Corn Place Names

CORNAY IN EUROPE

Settlements in what is now Belgium and northern France had identical or very similar names to Cornay, i.e. 1. Cornet (and nearby Ferme Cornet) in Hainaut on the border with France and 2. Cornay, also on the French border at Ardennes to the east on the borders of Champagne and Lorraine.  Cornay in Ardennes department Grand Est belonged in full fief of the king - it became a barony in 1508.  A strongly-defended castle was built on high points along a long spur of land c. 1000 AD by the Counts of Grandpré.  It was part of the network of castles defending France from neighbouring kingdoms.  Incidentally, the Belgian beer La Corne du Bois des Pendu's gained its name from the nearby 'horn-shaped wood of the hangman'.   The brewery at Ebly, Province of Hainaut, has its own annual celebration, Les Corneries, in mid-August.

The Duchy of Bar was a francophone and culturally French region whose counts were involved in French politics just across the border.  Bar was a de facto autonomous state sitting between France and Germany.  Grandpré is only 5 miles from Cornay.  The castle's situation in the landscape is similar to that of Montcornet in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France sixty miles to the northwest - it being another medieval castle built upon a spur of land.  There is a letter from Henry Count of Grandpré here.  The count confirms the fiefs he holds in 1216 - the 'lord of Cornay' is named as holding a fief from him.  The area was then known as its ancient name of Quarnay (Latin: Quarnaium, Quarnacum, Carnaium, Cornacium).  In The History of Verdun by Canon Roussel, Cornay is described as an eleventh century Castrum Oppidum (Castle Town).  The castle, occupied by members of the House of Quarnay, was made up of several forts sited on top of the promontory:

Champs-Crochets, the Vieux-Château, the Grand-Bel ​​and the Petit-Bel; all separated by deep trenches, dug in the stone, and communicating by underground passages and drawbridges. Naturally inaccessible, almost from all sides, by the disposition of the ground, the castle had access, if not by posterns, only to the west on the side of the forest, and there it was defended by high walls and wide ditches., link

As a result of its proximity to the border at the eastern extremity of the medieval Kingdom of France, Cornay was within Lorraine for a time (Thiebaut II, Count of Bar held the fief of Cornay) from the mid-to-late thirteenth century.  Lorraine was then a member state of the Holy Roman Empire but Cornay returned to the Counts of Grandpré in 1301.  Cornay was once a 'sirerie'.  The title of sire was attached not only to the person but also to the fief - the seigniory and the land of the lord who had the title of sire was called sirerie - the term surpassed that of lord, link.  The Lords of Cornay were benefactors of the abbey of Chéhéry, a Cistercian house like the ones in Yorkshire founded by Roger de Mowbray and those in Scotland founded by David I.  A Gothic-style chapel was founded at the Vieux-Chateau part of the fortress in 1211 by Eudes (Odo Dominus de Quarnaco), knight, sire de Quarnay and Agnès his wife who placed it under the patronage of the abbot of Chéhéry.  

The arms of Quarnay on Eudes' seal (legend: Sigillum odonis de Carnaio) were nine rings (annulets) in three groups of three.  Beryl Platts suggests that annulets are rare in heraldry and are representations of finger rings that indicate an office or rank - a badge of authority.  Access to the chapel was gained from the keep by an underground staircase descending in a spiral to a postern opening opposite the gate.  

Knight Sire Milo de Cornay was the son of Eudes and Agnès and a charter of Milo de Cornay from 1219 exists, link.  Sire Miles de Cornay's name is phonetically almost identical to that of his contemporary, the prior of St Germains, Tranent, Scotland, Sir Miles Cornet (Milone Corneht).  See this page for extended notes on that family.  Miles Cornet in Scotland witnessed a charter of Roger de Quincy in 1222.  Both men also appear to have had sons named John.  The first-recorded member of the Lords of Quarnay was:

Vidon or Guy [Guido de Quarnacio, from a French form of the Germanic personal name Wido] de Quarnay, knight, who subscribed in 1052 to a charter of Godefroi IV Duke of Lower Lorraine known as the Great for the settlement of the sub-devotees of the churches of Verdun, and in particular of that of Montfaucon. He was still living in the year 1096., link

CORNAY IN ENGLAND

The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, Patrick Hanks, Richard Coates, Peter McClure, 2016 lists John and Thomas Cornay (1301 Subsidy Rolls) under their entry for the Corney surname.  They also state that the locative name Corney was sometimes pronounced Cornah, Corner, Cornall, Gorney and Gornall.  The following places might be the source of various 'corn'-derived locational surnames:

Above, Ordnance Survey map of 1888 showing Corner Hall and Corner Row, Fylde, Lancashire, National Library of Scotland, link, an extract from The Place-Names of Lancashire, Eilert Ekwall, The University of Manchester, 1922, link

