Folklorist and poet 1834 - 1920
Margaret Ann Courtney was born into a well-to-do family in Penzance. Her father was a banker, and she had three brothers: one an MP, Baron Courtney of Penzance, the next deputy finance minister of Canada, the third co-compiler of a collection of Cornish literary works ’Bibliotheca Cornubiensis.’ Her younger sister and husband emigrated to New Zealand where he became an MP and Postmaster General. Margaret stayed in Penzance, a spinster, but even better than that Margaret was a folklorist and poet.
She clearly documented Cornish superstitions, customs and traditions, children’s games and dances, charms and spells, songs and ballads, West Cornish dialect words and folktales. She recorded tales, and linked them to places.
The image is from her chapter on Cornish Games in Cornish Feasts and Folklore.
She wrote in a time when many people believed in spells and ghosts (some still do), but acknowledged that even in 1890 'a book on folk-lore cannot in this century cannot contain original matter; it must be compiled from various sources.'
She published articles in the journal of the Folk-Lore Society, a book of Cornish dialect words, a book of Cornish Feasts and Folklore, and poetry in various collections.
Glossary of Words in Use in Cornwall 1880 ( co authored with Thomas Couch, she documented words used in West Cornwall )
‘Cornish Feasts and Feasten Customs.’ Folk-Lore Journal Vol 4 1886
'Cornish Folk-Lore’ Folk-Lore Journal Vol 5 1887
Cornish Feasts and Folk Lore (aka Folklore and Legends of Cornwall) 1890
