Cornish people

The Cornish are an ethnic group associated with Cornwall, located in the South West of England where most of the Cornish currently live.

Population

The number of people living in Cornwall who consider themselves to be more Cornish than British or English is unknown. A survey found that 35.1% of respondents identified as Cornish, with 48.4% of respondents identifying as English, a further 11% thought of themselves as British.Appendix I: Sample Profile (downloadable '.doc' file) from QUALITY OF LIFE IN CORNWALL: Summary Report (2004), by Cornwall County Council Research and Information Unit. Retrieved 16 July 2006.

As with other ethnic groups in the British Isles, the question of identity is not straightforward. Ethnic identity has been based as much – if not more – on cultural identity than on descent. Many descendants of people who came and settled in Cornwall have adopted this identity.Payton, Philip: Cornwall – A History. ISBN 1-904880-05-3

The subject of Cornish identity has been extensively studied in the Cornish studies series of books published by Exeter university press. Cornishness is examined with methodological tools varying from feminist theory to deconstructionism.Various authors: Cornish Studies series, ed. Philip Payton ISBN 0-859897-71-0.

In the 2001 UK Census, the population of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly was estimated to be 501,267.Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly from Census 2001: National Statistics Online, UK state website. Retrieved 14 July 2006. Cornish community organisations tend to consider half of these people to be ethnic Cornish.

A recent survey by the University of Plymouth found that, when given the opportunity, over a third of pupils in Cornish schools identified themselves as Cornish. A survey conducted by Morgan Stanley found that 44% of Cornish inhabitants surveyed felt "Cornish" rather than "British" or "English".Welsh are 'more patriotic' from BBC News website. Retrieved 15 July 2006. This was the largest such figure in England – accross the whole of England 21% of people identifed most closely to their county, 31% to England and 34% to Britain – but it was not the only such result: 37% of people in Derbyshire and East Sussex also identified themselves with their county first. The survey gave neither an upper or a lower bound on the number of Cornish people identifying as part of a Cornish ethnicity.

For the first time in a UK Census, those wishing to describe their ethnicity as Cornish were given their own code number (06) on the 2001 UK Census form, alongside those for people wishing to describe themselves as English, Welsh, Irish or Scottish. Although happy with this development, campaigners expressed reservations about the lack of publicity surrounding the issue, the lack of a clear tick-box for the Cornish option on the census and the need to deny being British in order to write "Cornish" in the field provided. The data obtained from the census have not as been published.

The Myth of Descent of the Cornish nation

An ancient legend, the Brutus Myth, recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth, gives explicit reference to the Cornish people in describing their descent. The legend tells how Albion was colonised by refugees from Troy under Brutus, how Brutus renamed his new Kingdom, Britain, and how the island was subsequently divided up between his three sons - the eldest inheriting England, the other two Scotland and Wales. Additionally according to the legend there were two groups of Trojans who originally arrived in Britain. The smaller group was led by a warrior named Corineus, to whom Brutus granted extensive estates. And just as Brutus had ‘called the island Britain…and his companions Britons’, so Corineus called ‘the region of the kingdom which had fallen to his share Cornwall, after the manner of his own name, and the people who lived there…Cornishmen’.

No other region is picked out for such special treatment; the historian Dr Mark Stoyle has suggested that this shows that, as far as Geoffrey was concerned, Cornwall possessed a separate identity. Cornishmen and women continued to regard themselves as descendents of Corineus until well into the early modern period.Stoyle, Mark: West Britons -Cornish Identities and the Early Modern British State ISBN 0-85989-687-0.

