Robert Morton Nance

Robert Morton Nance (born 1873 in Cardiff of Cornish parents - died 1959) was a leading authority on the Cornish language, nautical archaeologist, and joint founder of the Old Cornwall Society.

He wrote many books and pamphlets on the Cornish language, including a Cornish dictionary, which is a standard work, and edited magazines and pamphlets about Cornwall, 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 and was both a painter and a skilled craftsman.

Chronology of his life

• 1898: He wrote "The Merry Ballad of the Cornish Pasty".
• 1906: He moved from Wales and settled at Nancledra near St Ives.
• 1911: He jointly founded the Society for Nautical Research.
• 1920: He, together with Henry Jenner, founded the first Old Cornwall Society at St Ives.
• 1924: The Federation of Old Cornwall Societies was established.
• 1925: The Federation established the periodical Old Cornwall.
• 1928: He jointly founded the Gorseth Kernow which was inaugurated at Boscawen-Un, where he took the bardic name Mordon ('Sea Wave').
• 1929: He published Cornish for All using the 'Unified' Middle Cornish spelling system.
• 1951 - 1955: He was President of the Royal Institution of Cornwall for 1951 - 1955.

Selected list of works

• 1912: Speight, E E; Nance, R Morton (1912-01-01). Britain's Sea Story. Henry Frowde.  ASIN B000LQ60UM
• 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, Mineola, NY, 2000 ISBN 0-486-41249-0
• 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.
• 1955: Cornish-English Dictionary. Federation of Old Cornwall Societies ISBN 0-902660-05-5
• 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
• [n.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

• Obituary in The Times, May 28, 1959

External links

• What we stand for — Old Cornwall 1:1, April 1925
• Setting Cornwall on its Feet: Robert Morton Nance 1873-1959
• Robert Morton Nance (Mordon) at the website of Gorseth Kernow