Gilbert Hunter Doble
Encyclopedia
Gilbert Hunter Doble was an Anglican
priest
and Cornish
historian
and hagiographer
.
, Cornwall
on 26 November 1880. His father, John Medley Doble shared his enthusiasm for archaeology
and local studies with his sons. He was a scholar of Exeter College, Oxford
and graduated in modern history in 1903. He attended Ely Theological College.
. His Anglo-Catholic
leanings were a bar to his preferment in the Church of England
. In 1924, when he spoke publicly on "Re-catholicising Cornwall", a proffered appointment was withdrawn. However, in Autumn 1919, was appointed curate of the parish
of Redruth
in Cornwall and served there until 1925. He then served for almost twenty years as the Vicar of Wendron
, also in Cornwall.
In 1935, he was appointed an honorary canon
of Truro Cathedral
. During his parochial ministry, he was a great friend of children, especially those deprived of proper care by familial poverty or the workhouse
.
and Brittany
, in which he gained a Europe
an-wide reputation. He was especially interested in the medieval
vitae
or 'lives', and additional legends, related to the early Christian holy men and women (or 'saint
s') of Cornwall, Wales
and of Brittany
. The fruit of his research was published between 1923 and 1945 in a collection of forty-eight booklets known as the 'Cornish Saints Series'. The later issues (from 1928) include historical commentaries by Charles Henderson
. They have since been republished in book-form but without the Henderson commentaries: this edition was edited by Donald Attwater and appeared in 5 volumes published by the Dean and Chapter of Truro, 1960-1970. Until Orme's Saints of Cornwall was published in 2000, they were the most thorough, scholarly and reliable works available on the subject.
Canon Doble's primary sources were far from easy to interpret: his booklets include summaries of the content or translations of the most significant of them. D. Simon Evans states in his introductory essay to Doble's Lives of the Welsh saints:
Canon Doble also collected Cornish folklore and folksong. In 1928 he was made a Bard of the Cornish Gorseth
, taking the Bardic name
Gwas Gwendron ('Servant of Gwendron') and received the Jenner medal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall
. He was responsible for the first performance of the Cornish miracle play Beunans Meriasek
since the Reformation in June 1924 (in English translation):. There have since been many acclaimed productions, including those in the original Cornish language
. Canon Doble's research also led to the revival of the Hal-an-Tow event at the annual Helston Flora Day
.
in Cornwall on 15 April 1945. He was buried in the Churchyard of Wendron Parish Church.
. In addition to the Cornish Saints Series (reprinted by the Llanerch Press), there was also a series of histories of Cornish parishes. His personal library, including manuscript diaries, is at the Courtney Library, Royal Cornwall Museum
, Truro
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
and Cornish
Cornish people
The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and hagiographer
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
.
Early life
G. H. Doble was born at PenzancePenzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...
, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
on 26 November 1880. His father, John Medley Doble shared his enthusiasm for archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
and local studies with his sons. He was a scholar of Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
and graduated in modern history in 1903. He attended Ely Theological College.
Service as an Anglican priest
He was ordained in 1907 and served a long series of incumbents, in various parts of England and Cornwall as assistant curateCurate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...
. His Anglo-Catholic
Anglo-Catholicism
The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestant, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
leanings were a bar to his preferment in the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
. In 1924, when he spoke publicly on "Re-catholicising Cornwall", a proffered appointment was withdrawn. However, in Autumn 1919, was appointed curate of the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of Redruth
Redruth
Redruth is a town and civil parish traditionally in the Penwith Hundred in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It has a population of 12,352. Redruth lies approximately at the junction of the A393 and A3047 roads, on the route of the old London to Land's End trunk road , and is approximately west of...
in Cornwall and served there until 1925. He then served for almost twenty years as the Vicar of Wendron
Wendron
Wendron is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles north of Helston.The Revd G. H. Doble served for almost twenty years as the Vicar of Wendron . Langdon recorded the existence of eight stone crosses in the parish, including two at Merther Uny...
, also in Cornwall.
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
of Truro Cathedral
Truro Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Truro is an Anglican cathedral located in the city of Truro, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. It was built in the Gothic Revival architectural style fashionable during much of the nineteenth century, and is one of only three cathedrals in the United Kingdom...
. During his parochial ministry, he was a great friend of children, especially those deprived of proper care by familial poverty or the workhouse
Workhouse
In England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...
.
Historical work on Cornish studies
In between ministering to the needs of his parishioners, Canon Doble pursued a life-long study of sub-Roman Celtic BritainSub-Roman Britain
Sub-Roman Britain is a term derived from an archaeological label for the material culture of Britain in Late Antiquity: the term "Sub-Roman" was invented to describe the potsherds in sites of the 5th century and the 6th century, initially with an implication of decay of locally-made wares from a...
and Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, in which he gained a Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an-wide reputation. He was especially interested in the medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
vitae
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
or 'lives', and additional legends, related to the early Christian holy men and women (or 'saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s') of Cornwall, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and of Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
. The fruit of his research was published between 1923 and 1945 in a collection of forty-eight booklets known as the 'Cornish Saints Series'. The later issues (from 1928) include historical commentaries by Charles Henderson
Charles G. Henderson
Charles Gordon Henderson was a historian and antiquarian of Cornwall.Charles Henderson's only quarrel with Cornwall was that it had given him no more than a quarter of his blood. His father, Major J. S. Henderson, was half Scottish and half of the Irish family of Newenham: his mother was a...
