Volume 034-2 - April 1980 (8 pages)

means “the white, or fairhaired man” and Moyle which means “bald”. Teague refers to a “fair” or “beautiful” person and Hocking means “little fellow”. Wallis, Walsh, Welch, and Welsh all denote a stranger; any stranger and not merely one from Wales. We are familiar with the prefix O’, meaning “son of’ in Irish names. The O’Briens, O’Shaugnessys and O’Sullivans are easily recognized as sons of Erin. Fewer realize that the Cornish used the O as a suffix; thus Kitto “son of Kit’? (Christopher), Jago ‘‘son of James” and Benneto “son of Bennet” (Benedict) are all good Cornish names. One must however be careful with them; not all ‘“-o” endings mean “son of’’; Bosanko was probably once Bosanketh, meaning ‘‘dwelling in the woods” and Spargo, a common name among the Cornish in the U.S., means simply “thornbrake”’, a place name. John Spargo (1876-1966), the pioneer American labor leader, wrote an excellent family history. He traced his name back to the hamlets of Upper Spargo and Lower Spargo in the Parish of Mabe near Falmouth and found references under the name of Spergor in the records of the Diocese of Cornwall at the time of the expropriation of a Celtic monastery in 926 A.D. The Cornish language ceased to be spoken by the mid-eighteenth century, but long before that English first and last names had been adopted by the large majority of the Cornish people, and today English names predominate APPENDIX I to the extent that Richard Blewett’s analysis of names from the 1988 list of voters in the Duchy found only ten per cent of names to be of Celtic origin while the rest were names, common to the rest of England. (Rowse p. 427). This is no less true in the U.S.; most Cornish people have English last names and it is therefore necessary to check family records and traditions before one can presume that any particular family is of Cornish ancestry. For obvious reasons, few Cornish families bear surnames derived from English place names, but English occupational names such as Tayior, Cooper, Smith and Sawyer are quite common. Of the large class of last names, derived from personal names, some are rather more likely to be Cornish: Harry, Tom, George, Paul and John are of this class and any of these may carry the suffix ‘“-s” (or less usually ‘-son”) to indicate “son of’ The Cornish seem to have had ¢ particular penchant for Biblical names, and surnames such as Boaz, Abraham(s), Jacob(s), and Job(e) are almost as likely to be Cornish as Jewish. Nicknames, used as last names, have some peculiar Cornish quirks: Knee and Kneebone, Foot(e), Ankle, Neck and Chinn are not uncommon either in Cornwall or amongst the Cousin Jacks, but one would have to inquire as to family and ethnic background --Chinn for example could quite as well be Chinese! In the Grass Valley census of 1870, out of a total of 7251 people, 140 Cornish names can be found, while an additional large number of English names might well have belonged to Cornish people. Since many names are duplicated, the total number of Cornish people encountered may well be over 1000 (see appendix I). A study of the 1978 Nevada County telephone directory yielded a total’ of some 1435 families in the Grass ValleyNevada City section; of these no less than 158 have old Cornish names of Celtic origin (see appendix II), while at least 850 more have names that are English but of which some are more than likely to belong to Cornish families. The fact that there are today still so many Cornish and Cornish-English names in Grass Valley and Nevada City must be taken as a remarkable tribute to the continuing attraction of the green hills of Nevada County to the folks from the County of Cornwall and their present day descendants. References. John Morris, The Age of Arthur, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sona, 1973. John Rowe, The Hardrock Men: Cornish _ Immigrants and the North American Mining Frontier, London, Barnes and Noble, 1974. A.L. Rowse, The Cousin Jacks: The Cornish in America, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969. Census of Grass Valley, Nevada County, California, 1870. Telephone Directory, Butte, Nevada, Sutter and Yuba Counties. CORNISH SURNAMES IN THE GRASS VALLEY CENSUS OF 1870 Abraham Andrew (-s) Angove Arthur Benallick, Benalleck, Benallack Bennet (-s) Berrimen Bice Bolitho Bowden, Bawden Bray Buddle Bunney Buzza Carlyon Coad Coomb Crace, Crase Deeble Eddy Eudy Eva George Glassen, Glasson Gluyas Goldsworthy, Goldsworth Grenfell, Granfall Harris Harry Hicks Hosking, Hoskin Hooper James Jenkins Jewell Job (-e) John (-s) Kinsman Kitto Kneebone Mathew Mello, Mellow Menhenneck Merrifield Miners Mitchell Nankervis Nicholas Nichols Northey Oates Odgers ‘Oppy Pascoe, Pasco Paull Pello, Peller, Pellar, Pillow Penberthy Pendennin Penglase, Penglace Penole enrose Phillip (-s) Polglaze, Polglaise Polmear Prisk Prout Retallick, Retalleck Richards, Rickard Robbins Rodda Rogers Rosevear, Rosewear Rowe Rule Sampson Scobel Skews Spargo Sparnon Stephens, Steyens Talleck Tangye Thomas Tonkin Toy Trathen . Trebilcock, Trebilcox, Triblecox Tredinick Tregarning Trelore Tremain Tremberth, Trembarth, Trenberthy Tremellen, Tremelling Tremewan Trengove Trenmell Tresize Trethewey Trevillion Trevithan Trevithick Treweek Trezona Truella Truscott Uren Vivian Wales Wallace Wear 12.

