 Davey is known to have had a copy of William Pryce's 1790 Cornish work "Archaeologia Cornu-Britannica", which he inherited from his father.As such it is possible that he acquired some part of his Cornish through studying – or memorising – Pryce.However, the piece of Cornish recorded by Matthews, the song known as the "Cranken Rhyme", does not appear in Pryce or any other known text, showing that he had some "original" Cornish that he may indeed have learned traditionally from his father.