Editing Henry Jenner

{{Short description|Cornish cultural activist (1848–1934)}}
{{About|the Cornish scholar|his father|Henry Jenner (bishop)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Henry Jenner
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FSA}}
| image         = Henry Jenner, MA FSA.jpg
| alt           = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption       = Jenner {{circa}} 1921
| birth_name    = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date    = 8 August 1848 
| birth_place   = 
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|df=y|8 May 1934|8 August 1848}}
| death_place   = 
| other_names   = 
| occupation    = Scholar of [[Celtic languages]] and museum curator 
| years_active  = 
| known_for     = chief originator of the [[Cornish language]] revival
| notable_works = 
| spouse        = {{marriage|[[Katharine Lee Rawlings]]|1877}}
}}
'''Henry Jenner''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FSA}} (8 August 1848 – 8 May 1934) was a British scholar of the [[Celtic languages]], a [[Cornwall|Cornish]] [[cultural activist]], and the chief originator of the [[Cornish language]] revival.

Jenner was born at [[St Columb Major]] on 8 August 1848. He was the son of [[Henry Lascelles Jenner]], who was one of two curates to the [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|Rector]] of [[St. Columb Major]], and later consecrated though not enthroned as the first [[Anglican Diocese of Dunedin#Jenner controversy|Bishop of Dunedin]] and the grandson of [[Herbert Jenner-Fust]].<ref name="Obit">{{cite news | title = Obituary: Mr. Henry Jenner (transcription) | url = http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Times/1934/Obituary/Henry_Jenner | work = [[The Times]] | location = London | page = 19; col A | date =  10 May 1934|issue= 46750 | access-date = 20 December 2008 }}</ref> In 1869 Jenner became a clerk in the Probate Division of the High Court and two years later was nominated by the [[Archbishop of Canterbury|Primate at Canterbury]] for a post in the Department of Ancient Manuscripts in the [[British Museum]], his father then being the Rector of [[Preston-next-Wingham|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]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Cornwall forever |url=https://www.cornwallforever.co.uk/people/henry-jenner |access-date=15 October 2019}}</ref>

==Work with the Cornish language==
His earliest interest in the [[Cornish language]] is mentioned in an article by [[Robert Morton Nance]] entitled "Cornish Beginnings",<ref>page 368, ''Old Cornwall'', Volume V, Number 9 published in 1958.</ref>

{{Quote|When Jenner was a small boy at [[St. Columb Major|St. Columb]], his birthplace, he heard at the table some talk between his father and a guest that made him prick up his ears, and no doubt brought sparkles to his eyes which anyone who told him something will remember. They were speaking of a Cornish language. At the first pause in their talk he put his query... 'But is there really a Cornish Language?' and on being assured that at least there had been one, he said 'Then I'm Cornish—that's mine!' }}{{Dubious|Jenners In Cornwall Thru 1851|date=December 2024}}

[[File:Jennerplaque.jpg|thumb|200px|Plaque at St Columb Major, on the site of the old vestry where his father worked (now called Bond House, in Market Square)]]
In 1873, Jenner presented a paper entitled The Cornish Language to the [[Philological Society]] in London, concluding that:

{{Quote|This, then, is all that can be found at present on the subject of the Cornish language. I have done much more in the way of compiling than of originating anything, for the subject has been pretty well exhausted by other writers; and unless some new book should turn up, very little of any importance remains to be done.<ref name="Berresford">{{cite book |last1=Berresford Ellis |first1=Peter |title=The Cornish Language and Its Literature |date=1974 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-7100792-8-2}}</ref>}}

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.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook"/> The following year he read another paper on the subject of the [[Cornish language]] at [[Mount's Bay]].