means “the white, or fairhaired man” and Moyle which means “bald”. Teague refers to a “fair” or “beautiful” person and Hocking means “little fellow”. Wallis, Walsh, Welch, and Welsh all denote a stranger; any stranger and not merely one from Wales. We are familiar with the prefix O’, meaning “son of’ in Irish names. The O’Briens, O’Shaugnessys and O’Sullivans are easily recognized as sons of Erin. Fewer realize that the Cornish used the O as a suffix; thus Kitto “son of Kit’? (Christopher), Jago ‘‘son of James” and Benneto “son of Bennet” (Benedict) are all good Cornish names. One must however be careful with them; not all ‘“-o” endings mean “son of’’; Bosanko was probably once Bosanketh, meaning ‘‘dwelling in the woods” and Spargo, a common name among the Cornish in the U.S., means simply “thornbrake”’, a place name. John Spargo (1876-1966), the pioneer American labor leader, wrote an excellent family history. He traced his name back to the hamlets of Upper Spargo and Lower Spargo in the Parish of Mabe near Falmouth and found references under the name of Spergor in the records of the Diocese of Cornwall at the time of the expropriation of a Celtic monastery in 926 A.D. The Cornish language ceased to be spoken by the mid-eighteenth century, but long before that English first and last names had been adopted by the large majority of the Cornish people, and today English names predominate APPENDIX I to the extent that Richard Blewett’s analysis of names from the 1988 list of voters in the Duchy found only ten per cent of names to be of Celtic origin while the rest were names, common to the rest of England. (Rowse p. 427). This is no less true in the U.S.; most Cornish people have English last names and it is therefore necessary to check family records and traditions before one can presume that any particular family is of Cornish ancestry. For obvious reasons, few Cornish families bear surnames derived from English place names, but English occupational names such as Tayior, Cooper, Smith and Sawyer are quite common. Of the large class of last names, derived from personal names, some are rather more likely to be Cornish: Harry, Tom, George, Paul and John are of this class and any of these may carry the suffix ‘“-s” (or less usually ‘-son”) to indicate “son of’ The Cornish seem to have had ¢ particular penchant for Biblical names, and surnames such as Boaz, Abraham(s), Jacob(s), and Job(e) are almost as likely to be Cornish as Jewish. Nicknames, used as last names, have some peculiar Cornish quirks: Knee and Kneebone, Foot(e), Ankle, Neck and Chinn are not uncommon either in Cornwall or amongst the Cousin Jacks, but one would have to inquire as to family and ethnic background --Chinn for example could quite as well be Chinese! In the Grass Valley census of 1870, out of a total of 7251 people, 140 Cornish names can be found, while an additional large number of English names might well have belonged to Cornish people. Since many names are duplicated, the total number of Cornish people encountered may well be over 1000 (see appendix I). A study of the 1978 Nevada County telephone directory yielded a total’ of some 1435 families in the Grass ValleyNevada City section; of these no less than 158 have old Cornish names of Celtic origin (see appendix II), while at least 850 more have names that are English but of which some are more than likely to belong to Cornish families. The fact that there are today still so many Cornish and Cornish-English names in Grass Valley and Nevada City must be taken as a remarkable tribute to the continuing attraction of the green hills of Nevada County to the folks from the County of Cornwall and their present day descendants. References. John Morris, The Age of Arthur, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sona, 1973. John Rowe, The Hardrock Men: Cornish _ Immigrants and the North American Mining Frontier, London, Barnes and Noble, 1974. A.L. Rowse, The Cousin Jacks: The Cornish in America, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1969. Census of Grass Valley, Nevada County, California, 1870.

Telephone Directory, Butte, Nevada, Sutter and Yuba Counties. CORNISH SURNAMES IN THE GRASS VALLEY CENSUS OF 1870 Abraham Andrew (-s) Angove Arthur Benallick, Benalleck, Benallack Bennet (-s) Berrimen Bice Bolitho Bowden, Bawden Bray Buddle Bunney Buzza Carlyon Coad Coomb Crace, Crase Deeble Eddy Eudy Eva George Glassen, Glasson Gluyas Goldsworthy, Goldsworth Grenfell, Granfall Harris Harry Hicks Hosking, Hoskin Hooper James Jenkins Jewell Job (-e) John (-s) Kinsman Kitto Kneebone Mathew Mello, Mellow Menhenneck Merrifield Miners Mitchell Nankervis Nicholas Nichols Northey Oates Odgers ‘Oppy Pascoe, Pasco Paull Pello, Peller, Pellar, Pillow Penberthy Pendennin Penglase, Penglace Penole enrose Phillip (-s) Polglaze, Polglaise Polmear Prisk Prout Retallick, Retalleck Richards, Rickard Robbins Rodda Rogers Rosevear, Rosewear Rowe Rule Sampson Scobel Skews Spargo Sparnon Stephens, Steyens Talleck Tangye Thomas Tonkin Toy Trathen . Trebilcock, Trebilcox, Triblecox Tredinick Tregarning Trelore Tremain Tremberth, Trembarth, Trenberthy Tremellen, Tremelling Tremewan Trengove Trenmell Tresize Trethewey Trevillion Trevithan Trevithick Treweek Trezona Truella Truscott Uren Vivian Wales Wallace Wear 12.