John Davey of Boswednack

JOHN DAVEY OF BOSWEDNACK Adapted from an Address given at Zennor Church on 28 September 1991 at a Service held to mark the Centenary of the death of John Davey by P. A. S. POOL, F.S.A. This Parish of Zennor cannot established in Zennor, being claim to have produced any great recorded as farming at men, whose deeds and thoughts Boswednack as early as 1644. In influenced the fortunes of the 18th and 19th centuries their Empires, or even that of Cornwall. farm comprised one-eighth of It can, though, claim its share of Boswednack, which they leased worthy men, who contributed to from the Harris family of Hayne the life of their parish and district and Kenegie and later from the and who deserve to be remem• Davies Gilberts of St. Erth and bered with respect. In the 18th Eastbourne, successive owners and 19th centuries Zennor of the manor of Treen and produced several such men: Boswednack. Our John Davey John Quick of Wicca, farmer and the elder was the first son of churchwarden, whose virtues John Davey of Boswednack proclaimed on his memorial lead (1744-1819) and his wife Ann us to recall him almost as a saint; Quick, and was born on Matthew Thomas of Treen, the Christmas Day in 1770. He spent first to receive the Methodist much of his life as a schoolmaster preachers into his house in John in St. Just, and was a most Wesley's time; his grandson exceptional one. William Bottrell William Thomas of Boswednack, (Stories and Folklore of West father of twenty-three born in Cornwall III (1880) p. 83) paid wedlock, remembered as 'Willie tribute to his work, stating that one-more'; Henry Nicholls, much of the superior intelligence schoolmaster, grocer and finally of the St. Just men of the time tin-dresser, the hermit of the was owed to the training of the Cuckoo Stamps; Henry Quick of excellent old schoolmaster, who Mill Downs, pauper and poet, the was altogether a remarkable man only Zennor man to attain the for his time and place. He Dictionary of National Biography; fostered in his pupils a genuine and James Stevens of Eglosmeor love of knowledge, especially of and Foage, miller, farmer and mathematics and literature, diarist. Today we remember two which served them well in later more of Zennor's worthies, the life; thus, a young miner who two John Daveys, father and was disabled by an accident at son, because they had some work was able to open a school traditional knowledge of the at St. Buryan which brought him Cornish language, and because a comfortable living. Another of the son, who died a century ago, Davey's former pupils, John may have been the last to Williams of St. Just, wrote a possess such knowledge. memorial essay and poem when his old teacher died, which were The Daveys were a family long 61 printed in his book of Poems, America, Elizabeth Ann (1837- published posthumously in 1873. 1912) who married James Davey was an eminent mathema• Thomas, and Ann who married a tician, who for thirty years Nicholls. Their mother Margaret contributed both poems and died in 1853 aged 41. John Davey mathematical problems to the had remained in St. Just at least Lady's Diary, and assisted Davies until his father's death; subse• Gilbert with his work on the quently he returned to Zennor to mathematical theory of become a schoolmaster there, suspension bridges (Boase and and later he farmed at Boswed• Courtney, Bibliotheca nack until his retirement. The Cornubiensis I p. 105, III p. 1149). farm was then taken over by his The Morrab Library at Penzance son-in-law and daughter, James has a manuscript book of and Elizabeth Ann Thomas, with Davey's astronomical tables, and whom he lived until his death on the extent of his interests is 13 January 1891 aged 78. His shown by a small collection of his newspaper obituary (Cornishman books, formerly owned by his 22nd January 1891) described descendant Mr. Ernest Thomas him as 'a man of great ability, and Berryman of Towednack (1901- known for many miles around', 1982), the discoverer of the and stated that 'many of the Amalveor gold hoard. These pupils of both father and son books include works on were noted for their success in Mathematics, Law, Latin, life, which they attributed mainly Geography, Philosophy, Logic to the plodding conscientious and Literature. Several of them labours of the esteemed have inscriptions giving the instructors of their youth'. owner's home as 'Sans East Tre Our interest in the two John Eglos' (St. Just Church Town), Daveys lies in the traditional and two have presentation knowledge of Cornish which the inscriptions from Davies