CORNEY, LANCASHIRE

1. Corney/Cornay, a now lost village three miles northwest of Kirkham, Borough of Fylde, Lancashire.  This place in Greenhalgh, east of Blackpool, was variously recorded as Cornoe/Cornay/Corney/Corner Row.  Most of Corner Row has been dug up and covered by the Preston Northern Bypass but earthworks around Corner Hall look to have survived as a campsite.  It is about 116 miles southwest of where the Cornay family are first recorded in thirteenth century records of northeast Yorkshire.  The original name in 1189 was Cornege.  Corney was located in a bend in the course of Thistleton Brook that might have given the land within the loop the appearance of an island (island names ending in -aigh, -ey, -ay and -a are of Norse origin, reflecting the Norse word for island, øy).  Therefore the name Cornege/Cornoe might mean 'the island at the bend (corn) in the river' or possibly Korni's island, Korni being a Scandinavian personal name or nickname.  An íkorni is a red squirrel in Old Norse, so Korni/Kornay could also potentially mean squirrel's island.  Corner Row probably derives from there being a row of houses located northwest of Corney/Cornay in the fifteenth century.  A family bearing the name de Cornai/de Cornay/de Corney is said to descend there from a man named Magnus, born in about 1070.  Little is known about him but he and his son Orm have Scandinavian names.  Orm was born c. 1096, flourished c. 1130-1159, he married Alice Walter.  Orm held land in Heaton and Hutton, and by marriage in Rawcliffe, Thistleton and Greenhalgh (all in Lancashire).  The earliest dated record of Orm son of Magnus, between 1146 and 1153, has him witnessing a grant made by the nephew of the King of Scotland.  Orm's son, Warin born c. 1130, flourished 1150-c. 1160, had two sons, Roger (aka Fergus) born c. 1150 and Adam de Corney born c. 1160,  link.

Township of Corney in Cumbria highlighted in blue, above. Ordnance Survey Map 1888, National Library of Scotland, showing location of Corney Hall and nearby Seaton Hall, link

CORNEY, CUMBRIA

2. Corney,/Cornay/Cornea is on a 80m high hill near Millom/Millum in southwest Cumbria.  If you sailed directly west from the nearby Cumbrian coast across the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man you would find yourself on the pebble-strewn shoreline of Port Cornaa, pronounced 'Cornay'.  See more about Cornay on the Isle of Man below.  Corney in Cumbria is about 130 miles due west of where Cornays first appear in the records of Langbaurgh, Cleveland.  Cumbria was relatively untouched by the Norman Harrying of the North that depopulated much of neighbouring North Yorkshire in 1069-70.  The two regions were linked by an ancient route that is followed today by the Coast to Coast Walk.  Whitby Abbey, on top of its North Sea headland, is 22 miles east of Guisborough Priory and also had connections to the religious houses in Cumbria, over on the west coast of England.  Although in Cumbria, Corney was in the diocese of York.  Given Miles Cornet of Tranent's network and their connections between Cleveland, Cumbria and Scotland at that time, Corney Hall and the manor of Corney in Cumbria, one mile from Seaton Hall and priory, might have gained its name from a not-too-distant Cornet paternal ancestor in the early-1100s.  

'Corney is called also Cornhow and Corno', link.  This place name could derive from a memory of a Korni's burial mound (howe in local dialect from Old Norse), as in the occurrence in Korni's How in Iceland, above.  Alternatively, the 'ey' part of the name might be the Eastern Old Norse: høi (hill, height), or even ay meaning stream/water, as in Corna in Isle of Man, see below.  See English Place-Names from a Scandinavian Perspective, Martin Kahnberg, 2020, pdf.  The 'Corn' element is perhaps more likely to simply relate to the 80m high hill that the howe was situated on.  Corney is not mentioned in the Domesday entry for Bootle.  In his edition of The St Bees Register (p . 114) Canon Wilson says:

'It is probable that the heirs of Orm son of Roger who gave his Share in Corney church to St  Bees in the 12th century adopted the name of Corney' and 'Over the door of what was probably the tithe barn is a thirteenth century grave cover which once covered a de Corney.' 

After 1130 a Copsi is named as lord of the manor of Corney.  Copsi built St John's church there in about 1150 (1147-1153) and later gave land at Corney to St. Bees monastery.  About thirty years afterwards his gift was confirmed by Roger his son.  Copsi’s daughter, and possibly his heiress, Christina de Coupland, married a Waldeve/Waltheof (de Pennington?) in the late-twelfth century (Canon Wilson, St Bees Register p.113).  'Copsi’s daughter Christina had married a certain Waltheof, who may well have been the otherwise obscure Waltheof of Pennington. Copsi granted the church to St Bees and this was confirmed by his son and grandson, but also by Benedict of Pennington.', link.

