Dolly Pentreath's Monument - 17Mar10

I'm glad you are always summing up and summarising the evidence, frequently erroneous as it is, as it's jolly hard to get one's head round it all. In other words to see the wood for the trees! Family history itself is full of blind alleys, frustrating and incredibly time-consuming but - so rewarding when one achieves a breakthrough! You are teetering on the edge here, Treeve!

Thank you, I have a lot of collected writings. It will be important to recount a narrative of her actual life, as given by her friends, of which I have a few. One of these underlines one claim as to her status in marriage very well.

There is a small portrait of Dolly Pentreath in Lanhydrock House. Would it be one of those you have shown, I wonder?

Now, the assertion that she was buried in 1788, and not the ecclesiastical 1777. Fortescue Hitchins (a solicitor and historian) lived not far from Paul and Mousehole, was a friend of Richard Polwhele. He was fully aware of Dolly Pentreath and the place she lived. He assisted Richard Polwhele in his History. It is down to the mis-reading of Daines Barrington’s letter, confusing it with a later statement by Dr Borlase in 1774. Samuel Drew took the age of 102 verbatim and had decided that the date of death was a fifteen year interval after the Daines Barrington letter. Samuel Drew (who completed Hitchins’ history) then insisted the likely date of burial was 1788, later changed to 1778 by William Sandys (a noted Pythonesque thinker of the times) suggesting a burial early in January.
To quote Samuel Drew ... 'that in the year 1773, Dolly Pentreath was in her eighty-seventh year; and it appears from an epitaph on her grave, that she died at the advanced age of 102; so that she must have lived fifteen years after Mr. Barrington's letter was dated and consequently must have died in 1788'.
The plain fact is that the Registers state ‘Dorothy Jeffery was buried Dec 27 ’. The year is not noted, but it is an unlikely scenario to have left her a year. The grandson of the undertaker of the funeral states from his grandfather’s records Dolly Pentreath died 26th December 1777.

Having established the date, I will next turn to the facts surrounding her grave.

So Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte... who was he? Born 4th January 1813 in Worcester, phiogist and politician, fascinated with languages especially Cornish and Basque. He was the son of Napoleon's brother Lucien. It would be interesting to see a picture of the original postion and the original memorial, as Frederick W P Jago states that the 1860 stone was inscribed 'Here lieth interred Dorothy Pentreath, who died in 1778'.

Frederick Jago had made enquiries of Mr. Trewavas, of Mousehole, who in 1881 was in his 88th year, and pleasantly bright, clear, and intelligent, that he does not remember anything on her tombstone or what was on it, himself, but he has heard that the first or old inscription on the supposed tombstone was—'Here lieth Old Dolly Pentreath, who lived one hundred years and two, was born and buried in Paul parish too. Not in the Church amongst people great and high, but in the Churchyard doth old Dolly lie'. (The tombstone here referred to, is the supposed one spoken of by Drew in his History of Cornwall, and not that erected by Prince L. L. Bonaparte in 1860.). So, the original inscription was solely in English. The one devised by Mr Tonkin of Newlyn. Therefore Mr Collins translated from that into Cornish to be handed to Mr Polwhele to be handed to Mr Thomson of Truro to form the memorial.

Mr Tonkin did not write in Cornish, another promoted idea in flames.

Polwhele stated in 1806 ‘Old Dolly had no family’.
She had outlived her husband. I have every suspicion that her funeral was well attended, with fisher folk, customers, visitors with memories of her, antiquarians, parish officials. George Badcock recorded that there were eight chosen fishermen bearers to take her to her last resting place. Bernard Victor was 15 when his grandfather died, in this respect I have no doubts at all as far as anything that he writes. It would appear from what he writes that this is where the story that she was 102 arose. It was said by George Badcock. He was 29 when he made her coffin and superintended the funeral. As to the position of the grave, that will be examined, but for now, Frederick Jago reminds that Reverend John Garettt was instituted in 1857, a fraction before the erection of the memorial, and well after the burial. With the inscribed stone removed 1859, there was no indication of the precise location. In 1881 Mr Jago also states that the stone will be moved and the inscription of 1778 will be altered to read 1777.

Which 'Mr Tonkin of Newlyn' is this, Treeve?

