Robert Morton Nance
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Robert Morton Nance (1873–1959) was a British writer and leading authority on 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, ...
, a nautical archaeologist, and joint founder of the Old Cornwall Society. Nance wrote many books and pamphlets on 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, ...
, including a Cornish
dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...
, which is a standard work, and edited magazines and pamphlets about
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
, including ''Old Cornwall'', the journal of the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. Nance was also a nautical archaeologist of distinction and was an originator of the Society for Nautical Research. His insight and learning were displayed in his book ''Sailing-ship Models'' which appeared in 1924. He studied art in Britain and
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
and was both a painter and a skilled craftsman.


Work with the Cornish language

In 1898, Robert Morton Nance wrote ''The Merry Ballad of the Cornish Pasty''.Hall, Stephen (2001) ''The Cornish Pasty''. Nettlecombe: Agre Books; Nance began studying the Cornish language in 1904 from Henry Jenner's A Handbook of the Cornish language, although he would later steer the language revival towards mediaeval Cornish. He began to write and illustrate poetry for Arthur Quiller-Couch's ''Cornish Magazine''. In 1909, Nance and Jenner met in Falmouth while the former was researching for the book ''A Glossary of Cornish Sea Words'' (published only after his death as a memorial volume in 1959). 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. Jenner and Nance formed the first Old Cornwall Society in St Ives in 1920. Its motto was "Cuntelleugh an Brewyon us Gesys na vo Kellys Travyth". By 1924, there were sufficient Old Cornwall Societies for a Federation, with Jenner as its president and Nance as its recorder. The Federation established the periodical ''Old Cornwall'' in 1925. The 1920s to circa 1940 saw Nance and A. S. D. Smith using the works of Edward Lhuyd and Whitley Stokes, as well as Breton grammar, to resolve the issue of syntax and grammar in Cornish. On 21 September 1928, Nance, Jenner and others held the first Gorsedh Kernow at Boscawen-Un. Twelve bards were made, including Nance who took the
bardic name A bardic name (, ) is a pseudonym used in Wales, Cornwall, or Brittany by poets and other artists, especially those involved in the eisteddfod movement. The Welsh language, Welsh term bardd ('poet') originally referred to the Welsh poets of the M ...
''Mordon'' (' Sea Wave'). In 1929, he published ''Cornish for All'', a work which detailed a version of Cornish based on the Ordinalia and other mediaeval texts, creating the
Unified Cornish Unified Cornish (UC) (''Kernewek Uny '', ''KU'') is a variety of the Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or , ) is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. Along with We ...
spelling system and defining the next phase of the Revival. An Balores, the first play written in Unified Cornish, was written by Nance in 1932 and performed that year at the Celtic Congress meeting in Truro. That year, on 31 December, the Western Morning News published a speech by Henry Jenner on the subject of Cornish patriotism in which he wrote "Bedheugh Byntha 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. Nance commented at the time: In 1934, with the death of Henry Jenner, Nance became Bardh Meur or Grand Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh. That same year, Nance and Smith published a small English-Cornish Dictionary together. His life's work, a full Cornish-English dictionary, was completed by Nance in 1938. £2000 of the day's money was raised by volunteer donations to pay for the work's publication. It was revised and extended to include an English-Cornish section in 1952. ''Lyver an Pymp Marthus Selevan'', a collection of folk tales from the St. Levan parish written to imitate the style of Cornwall's miracle-plays, was published by Nance in 1939. 1949 saw the chance discovery in the British Museum of the Tregear Homilies. John Mackechnie, the Celtic scholar who discovered them, passed news of the discovery on to Nance. The Old Cornwall Societies began in 1951 to publish a series of small booklets with extracts from Middle Cornish edited in Unified Cornish by Nance and A. S. D. Smith. Including among these texts were ''Bewnans Meryasek'', ''An Tyr Marya'', ''Sylvester ha'n Dhragon'', ''Abram hag Ysak'', ''Adam ha Seth'', ''Davydd hag Urry'' and ''An Venen ha'y Map''. Nance served as President of the Royal Institution of Cornwall from 1951 to 1955.Brian Murdoch, "Nance, Robert Morton (1873-1959)", ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...
'', Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 15 Nov 2007
/ref> During this time, he worked to improve modern Cornish and publish new editions in 1952 and 1955 of his two dictionaries. In 1954, records were produced of Nance reading the story ''Jowan Chy an Hor'', as well as Boorde's ''Colloquies'' and the Lord's Prayer. Before his death in 1959, he remarked: "One generation has set Cornish on its feet. It is now for another to make it walk."


Personal life

Nance was born in
Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
to Cornish parents. His father was from Padstow. Nance spent most of his youth living in Penarth and studied art in Cardiff and Hertfordshire. In 1906, Nance moved from
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
and settled at Nancledra near
St Ives, Cornwall St Ives (, meaning "Ia of Cornwall, St Ia's cove") is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times, it was comm ...
from where he jointly founded the Society for Nautical Research in 1911. In 1959, he died and was buried at St Senara's Church, Zennor after taking ill in the autumn of 1957.


Selected list of works

*1912: *1923: ''A Glossary of Celtic Words in Cornish Dialect''. Falmouth: Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society *1924: ''Sailing-ship Models: a selection from European and American collections with introductory text''. London: Halton and Truscott Smith (photographs) **---do.---2nd rev. ed. London; New York: Halton, 1949 **''Classic Sailing-ship Models in Photographs.'' Reprinted
Dover Publications Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, book ...
, Mineola, NY, 2000 *1925- : ''Old Cornwall'', as editor and contributor. **Articles in ''Old Cornwall'', including "The Cornish Language in the Seventeenth Century", in: ''Old Cornwall''; vol. VI, no. 1. *1932: ''An Balores'', a play in Unified Cornish *1934: ''English-Cornish Dictionary'', with A. S. D. Smith *1938: ''Cornish-English Dictionary''. Federation of Old Cornwall Societies *1956: ''The Cledry Plays: drolls of Old Cornwall for village acting and home reading''. Federation of Old Cornwall Societies B0000CJH1W *1961: ''Cornish for All'': a guide to Unified Cornish. Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. B0000CKWG1 * .d. ''A Guide to Cornish Place-names; with a list of the words contained in them''. Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. (Three editions, before 1971.)


See also

* Richard Gendall * Ken George * Henry Jenner * Dolly Pentreath * Nicholas Williams


References


Sources

*Obituary in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', 28 May 1959.


External links


Setting Cornwall on its Feet: Robert Morton Nance 1873-1959
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nance, Robert Morton 1873 births 1959 deaths Writers from Cardiff Celtic studies scholars Cornish-language writers Cornish-speaking people Grand Bards of Gorsedh Kernow Writers from Cornwall Bards of Gorsedh Kernow Cornish nationalists Cornish language revival Burials in Cornwall