Prince Henry of Scotland (1114–1152) was the son of David I and Maud de Lens.  He was therefore closely related to the Seatons (descendants of Count Lambert de Lens who changed their name to Seaton, the name of the sea port in Yorkshire, before 1100), as well as to William the Conqueror through Maud's mother, Judith de Lens (c. 1054-1086), his niece.  The family set up religious institutions in Cumbria, including monasteries at Holmcultram and St Bees.  The Seton family name was taken to Cumbria and Scotland in the company of King David, Maud, Prince Henry and the de Bruses.

Our Corner family lived near to, and possibly (anecdotal local history) had connections with, the Seton family of Seaton, Staithes, North Yorkshire.  As mentioned, the Setons were friends and Flemish kinsmen of both the de Bruses in their barony of Cleveland and the de Quincys in Lothian and were probably living in northeast Yorkshire at Seaton Hall just before Robert de Brus arrived in the early-1100s.  Seton family members went from Yorkshire to Rutland/Huntingdonshire where, at their manor named Seton, kinswoman Maud de Lens lived before marriage to David I of Scotland.  There is a cluster of early-sixteenth century Corner surnames in Rutland.  Robert Corner, born about 1539 in Hambleton, Rutland, married Jone Greye on 10th November 1564 at Hambleton.  Corners are also found nearby in Leicestershire.  William le Corner, senior and junior, were amerced in 1206-7.  William Cornar[ius] was supervisor of carpenters in Nottingham castle in 1213-14, and of building operations there in 1218-19.  As mentioned, Henry of Scotland, son of Maud, took the Seaton place name northwest to Cumbria.  That Seaton Hall is just one mile down the road from Corney Hall at Millom, Cumbria.  'The nunnery of Seton occupied a picturesque position on the northern boundary of the parish of Bootle beneath the rising grounds of Corney.', link.  Seaton Hall in Cumbria is on the same site as the ruins of Seaton Priory, founded in the late-twelfth century.  These locations and coincidences, i.e. Seton-Staithes in Yorkshire, Seton in East Lothian, Scotland, Seaton in Rutland and Seaton Hall in Millom, Cumbria potentially highlight some forgotten affiliation between Seton and Cornay/Cornet families.  Margaret de Brus, the third sister of Peter III de Brus who died without heirs, married Robert de Ross and inherited the de Brus barony of Kendall after 1272.

'On Oct. 12, 1305, Richard Oysel, the Escheator ultra, was ordered to hand over to Christopher de Seton the vills of Gamelesby and Unthank in Cumberland, which his father, John de Seton, had granted in tail to Robert de Brus and Christiana, his wife, who had died without heirs [Ibid., 33 Edw. I., m. 2). According to the inquisition relating to his Cumberland property, which was taken on Friday after the Nativity of the Blessed Mary, 27 Edw. I. (11 Sept., 1299), John Seton held one third of the manor of Skelton in chief by the service of cornage, and another third by a rent of 26s. and homage and fealty. Christopher Seton married a sister of King Robert Bruce, and was ancestor of the Setons, afterwards Earls of Winton and Eglinton.' Yorkshire Inquisitions, link.

Another village named Seaton is in Allerdale in the northwest of Cumbria - the Seaton near Corney is in the southwest of the county.  Lord Orm de Workington (Fitz Ketel) b. c. 1075, d. after 1115, was made Lord of Seton in Allerdale in about 1100.  Orm's father, Ketel  FitzEldred "Taillebois" de Kendal, 3rd Baron Of Kendal, was born before 1070 in Workington, Cumberland, England, and died 1120-1150 in either Kendal, Westmoreland, England or Seton, Scotland, link.  Pedigrees at this time are confused.  Some speculate that Orm's paternal ancestor was Ivo/Ives de Taillebois, who was married to Judith de Lens, mother of Maud, King David I's wife.  Others have Orm's great grandfather Eldred marrying a daughter of Ivo de Taillebois.  Ivo's father was Reinfrid, the Norman knight who rebuilt Whitby Abbey and became its first prior after the Norman Conquest.  Orm's family witnessed charters of David I and his son Henry relating to Holm Cultram Abbey.  Orm's son, Gospatric Fitz Orm issued a charter to St. Bees Priory sometime in the period 1138-1157.  As Seaton in Allerdale is over one mile from the sea, the origin of the name is not necessarily 'sea town'.  Considering the potential family ties to the maternal line of the de Lens family, Seaton in Allerdale might be another of the many places in the north of England and Scotland with connections to the the Seaton/de Lens family and the Scottish royal family.  The more prominent landed families concerned were mixing in the same circles.

