Pentreath, Dolly (1685–1777)

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Pentreath, Dolly (1685–1777)

English fishmonger. Name variations: Dorothy Pentreath; Dorothy Jeffery. Born in Mousehole, on Mounti Bay, Cornwall, England, in 1685; died in Mousehole in 1777; married to a man named Jeffery.

Reputed to have been the last person to speak native Cornish, Dolly Pentreath was an itinerant fishmonger and fortuneteller by trade. A monument in her honor was erected in 1860 by Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, although her place in history was later called into question when it was claimed that Bernard Victor (d. 1875) also spoke native Cornish.