Gilbert Hunter Doble (26 November 1880 – 15 April 1945) was an
AnglicanAnglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures...
priestA priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the priesthood, a term which may also apply to such persons collectively.Priests and priestesses...
and
CornishThe Cornish are the people of Cornwall, the most south-westerly part of England, and the United Kingdom. As an ethnic group, the Cornish are interpreted as modern Celts, the lineal descendants of the ancient Britons who inhabited southern and central Great Britain...
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, 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 events in time...
and
hagiographerHagiography is the study of saints. A hagiography, from the Greek and , refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of ecclesiastical and secular leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though...
.
G. H. Doble was born at
PenzancePenzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom.Granted various Royal Charters from 1512 onwards and incorporated in 1614, it has a population of 20,255....
,
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
on 26 November 1880. His father, John Medley Doble shared his enthusiasm for
archaeologyArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
and local studies with his sons . He was a scholar of
Exeter College, OxfordExeter 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.
He was ordained in 1907 and served a long series of incumbents, in various parts of England and Cornwall as assistant
curateFrom the Latin curatus , a curate is a person who is invested with the care, or cure , of souls of a parish. In this sense it correctly means a parish priest. In Anglican churches, however, the term is usually used for an assistant priest or deacon...
.
Gilbert Hunter Doble (26 November 1880 – 15 April 1945) was an
AnglicanAnglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures...
priestA priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the priesthood, a term which may also apply to such persons collectively.Priests and priestesses...
and
CornishThe Cornish are the people of Cornwall, the most south-westerly part of England, and the United Kingdom. As an ethnic group, the Cornish are interpreted as modern Celts, the lineal descendants of the ancient Britons who inhabited southern and central Great Britain...
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, 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 events in time...
and
hagiographerHagiography is the study of saints. A hagiography, from the Greek and , refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of ecclesiastical and secular leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though...
.
Early life
G. H. Doble was born at
PenzancePenzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom.Granted various Royal Charters from 1512 onwards and incorporated in 1614, it has a population of 20,255....
,
CornwallCornwall is a county of England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the...
on 26 November 1880. His father, John Medley Doble shared his enthusiasm for
archaeologyArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
and local studies with his sons . He was a scholar of
Exeter College, OxfordExeter 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
curateFrom the Latin curatus , a curate is a person who is invested with the care, or cure , of souls of a parish. In this sense it correctly means a parish priest. In Anglican churches, however, the term is usually used for an assistant priest or deacon...
. His
Anglo-CatholicThe 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 EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches...
. In 1924, when he spoke publicly on "Re-catholicising Cornwall", a proferred appointment was withdrawn. However, in Autumn 1919, was appointed curate of the
parishA parish is a territorial unit that was usually historically served by a local church. This administrative unit is typically found in Roman Catholic, Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Church of Sweden, United Methodist, and Presbyterian churches...
of
RedruthRedruth is a town and civil parish traditionally in Penwith Hundred of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It lies approximately at the junction of the A393 and A3047 roads, on the route of the old London to Land's End trunk road, the A30. It is approximately west of Truro, east of St Ives, north-east...
in Cornwall and served there until 1925. He then served for almost twenty years as the Vicar of
WendronWendron is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom 3 miles north of Helston. -Church history:The parish of Carnmenellis was formed out of Wendron parish in 1846. The Revd G. H. Doble served for almost twenty years as the Vicar of Wendron...
, also in Cornwall.
In 1935, he was appointed an honorary
canonA canon is a priest who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
of
Truro CathedralThe 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 the period, and is one of only three cathedrals in the United Kingdom with three spires.-...
. During his parochial ministry, he was a great friend of children, especially those deprived of proper care, by familial poverty or the
workhouseUnder the Poor Law systems of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland a workhouse was a place where people who were unable to support themselves could go to live and work. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest reference to a workhouse dates to 1652 in Exeter. There is, however, some written...
.
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 is a term derived from archaeologists' label for the material culture of Britain in Late Antiquity. "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 higher...
and
BrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Brittany was previously a kingdom and then as a duchy it was a fief of the Kingdom of France. It was at one time called Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, in which he gained a
EuropeEurope 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 water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an-wide reputation. He was especially interested in the
medievalThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
vitaeA biography is a description or account of someone's life and the times, which is usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography of a person's life written or told by that same person...
or 'lives', and additional legends, related to the early Christian holy men and women (or '
saintSaints, individuals of exceptional holiness, are significant in many religions, particularly Christianity.-General characteristics :Though the term is mostly used for Christians considered holy or virtuous, many religions use similar concepts to elevate people worthy of respect, e.g. see Hindu...
s') of Cornwall,
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
and of
BrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Brittany was previously a kingdom and then as a duchy it was a fief of the Kingdom of France. It was at one time called 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 HendersonCharles 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 GorsethGorseth 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 nameA 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 CornwallThe 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 MeriasekBeunans Meriasek is a medieval play completed in 1504 that tells the legends of the life of St Meriasek. it was written in the Cornish language. He is the patron saint of Camborne, and according to his legendary will his feast day is the first Friday in June....
since the Reformation in June 1924 (in English translation):. There have since been many acclaimed productions, including those in the original
Cornish languageThe Cornish language is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages. The language continued to function as a community language in parts of Cornwall until the late 18th century, and a process to revive the language was started in the early 20th century, continuing to this day.The revival of...
. Canon Doble's research also led to the revival of the Hal-an-Tow event at the annual
Helston Flora DayThe 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 is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula. It is the most southerly town in the UK, being around 1½ miles south of Penzance. In 2001 the town celebrated the 800th anniversary of the granting of its Charter, making it the...
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 PressThe 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....
.. 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 MuseumThe Royal Cornwall Museum in the city of Truro, England, United Kingdom 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
DubriciusSaint Dubricius was a 6th century Briton ecclesiastic venerated as a saint. He was the and evangelist of Ergyng and much of South-East Wales.-Biography:Dubricius was born in Madley, now located in Herefordshire in England...
,
IltutIlltud , was a Welsh saint, founder and abbot of Llanilltud Fawr in the Welsh county of Glamorgan...
,
PaulinusSaint 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...
,
TeiloSaint Teilo was a leader of the Celtic Christian church in Wales during the 6th century. His exact dates of birth and death are unknown but Penally in Pembrokeshire is considered his birthplace....
and
OudoceusSaint 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 Wikisource
Wikisource is an online library of free content textual sources, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to harbour all forms of free text, in many languages...