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Transcript

of

John Cann’s Rocks

By

W. Henderson

in

Richard John King (Ed.). Stories and traditions: Third Report of the Committee on Devonshire Folk Lore. 
Trans. Devon. Assoc., 1878, Vol X, pp. 99-100.

Index prepared by Michael Steer

This version of John Cann’s Cave legend was presented by William Crossing (1909) and appears in Sabine Baring-Gould’s Castles & Cave Dwellings of Europe in 1911. Both are probably based on the present note submitted to the Association’s Transactions by W. Henderson in 1878. Several of the early historians of Bovey Tracey, however; William Ellis, M.A. Hole and Lance Tregoning, assert that the original John (or Johnny) Cann was a Norman, Johannes Cannes, who sheltered in the cave with his dying wife. A detailed article about the cave and the legend, with photographs, can be found at the Tors of Dartmoor site. The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers..

John Cann's Rocks. - About a mile from Hennock Church, between Bottor and Sharptor, stands a less conspicuous group of rocks called John Cann's rocks. Thirty years ago the name was thus accounted for in the neighbourhood. John Cann was a wealthy Royalist, who fought on the king's side in the civil wars. But when the cause became hopeless, and a price was set on his own head, he withdrew with such of his treasures as he could carry off, and concealed himself and them among these rocks, then much overgrown by trees. One cavern was John Cann's parlour, another John Cann's kitchen; and at night he stole out to walk in an adjoining thicket, still called  “Little John's Wood." After some time, however, bloodhounds were used, and the fugitive was discovered, carried off, and executed; but the treasure is thought still to remain undiscovered. W. Henderson.