The Cornish in history

Year	Event
878	The drowned king Donyarth is recorded in the Annales Cambriae as rex Cerniu (King of Cornwall).
1360	Treaty of Brétigny: "John, by the Grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, Earl of Anjou, confirmed the aforesaid; and Richard, King of Germany and Earl of Cornwall, in like manner, confirmed the aforesaid".
15th century	The Croyland Chronicle states: "In order zealously to carry out the same, he sent the venerable men of God, brothers Egelmer and Nigel, his fellow-monks, with relics of the saints, into the western parts, namely, Flanders and France. To the northern parts and into Scotland he sent the brothers Fulk and Oger, and into Denmark and Norway the brothers Swetman and Wulsin the younger; while to Wales, Cornwall and Ireland he sent the brothers Augustin and Osbert".
1485	Polydore Vergil, an Italian cleric commissioned by King Henry VII to write a history of England, states that "The whole country of Britain is divided into four parts, whereof the one is inhabited by Englishmen, the other of Scots, the third of Welshmen, the fourth of Cornish people ... and which all differ among themselves either in tongue, either in manners, or else in laws and ordinances."
1497	The Cornish Rebellion.
1509	King Henry VIII's coronation procession includes "nine children of honour" representing "England and France, Gascony, Guienne, Normandy, Anjou, Cornwall, Wales and Ireland."
1531	From the court of King Henry VIII, the Italian diplomat Lodovico Falier writes in a letter that "The language of the English, Welsh and Cornish men is so different that they do not understand each other". He also claims it is possible to distinguish the members of each group by alleged "national characteristics".
1538	Writing to his government, the French ambassador in London, Gaspard de Coligny Chatillon, indicates ethnic differences thus: "The kingdom of England is by no means a united whole, for it also contains Wales and Cornwall, natural enemies of the rest of England, and speaking a ^* language".
1603	Following Queen Elizabeth I's death, the Venetian ambassador writes that the "late queen had ruled over five different 'peoples': 'English, Welsh, Cornish, Scottish ... and Irish'".
1616	Arthur Hopton ambassador to Madrid? writes that "England is ... divided into three great Provinces, or Countries ... speaking a several and different language, as English, Welsh and Cornish".
1652	The English puritan preacher, Roger Williams complained that "we have Indians...in Cornwall, Indians in Wales, Indians in Ireland".

During the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson created a Cornish declaration of independence that he used in his essay Taxation no Tyranny TAXATION NO TYRANNY by Samuel Johnson, From The Works of Samuel Johnson published by Pafraets & Company, Troy, New York (1913). Retrieved 15 July 2006.

"We are the acknowledged descendants of the earliest inhabitants of Britain, of men, who, before the time of history, took possession of the island desolate and waste, and, therefore, open to the first occupants. Of this descent, our language is a sufficient proof, which, not quite a century ago, was different from yours."

Contemporary references

In 1937 Bartholomew published a Map of European Ethnicity prepared by the Edinburgh Institute of Geography which featured "Celtic Cornish".This map is unsourced.

More recently, on 12 July 2005, Jim Fitzpatrick MP, an ODPM Parliamentary Under Secretary in the current Labour government, said in the Commons, in response to Andrew George MP, a Liberal Democrat representing the St Ives constituency in Cornwall, I realise that the people of Cornwall consider that they have a separate identity, but that alone does not justify creating an assembly for Cornwall.Regional Government Debate: The United Kingdom Parliament, 12 Jul 2005. Retrieved 15 July 2006. Phil Woolas MP, Minister for Local Government, indicated the same in his answer to a letter from Mebyon Kernow: "On your point about Cornwall’s desire to control its own future, the Government is very much aware of the strength of feeling about Cornwall’s separate identity and distinctiveness ... The Government recognises that many people in Cornwall consider they have a separate identity."

NGOs such as Eurominority and the Federal Union of European Nationalities also give varying degrees of recognition to a Cornish people.The Cornish in the south-west of Great Britain article in '''FUEN - Now Actuel No 77, p. 4, October 2001. Retrieved 15 July 2006.Minorities, native people and ethnic groups from Eurominority website. Retrieved 15 July 2006.Stateless nations and regions Eurominority website. Retrieved 15 July 2006.

Cornish language

The Cornish language is seen by many as the cultural back bone of the Cornish identity, although only 3,500 of the estimated 250,000 Cornish people (1.4%) speak it to a basic conversational level, and just 300-400 fluently. Recently the Cornish language, which was revived in the 20th Century after dying out as a native tongue in the 18th, has been recognised by the UK and EU for protection as a UK minority language and now receives funding from both these bodies. The Cornish language is a Brythonic language related to Welsh and Breton.

A distinct dialect of English can also be found in Cornwall, and appears in many popular Cornish folksongs such as Camborne Hill. To an extent, the accent and dialect is a badge of "Cornishness" for some people, but interest in Anglo-Cornish has been overshadowed by the Cornish language recently.

Descent

Many who perceive themselves to be of the Cornish nation also consider themselves to be descended from the Brythons of the post-Roman period. For this reason they consider there to be a kinship connection with the Welsh and Breton peoples and more distantly with the Scots, Manx and Irish. After the Anglo-Saxon conquest of southern, eastern and central Great Britain, Brythonic speakers were gradually pushed further into the fringes, eventually cutting them off into three groups - the Southwestern Britons (from whence the Cornish), the West Britons (the Welsh) and the Northern Britons (see Cumbric).