In 1876, hosted by the [[British Archaeological Association]], a [[Cornwall Congress]] was held at [[Bodmin]], 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 [Jenner] had 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.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook">{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Dee |title=The Cornish History Notebook |date=2016 |publisher=Ors Sempel |isbn=978-0-9930764-2-8}}</ref>

In 1877, he discovered, whilst working in the [[British Museum]], forty two lines of a [[medieval]] play written in Cornish around the year 1450, known as the [[Early Cornish texts#The Charter Fragment, ca. 1400|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.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook" />

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]]. Its aim was to celebrate the culture and language of Cornwall and aim towards a full revival of the Cornish language.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook" /> 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."<ref name="Berresford" />

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:

{{Quote|There has never been a time when there has been no person in Cornwall without a knowledge of the Cornish language.}}

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.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook" /> 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.<ref name="CornishHistoryNotebook" />

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:

{{Quote|The spoken language may be dead, but its ghost still haunts its old dwelling, the speech of West Cornish country folk is full of it, and no one can talk about the country and its inhabitants in any sort of topographical detail without using a wealth of Cornish words.<ref name="Berresford" />}}

1916 saw the publication of Jenner's Cornish translation of "[[It's a Long Way to Tipperary]]" by the ''[[Daily Mirror]]''. He also translated John 5:1-14 in 1917, which appears in the Cornish language on the entrance walls of [[Jerusalem]]'s [[Pool of Bethesda]] 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, Cornwall|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.

[[File:Truro 1930 photo 1 Arthurian Society photographer unknown.jpg|thumb|Henry and [[Kitty Jenner]] at front, Truro, Cornwall in August 1930 Arthurian Society meeting]]
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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.internationalarthuriansociety.com/british-branch/view/society-archives|title=Society Archives – International Arthurian Society|website=www.internationalarthuriansociety.com|access-date=2019-07-07|archive-date=7 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707102611/http://www.internationalarthuriansociety.com/british-branch/view/society-archives|url-status=dead}}</ref>

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,<ref>''Rebuilding the Celtic languages'' By Diarmuid O'Néill (Page 222)</ref> {{Quote|The reason why a Cornishman should learn Cornish, the outward and audible sign of his separate nationality, is sentimental, and not in the least practical, and if everything sentimental were banished from it, the world would not be as pleasant a place as it is.}}

==Legacy==

He contributed articles on [[Catholic liturgical rites]] to the [[Catholic Encyclopedia]].<ref name="CatholicEncyclopedia">Articles on the [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04479a.htm Liturgical use of Creeds], the [[Celtic Rite]] [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03493a.htm], [[Mozarabic Rite]] [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10611a.htm], [[East Syrian Rite]] [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14413a.htm], [[Ambrosian rite|Ambrosian Liturgy and Rite]] [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01394a.htm], the [[Gallican Rite]] [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06357a.htm] at the [[Catholic Encyclopedia]].</ref>

In 2010, [[Michael Everson]] published a new edition entitled ''Henry Jenner's Handbook of the Cornish Language'', which contains modern [[International Phonetic Alphabet|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.<ref>Jenner, Henry. 2010. [http://www.evertype.com/books/jenner.html Henry Jenner's Handbook of the Cornish Language]. Revised by [[Michael Everson]]. Cathair na Mart: Evertype. {{ISBN|978-1-904808-37-4}}</ref>

==Personal life==
[[File:DSCN1081JennerHome.jpg|Former home of the Jenners in Hayle|thumb]]
[[File:DSCN1082JennerPlaque.jpg|thumb|Commemorative Plaque on the home of the Jenners in Hayle]]
Jenner married [[Katharine Lee Rawlings]] in 1877 (she was a novelist and author of non-fiction under the name Katharine Lee).<ref>Ellis, P. B. (1974) ''The Cornish Language''. London: Routledge; pp. 144, 223</ref> 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.<ref>Williams, Derek R., editor. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928231009/http://www.willowbooks.co.uk/products/shop.asp?gid=6365&cid=529&src=featuredBooks.asp&p=6 Henry and Katharine Jenner, A Celebration of Cornwall’s Culture, Language and Identity]}}. London: Francis Boutle. {{ISBN|978-1-903427-19-4}}</ref>