There may well be several different people who adopted the name de Corney after moving to the manor at different times.  It appears that after the potential ending of the male line descended from Copsi in Corney in the late-1100s (his daughter Christina de Copeland inherited the land and married a de Pennington); some accounts say the Manor of Corney later belonged to a Michael le Falconer who held a feoffment there in the reigns of King John and Henry III (1199-1272) and whose descendants also adopted the name de Corney.  In 1190-1200 a Henry son of Ketel de Corney gave land 'between the two Corneys' to the bretheren of Cockersand Abbey. That  family 'retained possession until the reign of Henry III [1216-1272], when, through failure of male issue, the estates were carried by the marriage of the heiress to a member of the Penningtons of Muncaster family. It is possible that this unknown heiress of Corney married Alan de Pennington who died in 1255. From them it has descended to the current Lord Muncaster who is also the Lord of the manor of Corney and Middleton Place.',  link.  

There is a 'de Cornay' family living at Whitbeck, 6 miles south of Corney, in the mid-1200s.  Edward de Cornay was seneschal (steward) of Millom Castle, located about 5 miles south of Whitbeck, in the 1250s.  In the late-1200s a gift to St Bees priory of land by Agnes de Cornay was witnessed by a group of eight witnesses  including Robert de Harrington, William de Boyvill, William de Thwaites and William de Waberthwaite.  In Feet of Fines for Cumberland, John de Neuton and John son of Richard de Cornay; one-third of two parts of the manor of Cornay, which Olive widow of Richard de Cornay held as dower.  28th year of Edward II (1322).

Above, Google Earth view, Lidar map of the area and Ordnance Survey map of 1888 showing Cornsay, Durham. National Library of Scotland, link

CORNSAY, DURHAM

3. Cornsay is a village/manor about seven miles west of Durham in the ancient parish of Lanchester.  At  just over 40 miles northwest of Guisborough, Cleveland, in northeast England, it is much closer to where the Cleveland Cornays are first recorded than the two other Corneys in the northwest of England.  The lost medieval settlement, located by the medieval Settlement Research Group, looks to be west and southwest (earthworks visible on Lidar maps) of the former Black Horse Inn partially and covered by new houses and farm buildings.  There are several instances of people with the Corney and Corner surname in the old records of County Durham.  This website suggests that the name derives from a crane or heron (a metathesized form of 'cran, cron') and hōh (Old English for a sharply projecting piece of ground).  However, the old manor was first recorded in 1183 as Corneshowe and I think, as in Corney in Cumbria above, that this place name might derive from a burial mound (howe) located on a projecting tongue of land - i.e. the 'howe on the corn', or possibly Korni's howe.  Burial mounds were often built on high points in the landscape and Cornsay is on the highest point (260-270 metres/870 feet) of a relatively flat area on top of a long ridge of land.  

The land there later looks to have been part of the manor belonging to the de Esh family who were prominent in the affairs of the Palatinate of Durham.  From an entry in the Boldon Buke dated the 1st of November, the eighteenth of Henry VI (1440), 'The manor of Esh and lands there were held of the bishop by military service, and the lands in Corneshowe were held of Johan countess of Westmoreland' (Joan Beaufort (c. 1379 – 13 November 1440), link.  A Robert de Corneshowe from 1303 is mentioned in the Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense: The Register of Richard de Kellawe, Lord Palatine and Bishop of Durham, 1311-1316, link.  There is also a mention there of Adam de Corunshow (Corneshowe), ordained at Durham in 1335.  A mention of a priest called Thomas Cornay is found in a Will in The Durham clergy of the early sixteenth century 1494-1540, LM Stevens, 1979, '10 April 1522, in the will of John Trollop of Thornley, Squyer: 'Also I bequeath to Sir Thomas Cornay iij to sing for me for two years if the same Sir Thomas so long live.', pdf.

There is a likelihood that the several Corner/Cornay clusters once shared a paternal common ancestor, or two, who lived a few centuries beforehand.  Unfortunately that is before parish records were kept.  There were also several sixteenth century Corner/Cornor families in south and eastern County Durham just to the north of Cleveland across the River Tees - in an area that broadly corresponds with the ancient lordship of Sadberge:

The boundaries are now uncertain, but it included Hart, with Hartlepool, and the barony of Gainford., link

The same landowning de Brus, Balliol and Seton families living south of the River Tees had ties with the lordship of Sadberge to the north of it.  Sadberge had an hereditary coroner whose office was tied to the holding of land.:

In 1377 John Waryn died seised of a hundred acres and three messuages in Sadberge, held by homage, fealty, and by performing the office of Coroner in the County of Sadberge., link

In 1313 the Bishop of Durham ordered John, in the name of the king and himself, to forbid an illegal tournament planned to be held by knights at Darlington, link

Image above: Jon Wornham / Port Cornaa - Isle of Man, link

CORNAY, ISLE OF MAN

4. The surnames & place-names of the Isle of Man, A. W. MOORE, M.A, 1890, link, notes:

'Cornay, or Corna (Corn-a), 'Corn-water' and Corrony, a corruption of Cornay. There is a stone circle near Cornay, the remains of which cover an area of sixty-five feet by sixty-three feet. 

