Dolly Pentreath's Monument - 17Mar10

I now have found the precise measurements given by the man 'on the ground' as to where the grave is. This monument was placed in this position in 1882, whether or not it conforms with the measurements, is another story.

Interesting! Looking at a picture taken before the late 1970s, there is no substantial difference from this one but I have a B and W postcard somewhere worth looking at. Time to retire now! Goodnight!

Dolly Pentreath
In a letter from Bernard Victor 9th May 1887, Wellington Place, Mousehole, he writes to Fred P Jago, 'She was born at Mousehole 1675, her father's name was Pentreath. The Pentreath family were in general pretty stout and not particulary tall, rather of a dark sallow skin. According to my grandfather George Badcock, Dolly was a filthy discoursed old woman and her occupation as a fish seller or back jouster, which called her to visit all the surrounding villages and caused her to be known as Old Dolly Pentreath. 'I remember a John Pentreath and his two sisters. Now their father was a nephew to Dolly. The eldest sister was called Ann, the other was called Sarah. He writes 18th May 1887. Dolly Pentreath died 26th December 1777. She had been married to a man named Jeffery, she was daughter of Nicholas Pentreath. The register of her baptism could not be found. Despite having married, she retained her name of Dolly Pentreath, she had no children. In the Paul Register is the entry Dorothy is the daughter of Nicholas Pentreath of this parish was baptised May 17th 1714. If the 102 figure is to be accepted, along with the date of birth 1675, then she was baptised at 39. There is a picture of her when younger. Dolly was a vigorous old woman who called a spade a spade, and like the Army in Flanders 'swore terribly' when she could not get her price for fish. Does that sound like a person who chose to be baptised when 39? I am reading though various accounts. Here is another : Dorothy Pentreath, alias Jeffries, who, born in 1681, conversed most fluently in the Cornish tongue. Her father, a fisherman, sent this young Sibyl at the age of twelve with fish to Penzance. In Cornish she sold them, no improbability, as not until over twenty could she speak a word of English. Another interesting point from the Paul Register. Nicholas Pentreath married Dorothy Crankan on 31st January 1706. I can find no other Dorothy to have been the inspiration of the name for young Dorothy Pentreath. Evidence from Daines Barrington, Frederick Jago and others will have to be sifted to attempt to remove the veil.

Well, full marks for unearthing all this information, conflicting though it may be as yet! I found the facts and evidence you have for possible Dolly Pentreaths really interesting!

If a child was extremely likely to have died, baptism was generally nigh immediate. It was frequently the case that baptism was left a month, at times this was an adulthood event, but usually in connection with getting married. I have come across those many a time, whole families being baptised in the same ceremony when joining a new fold. I have now found a statement by Richard Polwhele that makes it even more complicated. I am trying to hold on to the fact that the only reason for her 'celebrity status' is that Daines Barrington was enthused to the point of ignoring what was around him.

Richard Polwhele in 1803 is adamant in saying that Dolly was born a Jefferey, and that she married a Pentreath. Thereby the error lies? The burial recorded for 'Dolly Jefferey' in Paul 1777 Registers cannot be the Dorothy Pentreath baptised in 1714. Nor can she have been any of the Dorothy Pentreaths in any Register of baptism or birth. However ..... George Clement Boase in 1874 is equally adamant. He says that 'Dorothy Jefferey' was known by her maiden name and that she was daughter of Nicholas Pentreath; baptised Paul 17th May 1714, died Mousehole December 1777, buried Paul 27th December 1777. James Orchard Halliwell-Phillips is also of the opinion in 1861 that the siting of the memorial is erroneous and that the date of death given and the age at death is erroneous, thereby giving the inscripition another meaning to 'here lieth'.
So ... where is this quiet man, her husband, in the records of the parish? Was she born Jefferey or Pentreath? Recorded as buried as a Jefferey ... or was she?

It is said that the year of death was 1778, not the December 1777 quoted. That would make her just over 90, but it depends on the actual dates, month of birth and death. There is also the matter of the calendar changes that she would have gone through in 1752, with the loss of 11 days in September and the start of year now January instead of March. Is it anywonder there was some confusion over ages?
So, to recap, she was born near 1687. She was either born Jefferey or Pentreath and she either married a Pentreath or a Jeffery. She had nephew John Pentreath and nieces Ann Pentreath and Sarah Pentreath. If by any chance the Dorothy Pentreath baptised 1714, she would have been 27 years, and either new married or about to be. She was no sweet young thing to merely marry someone for companionship.
She married a fisherman, she sold fish. The age at baptism if it was that one or if it was for marriage purposes would fit a usual occurrence. I see a number of Jeffrey names in the Registers and Pentreath is almost exclusively Paul. What she was born as, what she was married to does not necessarily have any bearing on what she was called by her neighbours and customers. But if she began her trade at the age of 12 in the Market in Market Jew Street Penzance, what name would she have been using?

Lake's Parochial History of Cornwall states that the parish register of Paul, contains the entry ‘Dorothy Jeffery was buried Dec 27 (1777)’.
Frederick P Jago in Dialect Of Cornwall states that ‘she retained her maiden name until her death’ … ‘her husband's name was Jeffery’. A curious arrangement for the times in which she lived?

A fact of some labour is hidden in the inscription. The epitaph itself was written by Mr. Tonkin, of Newlyn (on a stone on the original grave in c1780), who clearly knew how to write in Cornish, it was in 1860 passed to a Mr Collins who then translated it and gave it to Mr Polwhele. It then of course had to be transmitted to Mr Thomson (an engineer of Truro) for inscription in full on the stone.