After working at the British Museum for more than forty years,<ref name="Obit" /> in 1909 Jenner and his wife Kitty<ref>see Peter W. Thomas, "Jenner, Henry (1848–1934)", [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]], online edn,[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/75066], (accessed 19 August 2007), for more information on both Henry and Kitty Jenner.</ref> retired to [[Hayle]], 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]] and of the [[Royal Institution of Cornwall]].<ref>Peter W. Thomas, 'Jenner, Henry (1848–1934)', [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]], online edn, Oxford University Press, May 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/75066  accessed 15 Nov 2007]</ref>

In 1933 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church.<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry Jenner |url=http://www.dasserghikernewek.org.uk/jenner.html |website=Dasserghi Kernewek |language=en}}</ref>

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]] and [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]]. He and his wife supported the [[Order of the White Rose (1886–1915)|Order of the White Rose]], a society of [[House of Stuart|Stuart]] sympathizers which he had founded in 1891,<ref>{{cite book |title=The Role of Jacobitism in the Modern World |first=Robert F. J. |last=Parsons |publisher=Royal Stuart Society |date=1986 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9DFWAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> and of which he was chancellor. He also actively supported ''The Royalist'', a journal which ran from 1890 to 1905.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|publisher=[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]|title=Henry Jenner|author=P. W. Thomas|date=May 2005|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/75066|access-date=14 January 2010}}</ref> He was a key figure in the [[Neo-Jacobite Revival]] of the 1890s.

==See also==
* [[Richard Gendall]]
* [[Ken George]]
* [[Robert Morton Nance]]
* [[Dolly Pentreath]]
* [[Nicholas Williams (poet)|Nicholas Williams]]

==References==
{{Refbegin}}
{{Refend}}
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Williams, D. R. (2004). ''Henry and Katharine Jenner: A Celebration of Cornwall's Culture, Language and Identity''. Francis Boutle Publishers. {{ISBN|978-1-903427-19-4}}.

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=31859| name=Henry Jenner}}
* {{Librivox author |id=11732}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry Jenner}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050415092957/http://www.gorsethkernow.org.uk/english/gallery/grandbards/egwasmyg.htm Henry Jenner (Gwas Myghal)] at the [[Gorseth Kernow]] website
* Text of the 1904 edition of [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26192 A Handbook of the Cornish Language] at [[Project Gutenberg]]
* Preface to the 2010 edition of [http://www.evertype.com/books/jenner.html Henry Jenner's Handbook of the Cornish Language] on the publisher's website.
* samples of Jenner's Cornish writing:
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20060115152407/http://www.bibelkernewek.com/Jenner-Mark1.htm Gospel of St Mark] (4 chapters)
** [[oldwikisource:Dhô'm Gwrêg Gernûak|Dhô'm Gwrêg Gernûak]] at [[Wikisource]] (poetic dedication to ''Handbook of the Cornish Language'')
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20091027211610/http://cornovia.org.uk/htexts/jenner01.html Some Possible Arthurian Place-Names in West Penwith]

{{Cornish language}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jenner, Henry}}
[[Category:1848 births]]
[[Category:1934 deaths]]
[[Category:Celtic studies scholars]]
[[Category:British librarians]]
[[Category:Cornish language revival]]
[[Category:Cornish-speaking people]]
[[Category:Writers from Cornwall]]
[[Category:People from St Columb Major]]
[[Category:Bards of Gorsedh Kernow]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London]]
[[Category:Grand Bards of Gorsedh Kernow]]
[[Category:Cornish Jacobites]]
[[Category:Employees of the British Museum]]
[[Category:Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia]]
[[Category:Translators of the Bible into Cornish]]
[[Category:Burials in Cornwall]]
[[Category:Neo-Jacobite Revival]]
[[Category:Jenner family (Wales)]]
[[Category:Cultural activists]]