A stone, with the following inscription, has recently been discovered by Mr. P. M. C. Kermode, at Cabbal Keeill Woirrey on Corna: Ki : KrisJ) : Malaki : Ok Bajjrik : ApANMAN : Unal : SauJjar : Iuan : Risti : I : KuRNAdAL. '(Here lie in) Christ Malachi and Patrick Adanman O'Neil. Sheep's John carved (this) in Cornadale.'* 

Also in CORNAMA (ob.) (Korn-hammarr), 'Corn Crag', now corrupted into CORDEMAN. There have been corn-mills on the CORNAY stream from time immemorial. [Kornsa, Iceland; Cornabus, Islay ;Cornquoy, Orkney; Cornaig, Tyree.]

* Reading and translation of inscription by Mr. P. M. C. Kermode.'  Mr. Kermode was a Manx antiquarian, historian and naturalist, link.

The hamlet and lands of Cornay (1511, Man. Roll), now known as Corrany, are just south of Ramsey on the northeast of the large island located in the middle of the Irish Sea.  The old place name Corna, as in Corna valley (Old Norse: Kornadalr), in Maughold parish, is pronounced 'Cornay' with the accent on the second syllable, link.  The name Cornaa, from the nearby Port Cornaa, is of Scandinavian origin.  Maughold parish, extending between the Dhoon and Ramsey, contains many Old Norse place names, link.  Cornay on the Isle of Man and Corney in Cumbria face each other directly across the Irish Sea - on the same latitude about 40 miles apart - so perhaps there is an old connection between the two places given the strong historical links along the ancient maritime route between England and Ireland via the halfway 'stepping stone' of the Kingdom of Mann.  Sea travellers between the Viking Kingdoms of York and Dublin passed through and stopped off here.  Archaeological evidence (including jet beads belonging to the c. 950 'Pagan Lady' burial) suggests that when the vikings lost York in 944 Northumbrians found their way to the island.  There were also maritime connections with Normandy. 

 In 944  King Edmund of England had expelled Norse leaders from York and Northumbria and several, including Harald, may have ended up with their crews off northern France.  Contemporary chronicler, Flodoard of Rheims, called him Hagroldus Nordmannus, qui Baiocis præerat, 'Harold the Norseman who used to lead the people of Bayeux’ (link).  In 954 Hugh the Great campaigned against him in Cotentin and Harold and his family may have then moved north to the Isle of Man region of the Irish Sea to become founders of the Meic Arailt clan.  Harold's son Gofraid would become the first Norse King of the Isles to be recorded in Irish sources and the Meic Arailt (Haraldssons) dynasty went on to compete with their relations, the descendants of Olaf Cuaran (Olafssons) of Dublin, for control of the kingdom that included the Hebrides and Irish Sea.

The Barony Hill, west of Port Cornaa, was once called the Barony of the Hough.  In the twelfth century it belonged to the Priory of St. Bees in Cumbria and the ruined Barony chapel stand on its summit.  The Barony consisted of all the high land from Kione ny Hennyn on the south to the glen of Cornaa, and Rhenab on the north.  The possession of the estate in medieval times entitled the owner to be a Baron of the Isle with the privilege of holding a court of his tenants, link.  The proprietors of the Maughold Barony Lands were the representatives of the few Ancient Freeholders or Barons of the Island.  The Barons included the Bishop of Man, the Abbot of Rushen, the Prioress of Douglas, the Prior of Withorne, in Galloway, the Abbot of Furnace, the Abbot of Bangor, the Abbot of Saball as well as the Prior of St Beade (Bees) in Copeland, link.  The Corna river formed the boundary line between the king's land and the monastery's land.

Above, Maughold Stone I with runic and Ogham inscription.  Philip Moore Callow Kermode (1855 - 1932), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, link

A late runic short-twig inscription was found on a slab of stone near a keeil (chapel) in the upper part of Corna valley.  It is now at Kirk Maughold Church nearby and was used as a grave slab.  The stone known as 'Br Olsen;202B (Maughold (II)' is dated to the second half of the twelfth century.  The translation of the writing on this Wikipedia page gives the' Old Norse transliteration: Kristr, Malaki ok Patrik. Adamnán ... ... ... Jóan prestr í Kornadal.  English translation: 'Christ, Malachi, and Patrick. Adamnán ... Joán the priest in Kornadalr.'  The runemaster named 'Sheep's John' (Old Norse: Sauðar Iuan) was a priest named John.  John is thought to be the same runemaster that carved 'Br Olsen;202A (Maughold (I)', another stone slab used in a grave carved with runes and Ogham script.  That slab is located near Maughold church and the English translation reads, 'Jóan the priest carved these runes. Fuþorkhniastbml'.  An evocative fictional story by P. M. C. Kermode (21 March 1855 – 5 September 1932) about how John the shepherd in Cornaydale came to carve the runes at Corna's keeil can be read here, link.

