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 … Continue reading The role of luck in the history of surnames →

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 and plans →

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 Braddock Down →

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 … Continue reading Three surnames from the Fal district →

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). NameHouseAnnual incomeThomas Charles Agar-RobartesLanhydrock£75,000John Charles WilliamsCaerhayes£60,000Evelyn BoscawenTregothnan£50,000Duke of Cornwall£40,000Gustavus BassetTehidy£32,000William Henry EdgcumbeMount Edgcumbe£30,000Thomas … Continue reading Who were the richest families of late Victorian Cornwall? →

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 Edwardian Cornwall →

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 … Continue reading Cornish surnames where the spelling obscures the origin →

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 of Lanherne →

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 in 1698 →

More Cornish surname puzzles

Actually, two of the following are not too puzzling. Their point of origin seems clear enough even if their later geography is less so. Keskeys is the most straightforward. It clearly originated in the place of the same name in St Erth parish. That was spelt Caerskes in 1363, which takes us closer to the … Continue reading More Cornish surname puzzles →