This sense of a shared past is given voice in such organisations as the Celtic League and Celtic Congress, both of whom recognise Cornwall and the Cornish as a Celtic nation.

Today, many family and given names from Cornwall are clearly rooted in the Cornish language.

Y chromosome analysis of samples from the British Isles, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Friesland, and the Basque Country have shown that Cornish men's Y chromosomes are generally more similar to those of the assumed indigenous population (Welsh/Irish/Basque) than are those of men from other parts of England or Scotland. The Y chromosomes from Cornwall, however, were more Germanic (Danish/German/Frisian) than those from Wales, Ireland or the Basque Country. It should be noted that samples from all parts of the British Isles show an indigenous component.A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles, Cristian Capelli et al in Current Biology, Volume 13, Issue 11, Pages 979-984 (2003). Retrieved 15 July 2006.

Politics

The Cornish national identity is given voice also in the existence of various political and pressure groups. These organisations usually call for greater home rule for Cornwall, ^* recognition of Cornwall as a Duchy and various other human rights issues. See Cornish nationalism and Constitutional status of Cornwall.

In parliamentary politics, Cornwall is a Liberal Democrat stronghold. As of the 2005 General Election, all five members of parliament returned to Westminster are Liberal Democrats.General Election 2005, Results in Full Map of constituencies from Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 15 July 2005. The largest Cornish nationalist party, Mebyon Kernow (Cornish for Sons of Cornwall), fielded candidates in four of the five constituencies and received around 3,500 votes, less than two percent of constituencies' electorate. The Liberal Democrats in Cornwall, however, have campaigned for Cornish language issuesCornish gains official recognition: BBC News, 6 November 2002. Retrieved 15 July 2006.Local MP swears oath in Cornish BBC News, 12 May, 2005. Retrieved 15 July 2006., Cornish national minority issues and for the establishment of a devolved Cornish AssemblyBlair gets Cornish assembly call: BBC News, 11 December 2001. Retrieved 15 July 2006. and Cornish development agency.Aid cash bureaucracy criticised: BBC News, 28 October, 2004. Retrieved 15 July 2006.

The Cornish branch of the Green party also campaigns on a manifesto of devolution to Cornwall and Cornish minority issues. In the 2005 general election the Green party struck a partnership deal with Mebyon Kernow. Historic election deal between Cornish party and Greens: Green Party website, 25th Mar 2004. Retrieved 15 July 2006.

Religion

Traditionally, the Cornish have been nonconformist in their religion. Celtic Christianity was predominant during the first millennium AD and many Cornish saints are commemorated in legends, churches and place names.

Approximately four thousand people from Devon and Cornwall died in the Prayer Book Rebellion in the 1540s, trying to resist the compulsory use of a new English language version of the Book of Common Prayer. Attempts to revert to the Latin version, or to translate the text into Cornish, were suppressed. This failure to produce or sustain a translation of the Bible in Cornish is generally seen as a crucial factor in the demise of the language. An approved version of the Bible in Cornish was finally published in 2004.

Methodism

During the Industrial Revolution, Methodism proved to be very popular amongst the working classes in Cornwall. Methodist chapels became important social centres, with church church-affiliated groups such as male voice choirs playing a central role in social life. Methodism still plays a large part in the religious life of Cornwall today, although Cornwall has shared in the general post-World War II decline in British religious worship.

Fry an Spyrys

In 2003, a campaign group was formed called Fry an Spyrys (English: "Free the Spirit") Fry an Spyrys: The campaign for self-government for the churches of Cornwall. Website. Retrieved 15 July 2006. dedicated to disestablishing the Church of England in Cornwall in favour of an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion; a Church of Cornwall. They appeal to the precedents set when the Anglican Church was disestablished in Wales to form the Church in Wales in 1920 and in Ireland to form the Church of Ireland in 1869. The group's chairman is Dr Garry Tregidga of the Institute of Cornish Studies.

Cornish emigration

In the 18th and 19th centuries many Cornish people migrated to various parts of the world in search of a better life — this is called the Cornish diaspora. A driving force for some emigrants was the opportunity for skilled miners to find work abroad, later in combination with the decline in the tin and copper mining industries in Cornwall.

Today, in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and other countries, some of the descendants of these original migrants celebrate their Cornish ancestry and remain proud of the Cornish family names they carry. This is evidenced by the existence of both Cornish societies and Cornish festivals in these countries, as well as a growing overseas interest in the Cornish language.

References

External links

Celts | Cornish politics | Cornwall | Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom | Cornish people

Cernywiaid | Còrnaich

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