“Of all the sheep is Juan Priest in Kurna dal.”

Kirk Maughold Church is one of the oldest churches on the Island, dating back to the sixth century, link.  The site on the headland at Maughold was again commissioned as a church by King Olaf I of Mann (Óláfr Guðrøðarson, died 1153).  This was around the same time that John was carving runes in Kornadalr/Cornaydale.  There were close links with churches and monasteries on the mainland in Galloway and Cumbria and from there further connections with those in Yorkshire along the ancient land routes mentioned above.  Perhaps John, the runemaster at Cornay, was a priest from St Bees in Cumbria based at their Barony at Maughold.

'The parish of Maughold on the Isle of Man was once the site of one of the most important religious centers of the island’s early Christian community.  A landmark monastery that housed many Christian monuments from the pre-Norse period had been in existence there no later than the early seventh century (Kinvig 48).  When the Norse invaders and colonists began to convert from their native paganism to the already thriving Christian religion on Man sometime in the tenth century, an interesting mixture of Christian and Norse culture was born (Wilson Viking Age 30)', link.

There are connections between King Óláfr Guðrøðarson and the other contemporary influential 'Norman' families in Cleveland and Scotland already discussed above.  

'Óláfr witnessed a vicious power struggle between his elder brothers in the aftermath of their father's death. At some point, the young Óláfr was entrusted to the care of Henry I, King of England, and like the contemporaneous Scottish monarchs, Alexander I and David I, Óláfr appears to have been a protégé of the English king.', link.  

Óláfr was in the same close-knit Norman court/'school for rulers' as Robert de Brus of Cleveland and King David I of Scotland and was part of the same network.  They and their respective entourages would probably have known each other well.

Back in Cornay, the present day valley known as Glen Cornaa is probably the Cornaydale/Kornadalr mentioned above on the rune stone.  Glen Cornaa's river, 'The Musical Stream', twists south over many waterfalls from the inland heights of Cornay down to the coast and the hidden cove of Port Cornaa, recorded as Portus Corna in 1154.  On a clear day the mountains of Cumbria can be seen due east across the Irish Sea.  There was once a cluster of crofts near the mouth of the river used by the local herring fishing fleet.  The beach there consists of a bank of storm-blown pebbles, or 'beach berm', that dam the stream to form a tidal lagoon at high water, leaving water meadows behind it.  Korni is a known Scandinavian name, it is found as a personal name in the Landnámabók of Iceland, and the Isle of Man was ruled by Scandinavians for many centuries until 1266 when ownership transferred from Norway to Scotland.  Perhaps a man named Korni was an early Scandinavian resident in the area.  As in Laxárdalr in Iceland the 'aa' or 'á' element in Cornaa is Old Norse in origin and relates to water/stream, so Cornaa/'Cornay' could mean Korni's stream or pool.  See also Kornsá in Iceland.  The mills located on the fast-flowing Cornay river in Cornaydale might have given the name to the valley (korn = 'corn, seed or grain').  Cornaa Mill is of great antiquity, being mentioned in the Rent Roll (1513).  Corna beg could be 'little Korni's water', Corna moar 'big Korni's water'.  

The source of Korni's nickname could have been the association with the ancient watermills on his land in Cornaydale.  People from that area might have later gained the Cornay surname.  There are other occurrences of the Corn/Korn name element in the area, like Korn-hammarr (Korni's hammer?) and Corn Crag.  Skillicorne is a Manx surname but possibly has origins in Lancashire where an early family member, William Skillingkorne, lived at Skerton near Lancaster in 1346, link.  That location lies roughly half way between Corney in Cumbria and Corney in Lancashire.  Some propose the name derives from the Irish word skellig, 'sharp splinter of rock'.  Perhaps 'skilli' is combined with the personal name Korni - i.e. Korni's rock etc..  Skyli is a personal name in the Flateyjarbók, a medieval Icelandic manuscript (pdf).  However, in North Yorkshire and northern English dialect a 'scale' or 'scaling' is an isolated shed-like shelter and comes from Old Norse: skýli, so the name could mean 'Korni's shelter' or maybe it simply relates to a shelter where grain was stored.

