Bernard Deacon's Blog, page 58

Who was Bishop Colenso?

Christian missionaries don’t get such a good press these days, often viewed as merely an arm of western colonialism, accompanying the trader and the soldier. But some missionaries broke the mould. One was John Colenso, born at St Austell on January 24th, 1814. The Colensos were actually a Penzance family. John’s father was a mine … Continue reading Who was BishopColenso?

The role of luck in the history of surnames

While giving a talk on surnames last week at Madron, just outside Penzance, I was reminded of the role of chance in the history of family names. One unpredictable aspect was the relative proportion of male children born. If several boys were born into a family and they all survived, then the family name was …

The Cornish language: polemics and plans

Two booklets have appeared recently on the subject of the Cornish language and here I provide a review and summary of them. Rod Lyon’s Colloquial doesn’t mean Corrupt: Observations on contemporary revived Cornish is a searing indictment of the stilted and unconvincing spoken Cornish of many Cornish users. This is something Rod argues is the … Continue reading The Cornish language: polemics andplans

The battle of Braddock Down

This week sees the anniversary of the first battle of the Cornish army in the seventeenth century civil wars – the battle of Braddock Down. In the autumn of 1642 when the wars began it wasn’t at all certain who would rally Cornwall behind them. Would it be Royalists or Parliamentarians? The greater gentry in … Continue reading The battle of BraddockDown

Three surnames from the Fal district

The nineteenth century distribution of a surname is sometimes a good guide to its point of origin, sometimes less so. Take the following three names, which are all likely to have begun life in the district around the Fal estuary in south Cornwall. Mankee was a name associated entirely with west Cornwall in 1861, with …

Who were the richest families of late Victorian Cornwall?

In 1885 a letter appeared in the West Briton listing what were claimed to be the 27 richest men in Cornwall with their reputed incomes. Here’s the richest nine. (For a rough modern equivalent of the income multiply the figures by 120). Name House Annual income Thomas Charles Agar-Robartes Lanhydrock 75,000 John Charles Williams Caerhayes … Continue reading Who were the richest families of late VictorianCornwall?

Socialism in Edwardian Cornwall

It’s not generally well-known that Truro and Camborne were relatively early centres of socialist activism. In May 1904 W.A.Phillips, standing ‘boldly as a representative of the workers and a Social Democrat’ was elected to Truro Town Council in a by-election in Truro East. This was the first council seat won by a socialist west of … Continue reading Socialism in EdwardianCornwall

Cornish surnames where the spelling obscures the origin

Sometimes the changing spellings of surnames can tend to confuse us. The first example is fairly obvious. The name Lidgey began life in the early 1600s in Redruth and on the Lizard (where it was more likely to be Ludgy). It doesn’t take a great deal of detective work to find the placename Lidgey at …

The fall of the Arundells of Lanherne

By the end of the fifteenth century the Arundell family of Lanherne at St Mawgan had climbed to the top of Cornwall’s pecking order. Yet, by the 1600s the family was declining fast. The reason was simple enough. Their stubborn commitment to Roman Catholicism after the Reformation of the 1540s made them suspect in the … Continue reading The fall of the Arundells ofLanherne

Cornish towns in 1698

Celia Fiennes journeyed through Cornwall on horseback in 1698. In her journal she provided brief accounts of some of the towns she saw. Having endured an hour-long crossing of the Tamar on the Cremyll ferry, she took the southern route to the west. She seems to have been most impressed, and a little scared, by … Continue reading Cornish towns in1698