Bernard Deacon's Blog, page 2

Cornwall’s top 100 surnames – the final 20

Below you can find a list of the surnames ranked from 81st to 100 in terms of numbers of households in Cornwall in 1861. While most of those in the list still have their origin in first names (patronyms), a number of names from places (toponyms) and occupations are beginning to make an appearance. Pengelly …

Gwennap and the 1801 insurrection: Part 2

By March 1801 the price of food in the market towns of Devon had reached an unbearable level. Residents began to adopt the by now familiar tactics of the food riot – imposing a maximum price at the markets and touring local farms with the aim of ‘encouraging’ farmers to send more grain to market. … Continue reading Gwennap and the 1801 insurrection: Part 2 →

Gwennap and the 1801 insurrection: Part 1

In May 1800 a less than crystal clear entry was made in the Gwennap vestry records. The vestry agreed to pay the constables for ‘putting down’ the Cornish Supplementary Militia. The militia was made up of part-time soldiers and had been re-introduced in the 1750s. They were greatly expanded in 1796 during an invasion scare. … Continue reading Gwennap and the 1801 insurrection: Part 1 →

The Old Poor Law in Gwennap

In the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, politicians made the workhouse the centrepiece of the New Poor Law, a more ‘efficient’ and cheaper way to relieve the poor in England, Wales and Cornwall. Workhouses were intended to discipline the poor by forcing idlers to work and shirkers to become strivers. But in practice, they … Continue reading The Old Poor Law in Gwennap →

Cornish cultural conservatism and surname formation

Some surnames formed from within the Cornish-speaking community and ending in -ow had a tendency for this suffix to shift from a written -ow to -a. For example, Higow was found also as Hicka, Mathow as Matta and Clemo sometimes became Clyma. How far the pronunciation of this unstressed syllable changed is another matter. The …

Cornish cultural distinctiveness: surnames with an -ow suffix

In the 1800s some surnames found in Cornwall helped to reinforce the myth of a Mediterranean origin for the Cornish, as multiple examples of names ending in -o, -oe or -ow seemed to hint strongly at Spanish antecedents. This was a romantic assumption with appeal to visitors and natives alike and was reinforced by other …

Tailors and bilingualism in 16th century Cornwall

The 80th most common surname in Victorian Cornwall was Taylor, an ubiquitous name found across southern Britain. This was already the case in Cornwall in the early 1500s when it appeared from the far east along the Tamar to West Penwith. But in Cornwall Taylor had a competitor. In the Cornish language the word for … Continue reading Tailors and bilingualism in 16th century Cornwall →

Close cousins: Warren and Warne

According to most surname dictionaries Warren and Warne have different origins. Warne was traditionally supposed to be a name derived from places in Devon and Somerset; Warren from a place in northern France or from the first name Warin or Werin. Even the Oxford Dictionary of Family Names retains the distinction, although suggesting that Warne … Continue reading Close cousins: Warren and Warne →

Where was Cornish spoken in the middle ages?

From around 1100 to the 1330s Cornwall’s population tripled, from under 30,000 to a peak of around 100,000. After a few decades of stability, the Black Death in the middle of the 1300s turned population growth into fall. In fact numbers in Cornwall steadily declined to a low of around 60,000 by the beginning of … Continue reading Where was Cornish spoken in the middle ages? →

Curnow/Kernow. When the obvious meaning may not be so.

Check out the surname dictionaries, even the mammoth Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, and you’ll find Curnow classed as a locative name, a form of Kernow, the Cornish for Cornwall and a surname presumably given to a Cornishman. But this simple and apparently clearcut explanation may not be the right one. … Continue reading Curnow/Kernow. When the obvious meaning may not be so. →