Gilbert. father passed to the son. John John Davey senior married Hobson Matthews (History of St. Jane Osborn at Zennor in 1800; Ives (1893) p. 404) stated of the she died in 1837 aged 68, and he younger Davey that he had some at St. Just on 13 December 1844 hereditary knowledge of Cornish; when almost 74. Their only that he knew the meanings of the surviving child was the younger place-names round about; that John, who was born at St. Just he could converse on a few on 12 May 1812. In 1835 at St. simple topics in the ancient Just he married Margaret language; and that he recited a Leatham, and they had nine rhyme which he said he had children: John (born 1844) who learned from his father. went to Australia, William who Matthews printed this rhyme, died on the way there, Thomas, which he regarded as a mere Matthew (who died in 1851 aged jumble of place-names; Davey three when he fell into a pan of had obviously given him no boiling milk), Richard, Jane meaning for it, and may not have (1835-1918) who married John understood it himself. Unfortuna• Phillips, Margueretta who tely, Matthews's book was not married a Richards and went to published until after Davey's 62 death, so that it was too late for the surface of the road from such Cornish scholars as Henry Penzance to Marazion; he Jenner to visit him and find suggested that the association out how much he really knew. between the Daveys and Crankan Jenner (Handbook of the Cornish may have arisen from the Language (1904) p. 23) found marriage, in 1714, of an earlier Matthews's statement that John Davey of Zennor to Davey could converse in Cornish Elizabeth Reed of Gulval. Nance 'not easy to believe', and this concluded that: doubt is confirmed by an entry in 'There seems to be no doubt at a notebook kept in the early years all that this remarkable old man, of this century by John Westlake without being infallible on place- (1828-1913), the Lostwithiel-born names, or being able to converse Professor of International Law at in the language, yet had a fairly Cambridge who had a summer extensive Cornish repertoire, home at Eagle's Nest in Zennor. inherited, along with a great taste The notebook was in 1958 in the for fiddling, a store of old tunes, possession of his kinsman, Mr. a little library of calf-bound Arthur Westlake Andrews of books, and an excellent memory, Tregerthen, Zennor. Professor from his even more remarkable Westlake stated that Davey had father, who was probably better given him many curious local acquainted with Cornish than any words as being still in use, and contemporary Cornishman'. taught him to count from 1 to 20 In 1930 St. Ives Old Cornwall in Cornish, which Davey said he Society erected a slate tablet on could do from tradition; but that Zennor Church, as a memorial to Davey had never recited to him both John Daveys. Thirty years the rhyme printed by Matthews, later, I myself was able to see nor had he ever heard that Davey John Davey senior's Family Bible could converse in Cornish on any and some of his books, then topic, and he was sure that owned by Mr. Ernest Berryman, Davey would have told him if he and to borrow Professor could do this. Westlake's notes from Mr. A. W. The next person to take an Andrews. Now we have interest in John Davey was gathered, a few months late but Robert Morton Nance; he met in the right year, to mark the some of Davey's grandchildren, centenary of the death of John who recalled his reciting the Davey the younger, a gathering rhyme, and that he had known a which would doubtless have good deal of Cornish, but astonished him. unfortunately they remembered This is virtually all that is none of it. Nance showed ('John known about the two John Davey of Boswednack and his Daveys. Where does it leave us, Cornish Rhyme', Journal of the as regards evidence for the Royal Institution of Cornwall No. survival of Cornish? We cannot 70 (1923) pp. 146-153) that the claim them as 'speakers' of the rhyme was not a mere jumble of language, in the sense that Dolly place-names, but a jest about the Pentreath and William Bodinar barren farm of Crankan in Gulval, were speakers; they, and a few comparing its rocky ground with others at Mousehole, spoke 63 Cornish freely together, and possessed. Yet there is every Bodinar could write it too. After reason to believe that the elder he died in 1789, there is no Davey, born seven years before reliable evidence of the survival Dolly Pentreath died, and coming of anyone who was fluent in from this remote parish, knew a Cornish.

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