Richard Oxnam (1768 – 1844) of Penzance was appointed High Sheriff of the County of Cornwall on this day in 1810. Within ten years, he was bankrupt and living in disgrace.
One of the original partners in Penzance’s first bank (Batten, Carne and Boase), merchant and investor, Oxnam was the son of a Penzance trader who was heavily involved with the smuggling activities of the Dunkin brothers.
As a banker, Oxnam was hugely influential in many businesses and was a shareholder in numerous mines including Wheal Neptune, (Perranuthnoe), Wheal Reeth (St. Ives), Ding Dong (Madron) and Levant (Pendeen).
He also owned a trading ketch, the Susan, and leased land and mining stamp mills (known as stamps they were used to crush the ore).
Oxnam was also the Lieutenant Colonel of the Mount’s Bay Militia, which had been set up to defend the coast in the event of a French invasion.
Appointed High Sheriff in 1810, with his status in society appeared established and secure, disaster soon struck in terms of the death of his wife in 1812 whilst his new home Rosehill Manor, pictured below in 1907, was being designed.
It appears that he over extended himself with this trophy house and he was sued for bankruptcy by a Penzance solicitor, Robert Hichens, and fourteen other creditors for the amount of £10,660 - 4s - 8d.
By 1817 his continuing financial problems, aggravated by a further bankruptcy petition by another Penzance solicitor and former Mayor of Penzance, George John, ended with his confinement in the King’s Bench Debtors Prison in London. Due to the bankruptcy all of Oxnam’s property was sold at auction and a considerable amount was bought by James Halse (January 28th).
Finally released from the debtors’ prison, Oxnam returned to Penzance, living quietly on the extreme margins of Penzance’s polite society until he died at Wellington Terrace in 1844. 
