THE SALAMANCA CORPUS:

DIGITAL ARCHIVE OF ENGLISH DIALECT TEXTS

CORNWALL

DING 2022: "She signed her only published work as "Elfin." The information about her comes from Courtney and Boase. First in their section on Cornwall  in Skeat and Nodal 1877: 27. "(daughter of Mr Verrall of Lewes) b. Worthing. "  and then in vol. 2 of their Bibliotheca Cornubiensis,  "VERRALL, MISS GEORGIANA (dau. of Will. Verral of Lewes, Sussex.) b. Worthing. Mistress of the Endowed sch. Crowan; Governess to the family of the rev. Vernon Page, R. of St. Tudy." (Courtney and Boase 1878: 822).  A thorough search of census records and genealogical databases suggests that part of this information is wrong. The daughter of Mr. (William) Verrall of Lewes was born in Lewes (not in Worthing) on April, 26th, 1831. She married Parker George Synot on Oct. 9th 1856. Courtney and Boase always refer to our authoress as "MISS" and by the time she published her Cornish tale the Lewes born Georgiana had been married for six years. Apparently she came from a well-off family. Her mother died in 1873 and left in her will close to £ 5,000. Nevertheless, we have found a Georgiana Verral, born in Worthing, Sus., c 1837, who, indeed, appears in the 1861 census as unmarried, 24 years old, National School Teacher, living in Crowan, Cor. , where she is Head of the Churchtown School. In the Census Records for 1871 and 1881 she is still unmarried, living in St. Tudy, Cor., at the home of  Rev. Vernon Page (1818-1885), a widower with two children, Vernon Francis (1860-1944). and Anne May (1861-?).  Whereas there is no further information after 1881 about the daughter, the son is listed in 1929 as unmarried, retired barrister, living in Wadebridge, Cor., with a housekeeper. We have been unable to find any other reliable information about our writer."

In the Royal Cornwall Gazette  for 17th Jan. 1862: 4, we have found the first advertisement for her tale (see Gallery)

WORKS

1862. A Cornish Ghost Story. A Night's Adventures at the Devil's Stile, of Jacky Trevose and Mary Trevean". Truro: James R. Netherton. SC. EDD.

NOT IN KINGKONG PROJECT

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT HER LIFE AND WORKS SEE

Courtney, William Prideaux and George Clement Boase. 1878. Bibliotheca Cornubiensis, A Catalogue of the Writings, both manuscript and printed, of Cornishmen, and of works relating to the county of Cornwall, with biographical memoranda and copious literary references. vol. 2. London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer: 822

Cushing, William. 1885. Initials and Pseudonyms: A Dictionary of Literary Disguises. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell and Co: 88

Courtney, William Prideaux and George Clement Boase. "Cornwall" in W. W. Skeat, W. and J. H. Nodal. eds. A Bibliographical List of the Works that have been published or are known to exist in MS. illustrative of the various dialects of English. London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Trübner & Co.: 19-28.

GALLERY

Copyright © 2022- DING, María F.García-Bermejo Giner, The Salamanca Corpus, Universidad de Salamanca

Georgiana Verral

Ps. Elfin

(c 1837-?)