What would lead you to suppose that because a Cornish inscription was not apparently mentioned by Mr Trewavas, that there was none. Historian Polwhele suggests that there were numerous tombs bearing Cornish epitaphs. Gwavas is believed to be a strong possibility, for example, as author of the Cornish in the Hutchens memorial in Paul though that is the only existing one.

If the old chap, Trewavas, was not a Cornish speaker himself, he may simply have given the English equivalent or parallel inscription, may he not? It is possible that inscriptions may have been borrowed from other existing tombs that have since worn away or disappeared perhaps.

There is a Thomas Tonkin whose documents Louis Lucien Bonaparte bought from a bookseller called Rhodda in Penzance. This Tonkin had been written to by a Welshman called Lluyd in 1738. Tonkin had written a draft of a book on the Cornish language and various other writings which were not published in his lifetime. It is not likely that he had written this inscription in Cornish as he seems to be referred to as though in his prime in the 1730s and that is before 1777. The tone of references would suggest he is deceased by then but I do not know his year of death. There are various items pertaining to Tonkin in a book in my possession. He is one of several known phiogists (one contemporary was Wm Gwavas) who, after him, tried to preserve Cornish by writing the language themselves or did some research around Penwith.

Here is your answer .. from the grave ....

Now comes the fact that is given by Bernard Victor; that his grandfather stated that ‘There was not anything erected on the old lady's grave as a tablet to her memory.’ Therefore any such stone placed there with that English inscription, must have been of a later date. William Sandys makes it quite clear that he knows of Mr Tonkin as being a local wit and a bit of a prankster. So, firstly, there is no guarantee that the stone placed by Mr Tonkin was on the correct grave. Secondly The Rev would not perhaps know which one. It is stated in 1881 by Bernard Victor that ‘There was a William Bodener, a fisherman of this place, who wrote a letter in the Cornish language on the 3rd of July, 1776, so when Prince L. L. Bonaparte came to Mousehole, he came to the descendants of the before mentioned William Bodener’. In view of the fact that there was no marker for the grave, there would have been a fair question as to the exact location to erect such a monument.

George Badcock, however, had made a note, but his family had not been consulted.
The exact location was known by his grandson, and he with his friend Dr. W. T. A. Pattison, set out to survey the location and to record its measurements and compass readings. This was done on May 16th, 1882.

Neither Hutchins nor Drew, nor Polwhele mention a Cornish stone. Only an English rhyme, and as Sandys says, it has an air of humour about it that is to be expected of Mr Tonkin. Whatever stone was placed, was not there in 1778. George Badcock had not noticed it up until his death in 1832. Bernard Victor make no mention of any such stone as being in his knowledge. William Sandys 1792-1874 was a wag himself so knew too well the wit that was spread across England.

J. O. Halliwell says:— It is right to add that my supposition of the new monument to Dolly's memory having been placed near the traditional site of her grave is erroneous.

It appears from the thoughts of Frederick Jago that the Prince may have been informed in 1860 of its location in realation to a gate, and the instruction was given in relation to the wrong gateway.

George Badcock, however, had made a note, but his family had not been consulted.
The exact location was known by his grandson, and Frederick Jago with his friend Dr. W. T. A. Pattison, set out to survey the location and to record its measurements and compass readings. This was done on May 16th, 1882.

Dr. W. T. A. Pattison, and Bernard Victor of Mousehole, visited Dolly Pentreath's grave in order that the exact position of it might be recorded.
Wellington Place, Mousehole, May 16th, 1882.
Dear Sir,
I beg to inform you that I have visited the grave-yard of Doll Peutreath this day at noon, and I will give you the correct distance and compass bearing of the grave to the monument that was erected by Prince L. L. Bonaparte ; also the distance from the grave to the Chancel door of the Church, and the compass bearing. I took a mariner's compass with me and a rule to measure with, so that it should be correct.
1st.—The head of the grave from the monument erected by Prince L. L. Bonaparte is south-east, a point easterly ; distance, forty-seven feet.
2nd.—The bead of the grave from the chancel door is south, a point westerly ; distance, fifty-two feet.
The grave is quite close to the front wall of the church-yard.

So there you are, the reason for the re-emplacement of the monument.