Henry Jenner
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Henry Jenner (8 August 1848 – 8 May 1934) was a British scholar of the
Celtic languages The Celtic languages ( ) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from the hypothetical Proto-Celtic language. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yve ...
, a Cornish cultural activist, and the chief originator of the
Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or , ) is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. Along with Welsh language, Welsh and Breton language, Breton, Cornish descends from Common Brittonic, ...
revival. Jenner was born at
St Columb Major St Columb Major is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Often referred to locally as ''St Columb'', it is approximately southwest of Wadebridge and east of Newquay Ordnance Survey: Landran ...
on 8 August 1848. He was the son of Henry Lascelles Jenner, who was one of two curates to the Rector of St. Columb Major, and later consecrated though not enthroned as the first Bishop of Dunedin and the grandson of Herbert Jenner-Fust. In 1869 Jenner became a clerk in the Probate Division of the High Court and two years later was nominated by the Primate at Canterbury for a post in the Department of Ancient Manuscripts in the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
, his father then being the Rector of Preston, a small village near Canterbury. In 1904, he successfully campaigned for Cornwall to join the Celtic Congress. He jointly founded the Old Cornwall Society at St Ives in 1920 and in 1928 he was a joint founder of the Cornish Gorsedh.


Work with the Cornish language

His earliest interest in the
Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or , ) is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. Along with Welsh language, Welsh and Breton language, Breton, Cornish descends from Common Brittonic, ...
is mentioned in an article by Robert Morton Nance entitled "Cornish Beginnings", In 1873, Jenner presented a paper entitled The Cornish Language to the
Philological Society The Philological Society, or London Philological Society, is the oldest learned society in Great Britain dedicated to the study of language as well as a registered charity. The current Society was established in 1842 to "investigate and promote ...
in London, concluding that: Jenner was to prove himself wrong. In 1875, he was contacted by W. S. Lach-Szyrma, Vicar of Newlyn and Celtic scholar. They visited the elderly, making notes on the remnants of Cornish. The following year he read another paper on the subject of the
Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or , ) is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. Along with Welsh language, Welsh and Breton language, Breton, Cornish descends from Common Brittonic, ...
at
Mount's Bay Mount's Bay () is a bay on the English Channel coast of Cornwall, England, stretching from the Lizard Point, Cornwall, Lizard Point to Gwennap Head. In the north of the bay, near Marazion, is St Michael's Mount; the origin of name of the bay. ...
. In 1876, hosted by the
British Archaeological Association The British Archaeological Association (BAA) was founded in 1843 and aims to inspire, support and disseminate high quality research in the fields of Western archaeology, art and architecture, primarily of the mediaeval period, through lectures, co ...
, a Cornwall Congress was held at
Bodmin Bodmin () is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south-west of Bodmin Moor. The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character. It is bordered ...
, at which Jenner presented a paper on "The history and literature of the ancient Cornish language" based on his findings from the previous year. The vote of thanks was delivered by Lach-Szyrma, concluding there were "still old people who could count up to twenty in Cornish. The old man who ennerhad found to know most of the old tongue had just died." The congress mooted the development of a society to collect together the remnants of Cornish. In 1877, he discovered, whilst working in the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
, forty two lines of a
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
play written in Cornish around the year 1450, known as the Charter Fragment. He decided to promote an interest in Cornish outside academia, among the people of Cornwall themselves and also organised a special commemoration service of Dolly Pentreath and the centenary of her death. In 1901, the UK was undergoing a Celtic revival and Jenner formed part of a group (led by L. C. R. Duncombe-Jewell) to establish the Cowethas Kelto-Kernuak (CKK) following the model of the Welsh
Gorsedd Gorsedd Cymru (), or simply the Gorsedd (), is a society of Welsh-language poets, writers, musicians and others who have contributed to the Welsh language and to public life in Wales. Its aim is to honour such individuals and help develop and p ...