'The Battle of Ronaldsway took place in 1275 at Ronaldsway in the southern part of the Isle of Man between a Scottish army and the Manx. The battle crushed the final attempt by the Manx to re-establish the Norse Sudreyar dynasty. As the battle resulted in the death of the last Norse King of Mann, Guðrøðr Magnússon, and the emigration to Norway of the remaining members of the Manx royal family, it also led to the firm establishment of Scottish rule on the Isle of Man.', link.

Several Rox2 yDNA matches from different branches with old Manx surnames can trace their earliest origins on the Isle of Man, including Kneen, Faragher, Duggan, Shimmin, Quirk and Kennaugh.  This is probably the highest concentration of Rox2 matches from different branches with different surnames in one small geographical area.  Cornays first appear in written records in Langbaurgh, Cleveland, North Yorkshire soon after King Alexander III of Scotland (1241-1286) took control of the Isle of Man from its previous Norwegian rulers.  Finally, in 1275, the Manx suffered defeat and the death of their king at the decisive Battle of Ronaldsway and some islanders went into exile, link.  Some went to Scandinavia.

Above, Castle Cornet (bottom right of photograph), St Peter Port, Guernsey, link

CORNET, GUERNSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS

5. Guernsey is one of the Channel Islands off the French coast of Normandy, the islands once belonged to the Duchy of Normandy.  Guernsey's capital Saint Peter Port has been guarded by the island fortress of Castle Cornet for 800 years.  The name Cornet might derive from Cor Nez.  A 'nez' in Normandy has the same meaning as 'ness' or 'nab' in Yorkshire - both deriving from 'nose' and used to describe a protruding headland or promontory on the coast.  Gris Nez (Grey Ness) and Blanc Nez (White Ness) are more well-known French examples.  As mentioned, 'Corn' derives from the Latin: cornū, a 'horn'.  The headland name recorded as Cor Nez is pronounced 'Cor Nay' in French.  In the north of Britain a translation of the same location name would be rendered as Horn Ness.  The Cap du Rozel (Cape of Rozel), a peninsular in Manche department on the Normandy mainland near Hauteville, is known to locals as Pou du Rozel or Cor-Nez.  The department's capital was Coutances and it includes the Cotentin Peninsula down to the famous tidal island of Mont St Michel. 

The island on which Castle Cornet was constructed was once tidal, but now a half-mile-long modern concrete causeway, Castle Pier, links it to the mainland.  Before the pier was constructed rising sea levels meant that land access became restricted to very low spring tides.  The tidal range in that part of the Channel is a hefty 40 feet.  In-and-around the Roman era, c. 2000 years ago, the sea level around the Channel Islands would have been much lower than today due to the effects of post-glacial rebound.  More land would have been above the waves then.  Like a gigantic seesaw, the landmass of the northern British Isles was pushed downwards 22,000 years ago by the immense weight of ice during the last glacial period.  The ice melted c. 12,000 years ago and the pressure was rapidly removed.  As the land slowly rebounds back upwards in the north the ancient shorelines there are retreating inland while those in the south of Britain are sinking below the waves.  Large areas of land in the Isles of Scilly have been lost through the same process, a process that continues to this day.  Sea levels in central Britain, at the fulcrum of the seesaw, remain the same.  As a result, sea levels at Whitby in North Yorkshire are about the same as they were at the end of the Ice Age.

Above, drinking horn on display at the National Museum Copenhagen, link

The land bridge connecting the Guernsey mainland to Cornet island might therefore have been more prominent in the past, especially at low tide.  The structure of the band of submerged rock that connects the mainland to the island of Castle Cornet suggest that it could have once been dry land, giving the whole headland the appearance of a horn-shaped peninsular - curving and rising in height from a tapering point near land to a high headland out at sea.  When viewing old maps and aerial photography of the port, while ignoring the modern harbour development, it is possible to imagine how this might have looked as a horn-shaped promontory.  The peninsular curves more sharply southwards and increases in bulk as you near the heights of Castle Cornet.  Vikings, the founders of Normandy, are said to have used the island as a fortified offshore base.  The narrow isthmus that connected it to the mainland would have been easily defended.  Similar examples of their use of isolated coastal landscape features for defensive camps exist elsewhere around the British Isles.  There's a possibility that the headland was named after a viking named Korni as in other place name examples mentioned above, e.g. the promontory's name might translate as Korni's Nez; but the probable appearance of the site in ancient times suggests that the name of the headland is more likely to be the result of a description of the topography in Latin.  The Latin-Norse place name Cor Nez might later have changed subtly over the years to become the similar-sounding francophone name Cornet.  Cap du Rozel, the small peninsular further south in mainland Normandy, is possibly a more likely candidate to have gained its old name Cor-Nez from the personal name Korni - that headland does not look particularly horn-like but, again, its appearance might have altered as sea levels have risen and in any case, 'corn' could be applied to any projecting extremity.  Carneville, or Kernet's ville, is a commune in the Manche department at the end of the Cotentin Peninsular whose name might derive from a personal name, Kernet (Korni?).

