The are a British ethnic group originating in Cornwall. They are often described as a
Celtic people and nation.
The number of people living in Cornwall considering themselves to be Cornish before being British or English is unknown. Many in Cornwall consider themselves British and then Cornish, so use the term "British" to describe themselves. Many others use only "Cornish" as a description of their ethnic or national identity. This is a phenomenon with a long historical precedent.
As with other ethnic groups in the
British Isles , the question of identity is not straightforward. Ethnic identity has been based as much – if not more – on cultural identity than on descent. Many descendants of people who came and settled in Cornwall have adopted this identity.
In the
2001 UK Census , the population of Cornwall was estimated to be 501,267. Cornish community organisations tend to consider half of these people to be ethnic Cornish. However, such estimates are unreliable and the numbers considering themselves primarily Cornish are likely to be lower.
A recent survey by the and
East Sussex also identified themselves with their county first
{Link without Title} . The survey gave neither an upper or a lower bound on the number of Cornish people identifying as part of a Cornish ethnicity.
Another survey,
''Quality of Life in Cornwall'' , offered Cornish inhabitants the choice between description as Cornish or English, but not both. 35.1% of the 15,000 people surveyed chose "Cornish", compared to 48.4% who chose English.
For the first time in a UK Census, those wishing to describe their ethnicity as Cornish were given their own code number (06) on the 2001 UK Census form, alongside those for people wishing to describe themselves as
English ,
Welsh ,
Irish or
Scottish . Although happy with this development, campaigners expressed reservations about the lack of publicity surrounding the issue, the lack of a clear tick-box for the Cornish option on the census and the need to deny being British in order to write "Cornish" in the field provided. 37,603 people in the UK wrote "Cornish" in this field. In Cornwall, 33,932 people (6.8% of the population) did so, varying from 9% in
Penwith to 5.57% in
Caradon . Outside Cornwall, an additional 3,671 wrote "Cornish", the highest proportion being in
Plymouth , with 487 (0.2%).
An ancient legend, the
Brutus Myth, recounted by
Geoffrey Of Monmouth , gives explicit reference to the Cornish people in describing their descent. The legend tells how
Albion was colonised by refugees from
Troy under Brutus, how Brutus renamed his new Kingdom, Britain, and how the island was subsequently divided up between his three sons - the eldest inheriting
England , the other two
Scotland and
Wales . Additionally according to the legend there were two groups of
Trojans who originally arrived in Britain. The smaller group was led by a warrior named
Corineus , to whom Brutus granted extensive estates. And just as Brutus had ‘called the island Britain…and his companions Britons’, so Corineus called ‘the region of the kingdom which had fallen to his share Cornwall, after the manner of his own name, and the people who lived there…Cornishmen’.
No other region is picked out for such special treatment; it is clear that, as far as Geoffrey was concerned, Cornwall possessed a separate identity. Cornishmen and women continued to regard themselves as descendents of Corineus until well into the early modern period.
See Also: History of Cornwall
During the
Eighteenth Century ,
Samuel Johnson created a Cornish
Declaration Of Independence that he used in his essay ''Taxation no Tyranny''
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"''We are the acknowledged descendants of the earliest inhabitants of Britain, of men, who, before the time of history, took possession of the island desolate and waste, and, therefore, open to the first occupants. Of this descent, our language is a sufficient proof, which, not quite a century ago, was different from yours.''"
Additionally, many maps of the isles prior to the
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In
1937 Bartholomew published a ''Map of European Ethnicity'' prepared by the Edinburgh Institute of Geography which featured "Celtic Cornish"
{Link without Title} .
More recently, on 12 July 2005, MP, Minister for
Local Government , indicated the same in his answer to a letter from
Mebyon Kernow : "On your point about Cornwall’s desire to control its own future, the Government is very much aware of the strength of feeling about Cornwall’s separate identity and distinctiveness ... The Government recognises that many people in Cornwall consider they have a separate identity."
NGO s such as
Eurominority and the
Federal Union Of European Nationalities also give varying degrees of recognition to a Cornish people
[http://www.eurominority.org/version/maps/map-nations.asp .
The
Cornish Language is seen by many as the cultural back bone of the Cornish identity, although only 3,500 of the estimated 250,000 Cornish people (1.4%) speak it to a basic conversational level, and just 300-400 fluently. Recently the Cornish language, which was revived in the 20th Century after dying out as a native tongue in the 18th, has been recognised by the UK and EU for protection as a UK minority language and now receives funding from both these bodies. The Cornish language is a
Brythonic language related to
Welsh and
Breton .