. Its aim was to celebrate the culture and language of Cornwall and aim towards a full revival of the Cornish language. Jenner became one of three vice-presidents to the society. He was made a bard of Goursez Vreiz, the Breton Gorsedh, in September 1903 under the name Gwaz Mikael. During this visit to Brittany, he was invited to address the Union Regionaliste Bretonne in Finistere at Lesneven. Jenner gave a speech in Cornish on why Cornwall should be duly recognised as a Celtic nation, with a majority of delegates voting to support its admission. He recalled of the event later "I tried the experiment of a Cornish speech on an audience of educated Bretons. They understood almost all of it." In 1904, he published ''A Handbook of the Cornish language'' "...principally intended for those persons of Cornish Nationality who wish to acquire some knowledge of their ancient tongue and perhaps even speak it". The Cornish language revival began in earnest. His version of Cornish was based upon the form of the language used in West Cornwall in the 18th century. It contained grammar as well as a history of the language and was prefaced by his poem ''Dho'm Gwreg Gernuak'' (To My Cornish Wife). Jenner claimed: Later that same year, Jenner made an appearance before the Pan-Celtic Congress in Caernarfon to apply on behalf of Cornwall for its membership into the organisation. That same year, Robert Morton Nance began studying the Cornish language from Jenner's ''Handbook'', although his pupil would later steer the language revival towards mediaeval Cornish. Jenner wrote a Cornish version of the ceremonies used in the Welsh Gorsedd in 1907, but unfortunately there were not enough Cornish speakers at the time to establish a Cornish Gorsedh that could use them. In 1909, Jenner and Nance met in Falmouth. They became friends and spent the next decade researching Cornish and collecting tidbits of traditional Cornish. These were published in a series of papers which were read both to the Royal Institution of Cornwall and the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. In making a proposition to the Royal Institution on 9 December to undertake a systematic study of Cornish in order to translate place names, Jenner said: 1916 saw the publication of Jenner's Cornish translation of " It's a Long Way to Tipperary" by the ''
Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...
''. He also translated John 5:1-14 in 1917, which appears in the Cornish language on the entrance walls of
Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
's
Pool of Bethesda The Pool of Bethesda is referred to in John's Gospel in the Christian New Testament, (John 5#Healing at Bethesda (5:2–15), John 5:2) in an account of healing the paralytic at Bethesda, Jesus healing a paralyzed man at a pool of water in Je ...
and is headed: ''Awell san Jowan, an pempes cabydul, gwersy un dhe beswarthek treylys yn Kernewek gans Henry Jenner''. Many songs and poems were translated by Jenner from English into the Cornish language and he also wrote sonnets in the language, such as ''Gwaynten yn Kernow'' (Spring in Cornwall) and ''An Pempthack Pell'' (The Fifteen Balls). Jenner and Nance formed the first Old Cornwall Society in St Ives in 1920, with Jenner as its president. Its motto was "Cuntelleugh an Brewyon us Gesys na vo Kellys Travyth". By 1924, there were sufficient Old Cornwall Societies to for a Federation, with Jenner as its president and Nance as its recorder. 1928 saw Jenner made a bard of the Welsh Gorsedd under the Cornish translation, Gwas Myghal, of his Breton bardic name. The same year, on the 21st of September, the first Gorsedh Kernow was held at Boscawen-Un. Twelve bards were made. In 1930 Jenner and his wife Kitty attended the first International Arthurian Congress in Truro, Cornwall, where they Dominica Legge, Eugène Vinaver and other scholars investigated Arthurian legends. In 1932, the Celtic Congress met in Cornwall for the first time, at Truro, with Jenner as its president. Delegates heard speeches in Cornish from eight Cornish bards and Nance's play An Balores was performed. At this time, Jenner called for Cornish to become an optional subject in schools across Cornwall, to little reaction from the authorities of education. That year, on 31 December, the Western Morning News published a speech by Jenner on the subject of Cornish patriotism in which he wrote "Bedheugh Bynytha Kernewek" (Be Forever Cornish). A group of young Cornish folk who were politically active joined together to form Cornwall's first national political movement, Tyr ha Tavas (Land and Language), taking Jenner's phrase as their motto to lobby parliament. At a time when many people thought the Cornish language had died Jenner observed,