Some local history reference suggest that the island and the castle at St Peter Port, Guernsey, were named after a local medieval family called Cornet, there has long been much debate on the landmark's origins.  It is said in island folklore that at the consecration of the church in St Peter Port there were sixteen Cornet brothers present - all the sons of the same father and mother.  A small rectangular chapel on the site of the Town Church is first noted in 1020 but a building probably existed there in the eighth century.  The current church probably dates to the thirteenth century and the town's Cornet Street runs nearby.  A Sire Peter Cornet was Governor of Guernsey in 1167 (Custos insularum) and another Sir Peter Cornet 'who commenced building Castle Cornet' (Le Roy), was Governor of the castle in 1312.  'La Cornetterie' meaning home of the Cornets, is a farm in St Martin parish in the northwest of the neighbouring Channel Island of Jersey and there is a Rue du Conet (Cornet) there, near St Brelade in the south of the island, that leads to an ancient manor called Franc Fief.  This site says that Cornets were only present on Jersey from the early seventeenth century until the early nineteenth.  As well as being an ancient Guernsey family, the Cornets look to have also had links in mainland Normandy.  From The history of Guernsey and its bailiwick; with occasional notices of Jersey by Tupper, Ferdinand Brock, 1854:

'There was anciently a family of the name of Cornet in the bailiwick and town of Falaise, in Normandy; and in the Exchequer Rolls of that province, for the year 1198, the names of Gervais, Luke, and Matthew Cornet occur. —Among the charters belonging to the bishoprick and chapter of Bayeux is found the sale of a house at Bayeux by William Cornet and Cecilia his wife, in 1288. —Among the charters deposited in the Archives du Calvados, occur the names of Gervais, Gerard, Matthew, and Robert Cornet. —Hays Cornet was a nun in the priory of Villers Canivet, founded in 1140 by Roger de Moubray.', link.

The Abbey that Hays Cornet joined was 'Villers le Quennyvet' and was a Cistercian community of women near Falaise, founded by Roger de Mowbray (c. 1120 - 1188), son of Nigel d'Aubigny.  This highlights another significant link between families in Manche department, Cotentin, Normandy and North Yorkshire.  Roger de Mowbray was based at Thirsk Castle, North Yorkshire, with his mother, Gundreda de Gournay.  The name Montbray comes from the ancient manor in Manche department.  The commune of Saint-Martin-d'Aubigny is also located there.  Roger reached his majority in 1138 and took control of the lands awarded to his father by Henry I both in Normandy including Montbray in Normandy, from which he would adopt his surname, as well as the substantial holdings in Yorkshire and around Melton in the English Midlands.  Thirsk in North Yorkshire is close to the de Brus barony of Cleveland and Roger de Mowbray established large Cistercian abbeys nearby:  

'Mowbray was a significant benefactor and supporter of several religious institutions in Yorkshire including Fountains Abbey. With his mother he sheltered the monks of Calder, fleeing before the Scots in 1138, and supported their establishment at Byland Abbey in 1143.', link.

The monks from Calder in Cumbria, via Furness, also in Cumbria, were from the recently-founded Calder Abbey - only about 14 miles from Corney.  A Matthew Cornet is recorded as owing money from the residue 'of the old ferm of Exmes', link.  Exmes is a former commune in the Orne department in Normandy: 'It was the seat of the county of Hiémois (French: Comté d'Hiémois), granted before his death in 1027 by Richard II, Duke of Normandy to his younger son, Robert, who eventually succeeded as duke of Normandy.', link.  Gervais Cornet paid compensation to a man for the loss of his mill 'by reason of the ditch of the Porte le Comte', link.  If the etymology of the Cor Nez as a topographical description of a horn-shaped promontory is correct, then it seems likely that the local Cornet family gained their surname from that place - it's a locative surname.  Channel Islanders now generally pronounce Cornet the English way with a hard 't' but it was probably once pronounced the francophone way, 'Castle Cornay'.

Another link with northern England occurs through Philip of Oldcoates (Sheriff of Northumberland, in office between 1212 -1220) who was in charge of the isle of Guernsey and was supplied with provisions by Geoffrey fitzPeter, the justiciar.  King John made Philip administrator of the vacant bishopric of Durham.  He was given custody of Bamburgh Castle and Newcastle Castle.  During the civil war at the end of John's reign, Philip remained loyal to the king and in early 1216 held Durham Castle against the rebels.