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Sue & Al’s Cornwall

An Gof
Text Box: A plaque on the wall of the church is dedicated to the memory of Mychal Josef, an Gof ("the smith” the Cornish translation) and Thomas Flamank a lawyer from Bodmin. They led a march in 1497 on London from Cornwall to protest against taxation levied by King Henry VII. The Wars of the Roses ended in 1485 when Henry Tudor, Duke of Richmond, a Lancastrian, defeated Richard III, a Yorkist, and then married Elizabeth of York, thus uniting the two houses, but there was still great unrest. In January 1497, Parliament levied a war tax, to finance an invasion against Scotland. Cornwall then was mainly dependent on farming, fishing and mining for tin. Commissioners were appointed to work with the Justices of the Peace to assess the subsidy. The agent to collect the subsidy on the Lizard was Sir John Oby, Provost of Glasney College, Penryn. Although a proviso exempted the very poor, some collectors were severe, and Sir John Oby was particularly so. This severity may have been one of the reasons that those in St. Keverne rose first. The College of St Mary and St Thomas of Glasney at Penryn was founded in 1265 by Bishop Bronescombe. In its prime the college had a provost (the head),12 prebendaries,7 priest vicars, a bellringer,4 choristers (vicars choral) and 3 chantry priests and was possessed of considerable lands around Falmouth and the Lizard and was the largest ,save for St Germans, in Cornwall. Michael Joseph Little is known about Michael Joseph the smith who lived in St Keverne. The name of Angove, my family name, exists today this is derived from An Gof and it is believed, though not proven, that we may be descendants of Mychal Joseph an Gof. This has yet to be studied. Whether Michael Joseph incited the local people or whether they elected him as their spokesman is unknown; but he was undoubtedly a natural leader and remained so throughout the uprising. In May 1497, they left to march on London. As unrest spread throughout Cornwall, more rallied to the cause, amongst them Thomas Flamank, a lawyer and son of Richard Flamank, a Tax Commissioner. Thomas Flamank gave up his lifestyle and career by joining the uprising. Michael Joseph and Thomas Flamank made a formidable leadership. The Sheriff of Cornwall, John Bassett of Tehidy, did nothing to stop their advance. A disaffected nobleman James Touchet Lord Audley joined them in Wells, A declaration of grievances was drafted then they continued on into Kent, hoping for support, which was not forthcoming. On June 13th, they reached Guildford. Meanwhile the King had moved the Queen and Prince Henry to the Tower, and the army assembled to go to Scotland was turned on the Cornishmen. Lord Chancellor and Chief General, Lord Daubeney sent out a probing force, which the Cornish successfully fought off, continuing their advance to Blackheath, where they set up camp. The Battle of Deptford Bridge. The King's forces attacked early on the morning of Saturday 17th June. The King's army was well trained, mounted and armed, fighting mostly against untrained countrymen with homemade weapons bows, bill hooks, and scythes. Estimates vary, but it is said that at Blackheath some 15,000 Cornish faced 25,000 troops of the King. The Cornish lacked the horse and artillery possessed by the King's army, and the result was inevitable. The battle did not last long, and Michael Joseph, Thomas Flamank and James Touchet Lord Audley were captured. On the 24th June, 1497 Michael Joseph and Thomas Flamank were taken from the Tower of London on a hurdle to Tyburn, where they were hung, drawn and quartered. Lord Audley, because of his noble rank, was beheaded on Tower Hill the following day. As he was being drawn to his place of execution, Michael Joseph, undaunted, stated that he should have "a name perpetual, and a fame permanent and immortal" Thomas Flamank was quoted as saying - "Speak the truth and only then can you be free of your chains"Their heads were displayed on pike-staffs (gibetted) on London Bridge. The An Gof Memorial Each year in June, Michael Joseph An Gof is remembered in St. Keverne. A ceremony is held by the plaque in the Square. A wreath is placed on the plaque, and later a Cornish evening takes place in the Parish Hall. 1 March 1997 was the 500th Anniversary of the uprising and in St. Keverne a bronze statue of Michael Joseph an Gof and Thomas Flamank was made by Terence Coventry, and sited at the entrance to the village. A commemorative plaque was also unveiled on Blackheath common. Text Box: The Song of the Western Men A good sword and a trusty hand! A merry heart and true! King James's men shall understand What Cornish lads can do! And have they fixed the where and when? And shall Trelawny die? Here's twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why! Chorus: And shall Trelawny live? And shall Trelawny die? Here's twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why! Out spake their Captain brave and bold: A merry wight was he: 'If London Tower were Michael's hold, We'd set Trelawny free! 'We'll cross the Tamar, land to land: The Severn is no stay: With "one and all," and hand in hand; And who shall bid us nay? Chorus: And shall Trelawny live? , etc. 'And when we come to London Wall, A pleasant sight to view, Come forth! come forth! ye cowards all: Here's men as good as you. 'Trelawny he's in keep and hold; Trelawny he may die: But twenty thousand Cornish bold Will know the reason why!' Chorus: And shall Trelawny live? , etc. NOTE by the Reverend R.S. Hawker: With the exception of the choral lines, And shall Trelawny die? Here's twenty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why!' ' and which have been, ever since the imprisonment by James the Second of the seven bishops -- one of them Sir Jonathan Trelawny -- a popular proverb throughout Cornwall, the whole of this song was composed by me in the year 1825. I wrote it under a stag-horned oak in Sir Beville's Walk in Stowe Wood. It was sent by me anonymously to a Plymouth paper, and there it attracted the notice of Mr Davies Gilbert, who reprinted it at his private press at Eastbourne under the avowed impression that it was the original ballad. It had the good fortune to win the eulogy of Sir Walter Scott, who also deemed it to be the ancient song. It was praised under the same persuasion by Lord Macaulay and by Mr Dickens, who inserted it at first as of genuine antiquity in his Household Words, but who afterwards acknowledged its actual paternity in the same publication. R.S. Hawker Robert Stephen Hawker (1803-1875), priest, poet, and mystic. Hawker was parson of the parish of Morwenstow on the desolate north Cornish coast for forty-one years. He first became known for his work in rescuing and burying the remains of shipwreck victims washed up on the jagged rocks below his church. He was one of the finest poets of his period, and his Arthurian masterpiece, The Quest of the Sangraal, drew from Tennyson the acclamation: "Hawker has beaten me on my own ground." His eccentricity was a by-word. He dressed in claret-coloured coat, blue fisherman's jersey, long sea-boots and pink brimless hat and a yellow cloak. He talked to birds, invited his nine cats into church, and excommunicated one of them when it caught a mouse on a Sunday. Hawker is best known for his ballad about the imprisonment of Bishop Trelawny, The Song of the Western Men. Of this ballad he wrote: The history of that Ballad is suggestive of my whole life. I published it first anonymously in a Plymouth Paper. Everybody liked it. It, not myself, became popular. I was unnoted and unknown. It was seen by Mr Davies Gilbert, President of the Society of Antiquaries, etc., etc., and by him reprinted at his own Private Press at Eastbourne. Then it attracted the notice of Sir Walter Scott, who praised it, not me, unconscious of the Author. Afterwards Macaulay (Lord) extolled it in his History of England. All these years the Song has been bought and sold, set to music and applauded, while I have lived on among these far away rocks unprofited, unpraised and unknown. This is an epitome of my whole life. Others have drawn profit from my brain while I have been coolly relinquished to obscurity and unrequital and neglect. Hawker was never personally given credit in his lifetime for his work although his works were acclaimed and praised he should always be celebrated and his name should never be forgotten by Cornwall.