Zephaniah Job is best remembered today as ‘The Smugglers’ Banker,’ the man who financed and organised illicit trade through the small Cornish port of Polperro around the turn of the nineteenth century. This label, however, serves to obscure the range of activities he engaged in, for Job's business interests ranged far beyond smuggling. Job was a merchant, estate manager, farmer, provider of legal services, a banker for many legitimate business interests aside from smuggling, and a contractor with the Victualling Board. Although compared to the great London merchants he was in a small way of business, his web of contacts spread across England and into continental Europe. He exemplifies very well the range of activities that were pursued by countless small merchants in ports all around the British Isles. His career also illustrates how such merchants took advantage of the opportunity that warfare gave them to supply government, and how they were able to integrate contracting into their regular business activities.

Early life

Zephaniah Job was born at St Agnes, on the coast of north-west Cornwall, in January 1749, the youngest of five children. In 1748 or 1749, a rich seam of tin was discovered nearby and mining in the area embarked upon a period of considerable growth. Like many of his contemporaries, the young Job entered the mining industry, probably at the usual age of about eight. Dr Jonathan Couch, the renowned naturalist, antiquary and physician who knew and treated Job in his old age described him as a man of ‘singular sagacity and energy.’ He may well have demonstrated some of his qualities at an early age for, according to Couch, he received training as a mine captain. This was a highly responsible position, requiring mental agility and a degree of education in addition to the physical toughness and stamina of the miners themselves. He was clearly highly literate and numerate, which was unusual in the remote Cornish fishing and mining communities, and also a shrewd and highly motivated individual with a broad entrepreneurial streak.

Job left St Agnes and settled at Polperro around 1770, reputedly moving in haste after seriously injuring or killing another man in a fight.