Legacy

He contributed articles on Catholic liturgical rites to the
Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...
.Articles on th
Liturgical use of Creeds
the Celtic Ritebr>
Mozarabic Ritebr>
East Syrian Ritebr>
Ambrosian rite, Ambrosian Liturgy and Ritebr>
the
Gallican Rite The Gallican Rite is a historical form of Christian liturgy and other ritual practices in Western Christianity. It is not a single Ritual family, liturgical rite but rather several Latin liturgical rites that developed within the Latin Church, w ...
br>
at the
Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...
.
In 2010,
Michael Everson Michael Everson (born January 1963) is an American and Irish linguistics, linguist, Character encoding, script encoder, typesetting, typesetter, type designer and Publishing, publisher. He runs a publishing company called Evertype, through which ...
published a new edition entitled ''Henry Jenner's Handbook of the Cornish Language'', which contains modern IPA phonetic transcriptions to make clear to modern readers what phonology Jenner was recommending. The book also contains three essays written by Jenner thirty years prior to the 1904 publication, as well as some examples of a number of Christmas and New Years cards sent out by Jenner containing original verse by him in Cornish and English.


Personal life

Jenner married Katharine Lee Rawlings in 1877 (she was a novelist and author of non-fiction under the name Katharine Lee). A biography of Henry and Kitty, including much information about the context in which their work appeared, was published in 2004 by Derek R. Williams. After working at the British Museum for more than forty years, in 1909 Jenner and his wife Kitty retired to
Hayle Hayle (, "estuary") is a port town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the mouth of the Hayle River (which discharges into St Ives Bay) and is approximately northeast of ...
, his wife's home town, and in January 1912 he was elected as the Librarian of the Morrab Library, a post he held until 1927. He also served as President of both the
Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society (commonly known as The Poly) is an educational, cultural and scientific Charitable organization#United Kingdom, charity, as well as a local arts and cinema venue, based in Falmouth, Cornwall, England, Unite ...
and of the Royal Institution of Cornwall. In 1933 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. He died on 8 May 1934 and is buried in St. Uny's Church, Lelant. Before he died, he said: "The whole object of my life has been to inculcate into Cornish people a sense of their Cornishness."


Political leanings

Jenner was a
Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...
and Jacobite. He and his wife supported the
Order of the White Rose The Order of the White Rose of Finland (; ) is one of three official Order (decoration), orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty, and the Order of the Lion of Finland. The President of Finland is the Grand Master of all ...
, a society of Stuart sympathizers which he had founded in 1891, and of which he was chancellor. He also actively supported ''The Royalist'', a journal which ran from 1890 to 1905. He was a key figure in the Neo-Jacobite Revival of the 1890s.


See also

* Richard Gendall * Ken George * Robert Morton Nance *
Dolly Pentreath Dorothy Pentreath ( 16 May 169226 December 1777) was a Cornish fishwife. She is one of the last known fluent speakers of the Cornish language. She is also often credited as the last known native speaker of Cornish, although sources support th ...
* Nicholas Williams


References


Further reading

*Williams, D. R. (2004). ''Henry and Katharine Jenner: A Celebration of Cornwall's Culture, Language and Identity''. Francis Boutle Publishers. .


External links

* * *
Henry Jenner (Gwas Myghal)
at the Gorseth Kernow website * Text of the 1904 edition o
A Handbook of the Cornish Language
at
Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
* Preface to the 2010 edition o
Henry Jenner's Handbook of the Cornish Language
on the publisher's website. * samples of Jenner's Cornish writing: *

(4 chapters) ** Dhô'm Gwrêg Gernûak at
Wikisource Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content source text, textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one f ...
(poetic dedication to ''Handbook of the Cornish Language'') *
Some Possible Arthurian Place-Names in West Penwith
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jenner, Henry 1848 births 1934 deaths Celtic studies scholars British librarians Cornish language revival Cornish-speaking people Writers from Cornwall People from St Columb Major Bards of Gorsedh Kernow Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Grand Bards of Gorsedh Kernow Cornish Jacobites Employees of the British Museum Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia Translators of the Bible into Cornish Burials in Cornwall Neo-Jacobite Revival Jenner family (Wales) Cultural activists