65 It has been objected that _Marchadyon_ could not be called the
original form, because by a _carta Alani comitis Britanniæ_, sealed,
according to Dugdale’s _Monasticon Anglicanum_, by Alan, anno
incarnationis domini MCXL., ten shillings per annum were granted to
the monks of St. Michael, due from a fair held at _Merdresem_ or
_Merdresein_. Until, however, it has been proved that _Merdresem_ is
the same place and the same name as _Marchadyon_, or that the latter
sprang from the former, _Marchadyon_ in the charter of Richard, Earl
of Cornwall, 1257, may for our immediate purpose be treated as the
root from which all the other names branched off. See Oliver,
_Monasticon Exon._ p. 32.
66 If a market was held on the “dimidia terræ hida” granted by Robert
to the monks, this difficulty would disappear.
67 In the Additional Supplement (p. 4), Dr. Oliver gives the more
correct reading, “_de Markesiou, de parvo Mercato, Brevannek,
Penmedel, Trewarbene_.” It depends on the comma after _Markesiou_
whether _parvus Mercatus_ is a separate place or not.
68 Dr. Bannister remarks that _Markesion_ occurs as early as 1261, in
the taxation of Bishop Walter Bronescombe, as quoted in Bishop
Stapledon’s register of 1313. If that be so, the original form and
its dialectic varieties would have existed almost contemporaneously,
but the evidence that _Markesion_ was used by Bishop Bronescombe is
indirect. See Oliver, _Monast. Exon._ p. 28.
69 On the termination of the plural in Cornish, see Mr. Whitley
Stokes’s excellent remarks in his edition of _The Passion_, p. 79;
also in Kuhn’s _Beiträge_, iii. 151; and Norris, _Cornish Drama_,
vol. ii. p. 229. My attention has since been called to the fact that
_marhas_ occurs in the plural as _marhasow_, in the _Cornish Drama_,
vol. i. p. 248; and as _s_under such circumstances may become _j_
(cf. _canhasawe_, Creat. line 29, but _canhajowe_, Creat. line 67),
_Marhajow_ would come still nearer to _Market Jew_. Dr. Bannister
remarks that in Armorican, market is _marchad_, plural _marchadou_,
corrupted into _marchajou_.
70 The following note from a Cornish paper gives some important facts
as to the date of the name of _Market Jew_:—
“Among the State Papers at the Record Office, there is a letter from
Ralph Conway to Secretary Cope, dated 3d October, 1634, which
mentions the name of _Market-jew_.
“In another, dated 7th February, 1634-5, Sir James Bagg informs the
Lords of the Admiralty that the endeavors of Mr. Basset, and other
gentlemen in the west of Cornwall, to save the cargo of a wrecked
Spanish galleon which broke from her moorings in Gwavas Lake, near
Penzance, were opposed by a riotous multitude, consisting of the
inhabitants of Mousehole and _Marka-jew_, who maintained their
unlawful proceedings with the cry of ‘One and All!’ threatening with
death the servants of the Crown, and compelling them to avoid their
fury by leaping down a high cliff.
“In another of the same date, from Ralph Bird, of Saltram, to
Francis Basset, the rebels of Mousehole, with their fellow-rebels of
_Market Jew_, are spoken of, as having menaced the life of any
officer who should come to their houses to search for certain hides
that mysteriously disappeared from the deck of the galleon one
boisterous night, and were probably transferred to Mousehole in the
cock-boat of Mr. Keigwin, of that place; and various methods are
suggested for administering punishment to the outrageous barbarians.
“In consequence of these complaints, the Lords of the Admiralty
wrote to Sir Henry Marten, on the 12th of February of the same year,
concerning ‘the insolency’ committed by the inhabitants of Mousehole
and _Markaiew_ requesting that the offenders may be punished, and,
if necessary, the most notorious of them sent to London for trial.
“In _Magna Britannia et Hibernia_, 1720, p. 308, _Merkju_ is
mentioned as being ‘a little market-town which takes its name from
the market on Thursdays, it being a contraction of _Market-Jupiter_,
_i.e._ as ’tis now called _Market Jew_, or rather _Ju_.’
“Norden, who was born about 1548, says in his _Specul. Britanniæ_,
which was published in 1728, that _Marca-iewe_ (_Marca-iew_ in
margin) signifies in English, ‘market on the Thursday.’ In an old
map, apparently drawn by hand, which appears to have been inserted
in this book after it was published, _Market Iew_ is given, and in
the map issued with the book _Market Jew_.
“The map of Cornwall, contained in _Camden’s Britannia_, by Gibson,
1772, gives _Market-Jew_. The edition 1789, by Gough, states at page
3, that ‘_Merkiu_ signifies the _Market of Jupiter_, from the market
being held on a Thursday, the day sacred to Jupiter.’
“Carew’s _Survey of Cornwall_, ed. 1769, p. 156, has the
following:—‘Over against the Mount fronteth a towne of petty
fortune, pertinently named _Marcaiew_, or _Marhas diow_, in English
“the Thursdaies market.” ’ In the edition published in 1811, p. 378,
it is stated in a foot-note that _Marazion_ means ‘market on the
Strand,’ the name being well adapted to its situation, ‘for _Zion_
answers to the Latin _litus_.’ ”