. They have since been republished in book-form but without the Henderson commentaries: this edition was edited by Donald Attwater and appeared in 5 volumes published by the Dean and Chapter of Truro, 1960-1970. Until Orme's Saints of Cornwall was published in 2000, they were the most thorough, scholarly and reliable works available on the subject.
Canon Doble's primary sources were far from easy to interpret: his booklets include summaries of the content or translations of the most significant of them. D. Simon Evans states in his introductory essay to Doble's Lives of the Welsh saints:
“It is hardly necessary to dwell here on the value and significance of these lives. We may regard them as religious romances or novels, and as is generally agreed, they were written to enhance the cause of the church or parochia, whose freedom and independence was not infrequently threatened at this time. In no sense are they “historical”; indeed they have more to offer the student of social anthropology and primitive religion .Much of what they contain is pure imagination, mingled and blended with myth, folklore and legend. But, as Doble reminds us, “Legend is history, in the sense that the legends and traditions of a people are part of its history”.
Canon Doble also collected Cornish folklore and folksong. In 1928 he was made a Bard of the Cornish Gorseth
Gorseth Kernow
Gorseth Kernow is a non-political Cornish organisation, which exists to maintain the national Celtic spirit of Cornwall in the United Kingdom.-History:...
, taking the Bardic name
Bardic name
A bardic name is a pseudonym, used in Wales, Cornwall and Brittany, by poets and other artists, especially those involved in the eisteddfod movement....
Gwas Gwendron ('Servant of Gwendron') and received the Jenner medal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall
Royal Institution of Cornwall
The Royal Institution of Cornwall was founded in Truro, Cornwall, United Kingdom, in 1818 as the Cornwall Literary and Philosophical Institution. The Institution was one of the earliest of seven similar societies established in England and Wales. The RIC moved to its present site in River Street...
. He was responsible for the first performance of the Cornish miracle play Beunans Meriasek
Beunans Meriasek
Beunans Meriasek is a Cornish play completed in 1504. Its subject is the legends of the life of Saint Meriasek or Meriadoc, patron saint of Camborne, whose veneration was popular in Cornwall, Brittany, and elsewhere...
since the Reformation in June 1924 (in English translation):. There have since been many acclaimed productions, including those in the original Cornish language
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
. Canon Doble's research also led to the revival of the Hal-an-Tow event at the annual Helston Flora Day
Furry Dance
The Furry Dance, also known as The Flora , takes place in Helston, Cornwall, and is one of the oldest British customs still practised today...
.
Death
Canon Doble died at HelstonHelston
Helston is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula approximately 12 miles east of Penzance and nine miles southwest of Falmouth. Helston is the most southerly town in the UK and is around further south than...
in Cornwall on 15 April 1945. He was buried in the Churchyard of Wendron Parish Church.
Manuscripts and publications
His work on the Lives of the Welsh Saints has been collected into one volume and is currently available from the University of Wales PressUniversity of Wales Press
The University of Wales Press was founded in 1922 as a central service of the University of Wales. It publishes academic journals and around sixty books a year in the English and Welsh languages, based around a core of six subjects: History; Political Philosophy and Religious Studies;Welsh and...
. In addition to the Cornish Saints Series (reprinted by the Llanerch Press), there was also a series of histories of Cornish parishes. His personal library, including manuscript diaries, is at the Courtney Library, Royal Cornwall Museum
Royal Cornwall Museum
The Royal Cornwall Museum is a museum in the city of Truro, Cornwall, England. It is the oldest museum in Cornwall and the leading museum of Cornish culture. Its exhibits include minerals, an unwrapped mummy and objects relating to Cornwall’s unique culture...
, Truro
Sources
Note on Malcolm Scott: This is a personal account of Canon Doble, "not a biography". The author, Malcom Scott, when he was a lad, was befriended by Canon Doble.- Thomas, Charles Canon Doble: an appreciation, fifty years on: Address by Professor Thomas in Wendron Parish Church April 30, 1995 (Typescript copy at the Courtney Library, Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro). Note: The book covers Saints DubriciusDubriciusSaint Dubricius was a 6th century Briton ecclesiastic venerated as a saint. He was the evangelist of Ergyng and much of South-East Wales.-Biography:Dubricius was the illegitimate son of Efrddyl, the daughter of King Peibio Clafrog of Ergyng...
, IltutIlltudIlltyd , was a Welsh saint, founder and abbot of Llanilltud Fawr in the Welsh county of Glamorgan...
, PaulinusPaulinus of WalesSaint Paulinus of Wales was a late 5th century Welsh holyman, revered as a saint in Carmarthenshire.Paulinus lived as a hermit and teacher at a place usually identified as Whitland , Carmarthenshire, south-west Wales. There he was the tutor of both Saint David and Saint Teilo. He founded churches...
, Teilo and OudoceusOudoceusSaint Oudoceus or Saint Euddogwy is generally known as the third Bishop of Llandaff. In reality, he was probably a 7th century 'Bishop of Teilo' based at Llandeilo Fawr...
. Each study was originally published as a separate booklet
External links
- English Translation of Beunans Meriasek on WikisourceWikisourceWikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has...