It then continues which have a lot of time passages created in order to echo Cornish dialect, associated this new meeting of miner ‘Cousin Jack/Jacky’ with his housemaid, Mary, and their subsequent cam and you will deeds. Surprisingly, a comparable pamphlet also offers facts for ‘Cousin Jan’ and maybe Jenny-both Jan and Jenny can be found with other letters regarding text message of poem, suggesting they as well were seen as conventional labels to have Cornish letters, and you will ‘Cousin phlets which might be advertised on the back away from A Cornish Ghost Story, particularly The brand new Bal, or, ‘Tes a great Bra’ Keenly Lode, Cousin Jan’s Facts (earliest had written during the Helston during datingreviewer.net/local-hookup/cairns/ the 1850) and its own follow up Relative Jan’s Courtship and you will Marriage (very first typed at the Truro from inside the 1859), both from the William Bentinck Forfar. The initial ones, wrote 36 months till the earliest reference in the OED reference so you’re able to Relative The month of january (that’s, actually, extracted from a paper advert for this pamphlet out-of 1853, as the OED will not speak about that it), boasts the following passing:
If the you’ll pay attention to myself if you will, your shallHear everything about looking to and dealing an excellent Bal;The Lode try discovered because of the a little hazel twig,Transmitted over the crushed because of the specific once you understand dated prig. ,’Tes the new keenliest gozan thee actually ever ded’st come across. (13)
Cousin ple of ore so you can a captain Polglaze, ‘a Purser, notorious, Exactly who rapidly, from the exploration, a rich kid had grown’. He announces that they must see London to boost loans (‘The went up to Bristol of the a steamer out-of Hayle, And you will proceeded out-of Bristol so you’re able to London area of the rail’), as well as their excitement will then be recounted for the Cornish dialect by the Relative Jan. Next, the proper execution ‘Cousin Jan’ is found in a handful of Cornish papers stuff in the 1860s toward 1890s just like the label from an effective Cornish ‘everyman’ or due to the fact a standard name to possess Cornishmen/Cornish miner, i.elizabeth. it appears to be for performed because the a variation types of ‘Cousin Jack’/’Cousin Jacky’. This might be supported by the truth that ‘Cozen Jan’ first appears for the Forfar’s poem as an element of an expression one appears essentially just like Christopher Children’s old-fashioned Cornish miner’s words “Com’se collectively Cousin Jacky”.
Obviously, it passing would appear to include proof getting a Cornish utilize away from ‘Cousin Jack/Jacky’ having an excellent miner still living within the Cornwall a little while regarding the 1850s otherwise 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 The month of january, d’ee been ‘long wi’ myself
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 notorious on the neighborhood by the moniker of “Relative Jack Cobbler.”(15)