A distinct dialect of English can also be found in Cornwall, and appears in many popular Cornish folksongs such as ''Camborne Hill''. To an extent, the accent and dialect is a badge of "Cornishness" for some people, but interest in Anglo-Cornish has been overshadowed by the Cornish language recently.
Many who perceive themselves to be of the Cornish nation also consider themselves to be descended from the
Brythons of the post-Roman period. For this reason they consider there to be a kinship connection with the
Welsh and
Breton peoples and more distantly with the
Scots ,
Manx and
Irish . After the
Anglo-Saxon conquest of southern, eastern and central
Great Britain ,
Brythonic speakers were gradually pushed further into the fringes, eventually cutting them off into three groups - the
Southwestern Britons (from whence the Cornish), the West Britons (the Welsh) and the Northern Britons (see
Cumbric ).
This sense of a shared past is given voice in such organisations as the
Celtic League and
Celtic Congress , both of whom recognise Cornwall and the Cornish as a Celtic nation.
Today, many family and given names from Cornwall are clearly rooted in the Cornish language.
Y chromosome analysis of samples from the
British Isles ,
Germany ,
Denmark ,
Norway ,
Friesland , and the
Basque Country has shown that Cornish men's Y chromosomes are generally more similar to those of the assumed indigenous population (Welsh/Irish/Basque) than are those of men from other parts of England or Scotland. The Y chromosomes from Cornwall, however, were more Germanic (Danish/German/Frisian) than those from
Wales ,
Ireland or the Basque Country. It should be noted that samples from all parts of the British Isles show an indigenous component. See the
Anglo-Saxons Article for greater detail.
For the global genetic make-up of the Cornish people and other peoples, see also:
and [https://www5.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html
The Cornish national identity is given voice also in the existence of various political and pressure groups. These organisations usually call for greater
Home Rule for Cornwall,
{Link without Title} recognition of Cornwall as a
Duchy and various other human rights issues. ''See
Cornish Nationalism and
Constitutional Status Of Cornwall ''.
In parliamentary politics, Cornwall is a and received around 3,500 votes, less than two percent of constituencies' electorate (and, coincidentally or not, around the number of people estimated to speak Cornish).
The Liberal Democrats in Cornwall have campaigned for
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Traditionally, the Cornish have been
Nonconformist in their religion.
Celtic Christianity was predominant during the first millennium of the
Common Era and many
Cornish Saints are commemorated in legends, churches and place names.
Approximately four thousand people from Devon and Cornwall died in the
Prayer Book Rebellion in the 1540s, trying to resist the compulsory use of a new English language version of the
Book Of Common Prayer . Attempts to revert to the
Latin version, or to translate the text into Cornish, were suppressed. This failure to produce or sustain a translation of the
Bible in Cornish is generally seen as a crucial factor in the demise of the language. An approved version of the Bible in Cornish was finally published in 2004.
During the
Industrial Revolution ,
Methodism proved to be very popular amongst the working classes in Cornwall. Methodist chapels became important social centres, with church church-affiliated groups such as male voice choirs playing a central role in social life. Methodism still plays a large part in the religious life of Cornwall today, although Cornwall has shared in the general post-
World War II decline in British religious worship.
In 2003, a campaign group was formed called ''Fry an Spyrys'' ( in Cornwall in favour of an
Autonomous Province of the
Anglican Communion ; a Church of Cornwall. They appeal to the precedents set when the Anglican Church was disestablished in Wales to form the
Church In Wales in 1920 and in Ireland to form the
Church Of Ireland in 1869. The group's chairman is Dr Garry Tregidga of the
Institute Of Cornish Studies .
In the 18th and 19th centuries many Cornish people migrated to various parts of the world in search of a better life — this is called the Cornish
Diaspora by some. A driving force for some emigrants was the opportunity for skilled miners to find work abroad, later in combination with the decline in the tin and copper mining industries in Cornwall.
Today, in the
USA ,
Canada ,
Mexico ,
Australia ,
South Africa and other countries, some of the descendants of these original migrants celebrate their Cornish ancestry and remain proud of the Cornish family names they carry. This is evidenced by the existence of both Cornish societies and Cornish festivals in these countries, as well as a growing overseas interest in the Cornish language.
