Cornwall

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Tintagel, Cornwall The name of Durocornouio, “fortress of the Cornovii or Cornish” has been identified as Tintagel., Photograph: Dorothy Wickham 2016

Page created by Dot Wickham

The Name

CORNWALL’S TRUE NAME

The true name of any country is that which is used in the traditional language of that country. ‘ Cornwall ’ is a hybrid name coined by pre-Norman English scribes, and adopted by the subsequent Norman administration.

The Cornish, and therefore true, name for Cornwall is Kernow.

This is of great antiquity and is first found in a Roman record of c.400 AD, within a place-name Durocornouio, “fortress of the Cornovii or Cornish” (identified as Tintagel).

It appears in pre-Norman centuries variously as Corneu and Cerniu, until reaching its modern form, Kernow, in the 13th century. The name is believed to translate into English as “(land of) promontory-dwellers.”

West Saxon records, primarily the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, show that the early English referred to the Cornish as Westwalas (and to the Welsh as Northwalas), using the Saxon word walas, which they applied to Celtic speaking British natives.

In 891 AD (the same year in which the name England is first recorded as Englaland), the native and Saxon names became hybridised as Cornwalas, hence Cornwall. [1]


Cornwall, Towns & Districts

Constantine

Launceston, Cornwall

Penzance

Tintagel

Truro

St Austel

St Enoder

St Ives

St Just

Cornish Diggers, Eureka

Thomas Bath, c1894.

Many Cornish miners immigrated to South Australia before the discovery of gold where they worked at Burra and other mining towns. The discovery of gold in Victoria in 1851 lured many Cornish miners to Victoria, both from South Australia and Cornwall.[2]


Thomas Bath, born Truro, Cornwall

William Beaglehole, signed the 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition

