It then continues which have much time passages composed to echo Cornish dialect, linked this new appointment of your own miner ‘Relative Jack/Jacky’ together with his housemaid, Mary, and their further chat and you can deeds. Amazingly, an equivalent pamphlet also offers research to own ‘Cousin Jan’ and possibly Jenny-both The month of january and you will Jenny occur for other letters about text of one’s poem, recommending they as well was thought to be traditional labels having Cornish letters, and ‘Cousin phlets that are said on the rear out-of An excellent Cornish Ghost Story, namely The fresh Bal, otherwise, ‘Tes an effective Bra’ Keenly Lode, Relative Jan’s Story (earliest composed in the Helston in 1850) and its particular sequel Relative Jan’s Courtship and Wedding (earliest blogged at the Truro inside 1859), one another because of the William Bentinck Forfar. The initial ones, had written three-years till the basic source from the OED reference to help you Cousin The month of january (that is, indeed, extracted from a newspaper advert for this brochure out of 1853, as the OED does not explore which), has the second passage:
In the event the it is possible to tune in to me for a moment, your shallHear everything about seeking to and dealing a great Bal;How Lode was receive by a tiny hazel twig,Carried along the surface because of the certain understanding old prig. ,’Tes this new keenliest gozan thee previously ded’st see. (13)
Cousin ple of the ore so you’re able to a head Polglaze, ‘a Purser, local hookup app Belleville infamous, Exactly who rapidly, of the exploration, a wealthy guy had grown’. He declares that they need to check out London to raise loans (‘The ran doing Bristol by an excellent steamer out of Hayle, And you will proceeded out-of Bristol to London area of the rail’), as well as their adventure will then be recounted into the Cornish dialect because of the Cousin Jan. After that, the shape ‘Cousin Jan’ is located in a few Cornish papers blogs in the 1860s into the 1890s as title out-of a beneficial Cornish ‘everyman’ otherwise as the a broad identity for Cornishmen/Cornish miner, we.age. it appears to be getting functioned given that a variant type of ‘Cousin Jack’/’Cousin Jacky’. That is supported by the reality that ‘Cozen Jan’ basic looks in Forfar’s poem within a term one appears generally identical to Christopher Kid’s conventional Cornish miner’s terminology “Com’se together Relative Jacky”.
However, this passing seems to add research for a great Cornish utilize out of ‘Cousin Jack/Jacky’ to own a beneficial miner still living during the Cornwall a little while in the 1850s or 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 personally
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. Lifeless is actually infamous throughout the area from the nickname out-of “Cousin Jack Cobbler.”(15)
