Jonathan Couch was the village doctor for many years, and wrote the history of the village as well as various works of natural history (particularly on ichthyology). The "History of Polperro", 1871, was published after his death by his son, Thomas Quiller Couch, with many abridgements since. Couch contributed two series of articles to the periodical "Notes and Queries" – "The Folklore of a Cornish Village" 1855 and 1857, and these were incorporated in the "History of Polperro", to which he also contributed a sketch of his father's life. The welfare of the fishermen and the prosperity of the fisheries were in his care together with his medical and scientific work.