John Brewer, baptised 15 September 1832 at St Minver, Cornwall

P. Caddy, born Constantine

Jane Cumming nee Sweet

Stephen Cummingborn St Clement, Cornwall

Peter Ellis born St Just in Penwith, Cornwall

William H. Ellis born Parish of Kenwyn, Cornwall

John Goyne

David Ham

Martin Harvey, born Penzance, Cornwall

William Hicks

John Lean, born Cornwall

W. J. Luke, born Cornwall

Samuel Lukeis, born 1831

John Penaluna St Just

William Penhalluriack

Joseph Penrose, born St Just, Cornwall

Charles Phillips, Born St Ives

Thomas Phillips, born Launceston

Richard Polkinghorne, born Sithney, Cornwall

Robert Serjeant, born Cornwall

Joseph Simmonds, born Cornwall

George Stephens, born St. Austell, Cornwall

Francis Symonds, born St Enoder, Cornwall

John Tonkin, born Tregony, Cornwall

William Tucker

James Wearne St Just, Cornwall

Patience Wearne St Just, Cornwall

James Woolcock, born Truro

Cornish In the News

RENEWING THEIR YOUTH.
Scene.—The horse parade in Armstrong street. Time.—Saturday, 10th September, 1888. They were old mates—three of them.
They had not met since I856 —fine stalwart young fellows then; old grey beards now of 50 and upwards. “Charley, old man, is that yourself? Hullo; is that you, Mick?” They grip, aud hold on, while giving forcible ex pression to their surprise and pleasure of meeting. “Come and have a drink.” One of them had just come down from Northern Queensland, the other was farming in the north-eastern district up beyond St Arnaud. The drinks were just tabled when a rousing whack on each of their shoulders faced them round to discover a third old mate. Bill, now a retired cattle salesman from the Western district. More hand-gripping and more drinks, followed by loud talking about old times and the beautiful fools we used to be when Ballarat was young. Let’s go down to the " Old Charlie” and have a general look round was voted unanimous. But the “ Old Charlie” was gone; John Chinaman was in possession. Shades of Thatcher; don’t we remember how he used to sing— “ John Chinaman my Joe John, You're coming precious fast, And every ship from Shanghai Brings an increase on the last; And you’ve got a butcher's shop, John, At your encampment down below, And you likes your cutlets now and then, John Chinaman my Joe.” John o’ Groats had disappeared; the Union Tent was no more; here the comic Morris brought down the house nightly with double success, while Miska Hauser's sweet music failed to reach the fancy of the noisy majority, fiddle he never so divinely. Herr Ralim, the great Tyrolese minstrel, decorated in highly fantastic costume, fared but little better. The double gum tree, where Big Larry lauded Lady Hotham across the diggers’ holes, has gone to decay; the House of Blazes is no more, and the old Duchess of Kent—oh where, and oh where is she gone? Every night her sweet tenor contralto wound up the ball with the declara tion that For bonnie Annie Laurie I’d lay me down and dee. That was the signal to shut up shop. Well, take her for all in all as times weut, she wasn’t a bad old sort; let’s go and driuk her health. Up Eureka way they light upon the Free Trade hotel and call for nobblers round. They move on; here’s the spot the traps dropped on us for our licenses. We made a run for it right across the gully, and you, Charley, got bogged going round over there by O’Connor’s T store—two great T’s, one black and one green. Yes, and you blessed fellows kept shy while me and a lot more was herded in that blessed Camp waiting for Cocky Reid to wash down his grub with some poor devil’s forfeited sly grog before he would condescend to come out and fine us for leaving our licenses in the tent in the other trousers pocket. Lucky for me Terrier Jack had notes enough about him to pay for both. Talking about Terrier Jack, do you mind when he was sitting down on the top of the shaft in front of Mrs Denny’s saloon he slipped off and dropped into the well 80 feet, got into the bucket, and shouted to wind up. Didn’t he swear, though. Jack was a plucky little chap. When the tiger got away from the travelling menagerie and took shelter in the crockery shop there was a commotion and no mistake. Jack got up on the ridgepole and lassoed Mr Tiger in quick sticks. The showman gave him 10 notes. We had a grand carouse that night—oh, what jolly old fools we were in those days. Let’s move on, and here’s where Bentley’s was— don’t some of us remember the pretty barmaid—eh, Bill, old man? You was a bit gone there—now, don’t deny it. I was sweet on that lot myself, but didn’t care to run an old friend too close; things used to go pretty-high at Bentley’s. Black Ferry, Flash Bourke, Tip M’Grath, and that crowd; aud there was Bob M’Laren and Mat. Hardy, and old Emery’s bowling saloon—oh Lord, what games we used to cut here in the old times! Hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels Put life and mettle in our heels. And the noble art wasn’t neglected. I thought we was in for it that night when Mick knocked Black Ferry over three times running. The nigger did not understand the Cornish tip of the toe close under his ankle bone, but he came up smiling, aud a liberal call on the waiter made things pleasant. Well, Bentley made a fine bonfire, and none too soon, for it was the devil’s own shop. The acquittal of Bentley, “ without a stain upon his character,” by Police-Magistrate Dewes, for the murder of Scobie, created tremendous indignation, and little Kennedy kept stirring the fire until the authorities ordered a new trial, and Bentley was committed for manslaughter. Ah, well, Scobie was no hero, only the martyr of his own folly. And here is the Stockade of the 4th of December, 1854. It is a long time since we were here boys, but to my mind this monument is too far up the hill. Look, yonder is where Captain Wise came on with the 40th, and around here the troopers dashed through the slabs, and soon made short work of it. Little Thoneman, the lemonade man, was shot, bayonetted, and sabred here on the right of the gully, and over there on the left lay the German blacksmith who made the pikes, with the top of his skull hanging by the scalp, and still living, his little terrier dog lying on his breast aud refusing to leave his master. It was a sorry sight that blackened the hillside on that bright Sabbath morn, with the bodies of 30 stalwart, mostly mis guided, men. Where are the patriots to-day who goaded them on — Kennedy, who declared there was no argument equal to a “lick under the lug,” was not to be found in the stockade when the licking had to be done; poor fellow, he was killed by a fall from his horse at Kingston. George Black, the chief’s aide-de-camp, died in the Melbourne Hospital; his brother Alfred, secretary for War, was killed by a fall of ground at Staffordshire Reef; Tim Hayes died in the Lunatic Asylum at Kew; Mulholland served the Government for some time against his will; Jim M’Gill fills a pauper’s grave at Inglewood; Lalor and Humffray are still with us; let them speak for themselves, and say if they are satisfied with the past and content with the present; but we move on across the Red Hill to the place where once stood the Sir Charles Hotham hotel and the arena where Bill Hodge and Tom Cawse, Jack Botherras, and Collie Bray and other notable athletes contended for the belt —no Greco-Roman strangling hammerlock brutality, but scientific heel and toe play, with Doctor Gibson up as referee; back through the Canadian, Prince Regent, and the jeweller’s shop, down the Red Streak to the Gum Tree Flat and Navvy Jacks, through the lane between old Grimley and the Gasworks the approach Yale’s corner, where Mick raised the cry of “Joe, Joe,” and “Traps, traps,” “Look out boys, here they come,” but it was only a squad of Oldham’s State school cadets going home from drill. Decent lads these, said Charley, not ashamed to take off their shirts or turn up their trousers; no tatooing on their back or bracelet souvenirs on their ankles. The squatting nominee Government of the old days have a multit ude of sins to answer for, but their reign has passed away, the working man is our god to-day, aud he is a hard task-master in his Newcastle. Up the Camp Hill to Bath’s, they call for nobblers round three times. Good-bye, hic—good-bye, old fe-fella; who can tell when we three shall meet again? [3]

Further Reading

Croggon, Jan, 'Methodists and Miners: The Cornish in Ballarat 1851-1901', in Kerry Cardell and Cliff Cumming (eds), A world turned upside down : cultural change on Australia's goldfields 1851-2001, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, 2001.

Dorothy Wickham, Cornish at Eureka, https://ballaratheritage.com.au/article/cornish-at-eureka/

Dorothy Wickham, Trials and Tribulations: The Cornish at Eureka, Agan Kernow;Stories of Our Cornwall, Cornish Association of Victoria, 2022, pages 90-95.

Dorothy Wickham, Forgotten Rebels: The Cornish and the Bendigo Goldfields Petition, Agan Kernow;Stories of Our Cornwall, Cornish Association of Victoria, 2022, pages 214-220.

Also See

Country of Origin

England


References

  1. Craig Weatherhill and Michael Everson, A Concise Dictionary of Cornish Place-Names, 2009.
  2. https://ballaratheritage.com.au/article/cornish-at-eureka/
  3. Ballarat Star, 22 September 1888.