Robert Morton Nance (1873–1959) was a British writer and leading authority on the Cornish language, a nautical archaeologist, and joint founder of the Old Cornwall Society.
[3] ...even the Handbook did not get me to the stage of attempting to write or speak the language, as the projected book of exercises might have done had it been printed.
[1] In 1909, Nance and Jenner met in Falmouth while the former was researching for the book A Glossary of Cornish Sea Words (published only after his death as a memorial volume in 1959).
A group of young Cornish folk who were politically active joined together to form Cornwall's first national political movement, Tyr ha Tavas (Land and Language), taking Jenner's phrase as their motto to lobby parliament.
Nance commented at the time: The young people of this group are among those who 'see visions' and from the response to their clarion call, there is ground for hoping that they represent a new and growing force which will help to revive in Cornish people a consciousness of their race and destiny, and to create a bond of affinity and unity between the remnants of the Cornish Nation throughout the world.
[1] In 1934, with the death of Henry Jenner, Nance became Bardh Meur or Grand Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh.
Lyver an Pymp Marthus Selevan, a collection of folk tales from the St. Levan parish written to imitate the style of Cornwall's miracle-plays, was published by Nance in 1939.
In 1954, records were produced of Nance reading the story Jowan Chy an Hor, as well as Boorde's Colloquies and the Lord's Prayer.
[1] In 1906, Nance moved from Wales and settled at Nancledra near St Ives, Cornwall from where he jointly founded the Society for Nautical Research in 1911.