his career.

He made his first appearance at Michigamme, Michigan, on July 5, 1877, at age sixteen. There he won the fourth prize in a tournament of sixty-four entries. Jack Carkeek and John Pearce (the Cornish champion from Cornwall for five years, aged 27, 5fts 9in, 183 lbs.) met for the world championship of Cornish wrestling in Redruth, Cornwall.

Wrestling Career
Up until 1882 he only wrestled in Michigan, then Wisconsin, Iowa, Montana, as well as perhaps other states. At the beginning he wrestled only in ordinary tournaments, with a dozen or so other wrestlers, while later only wrestling in challenge matches for side money.,ref>West Briton newspaper- 1887

Cornish wrestler of the Pacific Coast, for a purse of $500, in Butte City, Montana.
 * December 10, 1884, Carkeek defeated James Pascoe, the champion

in a mixed match of five styles, for $250 a side.
 * January 10, 1885, at the same place, Carkeek defeated D.A. McMillan,

for $500 a side, in the Cornish style.
 * February 28, 1885, he defeated H. C. Bell in Darlington, Wisconsin,

the great champion, in mixed matches comprising of six styles.
 * April 26, 1885, in San Francisco, Carkeek was defeated by Tom Canon,

the catch-as-catch-can style for $100 a side.
 * June 20, 1885, he defeated O. H. Ingraham in Antioch, California, in

tournament against thirty-four competitors.
 * July 4, 1885, he won first prize in Grass Valley, Nevada, in a

Sorakichi, the Japanese, for $500 a side (in both Greco-Roman and catch-as-catch-can) and won in 54 minutes.
 * July 14, 1886, in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, Carkeek wrestled Matsada

Carkeek said he also met the Estonian champion George Hackenschmidt in London in1902, but the reality is slightly different : Jack Carkeek worked in the Alhambra Theatre in London. In his show, he challenged all comers offering £10 if he could not pin them in 15 minutes. Hackenschmidt challenged him in writing several times but the challenges were ignored. Carkeek then challenged any professional wrestler to a match either in Greco-Roman, Catch-as-catch-can or Cornish style. “Knowing that Carkeek would ignore another challenge and would claim that he had gone to Europe to avoid him, Hackenschmidt and his friends resolved on dramatic action.

One the 2nd March 1902, when Carkeek was issuing his customary challenges five men in evening dress jumped from one of the boxes onto the stage. The group was, Charles Vansittart the strongman, Launceston Elliot the Olympic weight lifting champion, Ferdinand Gruhn the English amateur heavyweight champion, Roland Spencer and George Hackenschmidt. Vansittart issued a challenge to Carkeek that Hackenschmidt would pin him 10 times in an hour for a side stake of £25. Carkeek who was very quick-witted appealed to the audience but they favored the newcomer. There was uproar in the theatre and Carkeek managed to make the Estonian look very foolish. The police was called and Hackenschmidt's group was forced to leave.

1887 wb The Cornish Wrestling Champion and His Belt - A correspondent writes: The present holder of the champion wrestling belt of Cornwall, Mr. John PEARCE, of Wendron, must certainly prize it but very little, as the same was picked up very recently on the public highway at Halwin, near Porkellis, by a Miss GLUYAS. The belt, which bears a silver engraved inscription, was covered with mud, soiled, and rubbed at the edges much.