As I said previously, and you can check this on the internet, we have the words to Cornish Mummers plays, with the names of the people who actually played the characters, from the 1780's and from this we know they were blacking faces then.   I know that there were mummers in disguise who came to my house at Christmas 1600 as I have found references to this in the Kew documents. My house was the Dower House for the Manor of Rillaton, built 1599, [try googling Rillaton Gold Cup] and the Manor goes back before 1068, was the most important Hundred in Cornwall, and is in the Doomsday Book. This year we reencated one of the plays for the village in my house at the Wassail. There are guise dance tunes and the steps which have been researched and published by Merv Davwy and Mike O'Connor from long before 1780. If you look at the Wikipedia references which I have previously suggested you will find the information there. There is also a huge amount which is just recently coming to light in the Truro Public Records Office which pre dates anything in general publication so far.[This is Really Exciting] The custodians are so excited about what is now being found that they are sending the references straight to Mike and he is researching them, which is a very slow and painstaking job.   Only a very small part of what he has found so far has been published but try Ilo Kernow for a start.. He is building an increasingly in depth history of Cornish Music and Dance. There are references, for example, to the parliamentarian troops in 1649, being sent to Padstow to quell the festivities on May day but never getting there and disappearing totally. These are in the Basing House documents. I cannot say exactly, the very first date given to Padstow but there is documented evidence that the same thing happened all over the county and Padstow is the only one that still remains in its 'original', albeit somewhat changed, form as opposed to Madron, St Ives, Kingsand, Cawsand, Looe, etc which have changed form to everyone dressing in fancy dress. There is alot in Padstow Museum and held by the Old Cornwall Societies and Helston Folk Museum. Unless you lived down here you might not be aware of our heritage and what is coming to light. Perhaps you need to visit and check it out as much of it is still in the various records.