A group of 51 records, in Latin and Old English, of grants and manumission, the freeing of slaves, at Bodmin, Cornwall. These records were added to blank spaces and additional leaves of a gospel manuscript, the Bodmin Gospels (BL MS Add. 9381), over a period stretching from about the mid-10th to 11th centuries. They form an important source of information about social history and onomastics. The majority of personal names are Old English, while others are Latin and Old Cornish, making it one of the earliest witnesses of the Cornish language to survive.
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A short letter dated 3 July 1776 and written by fisherman William Bodinar to the antiquary Daines Barrington, who had apparently inquired after the state of the Cornish language. The letter is partly bilingual, providing 12 lines in Cornish, along with English renderings. Although he was not a native speaker, Bodinar relates that he was a boy when he learnt it (Me rig deskey Cornoack termen me vee mawe) from fishermen with whom he went out to sea and that he is still a competent speaker. He also observes that in his day, there are no more than four or five Cornish speakers in his town (Mousehole).
Anglo-Saxon charter in Latin, with English bounds, according to which King Æthelstan (r. 924-939) granted some land to the church of St Buryan, Cornwall. In its received form the document is not authentic, but a genuine basis has been suggested for several of its features (Olson). The date given is 6 October, 943 (sic), and the meeting is said to have taken place at Kingston-on-Thames (Kyngeston), Surrey.
Charter relating to a grant of land at Lanlowren (probably Lanlawren in Lanteglos, Cornwall), from one Maenchi son of Pretnigor, comes, to [the community of] St Heldenus, with a confirmation by King Æthelstan (r. 924-939). The record is attested as a copy in an 15th-century cartulary of Athelney abbey. O. Padel suggests that Heldenus, previously interpreted as St Æthelwin, probably represents the local Cornish saint St Hyldren.
