After that it continues on with much time verses composed so you’re able to reflect Cornish dialect, relevant the appointment of the miner ‘Cousin Jack/Jacky’ together with his maid, Mary, and their further chat and you can deeds. Remarkably, the same pamphlet has the benefit of research for ‘Cousin Jan’ and perhaps Jenny-each other Jan and you will Jenny are present some other characters regarding text of your own poem, indicating it too was indeed named antique brands having Cornish characters, and you can ‘Cousin phlets which can be reported on the back regarding A great Cornish Ghost Tale, specifically Brand new Bal, otherwise, ‘Tes a Bra’ Keenly Lode, Cousin Jan’s Tale (basic wrote at the Helston inside 1850) and its particular follow up Cousin Jan’s Courtship and Marriage (basic composed at Truro inside the 1859), both by William Bentinck Forfar. The earliest of those, published three years up until the first source regarding OED reference to help you Cousin The month of january (that is, indeed, obtained from a papers ad for this brochure of 1853 best free hookup sites Sarnia, as the OED cannot talk about it), has another passing:
In the event that you’ll tune in to myself for a moment, you shallHear all about seeking to and working an excellent Bal;The way the Lode is actually discovered of the a little hazel twig,Sent along side ground by specific understanding old prig. ,’Tes the new keenliest gozan thee ever ded’st find. (13)
Cousin ple of your ore to help you a captain Polglaze, ‘a Purser, infamous, Who rapidly, because of the exploration, a refreshing child got grown’. The guy declares that they have to see London to boost financing (‘The went as much as Bristol because of the good steamer out-of Hayle, And you will went on from Bristol in order to London area because of the rail’), and their excitement will be recounted when you look at the Cornish dialect because of the Cousin Jan. Then, the proper execution ‘Cousin Jan’ is located in a number of Cornish papers posts about 1860s into the 1890s due to the fact term of a beneficial Cornish ‘everyman’ or because the an over-all identity for Cornishmen/Cornish miner, we.age. it appears to be to own performed since the a variation sorts of ‘Cousin Jack’/’Cousin Jacky’. This can be backed by the reality that ‘Cozen Jan’ very first appears in Forfar’s poem as part of a phrase one to looks essentially same as Christopher Kid’s antique Cornish miner’s statement “Com’se with each other Cousin Jacky”.
However, this passing would seem to incorporate evidence getting a beneficial Cornish use from ‘Cousin Jack/Jacky’ to own a beneficial miner still living within the Cornwall some time from the 1850s otherwise very early 1860s
The second publication that further illustrates an early usage of ‘Cousin Jack’ and similar in Britain, without obvious reference to Cornish emigrants, is a report in The Cornish Telegraph for 27 September 1854. This briefly recounted the exhumation of a miner who fell down the shaft of Pednandrea Mine, Redruth in the 1820s. The rediscovery of his remains apparently prompted ‘great excitement’ and his funeral procession on Sunday, 17 September 1854, was attended by four thousand people, equal to around half of the population of Redruth at that time. What is particularly striking is that, although his real name is given as John Stephens, the newspaper notes that in life he was ‘better known as “Cousin Jack Cobbler,”‘(14) something that obviously suggests the use of the nickname ‘Cousin Jack’ in Cornwall as far back as the 1820s. The status of Stephens’ alternative name as a nickname is confirmed by the report on the inquest published the previous week in the Royal Cornwall Gazette:
Cozen Jan, d’ee already been ‘long wi’ me
On Saturday the 16th instant, an inquest was held. on the body of John Stephens, aged 25 years. According to the evidence of William Thomas, miner, it appeared that as long ago as the 9th of August, 1828, the deceased and his brother were employed in stripping the shaft, and drawing up the materials in the Pednandrea Mine, near Redruth. The deceased and witness both fell into the shaft together. Dead are notorious on area by the nickname away from “Cousin Jack Cobbler.”(15)
