Zacky Martin

**Zachariah "Zacky" Martin** was a Cornish miner and a friend of Ross Poldark who worked at Wheal Leisure, and later became the mine captain of Wheal Grace.

## Biography

### Earlier life

Zacky was one of the few in the mining community of Cornwall who was able to read, showing he had a competent education. He became a trusted and loyal friend of Ross Poldark and was very respected in the mining industry.

He was married to Mrs Martin, and they had ten children including Diego "Jago" Martin and Jinny Carter (née Martin). They lived in a cottage in Nampara and were neighbours of Mark and Paul Daniel.

In March 1783, Joshua Poldark died and due to zero funding, the cottages in Nampara began to fall into ruin. Zacky was working at Wheal Grambler for low wages.

### Wheal Leisure

In October 1783, Ross Poldark came back home from the American Revolutionary War even though he was presumed dead. Zacky was glad his old friend had in fact survived, and greeted him when he saw him walking by a neighbourhood gathering. He told Ross he would help rebuild Nampara for free, but he declined because he was earning a low wage and should not add free labour too.

He later informed Ross of the lack of work for miners in Cornwall. In 1787, Ross decided to reopen an old Poldark mine, Wheal Leisure and Zacky secured employment at the mine. They eventually found copper and early success.

He and Ross later saw how a young miner, Jim Carter and his daughter, Jinny Martin had a connection, and she fell pregnant. He and Ross encouraged them to marry. Ross agreed to give them a cottage free of rent so long he worked for him, and Zacky agreed to speak to Jim and Jinny. He later attended their wedding and they had a daughter, Benjamin Ross Carter. Jinny was widowed when Jim was caught stealing and sentenced to two years in prison, where he died.

George Warleggan later purchased shares in Wheal Leisure but Ross wanted a mine free of George and opened a new mine, Wheal Grace, and Zacky followed Ross.

### Wheal Grace

In 1793, Wheal Grace was opened and Zacky became a mining captain, but they struggled to find any copper. It closed due to a lack of copper but reopened again to an improved success, because Zacky accompanied Ross to find and speak to Mark Daniel, who knew the location of copper.

In 1795, Zacky joined a rescue mission put together by Ross to go to France and get Dwight Enys out of prison.

### Death of Jago

In 1796, there was a shortage of corn caused by George Warleggan and one of Zacky's children, Jago, joined a village riot to get the grain. He and the villagers involved were arrested for getting involved, including Drake and Sam Carne. George managed to secure the release of every miner except for Jago, Drake and Sam because of their close connections to Ross and had them sentenced to hanging.

Zacky and Ross joined forces to try and stop the hangings. Ross was unable to find a way to sway the judges until the final few minutes before the hangings. He gave an impassioned speech that persuaded the judges to pardon Drake and Sam, but decided to hang Jago anyway. Zacky was devastated to lose Jago and was consoled by Ross.

## Notes and sources

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Poldark, Season 1, Episode 1
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Poldark, Season 4, Episode 1